Yeah Pioneer got out of the "making" plasma business. I know a bit about
this b/c I researched extensively (and dithered for a while too) when my 26"
Sony XBR WEGA CRT died earlier this year in Feb; was the best picture you
could get, but it was just too small and I wanted something bigger.
The Pioneer is still the best picture you're going to get, even compared to
new LCDs b/c the blacks are the blackest and all that. That's b/c the
filter or comb or whatever you call it on the Kuros (Kuro is the plasma
line; the Elites are the best of the Kuros) are HANDMADE; yes, no joke-it's
also why they were so expensive, and couldn't scale, especially with the
economic downturn.
So I was very tempted to pick one up; Best Buy had sales on them and was
considering a display model two, but the 2 problems with that:
1) Since they're no longer making them, if something happens, what would I
get as a replacement? Basically no guarantees on warranty or anything
2) The 60" (I wanted at least that size) was ~$5-6k, even if I got a floor
model which has been on for a while, etc
Since I got a 60" LED DLP that looks great for $950 (and just has a little
hotspotting; otherwise the picture is AWESOME with HD cable (though you can
tell which channels are skimping on the bandwidth, and which aren't-I will
say SyFy and USA are doing a *very* good job there) and for what I paid I
wouldn't feel bad in getting a new set in 2 or more years if I wanted
to-though I don't hope to need to.
And by then, things will have changed enough there'll be better tech out
there that obviates all this stuff.
And yeah, if you look at the industry, LCD has always been an inferior
picture; it's gotten better, but objectives test show it's still not as good
as a good plasma (read: Pioneer Kuro Elite, or the best Panasonics, which
aren't bad either), but it was all a function of thinness and marketing; the
buying public is not the techie or detail-oriented and if you can fool them,
you drive the market to kill all the non-thin sets, and plasma was still too
expensive in comparison and also uses a lot more power.
I mean, an LCD tv is just a big computer monitor right? There's stuff
native to the technology that don't make it good for viewing tv/movies and
all that motion, hence all the 120Hz, 240Hz BS they have to do to compensate
for that (I was talking to an ISF certified tech while at Best Buy who was
filling me in on some of this stuff).
I mean, some of the new tvs with the 240Hz "super-reality" stuff just looks
WRONG-have you guys seen what I'm talking about?! It's crazy; it takes
movies and makes them look like video and it just looks WRONG!
Anyway, just some random thoughts not organized very well since I spent
quite a lot of time earlier this year researching and deciding what to
do...HTH!
BINO
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Zulfiqar Naushad
Sent: Sunday, September 27, 2009 10:53 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [H] advise
Kuro tv's have/had the best contrast ratio and blacks were really black.
And yes. I think that they are no longer producing plasmas any more.
-----Original Message-----
From: maccrawj <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:48:23
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [H] advise
I thought Pioneer was out of the plasma business last year thus not making
Kuro sets
anymore?
Yes, they WERE the best, pricey, and worth it but no longer made AFAIK.
Winterlight wrote:
> At 07:00 PM 9/26/2009, you wrote:
>> Everything over 39" or so is 1080p, plasma is dead, you want 120hz or
>> better refresh
>
> I wouldn't say that. The best HD display available is still the Pioneer
> Elites, all be it they are very expensive. Plasma still has the best
> color, and black levels and I think you would be hard pressed to find an
> expert who doesn't think so. For high end 60 inch and above I still
> think they have a place. They just need to get the power requirement
> down..... and the price.
>
> this is a interesting article from last June
> http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2349236,00.asp
>
> June 24, 2009 -By Dr. Raymond Soneira, President DisplayMate
> Technologies Corp.
> LCD-Plasma Display Technology Shoot-Out
> If you were shopping for a large-screen HDTV just a few years ago you
> would have seen mostly Rear Projection HDTVs, based primarily on DLP,
> LCD and LCoS technologies, plus a fair number of pricey direct-view
> Plasmas, and maybe a few very expensive direct-view LCDs. It's amazing
> how the TV industry has abruptly toggled into an entirely different
> lineup. Now you'll see mostly direct-view LCDs together with a small
> number of Plasmas. If you look in some back corner you may find a few
> attractively priced Rear Projection DLP HDTVs. CRT and LCoS technologies
> are now dead for HDTVs, and Rear Projection is "a dead man walking."
>
> Scientifically, it's hard to understand why this happened because CRT,
> LCoS and DLP offered the highest picture quality at the lowest price,
> while direct-view large-screen LCDs have historically offered the lowest
> picture quality at the highest price. This seems to be the result of a
> series of consumer misconceptions together with some high powered
> industry marketing. Of course, all of the display technologies have
> improved dramatically over the last few years, so we decided to revisit
> this topic and do a new in-depth Shoot-Out comparison and analysis of
> LCD and Plasma technologies to find out how they are currently performing.
>
>
>
<snip>
