Pioneer's Project Kuro: The 9mm thick, infinite contrast 50-inch plasma HDTV

You've seen it during our liveblog, now have at in product shots. Having successfully acquired countless awards, Pioneer's Kuro line is now aiming to take being the thinnest, blackest flat panel on the market to a whole new level. Today it unveiled "Project Kuro", a 50-inch plasma that it says is capable of displaying absolute black, while also measuring a minuscule 9mm (0.35-inches) thick. Besides making Hitachi's Ultra Thin 1.5-inch thick plasma appear obese, the promise of an infinite contrast ratio would represent a holy grail of PQ. This HDTV that can perfectly mimic a piece of art hanging on the wall, is definitely not going on sale in 2008. Check out the rest of the pictures of this HDTV after the break, this is the closest you'll get to perfection for a while.

[Alexander @ Jan 6th 2008 1:08PM]

JESUS that tv is great

[Jeebus @ Jan 6th 2008 8:12PM]

I agree, son.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 6th 2008 1:08PM]

Just don't start flailing with the wiimote.

[Ghen @ Jan 6th 2008 1:10PM]

They could team up with Acer, make it twice as thick, and have it withstand crossbow attacks.

[mmh @ Jan 6th 2008 1:59PM]

Thought it was Asus, unless I'm missing something here.

[athousandleaves @ Jan 9th 2008 12:59PM]

it was an asus monitor that withstood the crossbow barrage

[Trenominal @ Jan 6th 2008 1:14PM]

That is amazing! I've had my eye on a Kuro for awhile now. I guess I now have something to save for
in 2008!

[ReductiMat @ Jan 6th 2008 1:19PM]

"is definitely not going on sale in 2008"

[TheWakeUpCall @ Jan 6th 2008 1:29PM]

And when it does go on sale, you'll need to be a millionaire anyway lol.

[rento @ Jan 6th 2008 1:32PM]

You know, I am tempted to fold it.

[Kiyo @ Jan 6th 2008 1:39PM]

Great news! I can finally go fully HD with this incredibly great looking Kuro series when it's released and by that time BR will be the single optical HD disc format. 2009-2010 is going to be a great year to start watching HDTV in all its greatness! Long Live HDTV!

[Josh @ Jan 6th 2008 1:53PM]

Your should hit the battlefront forums over at ARStechnica with opinions like that...

[nVening @ Jan 6th 2008 1:53PM]

Hmmmmm,

Thats going to need a big blender XD

otherwise, oleds got a fight on its hands.

[Trevor @ Jan 6th 2008 1:54PM]

You know, for the kids!

[carl @ Jan 14th 2008 6:30PM]

What, like The Wacky Circumference?

[Jeff @ Jan 6th 2008 2:06PM]

After displays get under an inch or two thick, and contrast ratios reach infinity, can we start concentrating on lowering panel costs so that everyone and their mother can get a $500 50" 1080p?

it's like they don't WANT mass adoption. :\

[Welshie @ Jan 7th 2008 2:21AM]

How about they concentrate on reducing the power consumption of these monsters as well?

[CKMBA @ Jan 7th 2008 12:02AM]

That'll never happen. The "status" gene is a culprit of every human in society. Thus, the invention of the "product mix."

Did we ever see a 32" Sony WEGA flat tube drop to $250? Then, don't hold your breath waiting for something of this caliber design & function to drop to $500. It would upset the crux of human society.

[You @ Jan 6th 2008 2:41PM]

Infinite contrast ratio is completely arbitrary, it just means they can get each pixel to emit zero light. This is great, but it's basically meaningless unless the brightness is sufficient to provide strong contrast. That said, the 1cm thickness is amazing. I would imagine they have a breakout box for all the connections that sends the video wirelessly to the display because even an HDMI connector is longer than 1cm.

[Jeebus @ Jan 6th 2008 8:14PM]

Infinite contrast means that the whites must be brighter than 1000 suns.

[ConvergedMD @ Jan 6th 2008 3:00PM]

Too bad the frame around the TV is not capable of displaying TRUE BLACK. What is up with that dual colored frame? That is distracting as hell when looking at the TV screen. What idiot decided to frame this TV with black and grey to make the TV frame look unbalanced? It totally distracts...

[gunjam @ Jan 6th 2008 3:14PM]

It's not a dual colour frame, it's implying a high gloss finish.

[Craig @ Jan 6th 2008 3:14PM]

don't be an idiot... it's obviously an artificially enhanced lighting effect suggesting the bezel is piano black

[Christian @ Jan 6th 2008 5:21PM]

how do you get infinite contrast? At first I thought it was like how kids fight but after reading it one more time it did said infinite. So how did they do that?

[Hugh @ Jan 7th 2008 8:12AM]

contrast ratio is the amount of light emitted by a black pixel vs amount emitted by a white pixel - ie 1000:1 means white is 1000x brighter than black. if you get a black pixel to emit *no* light, but the white the same amount you have a ratio of 1000:0, which as you cant divide by zero, is infinity :)

[leonreno @ Jan 8th 2008 7:07PM]

Has Pioneer mentioned if this plasma will use the new 10 lumen technology that has been talked about? If so it means power consumption goes down, brightness goes up, and contrast ratio is much higher also. I believe it is because the only way to slim the panel down would be to reduce power consumptionm, thus reducing the larger components needed for more power hungry panels. This, in my unsubstantiated and unproven opinion would reduce the thickness of the glass panels also. Todays tech is 2 lumens, 10 lumen is thus capable of 5 times the brightness per pixel cell. Somebody at CES needs to ask these questions.

[Z @ Jan 9th 2008 3:56AM]

"I need to blow my nose... could you please pass me some Kuro-- I mean, some Kleenex?"


Crikey, that thing is thin! When WILL it be available?

[Z @ Jan 9th 2008 4:15AM]

I was just thinking that even though we won't know exactly when these are coming out, at least we know what the near future has in store for us. Something great to look forward to.

[JermTool @ Jan 14th 2008 8:01PM]

I thought the infinte contrast Kuro and the ultra thin Kuro were two separate panels? Did I misread this somewhere else or something? Either one would be amazing, that means the box it's shipped in will probably be ultra thin too!

[Daniel @ Jan 14th 2008 10:12PM]

hopefully my question can get answered. does the new tv's use a spereate tuner box or is the box built in.

[julz007 @ Feb 7th 2008 5:06PM]

ok looks nice but i hope for lower ms response times so ghosting will be reduced!!!