Review: Panasonic TX-65EXW784 (TX-65EX780) LCD LED TV

The Panasonic TX-65EXW784 (in Belgium the TX-65EX780, the devices differ according to our contact at Panasonic in any way apart) in 2017 on paper is the best LCD LED TV from Panasonic. An EX800 series is missing and from the EZW954 we are in OLED territory. The RXW784 series comes in four sizes: 50, 58, 65 and 75 inches, indicating that it is a device for the home theater enthusiast.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – specifications

• What: Ultra HD LCD TV, Edge Led with local dimming (4×1 segments)
• Screen size: 65 inches (165 cm), flat
• Connections: 4x HDMI (1xARC 2x v2.0a), 1x component video, 1x composite video, 1x stereo cinch, 1x optical digital out, 3x USB (1x 3.0), 1x headphones, 3x antenna, Bluetooth
• Extras: HDR10, HLG, WiFi (802.11ac) built in, My Home Screen 2.0, USB / DLNA media player, In house streaming, double DVB-T2 / C / S2, double CI + lock, voice control, HCX2 processor, active 3D
• Dimensions: 1,457 x 921 x 446 mm (including foot)
• Weight: 43.5 kg (including foot)
• Consumption: 99 / 0.3 watt (Energy Label A)
• Recommended retail price: 2,400 euros
• Models Netherlands:
  • 75-inch (TX-75EXW784): 4,499 euros
  • 65-inch (TX-65EXW784): 2,399 euros
  • 58-inch (TX-58EXW784): 1,799 euros
  • 50-inch (TX-50EXW784): 1,399 euros
• Models Belgium:
  • 75-inch (TX-75EX780): 4,499 euros
  • 65-inch (TX-65EX780): 2,399 euros
  • 58-inch (TX-58EX780): 1,799 euros
  • 50-inch (TX-50EX780): 1,399 euros

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – design

This 65 inch giant from the EXW784 series looks very impressive. That is in no small way due to the enormous x-shaped foot. That 4.5-kg whopper takes up quite a bit of space, but besides a solid support he also delivers something else. This is a rotating foot, a feature that we appreciate anyway. Many modern devices use feet at the end of the television. They are smaller and naturally more stable, but of course do not allow the device to rotate. This chrome colored foot does, and you do not pay any stability with it.

The design on these large sizes must be really exceptional to stand out, because the ratio screen to frame is immense. The brushed chrome-colored frame is stylish, but certainly not an eye-catching feature. The back of the device is made of matt black plastic with a fine texture. So, yes, this Panasonic looks nice, but will not score high design eyes except by its foot.

Connections

On the side we find HDMI three times, a USB 3.0 and the headphone jack. At the rear is an extra HDMI connection and two USB connections. A little further to the middle we find component video, stereo cinch, optical digital output and network connection.

You can cover the connections with two panels. The rear connections point to the wall, which can make a taut wall installation a little more difficult. The device is also equipped with Bluetooth, but it only works for a keyboard and mouse, not for headphones.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – ease of use

Last year Mozilla, the maker of Firefox OS, put a point behind the further development of the operating system. Panasonic announced to continue on the basis of this platform. According to Panasonic, Firefox OS only contains the user interface and the deeper code is own development. The famous Firefox logo has disappeared from the start screen, but otherwise there seems to have changed a lot.

Remote control

Panasonic still opts for large, robust remote controls. And as long as you still have to work with a classic zapper, we find that choice excellent. The keys are large, clearly labeled, and the layout is fine. The remote is well in hand and is not too heavy. He was given a brushed metal finish.

At the bottom left we find the only novelty: a ‘my app’ button. In the overview screen of the apps you can use the options to set up one app as ‘my app’. You start from that date with this specific test. It is a small detail, and quite handy, but also no sign of innovation.

The Panasonic supports voice commands, for example to adjust volume, launch apps or record searches. Unfortunately, the remote is not equipped with a microphone, so those who want to try this should get his smartphone and install Panasonic TV Remote 2 app.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – features

Smart TV platform

The Panasonic smart TV system is fairly fast and responsive, and nothing has changed on this model. The settings menus appear on the left side of the screen. We continue to find the presentation somewhat difficult, especially because Panasonic offers so many possibilities in its menus and the subdivision here and there can be more logical. It will be very intimidating for most consumers. But for the enthusiasts a lot of keys are possible.

