Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30

Value Comparison

While the Panasonic TC-L42U30 has a better screen size, the Sony KDL-40EX400 sports more input ports, a lower annual cost to operate and a much lower MSRP. Though the KDL-40EX400 is a bit older than the Panasonic TC-L42U30, it still has a comparable performance in many areas to the Panasonic TC-L42U30, and gives you more bang for your buck.

Core Attributes Comparison
	Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30	Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400
Size	42 in.	40 in.
General Type	LED	LCD
Format	1080p	1080p

Blacks & Whites

The Sony KDL-40EX400 blew away the Panasonic TC-L42U30 in terms of black and white performance. Not only does it have a much better contrast ratio, but it a deeper black as well. Though the Panasonic TC-L42U30 has a higher peak white, really anything above 200cd/m2 will be more than sufficient for viewing in a bright room, making the difference between those two values less important than the others.

Color Accuracy

The Sony KDL-40EX400 and the Panasonic TC-L42U30 have similar scores in the color temperature error measurements we took, but if you refer to the charts below, you’ll see that the Sony KDL-40EX400’s error strays into the range of perceptibility to the human eye far less often than the Panasonic TC-L42U30’s does. Still, with either TV, you are very unlikely to notice this even if you are trying to find it, and even then the error is fairly small compared to some other TVs.

In terms of RGB curves, the Panasonic TC-L42U30 did not perform so well unless we altered the settings to improve its performance in this area only, so naturally the Sony KDL-40EX400 fared much better than the Panasonic TC-L42U30 in our testing.

Color Temperature Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30 (Score: 7.47)
Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400 (Score: 7.91)

RGB Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30 (Score: 6.56)
Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400 (Score: 7.92)

Motion

Though the Sony KDL-40EX400 did not wow us in terms of motion performance, the Panasonic TC-L42U30 did not either, and both TV sets had roughly equivalent scores in our testing.

Motion Scores
	Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30	Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400
Motion Score

Viewing Effects

The Panasonic TC-L42U30 separates itself from the Sony KDL-40EX400 in the viewing effects category by having less color inversion or solarization in the picture, but they have roughly the same viewing angle.

Viewing Angle Comparison
Panasonic Viera TC-L42U30: 7.1	Sony Bravia KDL-40EX400: 5.89

Connectivity

The Sony KDL-40EX400 outshines the Panasonic TC-L42U30 in connectivity options, as it not only has more HDMI ports, but also dedicated composite and component video inputs where the Panasonic TC-L42U30 has only the shared port. In addition, the Sony KDL-40EX400 has USB connectivity, where the Panasonic TC-L42U30 has an SD/SDHC card slot.

Connectivity Comparison
	Panasonic TC-L42U30	Panasonic TC-L42U25	Sony KDL-40EX400	Sharp LC-42SB48UT
HDMI	3	3	4	4
Component	1	1	2	2
Composite	1	2	1	1
S-Video	0	0	0	0
VGA	0	1	1	1
Analog Audio In	0	2	3	4
Digital Audio Out	1	1	1	1
Analog Audio Out	0	0	1	1
Ethernet	No	No	No	No
Wi-Fi	None	No	No	No
USB	None	No	Yes	Yes
Memory Card Types	SD/SDHC	SD/SDHC	None	None
DLNA	None	No	No	No