Panasonic TC-37LZ85 LCD HDTV Review - Performance: Summary
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By Alfredo Padilla
Published on December 08, 2008
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The Panasonic TC-37LZ85's performance could generally be described as average to slightly below average. There were a couple of things that impressed us, we liked how well the blacks and whites held up on the display and the viewing angle was excellent. Unfortunately there were also several places where the Panasonic TC-37LZ85's performance was unimpressive. The way it shifts from black to white along the gamma curve was erratic, especially with darker colors. The color gamut was off and black level was not very dark.
Calibration
Out of the box you're not going to get the best picture you can out of your HDTV, and the Panasonic TC-37LZ85 is no differnt. In order to get the best quality picture we calibrate the HDTVs we review before we do any testing on them. We use Displaymate for calibration, the same professional software that many television manufacturers use. If you want you can hire someone to come to your home and calibrate the Panasonic TC-37LZ85, or you can just adjust the settings based on our calibration settings below.
| Setting |
Default (standard mode) |
Calibrated (custom mode) |
Picture Mode
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Standard |
Custom |
| Backlight |
80 |
100 |
| Picture |
90 |
78 |
| Brightness |
50 |
46 |
| Sharpness |
50 |
0 |
Color Temperature
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Normal |
Warm |
AI Picture
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On |
Off |
Video Modes
As with all HDTVs the Panasonic TC-37LZ85 offers a variety of video modes. Below is a list of the available modes and what the manual tells us they are for. We recommend that you use our calibrated setting above instead.
| Mode |
What it Does |
| Vivid |
"Provides enhanced picture contrast and sharpness for viewing in a well-lit room."
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| Standard |
"Recommended for normal viewing conditions with subdued room lighting."
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| Cinema |
"For watching movies in a darkened room. It provides a soft, film-like picture."
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| Game |
"For playing video game. This mode will be set automatically if "GAME" is selected from the Input label setting"
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| Custom |
"Customizes each item according to your taste."
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 Dot Pattern
As an LCD HDTV the Panasonic TC-37LZ85's picture is made up of millions of pixels. Each pixel is actually made up of three LED lights, one red, one green and one blue. To the right you can see the pattern of these LED's that we saw using a 20x microscope. We didn't notice any particular problems with fixed or "dead" pixels on the Panasonic TC-37LZ85.
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