Panasonic CX740 Series

For the price I paid, definitely can't complain – Objective: Replace the ES7500 Samsung, that started switching on and off again by itself, and go 4k at the same time, without paying too much. Purchase Details: Found this at Grays Online and ended up paying about $1700, after auction fee ($200 or so) and 2 years Grays Online Refurbished guarantee. If is a refurbished model, presumably seen a… Read more

few hours on a showroom floor.

Mounting:

The 65inch beast is now on the wall on exact same venturi mount that I used for the ES7500 (46inch), no problems.

Networking:

DLNA is setup using Mezzmo, which until they went to version 4 had a few issues with aspect ratio. This works satisfactorily for now, given that I haven't had a lot of time to mess around with it.

Screen Casting using the Android Panasonic remote app seems OK, again haven't had much time to play with that.I was never really been a big fan of these types of features simply because most of what I watch is online now anyway. The remote app is mail used to automate TV voice commands using Tasker on an android device.

Tuner:

I have never understood why Australia doesn't get the dual tuners that European and, pretty much, the rest of the world gets as default. Finally have and LED TV with one. It is responsive and the EPG updates straight away.

EPG and Recording Features:

I haven't found the recording to be that flash, much prefer EPG setup on my Optus Fetch box. Series recording is painful, and I had a few issues with the external USB2 HD setup and reliability. I would recommend USB 3 drives if possible, but again haven't had much time to play with that option either. One thing worth noting was that I had some issues turning the TV with the HD plugged in using recording mode. The OS support is a bit on the "who cares" side of things so I am looking for custom build OS if there is one, that enthusiasts spend time fixing issues.

Picture Quality:

So the image quality settings still need a little work, but generally I had to take some colour intensity out of the default image. Didn't play with the remastering (MPEG) or anything like that, and I tend to find anything other than my custom setting (which from memory you only get one out of the 4 settings available) doesn't bring balance to the contrast in dark scenes (where you can still see details in the dark areas of the screen), and the colour intensity. I have a PS4 and find the overall image quality pretty good for that.

PROBABLY ONE OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES WITH A TV THIS SIZE IS CONTENT SOURCES. I have found anything less than 720p is enough to distract me from the story going on in the show. 720p and upwards the scale up is OK, and probably only Netflix might be OK at 480p, as I think they also consider any algorithms the TV uses for scaling to help supply superior viewing quality with less data.

iView quality is not so great, SBS on demand is OK, and unfortunately I can't handle ten play or the others due to adds so can't really comment on those sources.

Reliability:

We'll see, still early days yet for me, but given this TV has seen an unknown number of hours it maybe already ranking in "pretty reliable" range. I will come back and update you on the TV and Grays online guarantee process if anything happens.

Overall:

3 stars for now and we'll see where it goes from there

Recommendations:

If you can pick up a 4K tv for sub $2000 which is 65 inch then my experience thus far has been good. Choice has reviewed TV brands and Panasonic owners are some of the highest rated in terms of satisfaction and quality. For me I think this Panasonic is setting me on that path, and would recommend checking out Panasonic TVs if you can beat the Samsung and LG prices by margins that makes your wallet frown a little less.

To anyone who may know, is there a forum for customer build OS images for these TVs?

Great TV once set up correctly – Super clear TV that looked so much better once I turned off most of the add-on electronic picture enhancements and reduced the colour level