TECHWEEK
The Panasonic TX-50MX940 is an LCD TV in the 2023 lineup that offers advanced video processing capabilities, as well as HDR support for all current formats, combined with accurate grayscale and other colors, and decent gaming performance. It uses a VA panel with a quantum dot layer and Full Array Local Dimming (FALD) backlighting.
This is a TV designed for the mass consumer. It can be used in bright living rooms and dark rooms. Panasonic MX940 TVs are available in two screen sizes: 43 and 50 inches. Image processing is provided by the AI HCX PRO processor with advanced motion processing, as well as image scaling and processing.
The MX940 series TVs feature all HDR formats, as well as a new True Game picture mode designed for gaming. It remains to be seen how good this TV is and whether the MX940 is worth buying. In this review of the Panasonic TX-50MX940 4K HDR FALD, using a model with a 50-inch diagonal as an example, we will try to answer these and other questions.
Panasonic MX940 review
Design
In terms of appearance, the Panasonic TX-50MX940 TV has a traditional minimalist design. The case is attached to a stand, which consists of two small legs that slightly raise the TV above the stand. As you would expect from Panasonic, the TV is built from quality materials.
The build quality is very good. The remote is a familiar design from Panasonic. It is made of black plastic with many buttons. The remote control fits neatly in your hand and is easy to use. For wall mounting, there are four holes on the back panel for a 200 x 200mm VESA mount.
My Home Screen 8.0
The new Smart TV My Home Screen 8.0 feature offers the ability to personalize the home screen (“My Scenario” option) with a choice of photos or videos. Panasonic partners with LoungV Studio to create quality relaxation videos.
Access to VOD and content has also been made even easier with an updated graphical interface based on device icons. Some applications like Netflix, Amazon, YouTube are already installed and ready to use.
Users can even add frequently watched TV channels directly to the home screen. Finally, Panasonic MX940 TVs have voice control via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. The microphone activation button for issuing voice commands is located on the remote control.
Sound quality
Unlike the MX950 series , the Panasonic 50MX940 TV has a sound system consisting of two speakers. The power of each of them is 10 W. In terms of sound quality, watching TV and movies on a traditional TV speaker system is good at moderate volumes.
Excessively high volume results in distortion, but with normal use of the speaker system, the sound sounds above average. The MX940 also has a subwoofer output with equalizer settings that can add even more bass to the sound. As with any TV that has a 2.0 sound design , you can get much better sound. To do this, you should use a separate soundbar.
Image quality
Like the latest MZ series OLED TVs, the MX940 has the same AI HCX Pro processor. Additionally, it displays content at 24 frames per second with proper motion reproduction. 50Hz content streams without dropped frames or microstutters, even with fast on-screen movements.
As expected from the HCX processor’s processing, scaling is very good, with no junk pixels. Edges look crisp and clean. SD broadcast channels with lower bitrates look much worse, since no processing can improve such content. The Panasonic MX940 TV has a VA panel.
This causes problems with viewing angles as the viewer moves away from the perpendicular axis. At an angle of more than 30 degrees, the color shift becomes noticeable. In addition, blurring around the edges becomes visible. The advantage of such a panel is that black color, including detail in the shadows, is very well expressed when viewed.
However, the user will not experience the smooth, deep blacks of OLED TVs when viewed in a dark room. But again… As soon as you go off-axis, the color shift and blur become very noticeable. Like OLED models, the 50MX940 TVs support the high dynamic range formats HDR10, HDR10+ Adaptive, HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision IQ .
SDR and HDR content looks very good on the Panasonic MX940 in a living room with normal lighting. Colors are accurate, with excellent natural skin tones. HDR content looks dynamic and vibrant, and specular highlights also look decent, although a little muted due to the use of de-blooming.
However, the Dolby Vision Dark image looks quite dark compared to the PQ reference tracking. In terms of uniformity, the panel appears to show no signs of dirty screen effect (DSE). If you look closely, you will notice that the edges of the screen are slightly darker. However, such artifacts are never visible when viewing content on the screen.
Gaming is also a big plus of the TX-50MX940 TV due to the absence of problems with image saving. In 2023, Panasonic is pushing gaming across its ranges and introducing a new precision picture mode called True Game. Two HDMI 2.1 inputs (40 Gbps) support Dolby Vision games up to 4K@60 Hz with additional support for HDR 10 4K@120 Hz.
Connections
The physical connections are located on the back of the panel. Most of them are facing sideways. The breakout panel contains two HDMI 2.1 ports (40 Gbps) supporting 4K@120, eARC , as well as Nvidia G-SYNC and FreeSync Premium, VRR, ALLM (auto low latency mode) and HGIG.
The input lag for 4K@60Hz sources is 16.7ms, and for 120Hz sources it’s 6.7ms. There are also 2 HDMI 2.0 ports, two USB jacks, antenna inputs, CI slot, headphone/subwoofer jack, AV-In jack, digital optical audio output, Ethernet port for line-in Internet connection. Wireless connections include Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Conclusion
Panasonic MX940 is a solid LCD TV with Direct backlighting and Full Array Local Dimming that delivers the picture quality you’ve come to expect from Panasonic. It is aimed at mass market consumers who want a TV that is bright enough to use in their living room.
True Game mode is used for superior gaming picture quality that meets the standards. Also for games there are two HDMI 2.1 inputs (40 Gbps) with support for 4K@120, VRR, ALLM. This TV also has some of the disadvantages common to LCD TVs, such as slight ghosting, blur, and poor viewing angles. However, when viewing either in a lighted room or in the dark, the image quality is very good for this price segment.
