Panasonic AX902 (TX-xxAX902) user review and owners thread

Hi Birbilis,
I hate 3D and I do not have any 3D Blu ray. Sorry.

On the other side I found another small bug:
12bit 1080p from Oppo is correctly hooked up by Panny AX900 that reproduce fantastic 12bit signal,
12bit 1080p from a Sony 790 BD player is not correctly hooked up and Panny Ax900 reproduce only 8bit signal.

It seems that EDID workflow with sony player do not work so well.
I hope in a future firmware update for the TV.
It would be fantastic also if some info window will show bit depth of input signal... in this moment Panny do not view any info about this.

But the impossibility to have FALD completely turn OFF in ISF presets is much much more important bug.

I'm waiting for owners feedback about this.

Thank you.
 
12bit 1080p from a Sony 790 BD player is not correctly hooked up and Panny Ax900 reproduce only 8bit signal.

It seems that EDID workflow with sony player do not work so well.
I hope in a future firmware update for the TV.

Have you considered there could be a bug with the Sony?
 
my TX65AX902B delivered yesterday, and about 4.5hrs running time. With local dimming switched off. just home from work; tried IR on my TV; paused Sky sports with its banner, pause etc.. for a solid 8 minutes, then displayed pure white, then light blue and black wall papers from media server, not a hint of any image retention \ burn of anykind... phew... assumes of course this is the best way to rest image retention with the sources I have at hand. Netflix does not work, Sky HD connection to TV with hdmi sound set to Dolby Digital - no sound on TV... Media Server does not play any movies (regardless of format) from my NAS - synology - whereas all my other TVs do.
I had the same issue with sound for the Sky box on my new 50Ax802 model. It requires a digital optical cable for the Sky box to output DD. Great choice of TV, enjoy it!
 
Hi Guys,
New owner here (AX900 65" european).
This Panasonic blows away my previous Sony X9!
Anyway I think that I found a Bug.
If I set "max" in the "normal" image preset I see that FALD completely turn Off the LEDs.
If I set "max" in other ISF preset LEDs remain on.
This is very strange and May found the reason of so different reviews...

Can anyone confirm this?

Had a quick look and the FALD is way more aggressive in dynamic and normal picture presets on for instance an outer space scene and pitch black screens. The blacks are much nicer and almost pitch black but when you get a dim normal scene the gamma looks disgusting and very overly bright. These two presets are the only ones that exhibit this different FALD behaviour and they also use some behind the scenes processing to achieve things. Not very usuable presets to me unless you only watch entire movies in the depths of the blackness of space. Not really looked at them any more than this quick 5min look
 
Another quick look showed some shadow detail crushing a little, even though the scene in general looked pretty good. It seems to exhibit wildy varying gamma and can look okay or great in one scene and a disaster in another. Not for me though just to achieve much better blacks in some scenes. It seems to have an automatic contrast thing going on in combination with aggresive FALD which you can't adjust or turn off.
Some people might be okay with the normal preset when the other processing features are turned off. I used the basic settings my calibration uses and upped the backlight some as it didn't make the blacks look worse.
You can't calibrate greyscale, gamma or colour in this preset so i have no idea how accurate some of this is as i have not measured it with my i1 display pro.
 
Love to see a how this set compares with the top 4K LCD models from Sony and Samsung.
Early next year in CES, we shall see better models announced.

At the moment I can't see any point of buying 4k sets, as there is no content, unless you want to stare at Kevin Spacey's bald head in Netflix 'House of Cards'.
 
Hi
I recently bought the Panasonic AX902 and there are sometimes judder issues when watching either recorded or live broadcasts through the Sky HD box when the camera pans across or tilts up/down.
I've tried changing the IFC setting but the issue is still there.
Has anyone got any suggestions please?
Thank you for your help.
 
Hi
I recently bought the Panasonic AX902 and there are sometimes judder issues when watching either recorded or live broadcasts through the Sky HD box when the camera pans across or tilts up/down.
I've tried changing the IFC setting but the issue is still there.
Has anyone got any suggestions please?
Thank you for your help.
I suggest you disable all of the TV's post-processing options. Unless the source you are watching is very poor, the TV wont need any of them enabled...
 
