when news first broke this week that panasonic is  ending its in-house tv production my heart sank  

i was like oh no i don't really want to write a  similar article to the one i wrote back in 2013  

when panasonic ended its plasma tv manufacturing  nor do i want to make a similar video to when oppo  

pulled out from the 4k blu-ray market so i quickly  and frantically fired an email across to my  

contacts at panasonic and asked them two questions  one are they outsourcing their tv production to  

tcl which is obviously one of the biggest tv  manufacturing company in the world and secondly  

whether we will see new panasonic oled tvs in 2022  and the reason why i specifically asked these two  

questions is because back in may earlier this year  a nikkei report from japan has linked panasonic to  

tcl in the sense that panasonic is seriously  considering ending its in-house tv production  

and outsourcing its tv manufacturing to a third  party and that third party happened to be tcl  

now tcl is well known for being one of the biggest  tv makers in the world but they do not make oled  

tvs which is why i was worried for a moment there  that you know if let's say tcl took over the  

manufacturing of tvs from panasonic then we won't  see a panasonic ole anymore because currently tcl  

i don't think has oled on their books in terms  of tv manufacturing they are doing some r d in  

printed oled but you know that is going to be  a few years away maybe in 2025 before it goes  

online so from that point of view hopefully you  can understand my two questions to panasonic and  

the answer that i received from them is extremely  reassuring so first of all they said that they  

cannot disclose the partner they have actually  outsourced the tv manufacturing to because of  

reasons but reassuringly i note in their statement  that the partner will still be producing oled tvs  

as well so that is very reassuring and this  leads on to the answer to the second question  

panasonic will still carry on with the oled tv  business and we will still see new panasonic  

oleds you know in 2022 and in fact they are  planning to make an appearance at ces 3022 already  

so that is extremely reassuring to me and i'm very  happy and i think the phrase of the day as far  

as panasonic is concerned is that you know it is  business as usual so it is only the manufacturing  

of the tvs that have been outsourced to a third  party and the in-house development in terms of  

the r d it will still be performed by japan and  also at their base in germany and together they  

hope to be more competitive in the tv market  and maybe even become profitable because you can  

understand how cutthroat the tv market is  especially with aggressive pricing from east  

asia so i'm very happy that panasonic is still  in the game you know we can still buy panasonic  

tvs and i think you know for those of you who are  not familiar with panasonic tvs especially in the  

states because you know panasonic no longer sell  televisions in the states and therefore panasonic  

tvs do not actually get as much coverage from  youtube channels you know across the pond and so  

it falls to me your friendly neighborhood youtuber  with a mancunian accent to try and tell you why i  

really rate panasonic tvs especially they are oled  tvs so i think you know compared with other oled  

brands on the market they have the best out of the  box accuracy not only in terms of color accuracy  

but also in terms of the neo-black gamma tracking  so in turtle one i've mentioned this before but  

lg oleds tend to crush some shadow detail because  they darken their near-black gamma to try and hide  

some of the neo-black prominence overshoot issues  that have been present on wrgb oleds since 2018  

and also sony oleds tend to brighten the nearby  gamma some of you prefer it you know because  

maybe you claim that it is brighter you don't  get as much artifacts and it is cleaner and less  

are are the best out of the box really you know  in terms of the gamma tracking and in terms of the  

correct delineation of shadow detail both in terms  of the clarity and also in terms of the luminance  

so it is not too bright it is not too dark  you get just the right amount of shadow detail  

and some of you without having the benefit  of looking at a reference monitor may prefer  

shadow detail to be brighter but again i stress  that not all shadow detail are meant to be seen  

so we always need to refer to a reference monitor  to see how much shadow detail exactly needs to be  

visible and that is where i think you know out  of the box especially panasonic has an advantage  

over its rivals in the oled tv market and i'm  always struck by just how cinematic the image  

look even before calibration obviously calibration  can improve it and bring it to the next level but  

even before calibration i think the internal 3d  lut that they have actually put into these tvs  

you know it's just superb and the colors just look  so natural with like truly realistic skin tones  

