Pioneer PDP-5080HD 50-inch Plasma

HDTV buyers will have to prepare themselves for a world so wonderful, so different, so completely new — your senses will need to adapt in ways never before imagined. It’s a world built on uncompromising attention to detail in an extraordinary, beautiful new way. Television buyers usually give more attention to black-level performance as one of the most important aspects of picture quality. When a display can produce a deep shade of black, it not only improves the realism and the punch of dark scenes, it also makes colors look richer and more saturated.

The Pioneer PDP-5080HD 50-inch plasma produces the darkest shade of black and so much more. It offers a smooth video-processing mode that works quite well coupled with one of the best antireflective screens ever released to the market. But of course, if you can spare some extra cash, then the Pioneer PDP-5080HD delivers a jaw-dropping home theater picture.

Overall, there is everything to like with the sleek, no-nonsense looks of Pioneer’s plasma. The company framed the PDP-5080HD’s 50-inch screen in glossy black with a minimum of adornments aside from the Pioneer logo. There’s a band of silver along the sides, top, and bottom of the panel, but from the front only black is visible. The set includes a matching stand, and it allows the speaker bar below the panel to be completely removed, in case you want to use an external audio system exclusively. With speaker and stand attached, the panel measures about 48.2 inches wide by 31.8 inches high by 9.3 inches deep and weighs 88 pounds. Remove the stand and speakers and the panel measures 48.2 by 28.2 by 4.5 inches and weighs 76.7 pounds.

The Pioneer PDP-5080HD has a native resolution of 1,366×768 pixels. This has been a standard for most plasma’s out there in the market. As always, all sources, be they HDTV, DVD, standard-def, or computer, are scaled to fit the native resolution.

The PDP-5080HD also includes a picture-in-picture function with a side-by-side option, a Game Mode designed for gamers who might be sensitive to any lag between fingers and on-screen action, and the requisite freeze-frame mode. Like many new HDTVs, the 5080HD can also control certain compatible HDMI devices via just the HDMI interface and the TV’s remote.

The PDP-5080HD sports a wide array of inputs. The back panel offers a PC input (1,366×768 maximum resolution); a component-video input; an AV input with composite and S-Video; a pair of RF inputs for cable and/or antenna; an optical digital audio output; a subwoofer audio and analog audio output; and an RS-232 port for use by custom installers to interface with whole-house control systems. The side-panel is also well appointed, offering another AV input with component- or composite-video, a headphone jack, and a USB port that can take thumb drives and display digital photos or play MP3 files via the TV.

The picture quality of the Pioneer PDP-5080HD is among the best seen on TV’s found in the market. That’s due mainly to the set’s ability to produce a very deep level of black, which impacts many other areas of performance. Even with this deep black level, the Pioneer preserved all of the detail in the shadows without losing any definition. Dark scenes were also clear of discernible low-level noise caused by the display from distances more than six feet from the screen, although the FHD1 looked cleaner in this regard. In short, the Pioneer PDP-5080HD does difficult dark scenes exceptionally well.

Moving on to color, the PDP-5080HD was once again helped by its deep blacks in delivering very impressive saturation. In terms of video processing, the Pioneer did a fine job of deinterlacing 1080i content. The Pioneer is also equipped with a Text Optimization option. The Pioneer is equipped with an antireflective screen that did a very good job of attenuating glare in a bright room.

With PC sources, the PDP-5080HD delivered the goods, although naturally its 1,366×768 resolution wasn’t as impressive as that of a 1080p panel.

This 50-inch plasma TV displays an exceedingly deep shade of black with excellent shadow detail; clean image with little noise; “smooth” video-processing mode removes most judder; excellent antireflective screen; sleek, minimalist styling; removable speaker; superb connectivity with four HDMI inputs and one PC input; CableCard compatible with TV Guide EPG.

However, it is expensive and produces inaccurate primary color of green with no user-menu to fine-tune color temperature controls.

Sources:
http://reviews.digitaltrends.com
http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com
http://www.plasmaconcepts.com