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Hands-on with the Pioneer 9mm-thick Kuro plasma
Engadget had the chance to get up close and personal with the recently-announced 9mm-thick Kuro plasma concept at CES, with Paul Meyhoefer, VP of Marketing and Product Planning, and Tony Ueda, Worldwide Manager of Display Technology, demoing at the Pioneer booth the night before the show floor opens. Pioneer gave the grand tour of two new technology concepts, with "advanced design" and "extreme contrast" displays. Pioneer has always claimed to target the high-end home theater enthusiast, and this 50-inch Kuro concept plasma shows that off in spades, being 9mm (0.35 inches) thick at the glass and only 24mm (0.94 inches) thick at its widest point. As seen in our gallery below, there is not even a hint of input ports or other distractions from its 40 pounds of sexy svelteness. We held up a BlackBerry Curve 8320 next to the plasma's glass, and dwarfed it with a whopping 15.5mm (0.6 inches) of depth.%Gallery-12844%
Hands-on with Pioneer's extreme contrast concept plasma
Pioneer put on an evening pre-CES demo for Engadget, showing off two concepts focusing on advanced design (the 9mm-thick Kuro) and extreme contrast. Bringing everyone into a darkened room, Pioneer VP of Marketing and Product Planning Paul Meyhoefer reiterated Pioneer's target audience of the high-end home theater enthusiast, and what better place could there be to demo a home theater display than in a darkened room? Once the lights went down, we were treated to a short film on contrast, and the challenges of producing a wide range of values. As anyone who has watched a display in a dark room knows, you can see the edges of the display from the faint glow of the backlight that always seems to be present, even in the darkest of scenes.That's when another image appeared literally out of the blackness, with a second plasma display turned on and showing a pitch-black background for the duration of the demo. Pioneer demoed their concept set directly next to the current 8th-generation PDP-5010FD 1080p plasma Kuro plasma, and utterly destroyed even its vaunted performance. The Kuro line dropped idle luminance by over 80% compared to the 7th gen plasmas, and this demo was intended to show just how far the technology can continue to go under Pioneer's guidance. Color us very impressed, and saddened by the realization that this concept could go a generation or more before it becomes fully integrated into the Pioneer plasma lineup.%Gallery-12842%
Pioneer's Project Kuro: The 9mm thick, infinite contrast 50-inch plasma HDTV
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 9-millimeters (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 -- which 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 after the break; it's the closest you'll get to perfection for a while.
Live coverage from Pioneer's press conference
Yup, we're here too. Pioneer's CES 2008 press conference is just about to kick off. Hold tight, we expect to hear more about their high-end Blu-ray players, SyncTV, and more in just a few.8:47am (PST): New age Theremin music playing in a dimly lit room. Will Frankenstein rise!?8:55am: Zzzzz, brains... brains! 9:02am: Larry Rougas on stage, VP marketing and product planning. Taking about in-car products, "the coolest ever brought to market" launching today. Discussing history of innovation: first in car CD player, first navigation system for consumer use. "But it's about the ride, we're car people. Let's face it, the bottom line is pulse rates, not bit rates." Go Larry, go, read those cue cards!
Plasma vs LCD: Plasma is still better
While the format war gets the most attention these days, our old favorite, -- no, not 720p vs 1080i -- is still kicking: Plasma vs LCD. With each new generation a manufacturer improves its previous best model and with the latest Samsung LED powered LCD (LN-T5281F), Sound and Vision Magazine thought it was time for another technology shoot out. The wait was in LCDs court, as the last time both went head to head, it wasn't even close, and while LCD is still no match for Plasma, it was closer than ever. In fact, even though both sets sell for almost the same price, the Plasma (Pioneer DP-5010FD) bested the best LCD they ever tested in every category -- including glare -- except detail, which was a tie. The biggest discrepancy between the two was viewing angle, which is labeled Uniformity on the scorecard and requires one to sit directly in front of the set, or suffer an inferior experience. The real irony here is that although the three seasoned AV experts on the panel agree on which produces the best picture, the average consumer probably prefers the "LCD's dynamic pop" and unrealistic bright colors to the almost perfect realistic colors of the Plasma.
