Performance
This TV certainly does live up to its promise on black levels. We looked at films like Serenity
on HD DVD that require a strong black next to a well-lit subject and
were amazed at how deep black space was. So if deep blacks are your
thing, this TV won't disappoint.
We were also struck by how good the movie mode was on this TV. Watching Serenity, we noticed very fluid motion at the start, with very little film judder. The Pioneer manages to keep this smoothing to an appropriate level, so it doesn't generally feel unnatural.
We really liked the picture quality, although there were times when we thought the image looked a little soft of HD material. That said, the TV does ship with most of the picture enhancement settings turned on. This sounds good in theory but in practice, a good HD signal shouldn't need much image processing, so these settings can mess up the picture. As always, we'd recommend fiddling around until you get the picture to your taste.
One of the most impressive things we found with this television was the quality it managed to pull off regular DVDs. We used a Toshiba HD-E1, their low-end HD DVD player, set to output at 720p and stuck Blade II
in the tray. Moments later, our jaws were on the floor.
We've very rarely seen such amazing picture quality from a high definition TV displaying a DVD. If you've got a large collection of movies on DVD, you'll be thrilled with what this TV can do. We tried a number of DVD players with HDMI out, and every time the TV produced a great picture.
We noticed that this screen has very little dot crawl, something that we often see on plasma screens. We could see some sparkling pixels but these were far less noticeable than other PDPs we've seen before.
Sound on the Pioneer is good. In fact, this TV has one of the best overall sounds we've heard from a flat panel in quite some time. There is enough bass to add punch to soundtracks when needed but dialogue is clear, too. We also like the dedicated subwoofer output. We hooked up a Jamo SUB 200, and loved the extra punch it gave us.
Conclusion
On the promise of deep blacks this TV
delivers completely. We did think at times that definition of the
picture wasn't as good as some other TVs we've seen recently. Some of
the new 1080p LCDs, for example, and Samsung's 1080p 50-inch plasma
do add more detail to the picture.
Available online for around £1,600, you'll find cheaper screens which boast 1080p. New LED backlights on LCDs couple improve the situation in the near future but no screen can offer anywhere near the black level of this TV.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday
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OB1 3 October 2007
Good: Does what it says on the tin... amazing blacks, stunning images!!
Bad: Slight buzzing when displaying ultra bright images
Comment: Well I finallly consigned my old 4 by 3 Sony Triniton CRT to the big TV dump in the sky, as I'd been desperately holding out for a flat screen that could match the old war horse for black performance, as well as also giving standard definition material a run for its money and meet the minimum requirements of TVs bearing the HD ready logo (720p is enough for me folks).
In this Pioneer Kuro I found everything I was looking for, in fact I found alot more than I needed. It's image quality is truly amazing!
I orginally had my heart set on the 2007 plasma range from Panasonic, they seemed better value with also excellent connectivity, but at the last moment I thought I'd fork out the extra cash for a Kuro. Quite simply I was standing in a show room with the Panasonic Vierra & Pioneer Kuro side by side with the same signal being fed to them... and the Kuro had the edge in performance, it was particulary noticable whilst looking at the shades of colour on an actor's face, or the depth of blacks. I really did feel the I could see where the extra money was going if one forked out the silly amount of cash these beasts cost. My main concern about LCD and plamas has always been my utter disappointment whilst viewing standard definition broadcasts, I already have a 26inch Panasonic Vierra LCD, and frankly as lovely as it is, my old CRT would wipe the floor with it whilst showing Freeview images (in terms of crispness), not so with the Kuro thankfully. I've found watching Freeview a joy to say the least on the new gizmo!
Other things that were fun were the USB slot, it's already proved great for showing holiday snaps, I can now see the point of taking 7 mega pixel photos. Even when sprawled across the 42 inch screen images seem crisp enough to show the neighbours, the photo gallery software that kicks in upon one plugging in a USB memory dongle is pretty decent, but be prepared to give it time to load your picture thumbnails.
To be honest there was alot of hype on the Pioneer site about the images the unit could produce, but I really think they might have a point, I can't see anything else that can touch it for the overall viewing experience. I should say at this point DVD play back looked fantastic but I kind of expected that of a unit that could make Freeview look good.
I have no regrets at all about the open wallet surgery I am now recovering from, but it's only fair I should mention the minus points that I havn't found a problem. Firstly, the EPG (electronic programme guide) is ok, but I've seen better ones especially on my Vierra and on my friends new Samsung. Secondly, when the unit is displaying ultra bright images and there's no voice or music.. the silence gives away the slight buzzing that I am told is common to many plasmas when kicking out lots of light... but to be brutally honest these issues don't bother me when watching Freeview/Sky or DVD films, the image quality just blew me away. For audio, if you're a film fanatic you'll need a full audio cinema set up, the inbuilt speakers however lovely and discrete won't pack enough punch. For myself however a tweak on the bass setting is enough for explosions to sound decent whilst not waking up the neighbours toddlers!
In short I'd say if anyone really thinks LCD can out perform plasma for overall picture quality... they havn't seen a Kuro! :o)
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