Panasonic presented their new PDP (Plasma) TV range and DVD burner to more than 700 journalists today. 4 Novelties when it comes to TV, with PDP’s between 37 and 58″ and a 32″ LCD. The new burners come in 6 new models, 4 of which have a digital tuner and 2 with an analog one. Some versions have a HDD between 200 and 500GB, and some machines have besides an HDD and DVD burner the good old VHS system too. They also presented a complete Home Theater range that consists of 8 products.

As you can see, Panasonic made an effort and presented in total 18 new products, and the points to remember are:

For the TV:
1) not one single TV was Full HD! A big disappointment, all of them were HD Ready with 1366×768 as the best resolution
2) a good 4000:1 contrast ratio
3) HDMI all over the place

For the DVD burner/HDD/VHS:
1) the products with a digital tuner can copy Full HD 1080i videos (but what’s the use if your TV is not Full HD?!?!) and everything is in Hi-Visio
2) HDMI all over the place

For the Home Theater products:
1) HDMI support

Panasonic does offer a very interesting solution with one single remote control for products in their range that support HDMI, and this solution is called HDMI Link. The demos we saw on this were amazing, it’s really very clear and simple. these products are also designed to be used by a more ageing population, often a bit scared of new technologies. But as one journalist outlined: you need to have all the Panasonic HDMI gear, because if you try to use the unique remote control with non-Panasonic HDMI equipment, you will not get the magnificent video interface to navigate in all the menus.

Personally, I feel that this compatibility issue is of secondary importance, because, being a geek, not offering a Full HD TV is a nissed opportunity and a purchase stopper. The situation becomes even more strange when you do offer a DVD burner that supports 1080i and can record 1080i (50Mbps), but no Full HD TV.

FLASH VIDEO START HERE

Our HD video (WMV9HD 720p) is available in Torrent here :

Viera & Diga Panasonic 720p HDTV
(Progessive Download HTTP “right click, save-as”)

Viera & Diga Panasonic 720p HDTV
(Streaming Windows Media, Needs 6MBits/s minimum)