Pioneer KURO and friends hands-on
By Paul Miller 
posted May 7th 2008 4:07PM
posted May 7th 2008 4:07PM
posted May 7th 2008 4:07PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
and some Metallica:
Life it seems to fade away
drifting farther everyday
getting lost within myself
nothing matters, no one else
i have lost the will to live
simply nothing more to give
there is nothing more for me
need KURO to set me free
I get all sorts of answers from video guys, but can someone finally answer this question?
Do modern plasmas still suffer from burn in? And I'm not talking about station bugs, but more like for videogames and constantly up HUDs. I play a lot of games on my set, so I'm worried about this and always thought LCD would be the better choice.
Ok, I worried about this too when shopping for my first flat-screen because I play a lot of games. However, after 7 months of research and reading reviews I came to a conclusion of Plasma as I am a hardcore videophile.
Especially for games if you are playing an Xbox 360 or PS3 you're going to want to SEE the difference in the games as opposed to last-gen graphics. If you are outputting 720p or 1080p you will notice there won't be any stuttering in the frames while the camera pans or zooms. Also, the rich black levels were a must for me as I play mostly dark games (Splinter Cell, Condemned, Bioshock, Doom 3, etc). Also, I work during the day and by the time I come home its dark out anyways so it didn't matter that it was set next to my sliding glass door.
On weekends during the day there is absolutely no problem whatsoever viewing.
Burn-in is almost non-existant. During the first 250 hours of your PDP's life the phosphors will be in their infant stage and are more susectpable to retaining an image that was torched into them for several hours. Normal game-play won't do this unless you intentionally leave it on pause for 4+ hours or more, and even then just a good flex of the phosphor muscle will bang them back to normal in no time, such as watching a fullscreen movie or running the bult in burn-in protection 'screen saver'.
I finally settled on the 50" Samsung 5084 last December because it was one of the few panels that had everything plus PIP, which is nearly impossible to find in any display other than Samsung and I haven't had a single issue with it.
Ultimately, the decision is up to you whether you'd like to have a bright and potentially care-free maintence screen or a vivid, deep, rich, fast paced screen.
Good Luck!
Technically, yes plasma can burn in.
In actual practice, it's unusual. I've left a game on pause on my plasma for a few hours, with no burn in. Now, I don't recommend that, and I was worried, but nothing happened.
From what I can tell, the risk of burn in is mostly when the set is brand new. Once the set is broken in, the risk is minimal.
Yes, plasmas still burn in. Want to see it? Just go to an airport and look at the arrivals and departures. If they're plasma, they're burnt in.
Break-in also doesn't do anything to prevent burn-in on plasmas. It's not a function of break-in. Burn-in just comes down to the rate at which the phosphors dim over time (all phosphors dim over time, even fluorescent lights). If some phosphors are on more than others (as is the case with static images), then the phosphors will age at different rates and that means you'll see burn-in.
Since CRTs and Plasmas have phosphors, they both burn in. If you run your plasma at the same contrast ratio/brightness as a CRT, it'll burn in at the same rate as a direct-view CRT, which isn't too bad. If you run your plasma at a high contrast ratio/brightness, it'll burn-in at the same rate as a rear-projection CRT, which can be a big problem.
In my experience, even on a good plasma, your plasma will burn-in the image of your set-top box graphics pretty quickly. You may not notice it under all usage cases, but put up a medium-density grey, and it's there.
Burn-in is bad enough that if you ever want to hook your flat-screen to a computer, I'd highly recommend getting an LCD instead of a plasma. Otherwise, you'll have menu bar or start menu burnt in in short order.
I'm inclined to say this isn't rigged after being at best buy
yesterday and comparing a Kuro to Sharp and Samsung LCDs. It's
ridiculous how bad darker scenes looked on the LCDs next to the Kuro.
And I am assuming that when you were at Best Buy you were able to play with the settings on all those TVs? I went with my Dad to a Best Buy and he was ready to buy the most expensive TV because he said it looked the best out of all the ones on display. I scolded him quite badly for that... It felt good.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, some Zen:
A jet black iron ball speeding through the dark night.
- definition of satori [enlightenment]
CB4 in the m*therf*ckin' houseeeeee!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NGOYG-8AjeU
still playing with your ponys and housys?
google blackerness
...and check out the GEEK!
I agree with exposure times the black levels will look different in person. However I do think it would be a waste of time to compare the black levels to from a Samsung or Sony LCD because they just wouldn't match plasma levels yet. I've owned a XBR4 and a Pioneer 5080HD there isn't a comparison. I'm not saying LCD sucks, im just saying there are things plasma does better.
