It has been some time coming, but the legacy of Panasonic's technology sharing agreement with Pioneer will finally bear fruit in the shape of the latest 'Viera G2' Plasma range.

Pioneer achieved near legendary status with their 'Kuro' range of Plasma TV's but lost money on every screen they sold, deciding to wind up their TV business last year. Hope remained however that as a result of a technology sharing agreement with Panasonic, Pioneer technology would be reborn in a different guise.

We were originally promised a Panasonic/Pioneer hybrid plasma TV for the Autumn of 2009. The prospect of Pioneer's ultra black screen technology along with innovative features such as Panasonic's NeoPDP system was a tantalizing prospect. The moment of truth is finally hear and the next question is can the Viera G2 screens live up to the formidable expectation.

Pioneer's 'Fuga' technology was designed to counteract the loss of detail due to a lack of smoothness in the incoming video signal. The Viera G2 will gain the benefit of a tweaked version of the technology which improves the smoothness of lower-quality video. While high-grade images pass through the circuit untouched, low-grade video is significantly enhanced.

Gaining the benefit of Pioneer's original Kuro panel technology, the new Panasonic's sport a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1 which as most of us know tells us very little about the actual contrast ratio. They also come with Pioneer's built in sensors which measure a room's ambient lighting and automatically adjust the screen's brightness and temperature settings.

Panasonic are claiming a reduction in power consumption of 30% for the G2. The new screens will also ship with a VIERA remote that lets you control web content if you are internet connected.

42in, 46in and 50in models will be available at launch, with a choice of black, brown and silver bezels. All of the new screens are Full HD with three HDMIs, composite, S-video and RCA audio inputs. Elsewhere there is an Ethernet port which supports the acTVila online service.

Panasonic will introduce the Viera G2 series in Japan this February followed by an international roll-out soon after. The 42in, 46in and 50 screens will be priced at $2,400 (£1,468), $2,870 (£1,756) and $3,530 (£2,472) respectively.

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