Panasonic has unveiled its GT25 series, the newest addition to the VIERA family of 3D plasma HDTVs, offering 1080p at 42 inches for $US1699 or 50 inches for $US2099. The sets also include 2D-to-3D conversion technology – a first for the company.
There are a lot of internet-ready TVs hitting the market this year, but a lot of them only offer a wired solution out of the box – you need to spend a bit of coin to get a branded wireless adaptor if you don’t want to remodel your home with Ethernet cables. Fortunately for Panasonic TV owners, they’ve partnered with Netgear allowing you to use Netgear’s USB wireless adaptors in certain Viera TVs to get them online.
With a major sporting event just around the corner, of course all the TV manufacturers want to entice you to upgrade your telly. But Panasonic has opted to stick with its Avatar partnership rather than pursuing the 3D or sporty bonus packs, offering a copy of the film in Blu-ray with either a Blu-ray player or Blu-ray home theatre, depending on the TV model.
3D is here. Whether we like it or not, the push to drive 3D capable televisions into the home has begun, and there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it. But a conversation I had with Panasonic’s Group Marketing Manager for Viera, Matt Pearce, at their AV launch down in Melbourne the other day may have persuaded me that despite the fact that 10 percent of people can’t see 3D and the technology gives me headaches, it’s actually really good for TV technology on the whole.
I put 3D firmly in the “give it at least another generation” pile. Mostly due to lack of content – by the time there’s enough to care about, there’ll be another generation of TVs to choose from. But Panasonic’s latest flagship plasma display, the Viera VT20, shows it’s worth buying a 3D TV if said 3D TV happens to be as good as the legendary Pioneer Kuro when it comes to its overall performance.
There’s a lot of hype around 3D at the moment, but the much more interesting technology making it into the current generation of TVs is video on demand. And today Panasonic announced that they have partnered with Yahoo!7 to offer 7Plus catch up TV content through their Viera CAST portal later this year.
In the middle of this year, the TV market is going to be attacked by bigger, better and badder flat panels. This new breed of screen does everything its predecessors do, but adds one new little feature: 3D Panasonic this morning was the first manufacturer to show off one of their 3D TVs, and I was fortunate enough to get a taste of what’s to come…
Panasonic are well and truly on the 3D TV bandwagon. This morning I had the opportunity to check out a pre-production sample of a 50-inch 3D plasma at Panasonic HQ, and asked them about concerns over Binocular Dysphoria, as brought to our attention by Mark Pesce on Byteside the other week. Here was their response:
Yes, it’s another tired old “buy a TV and get something free” promotion, but we love it when you guys get free stuff, so here it is: Buy any Full HD Panasonic Plasma between February 13 and March 31 and you’ll get a free DMP-BD65 Blu-ray Player plus a six-month voucher to Quickflix.
