- I agree with many of the reviews that this TV has an excellent picture both for DVB broadcasts and content received over the Internet such as Amazon video. 4K content, although limited at the moment, looks great
- Despite being 89.5 cm in width, the arrangement of the legs usefully enables the TV to be placed on a stand which is not so wide. It will actually fit on an 80cm stand (just) although I'd advise a slightly wider stand. To note the legs cannot be moved towards the centre of the 40" TV, unlike the larger models.
- The TV worked fine at the outset then it became impossible to access any live broadcasts. Pulling out the plug to reset the TV resolved this. This issue hasn't reoccurred
- The TV incorporates a DLNA client in order to render content stored on a DLNA server. Bear in mind that the media server must be DLNA-compliant not just UPNP-compliant. DLNA is fussier than UPNP but I find the DLNA client on this TV reasonably flexible in terms of playing media formats (obviously not as flexible as media player like mplayer). However, see below regarding photos
- Some observations about DLNA servers
- For users of the open source DVR Mythtv, the DLNA client on the TV is compatible with v.0.28 of Mythtv. As a DLNA server, mythtv is useful for browsing and showing TV recordings. However if you want to watch videos, they are all grouped into one directory which not very useful if you have them grouped into sub-directories
- The TV also works well with minidlna which is good for browsing directories of videos as (unlike mythtv) the directory structure is preserved
- The media browser includes a slideshow option for photos. This is surprisingly basic since there are no transitions between the photos (such as crossfade) and the music (if selected) is pretty dire. Only JPEGs are supported and I also found a JPEG edited and exported back to JPEG in Gimp would not display ("File not supported", but a further conversion to JPEG in ImageMagick resolves this issue. kodi, which i have running on a Raspberry pi 2 connected to the TV is much better: you can run music in the background, kodi uses decent transitions and Kodi will play a range of image formats
- The Apps interface is slick but the selection of apps quite limited compared with an Android TV (judging by the reviews). Personally I prioritised the picture quality and screen size over the Smart TV functionality
Friday 2 September 2016
Review of the Panasonic Viera TX-40DX700B
This Panasonic TX-40DX700B is a 4K and HDR 40" TV.
Panasonic Viera TX-40DX700B as a DLNA client rendering content from a Mythtv UPNP server
The Panasonic TX-40DX700B is a 40" 4K/HDR LED smart TV which includes a DLNA client.
This blog describes a configuration which includes the TV as a renderer and a Raspberry Pi 2 running a UPNP/DLNA media server.
Having received the Panasonic TV, the aim was to replace an HTPC sitting under our old TV with something more minimal while retaining the ability to record programmes using Mythtv and stream them to the TV. While this works well, it is probably a temporary configuration because an HTPC with mythtv's full functionality provides much greater flexibility than a Smart TV with DLNA.
The TV tuner is a PCTV 290e HD USB tuner which is supported in the Linux kernel. This is connected to a Raspberry Pi 2 running a mythtv backend (v.0.28). Raspbian Jessie is installed on the Pi 2.
Jessie includes mythtv-light which provides the frontend for mythtv. There are instructions here on how to install and configure it. Debian Jessie does not include the packages for the mythtv backend. It is necessary to add a backports repository to /etc/apt/sources.list e.g.:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main
A useful way to sort out the dependencies for the mythtv backend on the Pi2 is to install Synaptic and then install these run-time dependencies (as described here):
mysql-server-5.6 ntp libicu55 libqt5sql5-mysql mysql-client-5.6
I assume that most if not all the other dependencies for the backend must have been installed by the mythtv-light package. I couldn't find libicu55 in backports and libicu52 is running on the backend. I have not yet had any issues using this earlier version of libicu.
The Pi 2 has to be overlocked in raspi-config in order to receive HD television broadcasts via the PCTV tuner otherwise fast-moving video will be pixellated.
In this configuration, TV broadcasts are stored on a remote PC running Gentoo and a Mythtv frontend. Having installed a mythtv backend on the Pi 2, it automatically runs a UPNP server. As noted in the v.028 release notes DLNA compliance is improved in this version of Mythtv.
The Mythtv DLNA server can be accessed via the Devices menu on the Panasonic TX-40DX700B. The Mythtv UPNP server displays the friendly file name and includes menus by channel, recording time etc. A minidlna server is more convenient for videos if you have them arranged in folders because minidlna preserves the folder list whereas Mythtv displays all videos in a single list.
