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.

Colour become less vibrant and dimmer when wearing the glasses, as for all 3D TVs, but the panel keeps contrast balanced and retains detail in dark scenes. We found the 3D glasses fairly comfortable to wear; however, with prescription glasses on they’re less comfortable and their thin design means that they’re not for everyone.

It’s also a shame that the glasses have to be bought separately, as not even a single pair is included with this TV. At around £130 a set, that means you’re going to have to add at least £260 on to the cost of this TV to kit out a two-person household. Really, if a 3D is going to be sold, it should include at least one set of glasses.

As consumers seem to call out for it, the TX-L32DT30B has a 2D-to-3D conversion mode built in. As usual, it’s not particularly good and our advice is to steer clear of it and watch 2D footage in 2D and 3D footage in 3D.

Then there’s the matter of the screen size: 3D works best when it fills your entire peripheral vision helping fool your brain into creating a realistic 3D image. On a 32in set, this just isn’t the case and it tends to mean that the 3D effect is less pronounced. We tend to think that if you want a 3D set for a living room, a larger screen of 37in plus (42in or higher is preferred) is preferable.

It stands to reason that the vast majority of footage that you’ll be watching will be 2D and this TV is equally as adept at that. Although the TV is an LED edge lit system, it has a local dimming mode (not available in Cinema or True Cinema modes) that boosts contrast. It does a pretty good job, but where’s there’s really high contrast, such as white text on a black background, white tends to err towards grey. Even without this mode, contrast is excellent for an edge-lit set, with deep blacks and decent whites. Our one minor complaint, is that there was a bit of backlight bleed at the centre-bottom of the screen, until we turned down the set’s brightness.

Colours are fantastic, with the opening parkour scene of Casino Royale, looking stunning with the contrast between the bright vegetation, sandy floor and multi-coloured garments of the crowd. As we found with the TX-L32E30B, you can adjust the set and have realistic colours, or pump the settings up and have super-vibrant scenes.

If the thought of unrealistic colours really bothers you, there’s an ISFccc calibration menu that gives you control over individual colour channels and means that you can have this set professional set up to produce realistic colours.

Intelligent Frame Creation is Panasonic’s technology designed to create extra frames to make on-screen action look smoother, particularly with jerky 24p footage. It’s not for everyone’s tastes, but Panasonic’s technology is very good, creating a natural-looking image, without any of the cartoony action we’ve seen from some other sets. It even coped well with troublesome scenes, such as looking movement seen through a wire fence.

There’s a lot to like if you just want a decent TV, as the TX-DT30B has both Freeview HD and Freesat HD built in. Quality from the set is very good. HD channels look fantastic, as you’d expect, but SD channels are upscaled preserving image quality. The image isn’t quite as sharp as on Philips TVs, but it’s close. Our one annoyance is that the TV guide is still doesn’t have a preview window, instead delivering adverts.

Panasonic has updated its online portal to Viera Connect, although the remote control still has it labelled as Viera Cast. The main difference between the two, is that Viera Connect is upgradeable through the app store. At the time of writing, there weren’t many apps available, although it’s good to see that BBC iPlayer is included as standard. It will play both the SD and HD streams and both look better than SD Freeview on this TV. There’s also access to YouTube, Picasa and Skype (you’ll need the optional webcam).

If you want to record the TV you’re watching, there’s a dedicated USB port for an external hard disk. Just plug it in and format it using the on-screen messages, and you can pause the channel you’re watching or even set a recording for later using the EPG. It doesn’t mean that this TV replaces the need for a PVR, but it’s nice to have the option to perform features most of us are used to when watching ‘normal’ TV.

There are two other USB ports, too, so you can connect a wireless adaptor (wired Ethernet is built-in) or USB stick to play media from. Alternatively, you can use the SD card slot or stream content from a media server. The TV had no trouble picking up our Windows 7 PC, although we turned off video previews to make the basic interface faster to browse. All of our test videos, including a HD MKV file and DivX videos all played flawlessly.

In terms of pure technology and image quality, the Viera TX-L32DT30B is a stunning set. The new IPS-Alpha panel is an incredible bit of engineering, producing amazing 2D and, in particular, 3D images. However, it’s incredibly expensive for a 32in set, especially one that doesn’t come with any 3D glasses. Given that we’re not convinced that a 32in set is particularly well suited to 3D, it’s either worth spending an extra £200 (plus the glasses) on the 37in TX-L37DT30B or ditching 3D altogether and buying the TX-L32E30B.