Although Panasonic says a lot about its plasma TVs, this manufacturer has shown in the past that they also know how to produce quality LCD TVs such as the TX-37LZD70F (which we particularly appreciated at the time).

A notable absence

Panasonic is now back with a Full HD LCD, the TX-37LZD85F.  We said, "Yes! They are going to take the good base of the former model and update it".   Well we got more than our wish and this was the big deception of this test:  it’s only equipped with a standard digital tuner!  Therefore HD reception will have to be carried out via the purchase of a supplementary box.

But the saddest part is that besides this absence, the TX-37LZD85F has very fine qualities: colors are nice, brightness is satisfactory and the display of HD movies is HD excellent.  Moreover, in the graph on our left, we can see how the large colors space enables the reproduction of all colors that exist on current sources.  In addition, the large viewing angles means up to 7 people can enjoy the resulting pleasant image (from 3 m) without degradation or changes in blacks.

A first rate SD display

SD sources have the same fine qualities.  We should add that Panasonic seems to have mastered this capability for more than a year now and we have never disappointed here.   In short, movies simply show efficient rescaling.  Only the text of our test card slightly loses a bit of precision.  Moreover, for optimal quality in rescaling, you will not want to surpass 3/6 when adjusting sharpness; 2/6 representing a good compromise.  Beyond these values, artifacts and stair effects can be seen.

The black lines around text affects the source image but this reinforces an impression of sharpness when applied to movies.  (Keep in mind that this photo is enlarged and that the black lines are barely visible in normal size.  In addition, the color difference is due to the photo and not the TV).

There was one small disappointment concerning the contrast ratio.  It was excellent by default at around 3500:1.  It then fell to 900:1 if we deactivated the dynamic contrast function.  In fact, the increase in black levels to 0.24 cd/m² was the most bothersome.  It appeared a bit too light and otherwise it falls to 0.08 cd/m² with dynamic contrast activated.

We also noticed something a bit odd.  The 24p mode in the display menu has nothing to do with a ''real'' 24p.  As proof, our 1080p source at 24 images/second was read even when deactivating this option.   Actually, this is a function that makes the image more fluid like Motion Flow (Sony), Movie Plus (Samsung), and Digital Natural Motion (Philips).  Unfortunately, the system isn’t activated with all sources and it appeared OFF with DVDs and TV but ON with HD.  In addition, like similar functions with the competition, it creates artifacts with objects in fast movement.


Sound quality is honest for a TV but still largely inferior to what a real home cinema system can produce.

Menus

We close this article with a brief look at the OSD as it carries on the tradition of other Panasonic  TVs (TH-42PZ81E) and with it a certain weakness:  there is no gradual adjustment of options.  We also noted the absence of a backlighting option which however can be very practical to calibrate the TV and depth of black in relation to the room’s lighting conditions.