If you want a TV with stunning 4K visuals that look natural and truly cinematic, Panasonic should always be your first port of call. Its TVs have all the usual 4K telly tricks, from HDR – with its improved contrast and black levels – to wide colour spectrum support, but thanks to tuning by Hollywood pros, it serves up films just as their directors intended, without overly saturated or weird, unnatural-looking results. And all for under £1000 at AO.com (58-inch model and below).
Here’s how Panasonic’s GX800 brings Hollywood to your home…
HCX + HDR = WOW
Exciting, right? That's because the GX800 LED 4K TV’s HDR Bright Panel Plus brings a full English breakfast of HDR varieties to the table.
You don’t necessarily need to intimately know what they all are, but you can rest assured that with support for HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision (with three brightness settings) and HLG, you can enjoy all the HDR material out there. That’s true whether it’s on Blu-ray, streaming services or even broadcast live. It’s great right now, and also means future-proofing for years to come.
HDR means overall brighter images, with better contrast. So light areas really pop but dark parts of the image remain properly dark. More advanced forms of HDR – HDR10+ and Dolby Vision – actually use metadata encoided alongside the picture to optimise the image, frame by frame, so you always see what the director intended.
This is further helped by LED local dimming, a feature that used to attract a hefty premium but is here available on a TV under £1,000 (58-inch model and below).
Panasonic GX800: looks great; sounds awesome
Panasonic’s HCX picture processor means you see movies how they were meant to be seen, with colours tuned by Hollywood experts. HCX removes motion artefacts, brings out fantastic levels of detail and, with that full range of HDR support, means incredible black levels and peak brightness. Natural 4K images – and upscaled HD ones – look stunning.
Panasonic GX800 isn’t only hugely impressive to look at. Thanks to support for Dolby Atmos, it can also output superlative surround sound, with Atmos supported by an ever-growing range of Blu-rays, and streamed movies and TV series. Also on board: Alexa and Google Assistant control, and a full range of streaming and catch-up services all marshalled via Panasonic’s My Home Screen 4.0 smart TV platform.
With comprehensive HDR support, a stylish and slimline design and the most cinematic visuals you’ll find at this price, the GX800 is an awful lot of TV for your money. It really puts you in the front row when it comes to excitement and entertainment; all you need to add is popcorn.