The Panasonic VIERA D2 series LED, Full HD (1080p) HDTV is Panasonic’s flagship LCD HDTV series and it’s first (belated) foray into LED backlighting. The use of LED lighting brings significant improvement in the contrast ratio (2,000,000:1) over last years models. Panasonic has brought its iPod dock (introduced with the X1 model of last year) to a larger screen size with its inclusion in the D2 series features.

There are only two models in the series; the 42 inch TC-L42D2 and the 37 inch TC-L37D2.

Panasonic have built the VIERA D2 series around a high quality In Plane Switching (IPS) LCD display which delivers a genuinely wide viewing angle, further contrast improvement, more accurate color rendering and power savings. Read our technology guide on IPS to better understand how is works and the benefits.

Blur Reduction

Motion blur is a inherent weakness of LCD display technology. If your regular watcher sports or action movies you will appreciate the VIERA D2 series 120 Hz Picture Pro4 Technology which interpolates extra frames between existing ones to provide smoother on screen motion. Also incorporated is Panasonic’s Motion Focus Technology which also improves fast motion video picture quality by detecting areas with motion and activating backlight blinking for only those areas which enhances resolution and the sharpens images. To understand this technique better read our technology guide on scanning backlight.

iPod Entertainment Kit

A real convenience feature of the D2 models is the iPod Entertainment kit includes a specially designed, external Universal Dock for iPod. The dock gives users the facility to playback their iPod music and video collections on a large screen. The VIERA D2 has special interface capabilities for viewers to manage content playback on-screen using only the VIERA’s remote control. With an iPod docked and VIERA Tools selected users are presented with a drop down menu displaying their music, videos or podcast options. The VIERA on-screen music menu mimics the iPod, allowing users to select a song from an artist, album or playlist. Similarly, the video and podcast features provide a list of available videos or podcasts.

Panasonic 24p Smooth Film

Panasonic’s 24p Smooth Film is its incarnation of 24p playback for movies (see our 24p vs 3:2 movie playpack technology guide). The 24p Smooth Film function increases the number of frames displayed to 96 frames per second by repeating frames providing smoother on-screen motion.

Panasonic’s Intelligent Scene Controller

Panasonic’s Intelligent Scene Controller consists two technologies for improving picture quality; Scene Adaptive Backlight Control and Scene Adaptive Contrast/Gamma Correction. This system optimizes contrast and brightness to ensure that blacks are blacker, whites are brighter and detail is sharper.

The Scene-adaptive backlight control technology auto detects video signal brightness levels and adjusts the backlight accordingly in real-time. It is basically a one dimensional form of local dimming working over the entire display and providing improvement to brightness and darkness levels but not to the level of local dimming. While the result improves the dynamic contrast ratio range it doesn’t improve the static contrast ratio. For further explanation of contrast ratio measurements read our contrast ratio technology guide.

Scene-adaptive contrast gamma correction detects video signal brightness levels and increases contrast by either dynamically (on-the-fly) boosting or cutting the individual elements of the signal. It also increases available number of gradation steps (see image) based on whether the scene is bright or dark. Up to 4 times the regular number shades (gradations) can be produced for a given scene providing greater detail through more subtle shading.

VIRA Link

Panasonic HDTVs all have VIERA Link technology which utilises HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) and allows the operation of all VIERA Link compatible A/V components using only the TV’s remote control to navigate on-screen menus.

VIRA Image Viewer

Panasonic’s Image Viewer allows viewers to see their images (JPEG) and MPEG2/AVCHD videos on a large HDTV screen from an SD flash memory card straight from their digital camera or from a USB memory stick. AVCHD is a format for recording and playback of high definition video jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic.

Audio

The D2 models have twin speakers with a total power output of 20W. For added realism there is a virtual surround sound system.

Connections

• HDMI Input 3 (1 side)
• Composite Video Input 2 (1 side)
• Audio Input (for Video) 2 (1 side)
• PC Input 1
• Component Video Inputs (Y, PB, PR) 1
• Audio Input (for Component Video) 1
• Digital Audio Output 1 (5.1 ch)
• HDMI Input-Support Feature Audio Return Channel (Input 1)
• Analog Audio Input ( for HDMI/DVI) Yes

Resources

Specification Panasonic D2 LED LCD HDTV (pdf)

User Reviews and Price Comparisons

Check prices and customer reviews using the links below.

Panasonic TC-L42D2 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV with iPod Dock

New Premium Heavy Duty Tilt Tilting Adjustable Universal Wall Mount Brackt for fits VESA Panasoic Viera LCD LED Plasma TV TC-P42C2 TC-P46C2 TC-L42U22 TC-P42U2 TC-P42S2 TC-L42U25 TC-P46S2 TC-L42D2 TC-P50C2 TC-P50U2 TC-P50S2 TC-P54S2 TC-P50G20 TC-P54G20 TC-P50VT20 TC-P50VT25 TC-P54VT25 TC-P58S1 TC-P58S2

Panasonic TC-L37D2 37-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV with iPod Dock

New Universal Black Ultra Slim Low Profile TV Wall Mount Bracket for fits Panasonic LCD LED 22″-37″ Max VESA 400×200 TC-L22X2 TL-26X1 TC-L32C22 TC-L32U22 TC-32LX24 TC-L32C12 TC-32LX14 TC-L32X2 TC-L32U22 TC-L32G1 TC-L32S1 TC-L37D2 TC-L37C22 TC-L37X2 TC-L37U22 TC-L37X1 TC-L371S1 TC-L37G1 TC-L37D2

Panasonic Viera TC-L42D2 42" LCD TV

Panasonic Viera TC-L37D2 37" LCD TV

Panasonic Viera TC-L42D2 – 42 Widescreen 1080p LED HDTV

Panasonic Viera TC-L37D2 – 37 Widescreen 1080p LED HDTV