PANASONIC JZ2000
A no-compromise premium 4K OLED TV that thinks it’s a movie theatre
Topping out at a blazingly bright 950 nits and packing super sharp AI, this may well be the best OLED ever
Just like its predecessor, the much-revered HZ2000, this flagship TV combines Panasonic’s best-in-class Master HDR OLED Professional Edition screen with a fully integrated Dolby Atmos sound system.
The set builds on that, with significant improvements in functionality. This includes neat side-firing enclosures to match the up-firing height speaker, Space Tune auto calibration, and a whole new level of Auto AI processing.
Behind the glass, new chips identify the content type you’re watching so that they can optimise sound and vision accordingly. Panasonic has also (finally) got game, with HDMI 2.1 variable refresh rate (VRR) and high frame rate (HFR) 4K 120Hz both now supported. The set comes in 55-inch and 65-inch versions, and it’s the smaller of the two we’ve got in our test cave this month.
So is this the ultimate OLED TV? You know what? It very nearly may be… Connectivity is a big step up on previous Panasonic OLEDs. The HDMI
quartet on this screen divvy up 2.1 functionality. There’s eARC on input 2 (if you really need a soundbar), plus VRR and HFR 4K 120fps compliance on inputs 1 and 2; so that’s where you’ll want to dock your new-gen games consoles. All four HDMIs have Auto Low Latency Mode game modes.
There’s also a trio of USB ports, a digital optical audio output and Ethernet. Wireless covers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and you get Google Assistant and Alexa.
The set also offers HDMI Signal Power Link, which is apparently designed to simplify living with non-CEC supported devices such as old digital TV boxes and disc players.
The JZ2000 heralds a huge update to Panasonic’s smart platform. If you thought we were in for just a little tinkering around the edges, prepare for a surprise: Home Screen 6.0 feels very, very different – in a good way.
It builds on what we’ve seen before – those customisable Home buttons are still front and centre – but adds more layers of refinement, like My Scenery, which allows you to customise your own image gallery, or chill to pictures and videos from the Lumix Club. It feels fully formed, perhaps for the first time.
There’s a wide range of streaming apps – Netflix, Amazon Prime, Rakuten TV and BritBox among them, but Disney+ remains conspicuous by its absence, which is a disappointment. We also get Freeview Play, which brings with it integrated catch-up players for all the mainstream TV services (BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, My 5, UKTV Play). The JZ2000 also supports dual Bluetooth connections, which means the screen can transmit to two separate Bluetooth devices simultaneously. A couple can watch a movie late at night together or have a co-op gaming session, on cans, without disturbing the kids.
Smart zing
Let’s not beat about the box: the JZ2000 is absolutely gorgeous. Its all-new processor, dubbed HCX Pro AI, can take much of the credit. Final detail is stratospherically high, textures beautifully realised, noise low, colour gradations smooth and sumptuous. The JZ2000 features the same gloriously over-engineered Master HDR OLED Professional Edition panel as its predecessor, and it’s still stunning. This is fine champagne in screen form.
HDR peak brightness and overall zing are class leading. This OLED panel doesn’t glare in the same way Mini LED tends to, its images are more subtle and nuanced, but you’re drawn in regardless.
In Normal viewing mode, we measured HDR peak brightness at more than 900 nits. That’s easily high enough to show off fancy HDR grading effects and specular highlights. With the Dynamic preset, using a 5% measurement window, it hits 950 nits.
Inspired engineering delivers an enhanced dynamic range, with peerless black level performance and superb shadow detail. With this OLED you’ll have no trouble seeing something menacing in the shadows – if that’s what the cinematographer
intended. Fine colour tuning is handled by Hollywood colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, and there’s an authenticity to its hues which is mesmerising. Skin tones retain believable tonality, even when the rest of the frame is rich with wild visual effects.
The JZ2000 supports a refreshingly wide range of HDR formats and flavours. There’s Dolby Vision IQ, which adds dynamic adjustment to ambient light, Filmmaker Mode with Panasonic’s own Intelligent Sensing (a sensor-based auto correction mode) and HLG Photo. There’s even support for HDR10+ Adaptive, which dynamically adapts HDR content to the lighting conditions of the viewing area. Only Philips offers comparable HDR support.
The JZ2000’s big party trick is being able to determine what type of content is being viewed, analysing it frame-by-frame in real time, and comparing it to an on-board library. It doesn’t just do this for video; audio gets the AI treatment too.
It has also been trained to recognise genres. Players in a stadium are given grass with a more authentic hue, while the audio system adds stadium-like ambiance. Panasonic says the HCX Pro AI processor has been trained with over a million pieces of content.
This smart auto pilot seems to work well enough for general viewing, but you might want to disengage it for movie night as by default it engages Intelligent Frame Creation and sets interpolation at maximum – which for a smart system is pretty dumb.
Speaker party
Which brings us to that built-in Atmos theatre system. We’ve listened to, and enjoyed, a good number of
novel enhancements designed to improve TV audio.
Samsung has OTS+, with discreet drivers peppered around its QLED panel, while Sony employs transducers that vibrate the glass itself, as part of its Acoustic Surface technology initiative.
Here, Panasonic has taken a far more literal approach to cinematic sound, refining its onboard Dolby Atmos audio system with additional side-firing enclosures, placed adjacent to the rear-mounted height speaker, and it gives all its rivals a run for their money.
Providing the front soundstage is a forward facing soundbar-style array. The set boasts a seven-channel sound system, plus subwoofer, with a combined output of 125W, and the whole lot has been tuned by Technics, which Panasonic owns. Panasonic dubs this configuration 360° Soundscape Pro.
When installing the JZ2000, you’re invited to optimise audio performance using the set’s own Space Tune calibration system. This involves the usual routine of peeps and whistles. While the TV doesn’t really have the wherewithal to deliver deep bass, it does at least make a good mid-bass effort, and certainly doesn’t jettison the low frequencies. There are no satellite speakers, nor connections for them, so you don’t get sound from the rear, but what you do get is a thoroughly entertaining audio presentation that goes high and wide.
Meanwhile, gaming, long a weak point for Panasonic, is no longer treated like an afterthought. The JZ2000 offers a big improvement in input lag, with latency down to 14.5ms in Game mode (1080/60). This makes it a decent choice for players, while VFR and HFR 4K are on hand to keep the faithful happy.
You might think that with a whole Dolby Atmos sound system strapped to its back, the JZ2000 might look a tad bulky. Not a bit of it. The set is stylishly slim, even with those additional speakers, extending the depth to just 69mm. There’s barely a bezel to speak of, with the Technics speaker bar blending seamlessly. It’s an elegant, minimalist confection.
The panel itself sits on a circular pedestal stand, with spin to accommodate different viewing positions, while the supplied remote is a heavyweight premium affair, with a brushed finish, that feels nice in the hand. As always, there’s copious menu tinkering available, but you don’t need to deep dive. Everyday controls sit in a handy, graphical bar.
Panasonic’s partnership of its superb Master HDR OLED Pro panel with an equally accomplished AI processor produces jaw-dropping results. The JZ2000 delivers bright pin-prick HDR and looks (and sounds) supremely cinematic. The only downside is the price, but we were expecting that.