Panasonic Viera TC-L42E30 LED LCD HDTV HT Labs Measures

HT Labs Measures

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio: 546:1

The above readings were taken with the Panasonic’s Contrast set to 75, Brightness to 53, Backlight to 28, and A.I. picture off. The resulting peak white level was 30.56 foot-lamberts, the black level was 0.056 ft-L. When I turnid A.I. picture on, the black level dropped to 0.007 ft-L, increasing the measured full-on/full-off contrast ratio to 4,420:1. But this feature also had consequences that critical viewers may find to be a poor tradeoff for the deeper black level. For more on this, see the discussion in the main text of the review.

In the Cinema Picture mode (the Before Calibration color tracking chart shown here), and the Warm setting of the Color temperature control, the Panasonic’s color hovered close to 7000K, with Delta E values ranging from 13.7 to 17.8. Tweaking the calibration controls (available only in a locked service menu) lowered the Delta E values dramatically, ranging from 0.55 to 2.42. (Delta E is a figure of merit that shows how likely it is that the eye can see a deviation from a perfect D65 white point. Values below 3.0 are generally considered undetectable; some experts suggest that 4.0 is sufficient.)

The color gamut, as discussed in the review and shown by the white triangle in the CIE diagram above, is skewed considerably from the HD color standard, shown by the black triangle. The main visible result is undersaturated red, but the deviations were less visible on most material than the chart might suggest.—TJN

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