Panasonic Viera TX-L32DT30B review

Last year Panasonic didn’t release an LCD 3D TV, as it wanted to wait until it had a panel that was fast enough to cut out crosstalk – the ghostly images caused by slow response times allowing one eye to see the other eye’s images.

We have to say that Panasonic’s decision was a good one, as the result is the super-fast IPS-Alpha panel. We’ve seen this in action on the Viera TX-L32E30B, and now it’s time to see what it can do with 3D content on the 32in Viera TX-L32DT30B. A 37in version, the Viera TX-L37DT30B is also available.

Panasonic seems to have spent some time making its TV more attractive. While the design can’t quite compete with those from Sony, Philips and Samsung, it’s a big step up from the utilitarian designs of last year, and the TX-L32DT30B can even be described comfortably as an attractive set.

According to Panasonic, the new IPS-Alpha panel has the backlight closer to the liquid crystals, while the substrate is more fluid than that used in previous panels. All-in-all, the company claims that the new TV is up to 50 per cent faster in response times than previous panels. The other thing to note is that the panel, as used on the TX-L32DT30B, has a 200Hz refresh rate, plus backlight scanning to give a total figure of 400Hz; with the TX-L32E30B, there’s a 100Hz panel, with backlight scanning.

Watching 3D it’s immediately apparent how good the panel is. Crosstalk is virtually non-existent in any scene. The only times we detected any sign of it was when we watched scenes with vertical objects in the far distance against bright backgrounds, such as trees against the sky. However, even then, we had to concentrate and focus on looking for the errors. In moving scenes, crosstalk is virtually impossible to detect and Panasonic has the best LCD 3D technology that we’ve seen, even outstripping the latest Samsung sets.

There’s a mode to switch the TV into a 100Hz refresh rate for 3D content, although we saw little difference between this the Auto mode. Panasonic also lets you play with the 3D depth effect, although this is more likely to result in a headache than it is a more pleasing result than the original footage.