Panasonic TX-40DX700B

cairomike

Standard Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2006
Messages
26
Reaction score
3
Points
54
Location
Isle of Wight
I was about to hit the pre-order button to buy one of these, but I discovered that although the set is HDR compatible the hardware isn't capable of displaying HDR images. To quote flatpanelshd.com
"it does not have the hardware to properly display the highlights and deep blacks required for HDR pictures"

Panasonic's 2016 TV line-up - full overview - FlatpanelsHD

Is that correct? The Panasonic site doesn't make any mention of this restriction.

Any advice would be very helpful, thanks.
 
I've seen exactly the same thing and I'm confused as well. Surely it's either HDR compatible or it isn't? It's the only thing stopping me ordering one at the moment. I'm looking everywhere for clarification but can't find anything.
 
It seems to be only an 8 bit panel rather than 10 bit, is that the issue?
 
That's one of them, the other is limitations in contrast and brightness. I'm not sure how accurate the colour will be. But look at the specifications of the uhd premium certification to see what you need to display hdr well.
 
Thanks, it's becoming clear that HDR compatibility is definitely a sliding scale...
 
Yes, sadly it is. I wish all TVs just carried the uhd certification and support for both hdr10 and Dolby vision. Until that happens you can't be sure you'll be able to watch every HDR title in the max possible quality.
 
I've just ordered one today, arrives Tue am so I will post my thoughts next week once I've had a chance to set it up and consider. I'm no expert but this will be my fourth try at a new TV so I'm in practice at checking new sets. Two SONYs returned with bad dse and fixed dark patches on them and a Samsung with a picture that makes everything look like it's made of plastic! Fingers crossed on the panny I'm getting real sick of this! Bring back crt is all I can say at this point.
 
Great. Sorry, what is "Dse"?? Saw the 8309 today in Currys (high motionflow rating)...got them to plug it into the aerial rather than the 4K video they constantly run....motion was clearly worse than the Samsung KU6400 next to it, despite salesman saying Sony had better spec's. He said the fact that many tv's were running off same aerial could be the cause....bit confused now....
 
DSE is dirty screen effect, along with backlight bleed and colour banding those are (AFAIK) the three main things to watch out for with led panels. The two SONYs I sent back to tescos both had dse very badly, you see it on panning shots across light backgrounds or the grass on a football pitch of they pan quickly. There are good test vids on u tube but make sure and check while you can still return as lots of sets suffer!

Interesting re the 8309 - good motion handling was one of the things that attracted me to it - but one TV on a shared aerial with HD or SD input versus another with a clean 4k feed isn't really like for like so I wouldn't go by that too much.

Hopefully the DX 700 will be ok. Will post later in the week once I know!
 
Last edited:
Well my TX-40DX700b arrived this morning. As the delivery men walked down my path to my front door I could see the narrow side of the box was ripped fully across from front to back about half way down. It was also ripped down both of the sides for approximately 35cm - i.e. about one third of the whole of one of the narrow sides of the box was hanging open like a flap! The top Styrofoam protection strip was clearly visible as was the fact there was no side Styrofoam protection i.e. I could see right inside the box. I said to the delivery person that the box was damaged and he replied, 'Oh they all come like that mate'. As I am sure you can imagine I said I was refusing delivery and the two delivery men said OK and walked away with the TV.

Now deciding if I should order one from argos and pick it up today or order from JL and get it delivered. What a !"£$%^ing hassle!
 
Ordered one from JL to get the five year guarantee - arrives tomorrow so will post thoughts once I get it set up (if it arrives intact!)
 
Oh dear! Not a nice thing to hear! Who had you ordered it with?? I'm interested in your views when you get it. I am now also considering LG 43UH661V which has a smaller curved stand. Haven't viewed it yet but quite liked its baby brother in JL, the 40UH630....
 
Co-op electrical, they use their own delivery service and wouldn't send me a replacement using another courier. I cancelled my order - if they feel all £700 TVs come in damaged boxes and customers should accept them they've lost my custom! Theyve refunded the cost of the TV but not the delivery charge so I'll be on the phone kicking up a stink about that tommorow.

I'm sticking with tried and trusted JL from now on although hopefully they use their own delivery vans for TVs - IME their own delivery people are excellent.. Last thing I got from them though was a coffee machine and the hermes delivery person threw it over the garden door cause I was out! JL send a replacement no problem but it's still a pain. TX40DX700 arriving tomorrow and I will be in all day so fingers crossed ...
 
