Smart Viera is Panasonic’s name for any of its TVs with advanced features such as apps and video on demand, remote control via phones and tablets, and interacting with your music, video and photos on computers and handheld devices.
VieraConnect is the broadband-connected, cloud-based portal on Smart Viera TVs, with apps for video, music, social networking, games and more. It launched in Spring 2011, replacing the more simple first-generation Viera Cast smart TV service provided by Panasonic since 2009.
VIERA TVs with Freeview Play
The new Freeview Play service will be available on selected VIERA TVs later in 2015. Freeview Play combines catch-up TV, on-demand services and live television to make watching what you want, when you want as easy as possible.
The service will be free from subscription and compatible with existing broadband services. Viewers will be able to search for programmes via a scroll back function in the TV guide or a dedicated apps page. This year Freeview announced a major rebrand in preparation for the launch of the new TV offer.
When the service is ready to launch your Freeview Play compatible VIERA TV will alert you that there is an upgrade available (as long as it is connected to the internet). This network upgrade will update your TV’s software so that the Freeview Play service will then be available from the TV guide and the Freeview Play home page (where you see the Freeview Play logo).
You will then be able to get catch-up TV from BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and All 4, with Demand 5 to follow soon after, integrated into the Freeview TV guide alongside live television. You will also be able to scroll back through the TV guide for 7-day catch-up.
The Freeview Play service requires a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps for catch-up and on-demand services. Watching on-demand and catch-up programmes will count towards any monthly broadband data allowance. 7-day catch-up is for selected channels only.
VIERA 4K (Ultra HD)
The VIERA 4K Pro Series feature our widest colour spectrum ever. We recreate every colour, more faithfully to the original image, by using unprecedentedly powerful 10-bit colour processing, 3D colour look-up tables with up to 8000 registry points and a new integrated backlight control and gain adjustment system.
LED LCD TVs with Panasonic Studio Master Colour panels let you experience more vibrant, nuanced and natural tones – especially during dark scenes – than you get with normal LCD screens. This is thanks to the new Wide Colour Phosphor Technology, which combines advanced LED backlighting with a new colour filter system to deliver up to 98% of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) colour space.
From seeing epic natural life the way nature intended, to becoming fully immersed in a movie or sporting action scene – our mastery of colour, achieved by our 4K Studio Master Processor and the Wide Colour Phosphor Technology – lets you see more of the magic light creates.
Contrast
Mastering light’s brilliance, we’re able to create incredible contrast and gradation, by using Local Dimming Pro, to adjust the brightness of separate segments of the LED lights around the edge and behind the screen.
Shadow detailing has sublime smoothness, creating an almost 3D depth of vision.
Brightness
Light reveals infinite tone and shade, from brilliant white all the way through to the deepest blacks, opening our eyes to see more of the world. And with our Dynamic Range Technology, every subtle texture of shade is realised more crisply than ever before. And with Super Bright Panels, the detail within dark scenes is stunningly reproduced, showing more of the magic of light, without using significantly more power.
Viera Cast
Viera Cast is a Smart TV platform by Panasonic that makes it possible to stream multimedia content from the Internet directly into select Viera HDTVs and Blu-ray disc players. Announced on Consumer Electronics Show in January 2008, Panasonic initially partnered with Google to make it possible for YouTube videos and Picasa Web Album photos to be used within the product, while Bloomberg News and The Weather Channel were also available. Beginning 2009, Amazon Video on Demand service was added.
The first Viera HDTVs with Viera Cast, the TH-PZ850U series, appeared in May 2008. Panasonic introduced Netflix video streaming service and Skype to its Viera Cast line-up beginning with the 2010 model year. Panasonic TV’s with Viera Cast from the 2008 or 2009 model years are not able to access Netflix or Skype. Mid-2010 a Twitter service was added.
The Viera HDTVs and Blu-ray players featuring Viera Cast have a built-in Ethernet interface; many models also have wi-fi and thus no external box or PC is required. The service is accessed via a single button on the HDTV remote.
Availability of services differs per region / country / language. For example: In the Netherlands it’s mostly English content/services.
The Viera Cast service is being replaced by a new platform called Viera Connect which is not backward compatible.
The new service should improve the number of applications on offer as the platform is open to third party developers.
In 2012, Panasonic added the UK BBC iPlayer service for Viera Connect.