and they've partnered with some of the leading  colorists in the world including stefan sonnenfeld  

and you know mike sowa and other prominent  calories over the years to try and tune the  

colors to a truly cinematic level and i think that  even though many other tvs obviously you know you  

can calibrate them to reach a similar level but  out of the box i don't think you know you can beat  

the naturalness of a panasonic oled and of course  i think you know panasonic engineers when i look  

at the picture menu i am always struck by just  how much attention to detail they have actually  

put into their tvs and you know the finesse and  the engineering that they've actually put in there  

it's just you know mind-blowing to me i've  never seen so many settings before there  

are more settings there than in microsoft  flight simulator and that's saying something  

and for a video enthusiast i think you know the  fact that panasonic is still around producing high  

quality televisions especially oled televisions  you know it is always very heartwarming to me and  

i need to obviously talk about their led lcds  because i think some of you asked me whether  

it is worth buying panasonic led lcds i think  that drastically at this moment in time i don't  

think many of the tv brands who are invested in  oled will be willing to invest much effort into  

led lcds because you know it is just not cost  effective especially with the prices of oled  

panels from lg display coming down after they  ramp up their production in guangzhou factory  

so i've said this before and i'll say this again  when you try to make an led lcd that is you know  

competitive in picture quality to all that and  bear in mind that oled has superior viewing angles  

superior contrast superior colors in terms of the  vibrance because of the self-emissive properties  

of its you know oled pixels then i think it  is very hard for an led lcd to compete without  

substantial number of local dimming zones and when  you increase the number of local dimming zones  

you know the costs just go up and if you try to  put in a quantum dot enhancement film or some sort  

of quantum dot technology to boost the wide color  gamut again the cost would go up at the end of the  

day you might as well just buy an oled panel of  lg display and you know make more profit that way  

and you know the more full aerial dimming zones  that you put in you know the thickness will go up  

the heat will go up and the power consumption  will go up and at the end of the day i think  

you know the oled solution is just very elegant  in the sense that from the tv manufacturer point  

of view they can just buy the panels either  open sell or you know in a finished product  

and then you know sell it you know at a profit and  we have to bear in mind that all these companies  

they are in this game to make money you know not  many people not many manufacturers are like me  

you know truly altruistic you know um  giving free advice on youtube and stuff  

and of course you know i will have to reserve  judgement until i get next year's tvs in from  

panasonic and see whether there is similar picture  quality or there's a drop in picture quality or  

even build quality but until then even now if  you ask me will i still recommend panasonic tvs  

yes definitely i would still recommend panasonic  tvs for the reasons i've mentioned earlier and  

if you ask me will i buy a panasonic tv yes in  the heartbeat you know if they make a bigger size  

oled and i think you know with this outsourcing to  a third party maybe there's a slight chance even  

that you know we may see 77-inch oled tvs from  panasonic but you know i don't think you know  

the chances are high but you know we can always  hope we can always hope and this year panasonic  

oled actually faced the stiffest competition  it has ever faced you know in the form of the  

new evo panels from lg g1 and also the sony a90j  and i'm pleased to say that we will be holding a  

shootout event but you know it won't be a public  event because of the pandemic we couldn't really  

secure a venue to hold it in a public manner  but besides myself there may be a couple of  

other calibrators who will vote on these tvs which  will be masked so it will be a blinded shootout so  

that we don't let any brand buyers creep into our  judgment and provisionally currently there will be  

the panasonic jz2000 that will be the sony a 90j  that will be the lg g1 there will be the samsung  

qn95aao and we generally hope that we can receive  stock of the philips oled plus naturally six  

in time to complete the shootout lineup but  hopefully you know it will be an interesting event  

and you will find it helpful we also hope to get  our hands on a reference broadcast monitor to help  

us judge color accuracy and also shadow detailing  on these tvs participating in the shootout  

the date has provisionally been  set on sunday the 14th of november  

and i'm really excited about this year's lineup  and may the best tv win in the meantime if you  

want to find out what happened in our shootout  last year please click here for my coverage video