Another quick look showed some shadow detail crushing a little, even though the scene in general looked pretty good. It seems to exhibit wildy varying gamma and can look okay or great in one scene and a disaster in another...

I surely agree with what you report but (imho) this is a little price to pay to have decent contrast.
I calibrated some OLED TV and I come from a Sony X9 4K Tv ....In my personal Home Cinema I have a JVC X500 + Black Diamond and .... This AX900 reproduce a good contrast only if you use FALD in the highest position in presets "Normal" or "Custom".

I'm not talkin' about the WOW effect when the Display totally turn OFF the light ...I'm talkn' about the contrast sensation when you're lookin' a mid APL scene of a film.

I'm abituated to high contrast values and for me this pannel give sufficient viewing contrast only if FALD is at max position in the only two presets where FALD totally tun off the panel (normal and custom).

I'm disgusting by the contrast If I whatch a letterbox film with FALD at mid level ... black bars are accettable only with FALD at High for me.

This is a priority for my taste.

After this personal opinion ... I found another bug.
Look at this picture (sorry for the very low quality):

ax900_fald_problem.jpg


You can easly see two orizontal bands.
This is not a fisical DSE problem on my panel ... Those bands are caused by the FALD system!
The orizontal bands vanish if FALD is turned off or in low position.
Those bands are evident only with letterboxed films.
It seems like FALD goes wrong near the black bars....
There is no problem if you see a full-frame film.

Those orizontal bars become much more evident if FALD is set to max, much much less evident with FALD set to mid.

This is evidently a BUG because there is no logical reason to dim zones in the lighten portion of the image (like in the example of posted image)!

If you look the image near the letterbox-black-bars light is OK but moving to the centre of the image the orizontal zones have an illogical dimmed light.

I hope that this can be fixed soon by Panasonic with a firmware update.... about this: do you have some link or email to report this bug directly to panasonic?

Many thanks.
 
there is a new firmware out for the TV. a few days ago I downloaded firmware update 3.032 (it was previously on the shipped 3.005). No idea what this firmware update fixes or improves?
 
I hope that this can be fixed soon by Panasonic with a firmware update.... about this: do you have some link or email to report this bug directly to panasonic?
Many thanks.

I tend to email the shop I got the TV from, who always end my questions onto Panasonic.
 
many thanks PhilA
 
Hi, new 65" owner's impressions:

It was such a relief to find good screen uniformity No vertical banding to speak of, only very faint horizontal bands sometimes becoming visible during up/down panning shots. This is just me guessing, but maybe it is backlight blocks or strips leaving some space between them.
There is no obvious tinting either, so colour is nicely uniform too across the screen.

Blacks
I knew this is IPS-panel, so I didn't expect oled performance here, but well implemented FALD does a decent job when used in its most agressive setting and in custom mode. If I remember right, Professional modes didn't give as deep blacks and dimming zones seemed larger too.

Hopefully future software updates make dimming quicker. When an image disappears, the led zone lingers on lit for quite a bit afterwards, which can be distracting. I can live with that though.
And I noticed the same FALD at max-effect as Lupin 3rd. So it has its niggles, but max is the only setting giving deep enough blacks for me.

3D
Narrow optimum viewing height is true, yes. I like big picture, so my distance to tv is only 2 metres. The set is now optimally positioned and tilted, so middle screen is crosstalk free. It is easy to see that above and below and in the corners things get worse with test images. Luckily with real 3D Blu-rays it is more forgiving, so for instance Gravity went on to end credits with ease. Very, very nice.

Colours
For some reason I could dial in colours closer to rec.709 using SMPTE-C gamut, than using 709 itself. Nevertheless, very impressive and natural looking colours.

Motion
I was surprised to see such juddery 24P. I know this is herecy, but nothing less than IFC at Mid was enough. I'd get headache otherwise. Same setting for 3D, which I've always found difficult regarding motion, whatever display. 50/60Hz seemed fine, no interpolation needed there.
Motion resolution is very good, no complaints.

