People have been discussing about which TV to be the best TV on the market. Writer A says one thing, reviewer B says another thing, YouTuber C says yet another thing; these are all fine, but all of the methodology in getting “the best TV” is based on a variety of judgments including gaming and/or does not include colorist from film studios. A couple of these awards were given when not all TV manufacturers are included either!
For me, it’s simple. Which TV manufacturer which consumer TVs are actually used by the colorists from Technicolor and DeLuxe? The answer is Panasonic. To be exact, it’s Panasonic GZ2000 series. These companies specialize in colour rendition, so colour accuracy is at the utmost importance. The series is also the go-to reference monitor for Company 3 and leading colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, whose work includes Wonder Woman, A Star is Born and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with Sonnefeld saying it delivers “close to a reference grade on a consumer set” in terms of colour accuracy. If these companies use this model number, then this series IS the best one chosen by the professionals.
The question is… how does it fare in the real-world applications?
Well, before I with the actual review, I’d like to talk about the appearance and build quality of this TV. This is because this TV is the absolute first time I fall in love with the appearance and build quality of a TV… ever! The Panasonic GZ2000 cuts an imposing figure – minimalist and a perfect balance between industrial and artistic. The TV will fit nicely regardless of your décor. Be it a messy room like mine, modernistic, or even industrial such as in a film studio. There’s an extensive 140W speaker system that adds a huge amount of weight to the rear, as well as a thick soundbar built into the bottom of the panel – which is raised about 18mm with the substantial (yet refreshingly not gaudy) TV stand. Even at a glance, there’s no doubting that this is a statement TV.
Beneath a detachable cover in the TV’s rear casing (which I decide not to use) are four 4K-enabled 18 gbps HDMI ports, including ARC for connecting external soundbars (not that you’ll ever need it) or receivers. There are also two USB ports, plus Ethernet (I use hard-wired connection instead of WiFi), CI, Component, and headphone/subwoofer outputs. While the front of the television accurately conveys the impression of high-spec hardware, the rear features thick plastic casing that doesn’t have the same premium feel. At the end of the day, however, if you’re fussing about the rear of the TV… you’ll need to be examined.
With that out of the way, I’m going to start with what I dislike from this TV. I’d rather do this because honestly, there is hardly any.
First, the remote. At this price level, a backlight remote is expected. Working the remote in the dark is not fun as it is difficult for me to find the keys I’d like to use. I get used to it rather quickly, thankfully, but it is something that a user will have to “work for” for at least several days of continual usage.
Second, subwoofer out. While it’s amazing to have subwoofer feature finally embedded on this TV (the “tuned by Technics” built-in sound system is very good I only added a cheap old subwoofer from an old Home Theatre in a Box), it still boggles my mind why Panasonic is not using a dedicated RCA subwoofer jack but shares the subwoofer out with the 3.5mm headphone jack which then requires the user to buy a 3.5mm to RCA cable/adapter as none is included.
Third, and my last one, is the smart functionality of the TV. Panasonic still uses a smart platform based on Firefox OS, and has struggled to get dedicated apps on to it beyond those of a few major players like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, The Weather Network and a few others. You won’t find Spotify, Tidal or Deezer here, for instance, and the lack of a music showing on the GZ2000 is especially disappointing given its extensive audio capabilities such as proper EQ, Atmos, Dolby Surround Upmixer, and Bass Management. There is not even Disney Plus app. With nearly 15 million users worldwide, although I don’t use Disney Plus, I wish the GZ2000 (or any Panasonic product, for that matter) to have that app.
Well, that’s all for the negatives. Now let’s move on to the positives!
As usual on a TV, there’s a selection of picture presets: Dynamic, Normal, True Cinema, and Sports. Dynamic will up the contrast, but kills the accuracy of the colour. True Cinema makes for a more atmospheric, easy-on-the-eyes effect, while Normal is somewhere between the two. Sports, unsurprisingly, is for watching sport events, and ups the contrast and motion handling to ensure a smooth picture, in which you can clearly make out figures against the background of a pitch, for example. What’s unusual are the THX preset, Netflix Calibrated Mode (only works with Netflix, of course), and Professional 1 and 2 settings. What’s even more unusual is the accuracy out of the box. The THX and Netflix Calibrated modes give a very slight green tinge but I doubt many people will ever notice that and the only reason I noticed that is due to the A/B those modes to Professional 1 mode… and here’s why. Measured using Murideo Six-G pattern generator, CalMan Business and Klein K10 colorimeter, in Professional 1 mode, the accuracy is better than delta-E 1.3 (see photo), where in the professional industry, a delta-E of 3 or lower is considered undetectable to the average person’s eyes. Amazingly still, after about 100 hours of usage, the delta-E went even lower. Of course, after calibration (done after about 100 hours of usage) it went to delta-E < 0.5. Even more amazingly, the gamma accuracy is virtually perfect out of the box and even moreso post calibration (see photos below).