I am not transcoding any of the recordings on Mythtv and it is useful that the Panasonic TV can handle Mythtv's native recording format. Many but not all videos stored in my Mythtv videos directory also played on the TV with navigation including videos in .avi, .mpg and .mp4 format. As expected, not everything was compatible with the TV's DLNA client and some transcoding will be necessary.
For users of Mythtv, my recommendation would (if possible) be to retain the use of the Mythtv frontend rather than to rely entirely on a smart TV. Mythtv accepts a huge range of formats and I find the menus a bit less clunky than the DLNA interface. However there is additional cost involved in having two video renderers feeding the same display device. The costs could be kept to a minimum by using a single board computer for the frontend, perhaps dedicated to it. In my experience, the Pi isn't powerful enough to run a frontend and backend at the same time although it does an amazing job of running the backend which I can access and configure remotely. It is also possible to standard definition live TV on the remote frontend, HD is a bit laggy using this configuration. I have yet to try the Pi 3but this is an obvious candidate for a mythtv frontend or backend.
This blog describes a configuration which includes the TV as a renderer and a Raspberry Pi 2 running a UPNP/DLNA media server.
Having received the Panasonic TV, the aim was to replace an HTPC sitting under our old TV with something more minimal while retaining the ability to record programmes using Mythtv and stream them to the TV. While this works well, it is probably a temporary configuration because an HTPC with mythtv's full functionality provides much greater flexibility than a Smart TV with DLNA.
The TV tuner is a PCTV 290e HD USB tuner which is supported in the Linux kernel. This is connected to a Raspberry Pi 2 running a mythtv backend (v.0.28). Raspbian Jessie is installed on the Pi 2.
Jessie includes mythtv-light which provides the frontend for mythtv. There are instructions here on how to install and configure it. Debian Jessie does not include the packages for the mythtv backend. It is necessary to add a backports repository to /etc/apt/sources.list e.g.:
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main
A useful way to sort out the dependencies for the mythtv backend on the Pi2 is to install Synaptic and then install these run-time dependencies (as described here):
mysql-server-5.6 ntp libicu55 libqt5sql5-mysql mysql-client-5.6
I assume that most if not all the other dependencies for the backend must have been installed by the mythtv-light package. I couldn't find libicu55 in backports and libicu52 is running on the backend. I have not yet had any issues using this earlier version of libicu.
The Pi 2 has to be overlocked in raspi-config in order to receive HD television broadcasts via the PCTV tuner otherwise fast-moving video will be pixellated.
In this configuration, TV broadcasts are stored on a remote PC running Gentoo and a Mythtv frontend. Having installed a mythtv backend on the Pi 2, it automatically runs a UPNP server. As noted in the v.028 release notes DLNA compliance is improved in this version of Mythtv.
The Mythtv DLNA server can be accessed via the Devices menu on the Panasonic TX-40DX700B. The Mythtv UPNP server displays the friendly file name and includes menus by channel, recording time etc. A minidlna server is more convenient for videos if you have them arranged in folders because minidlna preserves the folder list whereas Mythtv displays all videos in a single list.
I am not transcoding any of the recordings on Mythtv and it is useful that the Panasonic TV can handle Mythtv's native recording format. Many but not all videos stored in my Mythtv videos directory also played on the TV with navigation including videos in .avi, .mpg and .mp4 format. As expected, not everything was compatible with the TV's DLNA client and some transcoding will be necessary.
For users of Mythtv, my recommendation would (if possible) be to retain the use of the Mythtv frontend rather than to rely entirely on a smart TV. Mythtv accepts a huge range of formats and I find the menus a bit less clunky than the DLNA interface. However there is additional cost involved in having two video renderers feeding the same display device. The costs could be kept to a minimum by using a single board computer for the frontend, perhaps dedicated to it. In my experience, the Pi isn't powerful enough to run a frontend and backend at the same time although it does an amazing job of running the backend which I can access and configure remotely. It is also possible to standard definition live TV on the remote frontend, HD is a bit laggy using this configuration. I have yet to try the Pi 3but this is an obvious candidate for a mythtv frontend or backend.
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