Ratings: 4/5
Price: $1350
Panasonic
TX-L42ET50
Panasonic has been lauded for its plasma screens over the years, but it’s making
ripples with its LED-backlit LCD screens too, and this is a good example.
The ET comes better equipped than most,
with plenty of connections including four HDMI and three USB ports, and SD card
slot, and digital inputs. Built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections also enable
you to browse the internet and stream images, music and videos from stored
devices on your home network. All of this is accessible on the Media Player
tab, while Panasonic’s cloud-based VIERA Connect service is a portal to a
multitude of online entertainment content. Along with interactive games,
on-demand music and videos via YouTube and Dailymotion, and social networking
sites, there’s BBCiPlayer for catch-up TV. Streaming is uninterrupted and fast,
but the smart hub’s interface is now looking rather clunky next to more
streamlined efforts from Sony and Samsung. The remote control is also a
standard affair, but it is responsive, and the smartphone control app is good
to use.
Really shines with Blu-ray
This LCD set doesn’t have a Freesat tuner,
but there’s plenty to be getting along with via Freeview HD. Set up is an easy
affair, and the electronic programmer guide is simple to navigate. Off-air
pictures are delivered with decent detail definition, but it’s when you feed in
a Blu-ray disc of BBC’s Wonders of the Solar System that the L42ET50 is
shown in its best light.
The panoramic scenes of the sand dunes of
the Namib Desert are delivered with excellent clarity and detail. The LCD
screen etches out edges sharply, and the color palette is nicely judged, being
rich but not overblown. The LED-backlighting is smooth and there is no
discernible patchiness, although there is some color banding during wide pans
of the sun in eclipse.
Switch to a DVD of Mission Impossible 4
for the action sequences, and the motion handling is stable and relatively
smooth. The L42ET50 is an active 3D set – the active shutter glasses need to be
purchased separately – but 3D pictures aren’t as silky smooth or easy on the
eyes as on the LG or Sony sets.
This set doesn’t quite reach the same level
of insight as the P42GT50. You could add a bit more punch to the colors by
switching the picture mode to Dynamic, but that makes everything a bit
glaringly vibrant, while the Cinema mode adds a cool tint to the colors.
Sound quality is comparatively more rounded
and has less of a harsh edge than can be found in rivals like the Toshiba
screens in this test. You can try switching to either speech or music mode, but
speech mode pushes the midrange forward while music mode makes it sound even
more hollow, and both end up sounding unnatural. We kept it at normal.
Inevitable comparison against its
class-leading plasma counterpart shows up the L42ET50’s limitations, and the
Sony LCD is a much better performer at only $120 more. All in all, a good if
fairly unexciting set.
Remote control app
Name: VIERA Remote
Ratings: 5/5
Price: Free
Devices: Android, iOS
VIERA
Remote
This packs pretty much all the controls
you’ll find on a standard remote. The glowing blue controls on the black
background and the game control screen look and feel great, along with sound
and vibration effects – we’d happily use this instead of the remote.