Smart functions

The Home screen initially shows only three options: live TV (for those using the internal tuners), Apps and Devices. However, you can ‘pin’ and organize various things so that they also appear on the Home Screen. Specific channels, external sources or favorite apps are available so quickly. Unfortunately, they all appear in a long line. Anyone who pints a lot of things will have to scroll regularly. Apart from that detail, we find the Home interface handy.

Panasonic offers a full set of tuners (DVB-T2 / C / S2) and thanks to the twin tuner and dual CI + lock you can record a program with a USB hard disk while watching another one. That makes a good alternative for those who do not want to work with a set-top box for digital television. Thanks to ‘In House TV streaming’ you can also watch the TV channels on another TV set at home.

The Panasonic EXW784 series models are equipped with a good media player who knew all the videos with us. He just choked on one of our 4K tests, and unfortunately does not play DTS audio in your video files. He plays the most important subtitle files (srt and sub). The audio player only reads tag information from MP3 files but is also complete, and also plays FLAC and ALAC in addition to the most common formats.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – Image quality

The Panasonic EXW784 series uses an Edge LED backlight with local dimming. We counted four columns in the dimming pattern. Panasonic claims ‘Digitally Enhanced Local Dimming’ in which the dimming of the LEDs is combined with image processing and control of the LCD panel.

Main settings

The best choice starts from the Cinema Pro mode.

Explanation of main settings;

• The True Cinema setting delivers the best start, but is quite dark. No problem if you look at full eclipse, but for most people it will not hurt to bring the backlight to 40 at minimum and in a typical living room to 80.
• If you can activate the light sensor, set the backlight to 80.
• Noise Reduction and MPEG remastering can best be activated if you start from a bad source (old DVDs or low quality YouTube).
• Intelligent Frame Creation: Off for purists, but the Middle stand gave a lot of extra detail, and smooth images without obvious artefacts.
• Advanced, Contrast control can be set to Auto for a slight boost in contrast.
• Search in Picture, Picture settings, 16: 9 picture scan and set it ‘off’. This prevents the device from hiding a part of the edge of the image.
• For a slightly more edited image, but still very true to nature, select the Cinema setting. Set ‘Warmte Kleur’ ​​to Warm2, and take into account the above recommendations.

General image properties and image processing

In terms of image processing, the Panasonic EXW784 series is well equipped, because it uses the same HCX2 processor that will also be in the top OLED models from Panasonic. It easily detects the most common film and video frame rates, and ensures excellent deinterlacing. The noise reduction for random and compression noise is excellent. Upscaling he does with great detail and finesse. By activating ‘remastering resolution’ you get a tiny bit of extra detail, but in our opinion that would have been a bit stronger.

This television has a decent movement sharpness. He loses only a minimum of detail. Let ‘Sharp movements’ in any case be turned off. The slight loss of brightness is not a problem, but red ripples visibly, so you see colored edges and actually lose detail instead of winning. Intelligent Frame Creation creates very beautiful, smooth images, and the ‘middle’ position seemed a good compromise, although the maximum setting is surprisingly good.

Almost all manufacturers have stopped, but Panasonic offers 3D support on this device. It is active 3D, there are no glasses in the box. This is also the only device in the line-up that Panasonic still offers 3D.

The VA panel delivers a very good black value, and with the ‘adaptive backlight control’ you can still improve it considerably. A contrast of 4.000: 1 and even 7.370: 1 with the local dimming activated is an excellent result. The screen also shows excellent all black detail. The four columns of the edge LED can only be seen with a lot of effort and fairly rarely at work. The attack on Hogwarths from Harry Potter is such an extreme example where you sometimes see the backlight doing its work. Even with eclipse, it did not seem to bother us. There is hardly any mention of halos but in extreme cases and if you really pay attention to them, something is sometimes visible. In practice it is as good as imperceptible.

