Panasonic‘s entry-level C5520 range comprises a number of the cheapest Full HD Smart TVs available today. All of them seem like excellent value, nevertheless the 55in TX-SSCSSZO strikes the sweet spot for display size and price. This is a budget television, however, so if you’re after one thing stylish you should possibly look elsewhere. lt’s not ugly at all, nevertheless the CSSZO looks a lot more functional than beautiful, without any real style flare. It seems reasonably well put together and also the stand is stable sufficient to withstand minor knocks. Image quality at the default settings is fine, although it’s well worth delving to the numerous adjustment options to get precisely the kind of image you need. For the five available image methods (Dynamic, Normal, Cinema, True Cinema and Custom), we discovered Custom to be the ideal. lt provided the brightest & most vibrant image at the default settings, making it a good starting place for balancing RGB hue, luminance and saturation. We always measure sRGB color gamut coverage before you make any adjustments, as well as its default settings the Panasonic Viera TX-55CS520B managed 92%.
We had beenn’t able to enhance with this, inspite of the option to tweak RGB color setups, but in truth color protection is less crucial to image quality than comparison. Fortunately, comparison had been sky-high at 5,423:1 and black colored degrees incredibly low at O.O4cd/m2. This departs perhaps the murkiest of movie scenes packed with detail and easy to watch. Panasonic’s intelligent framework creation makes use of the 2O0Hz panel to most useful impact, drawing extra frameworks to cut back the jagged movements created by slow horizontal and vertical panning. The Max environment looked unnaturally smooth and Minimum did not quite solve the juddering within our Star Trek: Into Darkness test footage, but Mid was a good compromise. Because of the size of this display screen, any image sound is amplified, even though the TV has actually devices for reducing sound, we could not find a setting that has been in a position to cover all bases. Noisy pictures became a little blurry and blotchy, and while this might be most likely better than the sound, it nevertheless did not look especially good. You are able to duplicate image setups to other profiles, and also the TV remembers which establishing you employ for each input, which means you can have various controls for your Sky field and your games console, for instance.
This is especially important because switching regarding the various image processing options produces a lot of input lag — we measured it as 133ms, which is no great for gaming. Game Mode tackles this by switching off all image tweaking services, reducing input lag to a more appropriate 55ms. lt’s nevertheless not great for playing really twitchy games, but the majority casual gamers can do just fine. Audio quality is truly outstanding for such an inexpensive television. The pair of 10W speakers delivers sharp and punchy audio with lots of stereo separation. Speech is clear and music is fairly well reproduced, with even a hint of bass making an appearance. The ability to deliver great noise on a budget is an actual boon, as needing to splash out on a set of speakers or a soundbar would beat the object of shopping for a budget television to start with As this is a budget model, it does not include Panasonic’s interesting firefox OS-based Smart TV software. Instead you’re saddled with the aging My Home Screen Smart TV software, which we’ve taken issue with in the past. Newer variants with this have shown indications of enhancement, nonetheless, and even though the clunky house displays are still in proof, the default design now is easier to use, with all the rnain house display screen gaining a reasonably useful EPG instead of the worthless calendar application.
All the UK’s biggest catchup TV solutions can be found: BBC iPlayer, iTV Player, All 4 (formerly 4oD) and Demand 5. Netflix is pre-installed and even has a passionate key in the handheld remote control, while Amazon Instant Video, Wuaki.tv and YouTube are all readily available. You can download farther applications from Panasonic’s store but they’re maybe not important. You also have Freesat’s Freetime EPG, which is useful for looking for forthcoming programes on different networks. Search for top level Gear, as an example, and you’ll see showings from BBC Three and Dave. Sadly, you cannot do such a thing with your results – it will be handy if you could set a reminder, however you cannot. Steady improvements, then, however the user interface nevertheless feels only a little inconsistent. Connectivity is the weakest facet of the Panasonic Viera TX-55CS520B. It has simply two HDMI inputs, which can be really stingy. If this 55in TV is destined to be at the center of a family living room, the capability to connect in just two HDMI devices is seriously restricting. At least the second HDMI slot supports Audio Return Channel (ARC), to help you output audio to a couple of house cinema speakers. Additionally a SCART connector and a set of component ports, as well as an S/PDIF audio connector. ultimately, a USB port allows you to play videos and watch images from outside USB storage machines. The Panasonic Viera TX-55CS52OB is great value for a 55in Full HD television. Its Smart TV user interface is one thing of a mixed bag and also the dearth of HDMI ports is a stumbling block, but for £799 including VAT you are getting a good household television on a budget.