Throwing down the gauntlet to LG, Panasonic is embracing OLED in pursuit of the perfect television.

There was a time when Panasonic made the best televisions money could buy, after Pioneer abandoned its legendary Kuro plasma range and Panasonic snapped up its engineering team.

Since those days plasma has fallen out of favour with television makers, replaced by OLED which shares plasma's key strength of not relying on a backlight. This allows the screen to create perfect blacks, crucial for great contrast. Meanwhile LED-backlit LCD screens can struggle to completely block out their backlight, sometimes letting it bleed through in dark scenes.

With OLED taking plasma's crown as the king of televisions, dominated by LG in Australia, it seems fitting that Panasonic is the first major television maker to put forward a contender for the throne. It's actually Panasonic's second-generation OLED but the first to make it to our shores – Sony has also turned its hand to OLED but it won't reach Australian shelves until later this year.

Panasonic brings two 2017-model OLEDs to Australia; the EZ950 series (55-inch $4199, 65-inch $6599) and the flagship EZ1000 series (65-inch $8899, 75-inch $??? coming in November). It's also released two new Ultra HD Blu-ray players.

In terms of picture quality all of Panasonic's OLEDs are identical except that the EZ1000 series features an "Absolute Black Filter" which helps reduce screen glare and reflections in difficult lighting conditions. Side-by-side in a dimly lit room you'd struggle to see the difference but open a door behind you, to let the sunlight stream in, and the benefit becomes clearer althought still not striking.

Lurking in the shadows

OLED is the contrast king, so the first torture test is to peer into the deep shadows of The Martian on Ultra HD Blu-ray – shot in High Dynamic Range to reveal more detail in the very brightest and darkest parts of the picture.

Panasonic's OLED doesn't disappoint, revealing the finest details in the Martian landscape which are lost in harsh black shadows on lesser screens.

Switch to a standard Blu-ray movie like Gravity and that phenomenal contrast still shines through. The scene where Sandra Bullock spins off into space, growing smaller and smaller against the star-filled cosmos, looks absolutely stunning. You can see the faintest of stars which are typically lost on screens with a backlight, just as you see more stars in the night sky when you get away from the bright city lights.

Peering into the inky blackness of space, pierced by starlight, I'd say Panasonic's new televisions are the equal of LG's OLEDs. Admittedly it's a bold statement when I'm yet to see them in a side-by-side showdown, but it's safe to say that Panasonic has done itself proud.

The Dolby difference

It's worth mentioning that, while Panasonic OLEDs support HDR10 and earn Ultra HD Premium certification, they lack LG's support for dynamic Dolby Vision HDR which optimises the picture for every scene in a movie. If you're fussy about picture quality you'll appreciate the difference.

To be fair we're still waiting on Dolby Vision compatible Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players, right now we're limited to a handful of Netflix titles. It remains to be seen whether movie makers will be as quick to embrace Dolby Vision as they were HDR10. Like LG, Panasonic's OLEDs also support the Hybrid Log-Gamma HDR standard for broadcast television, but don't expect Australian broadcasters to get onboard any time soon.

LG's OLEDs also support Dolby Atmos surround sound, although the improvement over standard Dolby Digital is obviously limited when you're listening via a television rather than a full surround sound system.

Panasonic's flagship EZ1000 series OLEDs don't support Dolby Atmos but they do come with a soundbar built into the stand, which can be used on a bench top or when the television is wall-mounted. While it delivers full bodied sound I'd say it falls short of the soundbar built into LG's flagship W7 wallpaper television.

The W7's soundbar has the advantage of upwards-firing speakers to work with Atmos content, which might seem gimmicky but does make a difference. Even with a non-Atmos soundtrack you get a subtle sense of height – such as when Deadpool drops off the bridge into the speeding car – which is missing on the Panasonic.

To be fair you'll pay a hefty $13499 for LG's paper-thin 65-inch W7, but there are cheaper LG OLEDs. When you compare roughly equivalent Panasonic and LG models, little separates them in terms of price.

Check out the highlights

Picture quality isn't just about what lurks in the shadows, it's also about fine detail in the brightest highlights – such as brilliant sunsets which can blow out and become a white blob on some televisions. Here it helps to have a bright screen, so there's plenty of headroom at the top end.

Brightness has always been OLED's Achilles' Heel but Panasonic offers a respectable "up to 1000 nits" which puts it about on par with LG's claims. Panasonic's brightness pays off in the scene in The Martian where the camera pans around Matt Damon as the sun sets behind him. Not only can you see the disc of the sun amid the glare, you can also see a halo around the sun which is lost on most televisions.

Television brightness ratings are theoretical maximums which vary depending on what's happening on the screen. To my eyes I'd say that LG still comes out ever so slightly ahead when revealing the very brightest details rather than blowing out, but you need to be extremely fussy to see the difference. The Panasonic is no slouch and it would take a side-by-side comparison to settle the argument.

Colour and movement

Vivid yet natural colours are Panasonic's strength, which means that blockbuster movies can occasionally look a tad underdone but skin tones look fantastic and nature documentaries like Planet Earth II sees the screen really sing. It's also true of Panasonic's LED-backlit televisions such as the new EX780 – while the overall picture quality obviously falls short of OLED the natural colours are striking.

If you're fussy about picture quality you'll obviously want to dip into the advanced settings and here Panasonic's OLEDs offer plenty of flexibility. You'll find a wide range of HDR picture modes, including THX certification, and the ability to tweak them to taste.

As with most televisions you'll need to mess around with motion interpolation, as OLED's lack of motion blur can create issues when you're dealing with 24 fps content. Panasonic calls it Intelligent Frame Creation and it's set to Minimum by default, but you might need to bump it up to Mid to eliminate the jitter in some panning shots.

So what's the verdict?

Panasonic has made an impressive Australian OLED debut, which can hold its head high alongside its competition while going toe-to-toe on price. LG's support for Dolby Vision and Atmos still gives it the upper hand in terms of future-proofing, but it remains to be seen if these take off with movie makers.

If only OLED will do in your home then it's no longer a one horse race when buying a television and you should certainly check out the Panasonics before laying down your money.