We got to plant our eyeballs on
Pioneer's second-gen KURO plasma display (bottom center), along with all that other new gear Pioneer released today. While all by its lonesome the new flagship display is no doubt impressive, when stacked up against the competition it becomes quite clear that this new KURO is the one to beat. Granted, this was Pioneer's own setup designed to make us believe precisely that, but we certainly did find the new display notably blacker than its predecessor, and quite a lot better than the competing offerings Pioneer had on display. The new
KURO projector was also quite impressive, and we even got treated to the much-improved start times of
Pioneer's new Blu-ray players.
posted May 7th 2008 4:07PM
Is that a scene from "Startrek" ?
It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.
Dammit, beat me to it!
Darkness warshed over the Dude.
Darker than a black steer's tucus on a moonless prairie night
DARKER THAN THE DARKEST DARK TIMES INFINITY.... metal.
it could use more black
Blackerness so dark, light cannot escape its reach.
phanbouy, you bastard. I am purveyor of all things TBL.
Cuz I'm black ya'll, cuz I'm black ya'll, cuz I'm black black blackidy black!
It's like space without the stars...
damn! you beat me!
So the new Kuro is blacker than the rest?
Methinks they need to cut Wesley Snipes in on an endorsement.
I guess Shaft was not available to comment on this?
this is madness!
I swear if your only intent here was to incite some sort of "No! THIS. IS. BLACKERNESS!" comment I'm going cry. Wait. Now I made the comment. Crap! *this comment will self destruct from pure shame in 10 seconds*
NO!
This is ME!
THIS... IS... SPARTA!!!
this is ..PLASMAAAAA!
It's so.....black. ......can we say that?
No lets use.....'blackerness' that way it sounds too silly to be considered racial.
Sweet.
that's what we said about al sharpton.
I see no hands in this "hands-on"
Nevermind.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/pioneer-kuro-and-friends-hands-on/794000/
Shh! Now everybody is going to want hands!
well that would smudge the screen now wouldnt it?
Wow, my Sony Bravia officially sucks.
There was a time when Sony used to be a leader in the world of television display technology, Seems like those days are long gone, A shame really.
I don't know. I'm no big Sony fan, but I think my SXRD is are pretty nice. No KURO, but hella better than LCD.
Actually, Sony's SXRDs use the same technoloy as the KURO projectors. And yes, LCOS displays like SXRD have great contrast.
LCD is almost there. Maybe the next generation will overtake plasma in picture quality?
But seriously, I'd like to see them throw in a budget plasma like a vizio 50" just for comparison's sake.
And btw, pioneer may have set up the demo, but I doubt they changed the TV settings from factory on the "competitor's" units because it would have just been too obvious. And besides, why? It's already pretty clear who the winner is.
Point being, there's not much Pioneer can do to the demo to make their's look that much better than the competition. And why would they? If you have a flat out better product, just show us a fairly even demo (factory settings) and you'll get tons more cred for it than tampering with the comparison.
any blacker and it'd be a hole
dude, that's gross. tell her to clean up once in a while to get it pink again.
oh i get it, black hole, as in an inescapable void
I call shenanigans. The Samsung LCD in the upper right corner of the picture had to be messed with by Pioneer. No way any Samsung owner would accept "black" being a medium grey as is portrayed. And I tend to avoid companies who sell their products deceptively like this, so goodbye Pioneer. I am in the market for a TV and you just made my shopping easier by eliminating your name from contention.
maybe that other one is a TN panel and looks like shit from an angle?
Of course it's not objective - I guarantee that they upped the brightness (and/or turned down the contrast) on the other displays to make their own look better. I've never seen a screen as overblown as the ones on the right. Granted, even if everything was properly calibrated, this new KURO is still very impressive.
I just bought a new Sony 52" LCD TV and out of the box the brightness is set way too high. Almost blinded me when I first turned it on. Once I reset it to neutral it is awesome. When I'm watching a movie at night in total darkness, the black faithfulness is as good as I've seen. And it's not even the XBR. I call foul on this comparison as well. Maybe the Kuro is better, but at the very least they should be compared with optimal settings.
It's amazing that some people can't understand the difference between these kinds of comparison photos and seeing the displays in real life. With the long exposure time the backlight will be exaggerated, but this effect applies to all of the displays. The impressive thing is that the Kuro is still that black in these photos.
Yeah, I'm with Matt. It's a wonder all you idiots don't understand how camera exposure works. What are you, morons?
Maybe Samsung lcd owners have no idea what a good black levels actually look like? Or maybe most LCD owners?
And before you get your panties in a bunch, I have a Samsung LCD. And it's a pretty good picture. Until you compare it to my Kuro.
And if you look at the picture, even the Samsung plasma looks better than either LCD. Which says a lot about plasma vs. lcd.
Could that setup be any more rigged? I've seen poorly calibrated Samsung and Sony LCDs at Best Buy with much darker blacks then what Pioneer has done to them here. What a sham!
You can't fix blacks with calibration, obviously you haven't seen them in a dark room.
Yes, you can.
Contrast.
Brightness.
Back light level.
Etc.
I'm not saying black levels on LCDs are spectacular, just that they are not nearly as bad has how they are being presenting in this rigged setup.
umm, since when has Best Buy displayed panels in a completely dark room with black walls, floors and ceiling?
That room is designed to demonstrate black levels. So, yes, in that case it was rigged.
Try putting a Samsung LCD in a black room and turn it on. It will probably look like that picture.
In other words, you've never seen either a lcd or plasma in a truly dark room, so you don't know wtf you are talking about.
"And my Samsung is much more blacker than thou! And my lcd in my bedroom is blacker than blackernessess!!!". Oh gimme a break. Do you understand what needs to be done to take these photos? Do you understand exposure?
Here's a comparison for you, with the current state-of-the-art samsung best-in-business lcd with blacker-than-black:
http://hometheatermag.com/lcds/1207sam5281/
On page two, there's a comparison to a Kuro PDP-6010FD plasma which the reviewer had side-by-side.
rip: "Try putting a Samsung LCD in a black room and turn it on. It will probably look like that picture."
I have, and it doesn't look as pictured. Thanks for your concern though.
@Mr Awesomer,
Quoting "Matt" above since he said it much more succinctly than I can manage:
"It's amazing that some people can't understand the difference between these kinds of comparison photos and seeing the displays in real life. With the long exposure time the backlight will be exaggerated, but this effect applies to all of the displays. The impressive thing is that the Kuro is still that black in these photos."
Do you know how long the exposures would have had to been in those shots? Of course "it doesn't look as pictured"....?!?!
and now ladies and gentlemen, a little Sisters of Mercy:
Run around in the radiation
Run around in the acid rain, on a
Black, black planet
Black planet hanging over the highway
Out of my mind's eye, out of memory
Black world, out of my mind
You could certainly add some Depeche Mode in while you're at it...
Let's have a black(erness) celebration...
tonight
to celebrate the fact
that we've seen the back
of another black(erness) day
And a little Stones for completeness
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
Hmm, hmm, hmm,...
I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black(erness)
Yeah!