AS OF DECEMBER 21, 2014, THIS POST WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED. FOR NEW UPDATES, PLEASE REFER TO THE OWNERS THREAD.
Official Product Pages:
U.S. - TBA
UK - TX-65AX902B
Canada - TC-65AX900
Owner's Manual:
U.S. - TBA
UK - TBA
Canada - eHelp | Owner's Manual
Press Release:
U.S. - Panasonic Announces U.S. Debut Of AX900 And AX850 Series 4K Ultra HDTVs
UK - Panasonic IFA 2014 Press Kit, and ‘Unleash your senses’ with Panasonic’s AX902 - a new chapter in 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV picture quality
Link to Purchase:
U.S. - TC-65AX900 (Magnolia exclusive | $7,199 | available now | online product listing TBA)
UK (Panasonic Store) - TX-65AX902B (£4,999.99 [$8,016.11 USD]) (In stock)
Canada - TBA ($7,999.99) (Early to mid January 2015)
FEATURES
•THX Certified 65-inch IPS 3000 4K Hz BLS IFC PRO (Ultra High Definition (3840 x 2160p) | Scanning Backlight | Intelligent Frame Creation | Full Array Local Dimming with 128 Dimming Zones)
•Full Aray Local Dimming (FALD) dubbed "Local Dimming ULTRA" (claimed to feature a more sophisticated sampling across 5 x 5 matrices of local dimming fields to minimize halos around bright objects against dark backgrounds) in 128 16×8 dimming zones (dimming zones confirmed)
•Studio Master Drive which includes both a Super Chroma Drive providing professional-standard 3D Look Up Tables calibration with 8000 registry points (which Panasonic claims is the first time it will be used in a consumer television) (click here for an explanation on LUTs by fxguide co-founder Mike Seymour) and the Black Gradation drive that scans for and applies brightness compensation to dark parts of the picture to protect against them looking hollow and ‘crushed’
•Dynamic Range Remaster (DRR) circuitry to restore the brilliance of bright highlights
•ISF certification with Day and Night calibration modes
•Setting controls accessible on a tablet or smartphone using a dedicated app
•Color gamut reaching 98 percent of the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) specification including the BT.1886, the International Telecommunication Union's standard for gamma on professional mastering displays that offers the specific advantage of rendering dark shadows with improved clarity versus older gamma functions (it is also the default gamma target for BT.709 calibrations in SpectraCal's well-known CalMAN software) (yet another claimed industry first)
•Lighting condition analysis (linking video signal processing to ambient light levels) (yet another claimed industry first)
•Four (4) 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0 terminals with HDCP 2.2 support
•DisplayPort 1.2a
•H.265 HEVC content decoding and UHD/4K cloud sreaming
•3D (Polarized) (Passive)
•“Beyond Smart” feature set driven by a Pro5 Quad-Core video processor and HEVC decoder which includes: Info Bar (displays information such as the time and weather without turning on the TV due to a proximity sensor coupled with Face Recognition), Internet Apps (linked to official current lists), my Home Screen, my Stream (for customized recommended content), TV Anyplace, Voice Assistant, Panasonic Cloud - TV Anywhere (transfer live broadcasts or recorded contents via the cloud to a smartphone or tablet device anywhere), HbbTV, Freetime (on demand programming in the UK), and DLNA streaming
•Quad Core Pro5 processing driving the frame interpolation processing for removing judder and motion blur, a Halo Effect Reduction feature (see quote below), 4K Super Clear Resolution upscaling engine, Content Optimiser Pro applying either or both ‘Random Noise Reduction’ to remove video noise without effecting subtle detail elements or causing blurring or Low Bit Rate Noise Reduction to eliminate fizzing and blocking patterns/artifacts associated with heavily compressed digital broadcasts or Web streams (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Area Gamma Control feature "where the brightness levels of dark and bright areas are continually analysed separately so that the screen’s gradation steps can be optimised for each area which should result in even more shadow detail and [ ] accurate localised colouring." (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•700 Nits of brightness (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Black frame insertion without frame interpolation in THX mode (credit to Mark Henninger)