Quite honestly, I don’t believe it for a second that anything below delta E 3 is indistinguishable to the human eye. I put the OLED TV next to a couple of other brands. Showed them a 4K video of them walking outside together that I recorded on my iPhone 8 Plus on the same hour of their visit to my house and they chose the Panasonic because “it looks the most realistic” and “it’s the most pleasing to the eyes”. I re-did the experiment again, this time after calibration, all of them gravitate towards the GZ2000 again.
It doesn’t matter what I played. From iPhone 4K video recording, to various 4K clips from Netflix, all the way to various 4K demo clips from DTS 2019 Demo UHD and IMAX Enhanced 2019 Demo UHD being played back using Panasonic UB9000 THX Certified UHD player, literally everybody gravitates towards the GZ2000 without exception.
When upscaling capability is being tested (using HD Netflix and 1080p Blu-ray Disc), there was a split in the consensus between the GZ2000 and another TV but once the viewers paid attention to the motion handling (but with motion interpolation turned off) playing both 24 fps and 60 fps materials, be it upscaled or native, everybody went back and chose the GZ2000 once again.
This is quite surprising, actually, as I’ve never experience such strong consensus in my (admittedly far from perfect and purely subjective) test groups. My findings are not too different from them either.
Another surprising thing is Panasonic’s High Dynamic Range format support. While Sony and LG do not support HDR10+ (a Samsung format) and Samsung stubbornly does not support Dolby Vision, Panasonic embraces everything. From the compulsory HDR10 and HLG, to BOTH of the optional standards: HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. This way, any disc you’re watching (provided you use an Oppo, Panasonic, Cambridge Audio, and Pioneer players) you can watch them in the best possible HDR format.
Possibly the best surprise feature of the GZ2000, though, is the speaker system.
The set features both up-firing Dolby Enabled speakers at the rear, and a Technics soundbar integrated into the bottom of the panel. The soundbar offers solid simulated surround sound channels, while the top channels deliver the enveloping overhead sounds that make the object-based Dolby Atmos sound mixes so captivating.
These speakers have been tuned by Panasonic’s Technics audio engineers in collaboration with Dolby Laboratories itself, using the Technics Jeno audio engine to deliver subtle sound detail in busy scenes. The set also supports output to a discrete subwoofer (via its selectable 3.5mm headphone jack), should you want to beef up the low end with a subwoofer… which I highly recommend.
All of this is a rather roundabout way of saying that the GZ2000 has some serious sound credentials, which elevated pretty much any movie, TV show or even news channels I played through it. Watching various Dolby Atmos movies on Netflix and UHD discs, I found the Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers were able to accurately map voices and other sounds from different parts of the picture, adding a layer of immersion that would be missing from cheaper speakers; or any other TV speakers, for that matter.
When playing the music from my PS3 (I extracted the songs in lossless audio from audio CDs) I found that intricate details from the audio came out in force, with the hushed sounds of steel brush hitting on the snares and gentle reverb enveloping me as a listener sitting from 10 feet away – which would be buried under the melody on even the most advanced TV speakers – were brought forward with subtle clarity and immersion.
This is not to say that the out-of-the-box sound is perfect. I had to play around with the tone controls, the subwoofer crossover and gain to dial everything nicely. But the controls are there and they are comprehensive enough to dial in the sound to my liking. Once again, my test group (and myself) compared the GZ2000 sound system (with subwoofer added) to my trusty Zvox 580 Soundbase that I’ve been using as a reference for many years. This time, unanimously we chose the TV’s system over the Zvox. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the GZ2000 sound system IS THAT GOOD!!!
The verdict? From the get go I have shared my verdict for the GZ2000. Being the brightest OLED TV on the market, at the same time due to the custom heat dissipation scheme this custom OLED panel is the least likely to have burn-in compared to other OLEDs (although quite honestly I’ve never experienced burn-in on any Panasonic and Sony OLED in my clients’ and my possession), the most accurate out of the box colorimetry and gamma, best motion-handling panel, and the best built-in TV sound system, and to top it all off, it’s the very model that are used in colorists’ studios around the world. There is nothing else to say that the GZ2000 is definitely is the best consumer panel on the market bar none regardless of price.
Equipments used for the review:
Panasonic UB9000 THX Certified UHD Player
Panasonic 65GZ2000 THX Certified OLED TV
Pixelgen Design THX Certified HDMI Cables
Sony entry-level HTiB Subwoofer
For comparison sessions:
LG 65” C9 OLED TV
Sony 65” A9G OLED TV
ZVOX 580 Soundbase
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