UltimateAVmag makes "Best of the Year" picks
Considering the subjective nature of any "best of" list, it's always enjoyable to toss out results and watch onlookers pick apart the decisions. That being said, we're thrilled to have yet another list of winners at our disposal, this one crafted by the folks over at UltimateAVmag .com. The highlights include JVC's DLA-HD1 as projector of the year, Sony's 70-inch KDS-70XBR2 as RPTV of the year, Revel's $35K Ultima2 Studio2 System as speaker setup of the year and Onkyo's TX-SR875 as AV receiver of the year. In an interesting move, Sony's PlayStation 3 was chosen as disc player of the year due to its "speed and reliability," and Toshiba's HD-A30 took home budget product of the year honors. The standout victor in all of this was Pioneer's PDP-6010 KURO plasma, which isn't at all surprising considering the reviews. Granted, this isn't the first time a Pioneer PDP has grabbed the gold in similar competition, but this particular model snagged flat-panel of the year and product of the year medals on its way down the red carpet. For the complete rundown, be sure and tag the read link, and don't hesitate to throw in your two pennies below.
JD Power ratings put BRAVIA LCD, Pioneer plasma, and Samsung DLP on top
JD Power and Associates has released the findings of their 2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Survey, and there are some very familiar names in the winners of the three categories. As judged on overall satisfaction, picture and sound performance, ease of use, features and styling, the HDTVs were then divided into 37- to 49-inch, 50- to 65-inch and rear projection 50- 72-inch ranges. Sony's BRAVIA LCD line took the smaller category with a five out of five rating in every area, but lost out to Pioneer's plasmas when competition went over 50-inches. Samsung's DLPs won the rear projection award, despite having a lower picture and sound rating than Sony, JVC, and Toshiba. Take a look at the overall results and then let us know how you think your HDTV measures up.
Pioneer's new Kuro line, the new reference for contrast?
If you're the type who's always looking for the best display then you've no doubt heard all about Pioneer's new Kuro line. We know that Kuro means black in Japanese and recent reviews have indicated the name is a perfect fit. With all the things people dislike about CRTs, they've long since been the reference when it comes to contrast. It appears that might change now with the latest reviews showing that the kuro line has better contrast -- in at least one regard. Home Theater magazine spent some time with the Pioneer PRO-110FD and discovered that in their three contrast tests, it not only beat every TV they've ever tested, but it down right blew them out of the water by measuring two to three times better than most TVs; and in one test 50% better than any TV they've ever tested. If you haven't had the chance to check out the deep blacks these new sets can produce, then don't! Otherwise your wallet will be a few thousand lighter.
Top 10 HD Misunderstandings
Normally we feel that late night TV can keep their so-called "Top 10" lists, however "Top 10 HD Misunderstandings" is something we can get into. We won't rain on this guys picnic by listing the entire list but we do have to touch on our two favorite: #4 - LCDs/Plasmas/LCoS/DLP suck for Gaming/Movies/TV/HTPC & #2 - 1080i is inferior to 720p which is finger paint to 1080p Van Gogh. While there still is a debate over the superior display type, we all can agree that LCDs, plasmas, LCoS, and DLP's are mature enough to handle video games and fast moving sports. Sure, some might be slightly better but quality sets will do a fine job. 1080i and 720p produce the same image, just in slightly different ways; the end result in both resolutions however is still high-def. 1080p sound great on paper but we still feel that until you get into a large size, or use the display chiefly as a computer monitor, most consumers will not tell the difference - Pioneer's KURO plasma helps this argument. The amount of dumbfounded folks walking around any random Circuit City/Best Buy proves this whole HDTV thing is overwhelming and while we don't feel that this Top 10 list will cure the common cold, it should help calm the stomach of some. [Via Digg]
Pioneer intros sexy KURO plasma lineup
Shortly after Samsung and Hitachi unveiled their swank HDTV lineups, along comes Pioneer with a sexy plasma lineup of its own to shake things up. The KURO displays are segmented into two divisions, one which includes the 42- and 50-inch standard KUROs, and the other packing "Elite" KUROs of the same sizes. The 42-inch versions sport a 1,024 x 768 resolution panel, four independent HDMI 1.3 inputs, a built-in CableCARD slot, advanced PureCinema with 3:3 pulldown, and more tweakable settings than you can shake a stick at. The 50-inch flavors up the ante with a 1,365 x 768 resolution, and the Elite versions add the Home Media Gallery, come ready for ISFccc calibration, and include a few more choices throughout the display setting menus. Pricing and availability information doesn't look to be available just yet, but judging solely by the specifications on these beauties, we'd say you better bring the purse (as in, the whole thing) if looking seriously at one of these.[Thanks, J]
