Hands on - New Panasonic 3D HD Neo Plasma

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 11:56

Opinion and Analysis

Panasonic has revealed its line-up in what is brewing as the next technology showdown, the home HD 3D television war.  iTWire had a chance to try out some funky eye-ware (not allowed to call them 3D glasses apparently) and check out the latest Neo Plasma and full HD 3D Blu-ray Disc players from Panasonic.

Here at iTWire's Radioactive IT, I get a chance to play with the latest entertainment software and -sometimes - hardware.  But 'play' can mean a number of things.

In particular yesterday's launch of to-be-released 2010 line-up of Panasonic home entertainment equipment was a chance to be wowed, but only limited opportunity to 'press buttons'.

One of the highlights was Panasonics entry into the home 3D experience as the company unveiled the VT20 series of Neo Plasma TV's, packaged with one set of 3D eye-ware and available in June in the 50' format TH-P50VT20A

 

This television will be available in June and retail for AU$3,299, with 54'. 58' and 65' versions of the screen to roll out over 2010.

Features of the new device include 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, for when those blacks need to be black, THX sound, 4 HDMI ports and the ability to play back from (and save to) USB attached devices, including up to 8 registered USB HDD to act as a kind of home built PVR. 

This range of televisions will also feature Panasonics DLNA data sharing readiness, meaning that the screen will accept content from a DLNA server such as one of the new Blu-ray DISC Recorders Panasonic had on show.  VT20 TV's will also feature the social networking interface Viera CAST.

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