Panasonic announced it will be expanding its EZ1000 4K OLED TV series with a new 77-inch model to be featured at the IFA electronics show in Berlin this week, as reported by Twice. The new display will bring some competition to the largely LG-dominated OLED space as one of the biggest of its kind on the market.
Along with 4K Ultra HD resolution, the new TV features HDR for improved contrast and richer colors, including support for the upcoming HDR10+, which aims to bring the dynamic HDR performance of Dolby’s proprietary HDR format, Dolby Vision, to the open-standard HDR10 protocol. The EZ1000 will also support Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), another upcoming HDR format that will be used in HDR broadcast signals.
The large screen size and expanded HDR format support alone makes the EZ1000 77-inch a noteworthy model among Panasonic’s lineup, but Panasonic has enlisted its Hollywood contacts to help with picture quality as well.
In an effort to further differentiate the new TV from other OLED displays, Panasonic ensured the TVs quality thanks to THX 4K certification. While plenty of high-end TVs — such as Sony’s 4K TV line — do not feature THX 4K certification, it’s a notable benchmark. Displays must pass a high bar across several different criteria in order to get the THX stamp of approval, but they receive the benefit of getting THX’s own fine-tuned presets. The EZ1000 77-inch now ranks among a select number of TVs to pass the certification, and sports the THX 4K Cinema Mode picture preset.
Picture quality isn’t the only aspect of the EZ1000 that’s been fine-tuned. Interestingly, the base of the TV is actually a 70-watt Dynamic Blade Speaker. The speaker was engineered by Technics, the Panasonic-owned Hi-Fi audio brand which also makes gear like the $53,000 Reference Series that debuted at CES 2015. The Blade speaker houses multiple drivers, and a quad passive radiator for bass boost. Since the speaker spans the length of the TV, it’s not only powerful, but also surprisingly thin.
This is an exciting announcement, but it raises an important question: Will this TV ever make it to the U.S.? As of this writing, we haven’t even seen Panasonic’s 65-inch model from last year make landfall stateside. Given that track record, it seems unlikely we’ll see the company’s latest monster either. For now, pricing and availability is still forthcoming.
