Panasonic TV's leave the Aussie TV market

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Panasonic TV's leave the Aussie TV market

1 | 2 | 3

20147 posts

Uber Geek

#2412538 4-Feb-2020 16:26

Dingbatt:

mattwnz:

I think if they were to produce one, it may make sense not to have any TV functionality in terms of UHF compontentary and freeview, and solely make it an internet device. That would save costs, and would mean they don't need multiple versions for different markets.

So literally a large wall-mountable iPad.

When the ipad was first released it was largely just a big ipod touch. But with a TV, I am not sure if the appleTV interface would be built into it. Would probably make sense considering they have already built that interface and system.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2412560 4-Feb-2020 16:46

It would be a shame for them to exit the NZ market. I love my 2016 Panasonic and would be looking for another Panasonic if I needed to replace it. I found a dealbreaker with every other mainstream brand in the mid-tier price bracket:

Samsung - poor motion performance (i.e. unavoidable judder in some situations)
LG - poor contrast and grey blacks
Sony - can't remember exactly - possibly high input lag? Possibly just not price competitive.

All of the top-end models from these brands solved all of these problems but at a price I wasn't prepared to pay. For around $1500, Panasonic had perfect motion performance, a very high contrast VA panel and acceptable input lag. It has strange Firefox OS that was outdated out of the box (I'm sure they've dropped it by now), but I use my TVs as a dumb panel so am not bothered about that at all.

For some reason Panasonic just doesn't have much mindshare in the TV market. Multiple people have said "huh, a Panasonic" when seeing my TV.

pinkydot

247 posts

Master Geek

#2412568 4-Feb-2020 17:20

Panasonic is such a classic brand, I still have a stand fan from National (brand) before they become Panasonic. The Fan still going strong and still using until today, along the years had use their TV as well. Will be miss if they really exit here.

Handle9

11386 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2412604 4-Feb-2020 19:09

dafman:
sbiddle:

Problem with the TV market is there is zero margin in it.

That's because consumers today expect to pay next to nothing for their technology; we are simply reaping the consequences.

Just look over a few threads on GZ for examples - eg. fraudulently sign up to term contracts to obtain heavy discounts, then immediately cancel ...

etc

I guess I missed the prosecutions for "fraud", can you point me to them?

Consumers will always want pay as little as possible, manufacturers will always want to maximise their profit. That hasn't changed in thousands of years and it will never change.

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#2412726 4-Feb-2020 22:06

I will add, the speculation of Panasonic leaving the New Zealand TV market is just that, speculation.

While I don't believe it's a done deal that they'll leave, I also don't think Panasonic will be building models for NZ alone... we're just too small of a market.

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2412803 5-Feb-2020 08:32

FineWine:
Now have a Panasonic Viera TH-L50E6Z...

Same. It's a 2013 model and still going well. The 'smarts' was a fizzer though. But the tv has a good picture.

robjg63

4098 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2412840 5-Feb-2020 09:32

Still have my 50" panny plasma in the lounge - probably gets 4-5 hours use every day.
Actually took the back off the other day to clean the 2 cooling fans. Dust can build up after a few years and stop the fans which shuts down the tv with a flashing fault light (so I found on Google when this happened a few years ago).
All the capacitors still look fine - fingers x'd.
Anyway - I notice is says it was built in July 2009 and I remember when it was installed that it was only a month old.
Still has an excellent picture.
We still have the carton it came in with price label of $4499 visible. I recall we paid a bit over $3k for it. (There seemed to be a lot of haggling back then). That big carton makes an excellent car bumper against the inside garage wall.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

FineWine

2981 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Nurse (R)

Lifetime subscriber

#2413068 5-Feb-2020 14:29

grolschie:
FineWine:

Now have a Panasonic Viera TH-L50E6Z...

Same. It's a 2013 model and still going well. The 'smarts' was a fizzer though. But the tv has a good picture.

Agreed for both the Panasonic TV & PVR. They stopped software updates about mid 2014. As for the TV I mainly use it as a monitor now.

Have a read here: Help please with a HDMI/ARC/VIERA issue for my setup.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

ShinyChrome

1575 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2424554 20-Feb-2020 14:46

Panasonic has made further announcements of their 2020 range, filling out the lower OLED ranges with the HZ1000 and HZ1500. DV:IQ and Filmmaker mode seem to be the only big draws, but will be interesting to hear details on what advancements they have made with BFI. But as expected, no HDMI 2.1.

And also their 2020 LCDs, but since they are all edge-lit and presumably IPS so far, hard-pass for me.

I'm guessing no further noises have been made about the future of the NZ market?

I'm hoping that the HZ OLEDs will come here at a competitive price, but will be interesting to see how the "Aussi-e-gress" has affected us.

tripper1000

1617 posts

Uber Geek

#2424572 20-Feb-2020 15:02

Dunnersfella:

I will add, the speculation of Panasonic leaving the New Zealand TV market is just that, speculation.

While I don't believe it's a done deal that they'll leave, I also don't think Panasonic will be building models for NZ alone... we're just too small of a market.

Our unique and clunky EPG system must be a barrier to many brands.

I wonder if TV's will go the same way as DVD & CD players as everyone streams on their devices instead. Many younger members of my family have flash computers but no TV's or stereo's in their houses. They don't seem to value good sound and good picture like generations by-gone.

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#2424696 20-Feb-2020 21:12

Spending money on a big TV or good sound system is a money thing...

But it's almost an age consideration too!

As our eye sight gets worse we need a bigger TV.

As our hearing gets worse we need something to help us hear what people are saying ;-)

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#2425317 22-Feb-2020 11:10

just read about this on an aus site.

hopefully the same heads who re-introduced the technics audio brand to nz will prevail and vote to keep panasonic tv's in this market.

concentrate the brand on the middle to high end and leave the entry level to tcl, veon etc.

with digital tv, nz doesn't appear to have any special physical requirements ?

grolschie

911 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2425364 22-Feb-2020 13:16

ilovemusic:
with digital tv, nz doesn't appear to have any special physical requirements ?

It seems silly to have so many variants. They've already developed the software for the EPG, and surely it's a matter of having enough storage space for region-specific software and perhaps swapping out a tuner module. No need to maintain so many variants. Minor software updates could address regional issues without a full firmware update affecting everyone, etc.

jonb

1771 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2504364 14-Jun-2020 09:54

Panasonic NZ shows their new 2020 TVs, but they don't seem to have arrived to retailers yet? Noel Leeming and HN hardly have any Panasonics at the moment after the Queens Birthday sale 2019 runout.

sm1ff

122 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#2504371 14-Jun-2020 10:05

Coming soon... 2020 panasonic models

1 | 2 | 3