Test Report: Panasonic TC-L42d2 LCD HDTV Page 4

Test Bench
Color temperature (before/after calibration):

20-IRE: 6,272 K/6,515 K
30-IRE: 6,154 K/6,476 K
40-IRE: 6,119 K/6,484 K
50-IRE: 6,194 K/6,454 K
60-IRE: 6,214 K/6,535 K
70-IRE: 6,191 K/6,579 K
80-IRE: 6,206 K/6,566 K
90-IRE: 6,241 K/6,535 K
100-IRE: 6,345 K/6,664 K

Brightness (100-IRE): 33.72 /45.98 ftL



With Cinema mode and Warm color temperature selected, the TC-L42D2's grayscale averaged 285 kelvins below the D6500 standard. After calibration, it tracked beautifully, averaging within 34 kelvins nearly across the entire grayscale range. The darkest images started to drift slightly cool, which is fairly normal for LCDs. Color points measured very close to the SMPTE HDTV spec, with red very slightly oversaturated and green both very slightly undersaturated and slightly greenish-yellow.

There was approximately 4.5% overscan in the HD Size 1 mode and none in HD Size 2 mode. A 1,920 x 1,080-rez 1-pixel on/off pattern was fully resolved. A light halo was visible around fine lines on test patterns, even with the sharpness control all the way down, but I didn't notice this during regular viewing.

Full-frame black fields showed some slight light leakage along the top and bottom of the screen. The corners, especially the lower right, were slightly worse. Only the latter was noticeable during normal viewing.

Contrast ratio regardless of mode was on average 1,300:1. Turning the ECO/energy saving to Saving mode resulted in about a 20% decrease in light output. Enabling A.I. Picture (off by default in Cinema mode, on in all others) lets the backlight auto-adjust. In this mode, a black field switches off the LEDs, effectively creating an infinite dynamic contrast ratio. However, the intra-scene contrast ratio (i.e., the difference between the brightest and darkest portions of each individual image) is still closer to 1,300:1 no matter what the dynamic contrast ratio is. - G.M.

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