•The AX900 is the first LCD-based TV to feature accurate gamma tracking (with BT.1886) when local dimming is activated (credit to Mark Henninger and Joel Silver)
•Rec 709 standard and BT.2020 colour space also supported (the latter in conjunction with the 3D Look-Up technology) (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Contains four (4) cooling fans (credit to digital.tv)
•No 55-inch model for the U.S. (unconfirmed)
Reviews
Digital Daily - Panasonic AX900, in testing the super LCD designed for those who want the very best (Italian)
avforums - Panasonic TX-55AX902B (AX902) Ultra HD 4K TV Review (UK)
Lesnumeriques - Test: Panasonic TX-55AX900E a definition TV UHD (French)
Dinside - TEST: Panasonic 65AX900 (Norwegian)
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic TX-55AX902 review (UK)
HDTVtest - Panasonic TX-55AX902B 4K TV Review (UK)
avforums - Panasonic AX902 (TX-xxAX902) user review and owners thread (UK)
tweakers.net - Panasonic Viera AX900 Review - The UHDTV that plasma rivals (Danish)
hdtvpolska.com - TEST: Panasonic 55 "65" AX900 Ultra HD 4K 55AX900 65AX900 65AX900 TX-TX-55AX900 (Maciej Koper) (Polish)
digitalt.tv - Panasonic AX900 TX 65AX900 Ultra HD TV (Danish)
idg.se - Panasonic AX900 UHD TV: TV for those who want the best possible image (Swedish)
obywatelhd - Panasonic AX900 - for and against the [test] (Polish)
Notable Quotes
From HDTVtest's Vincent Teoh
(Photo courtesy of HDTVtest)
An unnamed "Panasonic product specialist" was quoted by Virginia Barry of Reviewed.com as saying:
Virginia Barry of Reviewed.com described the AX900's design like this:
U.S. - TBA
UK - TX-65AX902B
Canada - TC-65AX900
Articles (Newest at top)
HDTVtest - Samsung HU8500 Ties Panasonic AX902 for Best 2014 4K TV
Forbes - Panasonic TC-55AX900 Review: LCD Gets Serious
Forbes - LCD TV Revolution: The 6 Steps That Make LCD 'Better Than Plasma'
Sound & Vision - A Preview of Panasonic's New Flagship Ultra HD TVs
Home Theater Review - Panasonic Life+Screen Web Platform (2014) Reviewed
AVS - Panasonic TC-65AX900—a Revolutionary LED-LCD UHDTV
Big Picture Big Sound - Panasonic Shows Off Flagship 65-inch AX900 and 85-inch AX850 Ultra HD LED TVs
High Def Digest - Panasonic Will Demo Latest Ultra HD TVs at Luxury Tech Show
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic AX900 will be almost as expensive as OLED (Note: U.S. prices have not been announced)
4K News & Reviews - Review of the Panasonic TX-L65AX900: Panasonic’s Newest, Greatest Line of UHD TVs
ayehdtv.com - IFA: Panasonic AX900 Review (The First Look)
HDTVtest - Panasonic AX900/AX902 Could Be Best 4K LED TV Yet
Reviewed.com - Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV First Impressions Review - The king is dead. Has Panasonic found a worthy successor?
Big Picture Big Sound - Eyes-On with Panasonic's AX900 LED/LCD Ultra HD TV: Is It Really a Plasma Killer?
FLATPANELSHD - PANASONIC CONFIRMS 4K NETFLIX FOR ITS 4K TVS
what hi-fi? - IFA 2014: Panasonic confirms AX900 and flagship X940 4K TVs
c|net - Panasonic plasma-ifies 4K LCD TV picture with full-array local dimming
Huffpost Tech - Panasonic Unveils New 4K TVs, The Return Of 'Technic' Audio... And One Hell Of A Mirror
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic launches new AX900 & X940 4K TVs
AVS Forum - Full Array Local Dimming: It's All About the Zones
HDTVtest - Panasonic’s Plasma-Like LED TV is AX900 with Direct Local Dimming
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic unveils two Ultra HD TVs - AX900 & AX800
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic's 2014 TV line-up - with prices
Flatpanels HD - Can Panasonic AX900 really produce plasma-like PQ?
