Panasonic GZ1500 (TX-55GZ1500B) 4K OLED TV Review & Comments

Apologies if this has been detailed out somewhere else... But as this model is John Lewis exclusive... Will equivalent models be available elsewhere? If not, is the exclusivity time limited? If not, are we saying this years Panasonic OLED models are John Lewis exclusive, or just this model?

Thanks!
 
Apologies if this has been detailed out somewhere else... But as this model is John Lewis exclusive... Will equivalent models be available elsewhere? If not, is the exclusivity time limited? If not, are we saying this years Panasonic OLED models are John Lewis exclusive, or just this model?

Thanks!
Just this model is exclusive to John Lewis and I have no idea how long that will be the case. The GZ1000 and GZ950 are the same panel but with slightly different cosmetics, stands and the soundbar.
 
Crackling apparent on the audio with this model also then Phil
 
Crackling apparent on the audio with this model also then Phil
Panasonic is aware and I fed it back directly. Will update the review if I get any updates.
 
Panasonic is aware and I fed it back directly. Will update the review if I get any updates.
Thats Great, reading the problems GZ2000 owners are having ...
 
Any idea when we can expect the LG C9 or E9 review Phil?
The C9 doesn't arrive until Wednesday and it will be two weeks minimum from then. No idea on the E9 as it hasn't been sent out to me yet.
 
Great review as always Phil thanks. If it had HDMI 2.1 I could sell the Kuro. Not a major issue I know but I like to keep my screens for quite a while so future proofing is important to me!
 
Thanks for the review Phil,one big ? for me,speaking to a salesman in John Lewis,and telling him my viewing habit,he reckon OLED were not for me due to my viewing habits (image retention)

99% of my viewing is movie only,blu ray or 4K UHD,maybe the odd bit of netflix,as a fair amount of movies come in a ratio of 2.35.1,and i tend to watch 4 to 6 hours of movies a day,and every now again up to 8 hours.
He said on any OLED i could very easily get image retention,due to the black bars being their on nearly all my viewing ?

What would your opinion be,is he right ?

Thanks :)
 
Thanks for the review Phil,one big ? for me,speaking to a salesman in John Lewis,and telling him my viewing habit,he reckon OLED were not for me due to my viewing habits (image retention)

99% of my viewing is movie only,blu ray or 4K UHD,maybe the odd bit of netflix,as a fair amount of movies come in a ratio of 2.35.1,and i tend to watch 4 to 6 hours of movies a day,and every now again up to 8 hours.
He said on any OLED i could very easily get image retention,due to the black bars being their on nearly all my viewing ?

What would your opinion be,is he right ?

Thanks :)

Was it a Samsung representative by any chance, or a friend of the Samsung rep :D

The only people who scare-munger about image retention in shops are Samsung lackies or people who have just had their Samsung training :facepalm:
 
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Thanks for the review Phil,one big ? for me,speaking to a salesman in John Lewis,and telling him my viewing habit,he reckon OLED were not for me due to my viewing habits (image retention)

99% of my viewing is movie only,blu ray or 4K UHD,maybe the odd bit of netflix,as a fair amount of movies come in a ratio of 2.35.1,and i tend to watch 4 to 6 hours of movies a day,and every now again up to 8 hours.
He said on any OLED i could very easily get image retention,due to the black bars being their on nearly all my viewing ?

What would your opinion be,is he right ?

Thanks :)

He is talking a load of B******s Simon :mad: an OLED can turn each individual pixel of so black bars can't cause and issue because the pixels are turned off.

For you viewing habits an OLED is actually ideal so take no notice of what this so called saleman says.
 
Was it a Samsung representative by any chance, or a friend of the Samsung rep.

The only people who scare-munger about image retention in shops are Samsung lackies or people who have just had their Samsung training

No he was a Sony man,showing me the new Sony OLED,its only when i told him my viewing habit he mention image retention,and maybe OLED wasn't for.
I told him i have a Panasonic 902,he said that was still a great TV,and to hold of as newer tec was just down the road.
 
He is talking a load of B******s Simon :mad: an OLED can turn each individual pixel of so black bars can't cause and issue because the pixels are turned off.

For you viewing habits an OLED is actually ideal so take no notice of what this so called saleman says.

Thanks for the advice,but i did see a TV with black bar Image retention,it was been sold of cheaply at Richers sound,:confused:,i wonder what cause that ?.
I did hear Steve say in his video review,that their shouldn't be a big problem,under normal viewing.
But because my TV only goes on when playing movies,i wonder if this could cause a problem,and as i said most are in the 2.35.1 format.
Again thanks for your input :smashin:
 
No he was a Sony man,showing me the new Sony OLED,its only when i told him my viewing habit he mention image retention,and maybe OLED wasn't for.
I told him i have a Panasonic 902,he said that was still a great TV,and to hold of as newer tec was just down the road.

