The latest Panasonic plasma televisions — the 42in and 50in panels in the G15 series — offer access to online services including YouTube, Picasa and the Bloomberg weather service. Although this feature has been available for some time on Panasonic TVs in the US, Australians have until now been unable to access this content using their televisions. The Viera Cast feature is accessible from a button on the television’s remote control.

In the US, users can access Amazon video-on-demand, but people in Australia will be unable to connect to this service.

The Viera G15 series shares specifications with the earlier G10 and S10 plasma panels — a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1080p Full HD native resolution and a 600Hz refresh rate.

The G15 series relies use Panasonic’s NeoPDP plasma television panelss, which the company claims have twice the power efficiency of last-generation panels. This allows power consumption to be minimised while maintaining brightness levels, or significantly increased brightness at the same level of power consumption as an older TV.

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