Pure HS. My Samsung's black is blacker then that Samsung's black. Let me tell you this is pure black BS.
HS? Pure HeadShot?
Booray for the missing edit feature!
pure high school.
I believe what was meant there was something that falls out of a horses ass and doesn't smell too...oh screw it. Horse shit. He means horse shit.
who abbreviates horseshit? honestly now
Honestly? Who throws a shoe?
That's cool that it is extremely black but what about the colors? Anybody got links to show how vivid the colors are in these?
The Sammy is almost certainly tampered. Even if the exposure was for a long period, it wouldn't explain picture 73 in the gallery (rose in center, blacks elsewhere). The Sammy is listed as a "LED LCD", which for Sammy means they split the screen into a bunch of small zones and completely cut the backlight to those zones if it is completely or mostly black. If the Sammy had the LED zones enabled, it would have been completely black around the edges, but instead it's a consistent grey throughout.
Foul, Pioneer. Your stuff is good enough to stand on its own without rigging the race.
great name
See this is why photos like these shouldn't be posted, because then all the fanboys and fangirls will be like, "see? lcd sucks big time! kuro ftw!!!" or "they messed with the displays! lcd is way better than that!!!" Just wait until you actually see the damn things in person, preferably in a somewhat light-controlled scenario (i.e. magnolia), then you can make your subjective statements. Failing that, just wait for Cnet or the other reviewers out there to do professionally calibrated reviews.
Staged...my Sammy plasma gets darker than that.
Kuros arestill definitely the blackerist in a controlled environment.
Why's it gotta be black?
You don't watch much no?
Buy a Sony Bravia LCD TV and try say that. Black is what the Kuro does best, and black is the holy grail for flat TV's.
That's just straight-up ignant, dawg.
In other words, the reference is lost on you Brendan.
I suppose so. But I do spend my time working, listen to real music and watch only quality TV.
YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, ONCE YOU GO BLACK....YOU'LL NEVER GO BACK
0oops! didnt mean to write in caps
My $1100 Philips LCD has better black levels than the LCD sets in those photos. So yeah its rigged. The off angle shot doesn't help either.
A Kuro is about 10% blacker than the Samsung 81 Series in a pitch black room. Not really a big deal outside of that.
I always like how people compare black levels to CRT. Nearly all CRT sets put out more light than the new generation flat panel sets in a dark room.
The Kuro is a great TV but for most people it is an unobtainable item because of the cost double that of a good set from other manufacturers.
This makes me think of kuru, the disease you get from eating people.
So it's actually more eyes-on than hands-on...
Woe to the man who, by some misfortune, did purchase a samsung LED LCD.
That's almost "Pitch Black". Your not afraid of the dark are you?
if i could ever get over the fear of the burn in i would go pio elite. migh just settle for the the new xbr 8 55in though.
I believe the politically correct term for describing a dark display is African-Americaness.
They definitely fiddled the LCDs. Also viewing the LCDs off angle hurts the contrast even more.
what they are showing is full on/off constrast which might be the reason the samsung led lcd might look that way. it could also be the viewing angle that the picture was taken.
I'm confused. Is this an LCD? I thought Pioneer was out of the plasma biz, and they were using Sanyo from now on.
there actually using sharpo panels for the lcd
Anyway.... You shouldn't watch the TV in the dark, not good for your eyes :D. So... what's the point of doing those tests ? Aight aight we know, it can't get any blacker, so what? They'll all look black (more or less) so long as you not in the dark.
Take that Toyota!
well. Now I am so confused as to what to buy. I was really hoping they would at least come out with a 65-70 inch plasma. I see the panasonic plasma which is close in quality, but still not a Kuro. Yet what has me on the fence is whether or not a large kuro will debut in the next few months. I see myself only gaining about 10 inches going from a 50 inch elite to a 60 inch elite. Anyone have any suggestions??
I recently purchased an Elite Kuro pro-111fd (from an authorized dealer) and am not very satisfied. My prior TV was an older Pioneer that I bought in '05 (PDP-5050sx). I find the Kuro to be too dark. The picture is actually not as crisp and vivid as my older pioneer and I'm beginning to regret the purchase.
Will custom calibaration remedy this? Could I have pruchased a defective set? I have it set at optimum mode and my sources are bluray (PS3) and Time Warner Cable.
Please help... I just spent a small fortune on this thing and I'm missing my old TV.
many thanks