TC-37LZ800 Calibration and Bench Testing

Using our reference Datacolor Colorfacts Professional software, we measured grayscale and primary colors as well as the contrast of the TC-37LZ800. Color reproduction, as seen by the CIE chart was pretty good, though red really looked off - like it was leaning towards a more pinkish hue. This bore out in our results, but not as much as I had initially guessed, showing me that instrumentation is a vital addition to my eyes.

We again used the AVIA Pro DVD to set up our grayscale calibration and set our Black and White levels. After proper configuration we were able to record an ANSI contrast ratio of 527:1 - and that was while n a tweaked in cinema mode. This represents a very nice real-world contrast ratio and one of the better measurements we've seen in the past year. Bringing up an 80 IRE gray field we measured 6200K in the Cinema color mode. Here's how the color temp broke down in each of the various color modes (with their default color temps selected):

• Cinema Mode - 6200K
• Game Mode - 8550K
• Vivid Mode - 11000K
• Standard Mode - 8600K

You can bet that Vivid mode is what you see in stores. One recommendation we'd make is to go ahead and use the provided Custom picture mode to set up a Cinema "Day" mode where you have the same semi-accurate color temperature, but you raise the backlight all the way up for greater light output during daytime viewing. Back in Standard mode we actually tested the three color temperature modes to see how they changed the white levels at 80 IRE. Our results yielded:

• Normal Color Temp - 8600K
• Warm Temp - 6400K
• Cool Temp - 11000K

Lumen output was varied, of course, from mode to mode. We found that you could get an insane amount of light (155 fL) from this panel and the darkest mode (Cinema Mode with the backlight to 0) still yielded plenty of light. These are all screen surface measurements:

• Standard - 54 fL
• Cinema (default) - 43 fL
• Cinema (backlight to 0) - 21 fL
• Game - 50 fL
• Vivid - 155 fL

Even though the panel warmed up for over an hour before we began these tests, the CCFL stability was a bit odd. In Vivid mode I literally watched the lumen output climb from 125 fL to over 155 fL. Conversely, when I dropped it back to Standard, the output dropped steadily from about 65 fL down to the initially measured 54 fL. The other thing to note is that the edges of the screen lack uniformity when displaying a solid black (or dark) image. This is light from the CCFL backlight sneaking around the edge of the screen and is a common issue with many LCD displays. One good thing about the backlight in the Panasonic is that its level is affected by the Picture modes of the television. This means that Vivid mode jacks up the backlight level while Cinema mode backs it down. In my experience many backlight settings are universal to all inputs and modes, so this is a great feature to look for in a television.

The TC-37LZ800 passes both Blacker than Black (below Black) signals as well as Whiter than White, making it easy to guarantee the correct levels for viewing (aside from a pesky menu system that seems to have ADHD).

Considering the grayscale cannot be adjusted in the user menu, the best RGB performance I measured wasn't too bad. There is a bit of Red topping out on the television, but easing off the saturation control might help a bit. Overall it’s an apparent attempt to goose up the weakest color of the set and the real-world performance of the set doesn't bear out any sort of deficiency - at least not to my eye:

Temperature tracked consistently, though not quite the D65 that we would have hoped for. You may actually find slightly more accurate color in the Standard mode as compared to Cinema, but you'll need to make other adjustments as well.

Gamma measured out at 2.47 and was a nice gradual track with no crushing of Black or White anywhere in the spectrum. This bore out with our viewing tests which showed an exceptional picture.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

SD Perfect Score is 130
Panasonic TC-37LZ800 SD Benchmark Score: 50 (Gets a 70 when NR is enabled in the menu system)

Note: Tests were done at 480i via component video input #1 from a Denon DVD-2930CI. *Once NR was enabled (off by default) these tests passed. **Film detail did eventually lock, but well after the time it was supposed to. We failed it since it was so slow to lock onto the unflagged signal.

HD Perfect Score is 100
Panasonic TC-37LZ800 HD Benchmark Score: 65

As noted, we utilized a Denon DVD-2930CI player to send 480i component video to this TV to test. While slow to lock onto unflagged signals, the television does an acceptable job at jaggie reduction - my biggest pet peeve. This is one of the few sets I've seen that allows some initial tearing in the horizontal mixed format scrolling text HQV test - again a symptom of its slow lock-on to 2-3 pull-down cadences.

The Moving Zone Plate 2:3 test failed in a very particular and blocky manner that I hadn't seen before. It was spectacularly bad, lol. Detail on this television is above-par. This was possibly the clearest TV I've seen in a long time and the resolution it provided on even standard definition sources was exceptional. The bottom line with this set is that it delivers an excellent quality picture when fed a decent SD or HD signal, so just give it a good source and you'll be very pleased with the results.