High Def Digest - Panasonic Details 2014 TVs
PC Mag - Panasonic Unveils Voice-Activated TVs With Facial Recognition
PC World - Panasonic says new 4K LED TV has plasma-like picture quality (appears to erroneously refer to the AX800 series rather than the AX900)
Big Picture Big Sound - Panasonic Introduces 4K, LED and LCD TV Lineup for 2014
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic Viera AX900 4K UHD TV series coming to UK in Q3
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic TX-L65AX900 Review
techradar - Panasonic: our new AX900 LED TVs finally rival plasma
Panasonic - INTRODUCING THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION: LIFE+ SCREEN
Panasonic - Panasonic's 65-inch 4K LED TV Named the Best UHDTV
Gadget Update - Panasonic TX-L65AX900 TV Assessment
Of Week - Panasonic Viera AX900 4K UHD flagship TV
Firmware Releases
TBA
Calibration settings
55"
vegacortez (UK)
avforums - Panasonic TX-55AX902B Reviewer's Recommended Best Settings
65"
TBA
Social Media
facebook - Panasonic VIERA TV (official)
Video
Panasonic VIERA Global - Local Dimming Ultra - youtu.be/E6Ut5wGp0IA
Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV US CA 1212 - youtu.be/MDzjjPAjau4
Panasonic VIERA AX902 Studio Master Drive - youtu.be/-a1_diBpt5Q
Panasonic VIERA AX902 Ultra Bright Panel - youtu.be/6sCI5mTXou8
Digital Trends - Panasonic Viera AX900U 4KTV - First Look (Latest video from the 10/14/14 Luxury Electronics Show) - youtu.be/VRCdfmbfFjs
Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic VIERA Studio Master Drive - youtu.be/wxzAVfYO1yE
Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic VIERA Ultra Bright Panel - youtu.be/aW9uLw9GCsw
Panasonic Japan - Direct voice operation [VIERA 4K AX900 / AX900F] [official] - youtu.be/f21to7SQ3x0
Official Panasonic Channel (Poland) - Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV - youtu.be/snTQERLFKkc
Official Panasonic Channel - AX900 Picture Quality - youtu.be/stjDStcFVMo
VIERA - AX940 & AX900 4K TVs #PanasonicIFA - youtu.be/-i6yYZFTLJ4
YouTube - Smart Review - CES 2014 | Panasonic Viera 4K Ultra HD TV Lineup 2014 | Life+ Screen Smart HDTV | LED TVs - youtube.com/watch?v=lJjK-QqmFpA
YouTube - Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic Life+ Screen Special Interview Vol.1 - youtu.be/C7vMDC2j-EI
YouTube - AVForumsTV - Panasonic launch two 4K TV models and more at Convention 2014 - youtu.be/JGH969i69gc
Panasonic - Viera Life+ Screen (60") - youtu.be/1b3usmwpVBI
Official Product Pages:
U.S. - TBA
UK - TX-65AX902B
Canada - TC-65AX900
Owner's Manual:
U.S. - TBA
UK - TBA
Canada - eHelp | Owner's Manual
Press Release:
U.S. - Panasonic Announces U.S. Debut Of AX900 And AX850 Series 4K Ultra HDTVs
UK - Panasonic IFA 2014 Press Kit, and ‘Unleash your senses’ with Panasonic’s AX902 - a new chapter in 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV picture quality
Link to Purchase:
U.S. - TC-65AX900 (Magnolia exclusive | $7,199 | available now | online product listing TBA)
UK (Panasonic Store) - TX-65AX902B (£4,999.99 [$8,016.11 USD]) (In stock)
Canada - TBA ($7,999.99) (Early to mid January 2015)
FEATURES
•THX Certified 65-inch IPS 3000 4K Hz BLS IFC PRO (Ultra High Definition (3840 x 2160p) | Scanning Backlight | Intelligent Frame Creation | Full Array Local Dimming with 128 Dimming Zones)
•Full Aray Local Dimming (FALD) dubbed "Local Dimming ULTRA" (claimed to feature a more sophisticated sampling across 5 x 5 matrices of local dimming fields to minimize halos around bright objects against dark backgrounds) in 128 16×8 dimming zones (dimming zones confirmed)
•Studio Master Drive which includes both a Super Chroma Drive providing professional-standard 3D Look Up Tables calibration with 8000 registry points (which Panasonic claims is the first time it will be used in a consumer television) (click here for an explanation on LUTs by fxguide co-founder Mike Seymour) and the Black Gradation drive that scans for and applies brightness compensation to dark parts of the picture to protect against them looking hollow and ‘crushed’
•Dynamic Range Remaster (DRR) circuitry to restore the brilliance of bright highlights
•ISF certification with Day and Night calibration modes
•Setting controls accessible on a tablet or smartphone using a dedicated app
•Color gamut reaching 98 percent of the DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative) specification including the BT.1886, the International Telecommunication Union's standard for gamma on professional mastering displays that offers the specific advantage of rendering dark shadows with improved clarity versus older gamma functions (it is also the default gamma target for BT.709 calibrations in SpectraCal's well-known CalMAN software) (yet another claimed industry first)
