2010 Range of VIERA HDTV with New and Superior Plasma Technology Debuts Today;

Panasonic Target 50% Market Share in Large Screen 3D TVs in the Region by 2012, Says Panasonic Executive

Jeddah, July 21, 2010 - Panasonic has introduced its 2010 line of VIERA Plasma High Definition televisions, including Full HD 3D television for the Middle East featuring a screen size of 50-inch, in addition to the company's new DMP-BDT300 3D Blu-ray player.

Plasma technology offers a number of important advantages with respect to 3D, such as cross-talk reduction, crisp and clear high quality moving pictures, enhanced luminance efficiency and improved picture quality even when viewing 2D content.

"Panasonic, the industry and technology leader in high definition televisions, is targeting a market share of 50 percent for large screen 3D TV by 2012, and 25 percent market share for over 37 inch televisions in the Middle East region," said Mr. Hidefumi Kawakita, General Manager, Panasonic Marketing Middle East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Office.

"Thanks to a large number of technological innovations, television has undergone a constant evolution over the years. While at the start, it was merely regarded as a means for reproducing images, its significance increased when connectivity with other audio visual devices was added," said Toshiaki Asakura, Manager - Consumer Products, Panasonic Marketing Middle East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"With the growing popularity of HD TVs and the availability of high quality content, TV was yet again taken to a new level. Now, with Full HD 3D technology, it has turned into a device that delivers an immersive viewing experience and literally moved into an era of the next dimension," he added.

Panasonic now offers a line-up of Full HD 3D products that meet the demands of even the most discerning consumers. The new range of Full HD 3D-capable VIERA Plasma, and the fully-featured DMP-BDT300 3D Blu-ray player, bring a new era of immersive visual entertainment into consumers' homes by creating a 3D experience that easily rivals the best that can be seen in cinemas.

The VT20 line-up initially consists of the 50-inch TH-P50VT20 and will be expanded gradually. The new line-up incorporates a sophisticated design with a frame in bronze metallic colour, and one of Panasonic's 3D eyewear is included with the above model.

To create the best possible 3D picture Panasonic has developed new, faster screen phosphors coupled with its Full Time Full HD drive technology. The brain then combines the images and perceives them as 3D. By enhancing the video reproduction capability of PDP, thanks to Full Time Full HD providing full moving picture resolution, the technology enables crisp and clear high quality 3D images.

THX® Certified Display certification ensures that every Panasonic Full HD 3D TV displays movies with exactly the quality and colour palette that the director intended. In addition to this, each Full HD 3D Plasma model incorporates a rich set of advanced features, such as VIERA CAST, which offers users access to various online contents.

VIERA Link allows Panasonic owners to control their VIERA Link-compatible audio and video products with only one remote. VIERA Image Viewer, which enables users to easily view pictures, HD movies and listen to music stored on an SD card on their large screen size VIERA TV.

With Panasonic's demonstrated "eco ideas" commitment to minimising the impact of its products on the environment, all new Full HD 3D plasma panels are designed with an effective screen half-life of 100,000 hours, or over 30 years of TV viewing. To cut toxic waste when the television does reach the end of its life, all models are manufactured without using mercury or lead.

Panasonic's new DMP-BDT300 3D Blu-ray player puts out stunning, rock-solid, and immersive Full HD 3D imagery to compatible displays. The player also handles a wide variety of audio standards and up converts all standard definition video formats to 1080p.

The BDT300 is capable of playing standard Blu-ray Discs, DVDs and CDs. The DMP-BDT300 utilises groundbreaking technologies incorporated in Panasonic's proprietary UniPhier LSI chip, enabling the player to flawlessly process the large quantity of visual information necessary to create a FULL HD 3D image in 1920 x 1080 resolution. Adaptive Chroma Upsampling ensures that colours are faithfully reproduced and all native digital DVD formats are upscaled to 1080p resolution quality.

The new 3D Blu-ray player incorporates all of the features one would expect in a high-end product, including VIERA Cast Internet link, BD Live, 7.1 channel lossless audio, as well as Dolby® True HD and DTS™ HD audio formats. Digital still photographs and HD video can be easily viewed through the Blu-ray player.

-Ends-

About Panasonic
Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronic products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated net sales of 7.77 trillion yen (US$78.4 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2009. The company's shares are listed on the Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and New York (NYSE: PC) stock exchanges. For more information on the company and the Panasonic brand, visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net.

© Press Release 2010