Alright, some preliminary findings in comparison to the AG9:
In
SDR, both TVs look pretty similar (even upscaling looks similar to me). Calibration out of the box looks pretty similar as well. However, in direct comparison the Panasonic looks just a but more natural, especially with skin tones.
In
HDR, I prefer the Panasonic. Dolby Vision ist just brighter than on the Sony and near black details are better on the Panasonic as well. Dolby Vision IQ appears useful to me, especially in brighter rooms. In dark rooms it looks identical to DV dark in terms of brightness. However, some settings are activated and greyed out in DV IQ (e.g. noise reduction). HDR-content from Youtube looks pretty similar in terms of brightness. The Panasonic seems to preserve some more bright highlights though.
Concerning
motion, I actually prefer the Panasonic as of now. I have not noticed any frame skipping so far and I guess I shouldn't go looking for it either. MCFI can be set more gradually on the Panasonic (on the Sony, Motionflow on 1 looked too juddery (does that word even exist?) to me, whereas Motionflow 2 was too smooth and produced some visible artifacts. On the Panasonic, I currently use IFC on 4 for blur and judder reduction and I'm pretty happy with it (the right amount of smoothness and, to my eyes, less artifacts the on the Sony). BFI is on low at the moment (for SDR). Medium appears similar in terms of brightness. So both appear useable and I cannot notice any flickering.
Even
sound is pretty good on the Panasonic. While the sound does not come directly out of the screen, it just sounds a bit more refined and voices sound less aggressive than on the AG9 (probably due to the settings I used on the Sony). In terms of bass response, the two sets are pretty similar.
The
OS ist nothing to talk home about. It gets its job done, seems stable so far and slightly less smooth that Android TV on the Sony (never thought I would ever say that). Let's at least hope it is more stable than Android TV. The App Store is basically the same as on my DMP-BDT320 from 2012. It even shows that some apps were added to the store in 2012/2013, so it might really be the same. If Android TV was more stable, I would definitely prefer it (Airplay 2, more apps, voice commands for YouTube etc.)
So far, the HZ1500 appears to be the right choice for me. While I was not happy about my short C9 trip (mainly due to terrible banding, but also the picture out of the box just looked less natural to me and MCFI was not on par), I am very excited about my HZ1500 so far.
Below, some comparison pictures (both TVs set to DV Dark). Maybe at least the difference in brightness might visible here.
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