•Lighting condition analysis (linking video signal processing to ambient light levels) (yet another claimed industry first)
•Four (4) 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0 terminals with HDCP 2.2 support
•DisplayPort 1.2a
•H.265 HEVC content decoding and UHD/4K cloud sreaming
•3D (Polarized) (Passive)
•“Beyond Smart” feature set driven by a Pro5 Quad-Core video processor and HEVC decoder which includes: Info Bar (displays information such as the time and weather without turning on the TV due to a proximity sensor coupled with Face Recognition), Internet Apps (linked to official current lists), my Home Screen, my Stream (for customized recommended content), TV Anyplace, Voice Assistant, Panasonic Cloud - TV Anywhere (transfer live broadcasts or recorded contents via the cloud to a smartphone or tablet device anywhere), HbbTV, Freetime (on demand programming in the UK), and DLNA streaming
•Quad Core Pro5 processing driving the frame interpolation processing for removing judder and motion blur, a Halo Effect Reduction feature (see quote below), 4K Super Clear Resolution upscaling engine, Content Optimiser Pro applying either or both ‘Random Noise Reduction’ to remove video noise without effecting subtle detail elements or causing blurring or Low Bit Rate Noise Reduction to eliminate fizzing and blocking patterns/artifacts associated with heavily compressed digital broadcasts or Web streams (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Area Gamma Control feature "where the brightness levels of dark and bright areas are continually analysed separately so that the screen’s gradation steps can be optimised for each area which should result in even more shadow detail and [ ] accurate localised colouring." (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•700 Nits of brightness (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Black frame insertion without frame interpolation in THX mode (credit to Mark Henninger)
•The AX900 is the first LCD-based TV to feature accurate gamma tracking (with BT.1886) when local dimming is activated (credit to Mark Henninger and Joel Silver)
•Rec 709 standard and BT.2020 colour space also supported (the latter in conjunction with the 3D Look-Up technology) (credit to John Archer of Forbes)
•Contains four (4) cooling fans (credit to digital.tv)
•No 55-inch model for the U.S. (unconfirmed)
Reviews
Digital Daily - Panasonic AX900, in testing the super LCD designed for those who want the very best (Italian)
avforums - Panasonic TX-55AX902B (AX902) Ultra HD 4K TV Review (UK)
Lesnumeriques - Test: Panasonic TX-55AX900E a definition TV UHD (French)
Dinside - TEST: Panasonic 65AX900 (Norwegian)
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic TX-55AX902 review (UK)
HDTVtest - Panasonic TX-55AX902B 4K TV Review (UK)
avforums - Panasonic AX902 (TX-xxAX902) user review and owners thread (UK)
tweakers.net - Panasonic Viera AX900 Review - The UHDTV that plasma rivals (Danish)
hdtvpolska.com - TEST: Panasonic 55 "65" AX900 Ultra HD 4K 55AX900 65AX900 65AX900 TX-TX-55AX900 (Maciej Koper) (Polish)
digitalt.tv - Panasonic AX900 TX 65AX900 Ultra HD TV (Danish)
idg.se - Panasonic AX900 UHD TV: TV for those who want the best possible image (Swedish)
obywatelhd - Panasonic AX900 - for and against the [test] (Polish)
Notable Quotes
From HDTVtest's Vincent Teoh
From Forbes' John Archer
From Sound & Vision's Tom Norton
From Big Picture Big Sound's Chris Boylan:
From the IFA 2014 press release:
An unnamed "Panasonic product specialist" was quoted by Virginia Barry of Reviewed.com as saying:
According to Vincent Teoh of HDTVtest:
Design
Virginia Barry of Reviewed.com described the AX900's design like this:
Specifications
U.S. - TBA
UK - TX-65AX902B
Canada - TC-65AX900
Articles (Newest at top)
HDTVtest - Samsung HU8500 Ties Panasonic AX902 for Best 2014 4K TV
Forbes - Panasonic TC-55AX900 Review: LCD Gets Serious
Forbes - LCD TV Revolution: The 6 Steps That Make LCD 'Better Than Plasma'
Sound & Vision - A Preview of Panasonic's New Flagship Ultra HD TVs
Home Theater Review - Panasonic Life+Screen Web Platform (2014) Reviewed
AVS - Panasonic TC-65AX900—a Revolutionary LED-LCD UHDTV
Big Picture Big Sound - Panasonic Shows Off Flagship 65-inch AX900 and 85-inch AX850 Ultra HD LED TVs
High Def Digest - Panasonic Will Demo Latest Ultra HD TVs at Luxury Tech Show
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic AX900 will be almost as expensive as OLED (Note: U.S. prices have not been announced)
4K News & Reviews - Review of the Panasonic TX-L65AX900: Panasonic’s Newest, Greatest Line of UHD TVs
ayehdtv.com - IFA: Panasonic AX900 Review (The First Look)
HDTVtest - Panasonic AX900/AX902 Could Be Best 4K LED TV Yet
Reviewed.com - Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV First Impressions Review - The king is dead. Has Panasonic found a worthy successor?
Big Picture Big Sound - Eyes-On with Panasonic's AX900 LED/LCD Ultra HD TV: Is It Really a Plasma Killer?
FLATPANELSHD - PANASONIC CONFIRMS 4K NETFLIX FOR ITS 4K TVS
what hi-fi? - IFA 2014: Panasonic confirms AX900 and flagship X940 4K TVs
c|net - Panasonic plasma-ifies 4K LCD TV picture with full-array local dimming
Huffpost Tech - Panasonic Unveils New 4K TVs, The Return Of 'Technic' Audio... And One Hell Of A Mirror
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic launches new AX900 & X940 4K TVs
AVS Forum - Full Array Local Dimming: It's All About the Zones
HDTVtest - Panasonic’s Plasma-Like LED TV is AX900 with Direct Local Dimming
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic unveils two Ultra HD TVs - AX900 & AX800
FLATPANELSHD - Panasonic's 2014 TV line-up - with prices
Flatpanels HD - Can Panasonic AX900 really produce plasma-like PQ?
High Def Digest - Panasonic Details 2014 TVs
PC Mag - Panasonic Unveils Voice-Activated TVs With Facial Recognition
PC World - Panasonic says new 4K LED TV has plasma-like picture quality (appears to erroneously refer to the AX800 series rather than the AX900)
Big Picture Big Sound - Panasonic Introduces 4K, LED and LCD TV Lineup for 2014
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic Viera AX900 4K UHD TV series coming to UK in Q3
Trusted Reviews - Panasonic TX-L65AX900 Review
techradar - Panasonic: our new AX900 LED TVs finally rival plasma
Panasonic - INTRODUCING THE FUTURE OF TELEVISION: LIFE+ SCREEN
Panasonic - Panasonic's 65-inch 4K LED TV Named the Best UHDTV
Gadget Update - Panasonic TX-L65AX900 TV Assessment
Of Week - Panasonic Viera AX900 4K UHD flagship TV
Firmware Releases
TBA
Calibration settings
55"
vegacortez (UK)
avforums - Panasonic TX-55AX902B Reviewer's Recommended Best Settings
65"
TBA
Social Media
facebook - Panasonic VIERA TV (official)
Video
Panasonic VIERA Global - Local Dimming Ultra - youtu.be/E6Ut5wGp0IA
Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV US CA 1212 - youtu.be/MDzjjPAjau4
Panasonic VIERA AX902 Studio Master Drive - youtu.be/-a1_diBpt5Q
Panasonic VIERA AX902 Ultra Bright Panel - youtu.be/6sCI5mTXou8
Digital Trends - Panasonic Viera AX900U 4KTV - First Look (Latest video from the 10/14/14 Luxury Electronics Show) - youtu.be/VRCdfmbfFjs
Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic VIERA Studio Master Drive - youtu.be/wxzAVfYO1yE
Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic VIERA Ultra Bright Panel - youtu.be/aW9uLw9GCsw
Panasonic Japan - Direct voice operation [VIERA 4K AX900 / AX900F] [official] - youtu.be/f21to7SQ3x0
Official Panasonic Channel (Poland) - Panasonic AX900 4K LED TV - youtu.be/snTQERLFKkc
Official Panasonic Channel - AX900 Picture Quality - youtu.be/stjDStcFVMo
VIERA - AX940 & AX900 4K TVs #PanasonicIFA - youtu.be/-i6yYZFTLJ4
YouTube - Smart Review - CES 2014 | Panasonic Viera 4K Ultra HD TV Lineup 2014 | Life+ Screen Smart HDTV | LED TVs - youtube.com/watch?v=lJjK-QqmFpA
YouTube - Panasonic VIERA Global - Panasonic Life+ Screen Special Interview Vol.1 - youtu.be/C7vMDC2j-EI
YouTube - AVForumsTV - Panasonic launch two 4K TV models and more at Convention 2014 - youtu.be/JGH969i69gc
Panasonic - Viera Life+ Screen (60") - youtu.be/1b3usmwpVBI