All in all so far
BD player and tv are my main sources, net apps come later, and I'm not a gamer, so input lag is not an issue. Contrast and black level are first class for an lcd. Colours, 3D, panel quality etc., there's nothing really disturbing with this model. With right settings, that is. Glad I can stop searching now...

Cheers
 
I've noticed a couple of posts re stutter on moving objects. I'm considering this set after returning 3x Samsung 65" 8500's due to stutter on moving objects such as a head and shoulders shot where the head turns quickly. The Samsungs also occasionally jump like a frame has been skipped.

Are these similar issues that users have posted about re this tv and if so were they resolved by turning off processing?

I'd hate to pay another £1300 on top of the Samsung only to see the same issues.
 
I've noticed a couple of posts re stutter on moving objects. I'm considering this set after returning 3x Samsung 65" 8500's due to stutter on moving objects such as a head and shoulders shot where the head turns quickly. The Samsungs also occasionally jump like a frame has been skipped.

Are these similar issues that users have posted about re this tv and if so were they resolved by turning off processing?

I'd hate to pay another £1300 on top of the Samsung only to see the same issues.

Hi,
The jumping frames is a samsung only thing i believe on certain high end tv's of theirs on motion. I have watched loads of 50hz dvd boxsets and some dvd movies with IFC off and only seen normal slight constant judder associated with low frame rate stuff and 24p blu-ray with IFC on min and it all looked natural like any plasma or lcd I have owned. Football with IFC on max looked perfect as well, no break up of the image on fast pans or judder or any issue at all.
Also keep in mind that motion resolution on these tv's decreases the more you turn up the backlight as backlight scanning rates decrease.
Hope this helps you.
 
Just-so-as-you-know...

Only the EU/UK (PAL market) versions of flat screen TV's offer features such as: IFC and 24p Smooth Film. Neither of which are required when viewing Blu-ray disc's or any other 23.976/24.000 fps sources.

Personally, I don't recommend using such options when viewing high-def 25.000 fps EU/UK content either... Indeed, just because a TV offers such features (usually by default) does not mean you should use them!
 
Looking at purchasing the 65 902 could someone please tell me when you have the ifc in max setting do you get the soap opera effect on movies and certain american channels and if so do u get any judder. I have a sky plus hd box as my source.
 
Looking at purchasing the 65 902 could someone please tell me when you have the ifc in max setting do you get the soap opera effect on movies and certain american channels and if so do u get any judder. I have a sky plus hd box as my source.

Yes on max you do get the full fat soap opera effect. Only on the min setting are you free of that effect. I have only tested it on max quickly once but on a dvd movie it made it look 60fps smooth. Not sure if it would hiccup at any time though but certainly no judder.
 
While watching the Alien quadrilogy over xmas i was playing around with other picture presets and dialled in my calibrated settings (using FALD on the MAX setting) to the custom preset and noticed that the black levels in a dark room are deeper than in the prof 1&2 presets. The FALD system is working harder and the black bars on the movie were much deeper. It didn't exhibit the awful gamma characteristics of the dynamic and normal presets either that had deeper blacks. Obviously shadow detail was slightly darker as the FALD system was more aggressive but it looked pretty good in the darkness.

Not tested fully for side effects but one thing i noticed when stopping or starting the movie the resolution notices on the tv and some other stuff on a black screen when they disappeared they left a bright area still lit that was obvious and it took quite a few secs to fade off to black. This was more noticable and aggressive than any behaviour on prof 1&2 presets with there higher blacks and more subtle quick fading under the same circumstances. During movies though this behaviour may not be a problem as the same but lessened behaviour in the prof presets is not seen during actual movies.

I may experiment in the future more with the custom preset as for dark room viewing with slightly dimmed shdow detail might be an option, especially if low level gamma is calibrated slightly higher to perhaps compensate. I suspect it's possible that the aggressive FALD slightly lagged dimming may crop up in actual movies perhaps but maybe not i don't know at the moment.

At any rate the custom preset is the best alternative to dial settings into for those seeking deeper blacks without the awful gamma characteristics that normal and dynamic are saddled with that also have more aggressive FALD usage. Worth an experiment for all owners at least just to see what they think compared to the prof presets with FALD at max. Perhaps FALD at min on the custom preset would work well i have not tried it yet.
 

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