Well it arrived fine - PQ is very good with skyq and blu ray, hd content looks great and sd is just as good as I've seen on any comparable full HD set. No colour banding visible, very minimal dse (just a little around the very edge of the bezel). So I was pretty happy yesterday during the day - but - as it got darker I began to see distinct light bands running up both sides! Light bands about 5 or so inches wide on any dark background scenes, so a major intrusion into the screen. Put on a backlight bleed test and black screen video from YouTube and yep there they were clear as day. If you look along the screen under the bezel you can also see bright white lights - it looks like the bezel is not properly sealed or attached to the screen. I've seen a few videos of people putting card or paper into that space or a credit card to fix backlight bleed. Don't fancy that on a brand new set so I will check it again tonight and if the same will call JL in the am. Thinking exchange for either Sam ue40ju6400 or lg 43uh750v - probably the latter cause of AliBabaSaints comments. Only review I could find of tx40 dx700 said it suffered from backlight bleed but I thought they just had a problem set for review! As mine has the same problem reckon I will try a different make. Very fed up with this crap technology who gives a monkeys how flat or slim a tv is PQ is all that matters. My missus absolutely forbids >43 so I'm stuck in edge lit lcd land. This is set number four how many before I get a keeper?
 
Have you thought about a second hand plasma? I think the LG will be worse in a dark room to be honest, just because it uses an IPS panel that doesn't get as dark.

It may help to take a look at this link Black Uniformity of TVs: Clouding and Flashlighting all the models are USA versions but you can often find UK equivalents if they don't already share the same name. I noticed the Samsung j6300 was rated well and some Sony TV's too. Maybe have a look at the W805 Sony which is decently reviewed or even the new Sony 1080p TVs, so far they don't seem to be reviewed particularly well but they aren't bad either. Who knows, backlight uniformity and clouding might be better.
 
Thank you Dodgexander for your helpful advice.

Checking the rtings link the two best rated flat 40s are Samsung UE40KU6000 and UE40KU6400 (curved is a no no for me). Interestingly the only good quality screen I've had was a UE40K5500 which I just returned to sainsburys today! It was mighty annoying cause it was great from even lighting, no dse etc perspective but the PQ was disappointing. Even my wife didn't want us to keep it and she claims not to care and is sick to death of this! I might have kept it myself though cause it's cheaper (I would, ironically have been more tolerant of screen issues like the tx40dx700b has in a cheaper set) and is the only set I've had so far where screen issues did not intrude on enjoyment of content. If 5500 level was my budget limit it would have been kept but I can comfortably pay a lot more so hanker for better PQ and no major/intrusive screen issues!

I'm wary of sonys having had two (admittedly not W805) recently and both had bad clouding and strong black patches just above the logo on the bottom bezel.

I'm prejudiced against lg (for no rational reason) I just don't think of it as a quality brand. Pure uninformed irrational prejudice but there you go!

Plasma is a mystery to me which makes me wary of going second hand. I always feel if you know your area then second hand is fine, but if you don't it's very easy to make mistakes and buy poorly.

JL have UE40KU6400 so I think I will ask for an exchange for that. The UE40KU6000 is a lower rate spec and there is only 0.3 difference in the rtings score between them. I'm sure I've seen a few other good reviews of the 6400 (read so many though it's become a bit of a blur) so leaning that way.

Thank you again for your help it really is appreciated greatly.
 
You have to be a bit careful looking at that site (I wish there was a UK or EU version) because Samsung being the idiots they are have decided to give different names for different TVs there compared to here. Not only may there be small differences between TVs of the same name, but they also 'conveniently' gave models different names there for the same TV.

For example, our KU6400 is their KU6300 whereas our KU6500 is their KU6500. Stupid huh?

I usually cross reference the reviews on there with this website: Samsung's 2016 TV line-up - full overview - FlatpanelsHD

That's the 2016 Samsung lineup compared but they have 2015s too and ones from other manufacturers.

Did you read this review of the Sony W805? This is a great website for reviews and they are very meticulous about faults and claim the backlight uniformity is very good.
Sony KDL-55W805C LED TV Review

I don't know how the other Sony's compare but I would check to see before you buy for a professional review first, it's a pain and sometimes you can get lucky or unlucky with panel differences. I just wish there were more reviews out there.
 
there is the LG 630V which is similar size and shape to the Panasonic. Think I preferred it in the final analysis, fairly "natural" colours, though those wide legs is a bit off-putting for me as don't have the space for a wide cabinet. Hence keen to see the UH661V (43") - out of stock currently at JL.
 
Well my missus just sanctioned a bigger budget and a bigger set! I think she is as sick of this search as I am. So JL are collecting the TX and delivering a Samsung UE49KS7000 instead. It has pretty uniformly great reviews so fingers crossed.
 
Cheers! Reviews for KS7000 are uniformly (as far as I can find) excellent and it got a glowing report and recommendation from the AVForums review. The owners thread is free of reports of issues so I am hoping for great things. Thank you very much for all your advice and help - I know I didn't take it but the link to the US site with rating of uniformity bleed etc you posted really helped me find the KS 7000. The bottom line on that though is your advice was much appreciated but my wife changed the rules on us all!
 
Just bought the TX40DX700B having returned the UE49KU6400 (Samsung picture quality was terrible and needed constantly changing)
This Panasonic although a fair bit smaller is utterly incredible, best TV I've ever had and I have a few
Looks, build quality, sound and picture are perfect
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom