Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-150FD Plasma

A year ago, Pioneer Electronics, a Japanese multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, tried to re-engineer its plasma technology. This resulted in a series of improvements and innovations visible in their new series of plasma display panels. The Pioneer Elite Kuro belongs here - a television that delivers black levels like no other set in the market.

Aesthetically, the PRO-150FD was designed beautifully with its glossy black bezel that matches its base stand. Pioneer’s screen filter technology makes the set appear as black as the surrounding bezel that you will definitely notice if you compare this set with other plasmas out in the market.

Why then is a dark screen in televisions such a big deal? Well, darker colored screens allows for a better image contrast and color saturation specially when viewed in a bright and well-lit room.

Pioneer took a step further with the PRO-150FD by including a two-way 17 watt speakers that is quite capable of delivering a pleasing and detailed sound level. Users will notice that the speakers output sounds that are free from distortions even when the volume is turned way up.

The PRO-150FD weighs about 147.4 pounds, and that includes its stand and the speakers. Good hand grips are located on the lower corners of the back of the panel to make it a bit easier to lug around. With its stand and speakers attached, the TV measures 66.3 by 37.7 by 15.0 inches (WHD). Without the stand and speakers the panel’s dimensions shrink to 57.9 by 34.7 by 4.8 inches (WHD).

The set is equipped with different choices of connectivity options. Its connection panel is located at its backside near the center. This includes four HDMI ports, a VGA input for PC use, one component video input, a CableCARD slot, and two RF inputs for cable and antenna reception. A second component video input as well as a USB port is front-accessible along the left-hand side of the panel. A USB port and Ethernet jack on the back of the TV allow for local and networked access of multimedia files using the KURO PRO-150’s integrated Home Media Gallery feature.

As an addition to its already bulging set of features, the PRO-150FD supports all common photo formats. Palatable video files include Windows Media Video and MPEG-2 variants including TS (transport stream) files as well as MPEG-4. Playable audio formats are MP3, WMA, WAV, and LPCM.

Additional information for the Pioneer PRO-150FD is its native 1080p resolution and its ability to accept 1080p video input only through its HDMI ports. Widescreen VGA resolution support topped out at 1,360 by 768 pixels. The Elite’s 1080p video support includes 24-Hz and 60-Hz formats, plus the TV’s Advanced PureCinema feature enables a 72-Hz refresh rate that eliminates a shaking artifact known as judder when displaying video sourced from 24-frame-per-second material.

As for its performance, who could ask for anything more? As mentioned earlier, the set’s contrast and ability to deliver luscious hues of black is impressive. Using the PRO-150FD’s pure picture preset, its average black level is measured at 0.03 Cd/m2, which yielded a high contrast ratio (CR) of 2,612:1 - which no other HDTV can replicate.

For its color reproduction, the Pioneer HDTV’s movie picture preset produced a color gamut that exceeded the HD spec. Its pure picture preset resulted in the best out-of-box HD color gamut response seen from a TV. Primary colors were right on target, and the secondary colors are nearly perfect, too. Color temperature and grayscale tracking with the default pure mode preset revealed red and blue were slightly dominating green, but a set of white balance controls in the regular menu brought the tracking into admirably tight alignment.

All in all, the Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-150FD really is one of the best, if not the best, high-definition televisions to date. It reflects Pioneers dedication and innovation for high performance plasmas. The set delivered the most outstanding image contrast, color quality, HD video processing, and viewing angles seen from any HDTV display technology that is currently available to consumers.

Sources:
http://www.mahalo.com
http://www.tvsnob.com
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com