I think most of these guys get a job based on how much bullcrap they can spew out their mouth per minute because it sure as hell isn't for any factual technical customer help.

Did you happen to ask him what new tech was just down the road?? I'd love to hear what he had in mind.:rotfl:
 
It wouldn't be image retention, just the pixels ageing at different rates. Old android phones got this all the time where the nav bar sits. But that really shouldn't be an issue on the new sets whatsoever. So it does seem like bollocks, just as the new tech is just down the road is bollocks. Micro LED is a good way off before you could get it down to this price.
 
Nice review Phil. Does read like a 10/10 in all honesty but I understand you are leaving a bit of wiggle room for the GZ2000 - be interesting to see where you slot the rest in as this seems to only be on a par with the Samsung Q90R score wise.
 
Thanks for the review Phil,one big ? for me,speaking to a salesman in John Lewis,and telling him my viewing habit,he reckon OLED were not for me due to my viewing habits (image retention)

99% of my viewing is movie only,blu ray or 4K UHD,maybe the odd bit of netflix,as a fair amount of movies come in a ratio of 2.35.1,and i tend to watch 4 to 6 hours of movies a day,and every now again up to 8 hours.
He said on any OLED i could very easily get image retention,due to the black bars being their on nearly all my viewing ?

What would your opinion be,is he right ?

Rubbish. You can't get image retention from black bars on OLED. Pixels are off so no image to retain.
 
One slight annoyance, to my mind, is there is no 7 day EPG.
What with the reported sound issue not sure why one would go with this over the 950 what with it being £500 cheaper. That extra £500 buys you a good soundbar.
 
The weakness of Panasonic tv's in general is the smart platform, app store being limited in terms of app selection. Picture quality wise the Panasonic oled's are top notch and at very competitive prices.
 
Agree, but in fairness I’d prefer it this way and then just use an Apple TV or nVidia Shield TV as the smart platform as they are far more powerful, generally have better development, features and are easily replaceable without having to change the TV.. Think of it as buying a HiFi system in separates (get best of breed components) instead of an all in one average system...
 
No he was a Sony man,showing me the new Sony OLED,its only when i told him my viewing habit he mention image retention,and maybe OLED wasn't for.
I told him i have a Panasonic 902,he said that was still a great TV,and to hold of as newer tec was just down the road.

Knowing where you're based Simon, and having previously attempted to have a sensible technical conversation with that particular Sony sales rep, I would tend to take anything he says with a hefty pinch of salt...

However, observations about menu bars on phones with AMOLED displays may have a little significance. I could understand the possibility of uneven wear having the potential to becoming noticeable - but isn't that what the built-in 'compensation cycles' are intended to address to some degree?

For me, apart from the convenience, the turn-offs about this particular model are:

- I would effectively be paying £500 extra for a built-in soundbar which would not come close to the performance of a separate at the same price. Indeed, a sound bar (or associated processing) which exhibits the 'crackling' problems found by Phil and a number of GZ2000 owners already. How soon Panny get around to fixing this issue is anybody's guess...

- it is JL-only - and JL only offer a 5-year warranty. I intend to make the jump from plasma to OLED this year - and a Panny model at that - but will get mine from RS (6-year warranty) when prices have settled down a little.

For me, it will be a question as to whether the much larger price difference between the GZ2000 and GZ950 can be justified by the difference in picture quality? Ideally, I would wait until Vinny has done an A-B comparison - but that may never happen...

In my case, as well as movie watching, the TV will be the daily driver for general TV - so all of the panel pixels will get regular illumination. I would like to know how the TV upscales SD broadcasts and older DVD sources. The former because local news programmes and some other interesting channels are still broadcast in SD; the latter because I have a number of favourite music concert videos on DVD, that were never ported across to Blu-Ray. However, for discs, I can see if my OPPOs do a better job of upscaling. In this respect, from what I have seen so far, the Sony AG9 does a perceptibly better job of upscaling SD - but that would not persuade me to consider the Sony, which still has flaky DV implementation and can't offer the dual HDR format processing of the Panny.
 
"Plus, the engineers at Panasonic have also managed to dial out the inherent cyan blue whites of WRGB OLED and given this OLED a redder, richer colour of white which makes a big difference to image accuracy"

Following the comments above that may explain why there is a slight pink tint to white on occasion, like advertising boards at football. Also brown, like a cricket pitch, can exhibit a bit of a pinkish hue.
 
Another very informative review. Thanks.

- it is JL-only - and JL only offer a 5-year warranty. I intend to make the jump from plasma to OLED this year - and a Panny model at that - but will get mine from RS (6-year warranty) when prices have settled down a little.
TPS offer a 7 year warranty and have already had the 55" GZ950/ GZ1000 at £1595 and the 65" at £2295.

Paul
 
This is review where you wona go to store and buy this tv
 

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