The calibration in the True Cinema mode is very good. The color range and color reproduction are absolutely excellent. Only the gray scale softly differs to yellow in the lightest tones. She is too blue in the darkest shades. That is a rather poor result for Panasonic, but fortunately the error is small enough to be rarely, if ever, visible.

HDR

Panasonic supports high dynamic range in all its 2017 models , in the form of HDR10 and HLG . But the peak luminance of the EXW784 was slightly disappointing. The meter stood at 460 nits, a number that we still consider as a minimum to get decent HDR reproduction. This peak luminance provided the screen both on a small surface and on a completely white screen. The color range was very large, with 97% DCI-P3 and 73% Rec.2020. That is a result with which the screen nestles comfortably at the top.

The calibration is solid, but the tone-mapping (the step that converts the desired brightness of the video file to what the screen can deliver) causes the brightness to roll slowly from about 50 IRE to the maximum. As a result, HDR images may be darker than expected, although they still deliver punch.

A small problem occurred with our fireworks test scene. At the edges of the fireworks, where you just see the last glow, clear block formation was sometimes visible. Whether that is a result of digitally enhanced local dimming or an exaggerated emphasis on any compression artefacts in the file is not entirely clear. We could absolutely not reproduce the effect on another device. The phenomenon fortunately only occurred in this test and was not visible anywhere else. We have asked Panasonic for feedback, and will certainly return to this review.

Update 12/05/17: Panasonic sent us the following answer: “The block noise you detected is actually contained within the signal, and in rare cases can be emphasized by our digitally enhanced local dimming function. By adjusting the Adaptive Backlight Control to “Min” this block noise will not be seen. ”

The ‘Dynamic Range Remaster’ function delivers, somewhat unexpectedly, a darker image with slightly improved contrast. This is probably due to the low maximum brightness and the strong tonemapping. We generally found the added value very limited.

Reflections and viewing angles

The screen only reflects reflections and the angle of view is, as is typical for VA screens, rather limited.

Gaming

In the normal image modes (dynamic, standard, film) we measure an input layer of 109 ms on the EXW784 series, which is too much for decent gaming. In game mode (found in the image menu, options) the lag drops to 21.6 ms which is an excellent result. We also see these two results in HDR mode. Consolegamers can therefore choose this TV with peace of mind.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – Audio quality

As long as you only listen to dialogues and not too demanding background music, the Panasonic stands its ground. High and middle are decent, but on the low side it rumbles. Despite the 65 inch size that should allow some speaker cabinet, the speakers with a bit of firm bass soon go into distortion. We hoped to improve with the ‘Music’ preset, but that only made things worse. So there is a lot of room for improvement here.

Review equipment

For the lag measurement we used a Leo Bodnar Display lag meter. For all other measurements we rely on a Spectracal C6 colorimeter, Xrite i1 Pro spectrophotometer, an AVFoundry HDMI Pattern Generator , an HDFury Integral for HDR patterns and the Spectracal Calman for Business software.

Panasonic TX-65EXW784 – Conclusion

The Panasonic TX-65EXW784 gets you into the house to enjoy film, and in that respect it does not disappoint. The screen is slightly less clear than we had hoped and who wants to enjoy HDR has to view real HDR content, the remaster function is of limited use. The sound quality was really better. What the device excels in, is a very good contrast and a local dimming that performs well despite its limitations. Coupled with the good color range, especially in HDR, you enjoy intense and vivid images.

The TX-65EXW784 (in Belgium the TX-65EX780) seems a good choice for both the living room and the home cinema. In the Netherlands the price (2,400 euros) is fine, especially if you look at competing top-class LCDs in this size. For example, the Sony XE90 series is somewhat more expensive, but it also delivers more peak luminance. In Belgium the recommended price is currently 2,900 euros and that is a little too expensive. Belgian buyers can therefore score a solid 17% discount by just shopping across the border.

Pay attention; Panasonic does not only use other model numbers in Belgium and the Netherlands, the prices also vary. It is advisable to compare the prices in the Netherlands and Belgium for purchase.