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Panasonic unveils 65-in 4K 60-fps ultra-connected VIERA WT600

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Yoshiyuki Miyabe and Markus Wagenseil unveil the VIERA WT600 at IFA 2013
Besides offering 4K resolution at up to 60 fps, the metal-and-glass bodied WT600 also features 2,000 Hz Back Light Scanning
Individual users within the same household can access their own personalized pre-set Home Screens, which are designed to provide “quick and easy” access to content from their favorite providers
It also has built-in LAN, which lets users access multimedia content from the TV throughout the house, on other devices
Additionally, the look of sub-4K video is boosted by the TV’s 4K Hexa-Processing Engine
The WT600's integrated stand
The WT600's integrated stand
Pricing and availability details have yet to be announced
4K video editing demo'd on the WT600
60 fps is much smoother than 30 fps when viewed side-by-side
60 fps is much smoother than 30 fps when viewed side-by-side
60 fps is much smoother than 30 fps when viewed side-by-side
Before the press conference
Final Fantasy XIV in 4K on the WT600
Final Fantasy XIV in 4K on the WT600
Live 4K images streamed to the WT600
Nothing builds tension like a big clock counting down
Panasonic also took the opportunity to show off its 4K OLED screens
Panasonic has splashed out with its presence at IFA again this year
Panasonic is expanding its Home Screen functionality
Panasonic's Intelligent Frame Creation makes a tangible difference to the clarity of images on the WT600
Panasonic's Intelligent Frame Creation makes a tangible difference to the clarity of images on the WT600
The WT600 rigged up to a driver simulator
There's support for 4K upscaling of Blu-rays too
With its HTML 5 browser, the WT600 can display web pages in 4K
Yoshiyuki Miyabe also used to the event to tease the audience with a view of the previously announced 20-inch 4K tablet, though no further details were given
Yoshiyuki Miyabe and Markus Wagenseil unveil the VIERA WT600 at IFA 2013
Panasonic is expanding its Home Screen functionality
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There’s big news out of the IFA electronics show in Berlin today. How big? Well, 65 inches, to be exact. That’s the screen size of Panasonic’s just-unveiled VIERA WT600 TV. According to the company, it is “the first 4K Ultra HD TV in the world with a 4K 50/60p input designed based on HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2a specifications.”

Besides offering 4K resolution at up to 60 fps, the metal-and-glass bodied WT600 also features 2,000 Hz Back Light Scanning, which reportedly “provides incredibly high motion sharpness, even in fast action scenes.”

Its image quality is further helped out by 4K Intelligent Frame Creation frame rate conversion technology; the ability to visually optimize each object in a scene independently, regardless of the direction of movement; a “virtually infinite contrast ratio”; Local Dimming Pro circuit and the unique Gamma Area Control, which together allow for more details to be visible in bright or dark areas of the overall picture; and, compatibility with CalMAN calibration software, which is designed for perfect color neutrality.

Additionally, the look of sub-4K video is boosted by the TV’s 4K Hexa-Processing Engine. This feature reproduces data missing from the lower-resolution signal, apparently bringing it closer in quality to that of Ultra HD.

This being a modern television, however, it’s designed for doing more than displaying content from your local cable company's set-top box. For starters, it has its own built-in HTML5 web browser, allowing it to display 4K web pages. It also features an “industry-first” 4K H.264 (MPEG4) decoder, which lets it play back 4K video files via USB, SD card, or directly from the internet.

Individual users within the same household can access their own personalized pre-set Home Screens, which are designed to provide “quick and easy” access to content from their favorite providers – both broadcast and internet. While the WT600 will come with this feature pre-installed, it will also be available as a download to other VIERA sets as of October 8th.

It also has built-in LAN, which lets users access multimedia content from the TV throughout the house, on other devices. Additionally, its twin HD tuners allows users to record one program while watching another one live, or to view two programs at once – one on the TV, and one transmitted via LAN to a tablet or other device.

Finally, just to up its gee-whiz factor, users can control the WT600 by voice. This is done through a microphone on the TV’s touchpad controller, or via the Panasonic TV Remote 2 App on a mobile device.

Pricing and availability details have yet to be announced.

Source: Panasonic

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5 comments
pATREUS
Is 4K the pinnacle in display tech? Will we see a plateau in display specifications in the near future? I don't know, so would be interested to hear about new developments.
Derek Howe
pATREUS - No, Sharp showed off an 8k tv at CES back in January.
It can always be "better" but you eye won't notice it unless it's either a BIG screen or you're sitting really close.
Jonathan Martin
Panasonic Plasmas are the BEST 1080p Picture you can buy at any price these days. Even if Sharp makes 80-90" displays. Oh and Panasonic had a 4K 150" display years ago :)
f8lee
While the race to infinite resolution keeps manufacturers busy, the reality is that 4K or 8K or beyond will not make "Two Broke Girls" or "Pacific Rim" any better. Sure, 8K as a format for theatrical display makes sense as it might afford some better detail at those sizes, but for home consumption I think we have hit the "spec wall", analogous to the DSLR makers who raced to see how many more megapixels they can get on a CCD but have come to the point where more ain't necessarily better. Or computer makers years back who raced in the megahertz (and then GHz) war - who's got the fastest PC? - but again that is no longer mentioned as a real competitive factor.
Add to that that the delivery of 4Kk amounts to you loading a special disk into your own machine, as over the air is 1080 max and the cable companies compress everything to 720 to save bandwidth, and this becomes much ado about nothing.
FoulMermaid
60fps and back light scanning? color me interested