Panasonic evaluates OLED TV: Now is the post-plasma era

Panasonic's introduction of the 65-inch OLED TV CZ950 at IFA2015 is considered an epoch-making signal. As Samsung abandons OLED TV manufacturing and LG is thriving, Panasonic has undoubtedly added another heavyweight member to the OLED field. Panasonic’s color TV division’s director, Masahiro Shida, said in an interview recently that he’s determined to introduce OLED TVs because he believes the future of OLEDs is that OLEDs do not replace liquid crystals but plasmas.

Two years ago, Matsushita withdrew from the plasma market. Although LCD TVs took up the positioning of high-end products, Panasonic believes that the loss of plasma TV services seems to have lost its soul. Unlike Sony, Sharp, which is a Japanese manufacturer of LCDs, Panasonic and Pioneer have accumulated more plasma technologies. Panasonic insisted on 2013. Panasonic released the AX900, a high-end model of LCD TVs last year, but the response was not high in Europe.

Shinoda Masahiro pointed out that even after Panasonic released the AX900 with its top quality image after giving up plasma, it still could not succeed in Europe. The most important point is that professional audio and video magazines in Europe almost consider Matsushita to be synonymous with plasma. They do not accept LCDs. Even if Panasonic TVs still have the best picture quality, they also think that LCDs are far from plasma. In places like Europe and Japan, when people buy TV, reviews in magazines can have a great influence.

Without plasma, Panasonic’s only solution was to launch a product that rivals plasma. The only option, then, is OLEDs, which are also self-illuminating.

However, Panasonic's printing method is costly to produce OLED panels. At present, only Japanese manufacturers have achieved mass production of large-size OLED panels. However, they are only used in professional fields and cannot be used by civilians. Therefore, Panasonic's OLED TV panel purchase option is only one, that is LGD (LG Display). The panel of the CZ950 is customized by Panasonic to LGD, but it does not mean that the quality of the CZ950 is not different from that of the LG.

In the end, the panel only shows the effect. The quality of the image is also determined by the input image signal. This time, the CZ950 was equipped with a 4K Studio Master Processor image engine and the color tuning of the TV was personally done by Hollywood coloring expert Mike Sowa. Panasonic's years of research algorithms and color tuning experience will determine the difference in quality between Panasonic's OLED and LG's OLED TVs. In fact, at IFA, Panasonic's CZ950 attracted a lot of LG technicians to watch.

As for the price of the CZ950, Mr. Shida said that it has not yet decided. LG's OLED TVs sell for 90,000 euros, and 65-inch LCD TVs cost between 40,000 and 50,000 euros. In addition, this TV will not be available for sale outside of Europe for the time being, including Japan. Shinoda Masahiro thinks that the current Japanese market is still better than the current LCD TV product line, and he does not plan to risk launching products with low market acceptance.

Why did you choose Europe? Shoda Masahiro explained that this was due to the recent recession in curved TVs in Europe, and that in order to restore brand reputation in Europe as soon as possible, it chose to sell OLED TVs in Europe.