Pioneer Looks Toward LCD as Kuro Project Leads to Losses

[gstarr]

Pioneer will give Matsu****a (panasonic) or another plasma company the know-how and specs for the plasma glass they need. They won't be giving away their internal chipsets and engineering and their knowledge garnered through years of manufacturing the "guts" of the plasma set. It is likely Pioneer will still differentiate itself from other plasma manufacturers.

I presume the same thing will happen with the LCD panels they buy from Sharp. They will use their own internal processing and engineering to differentiate the product.

Since it is likely that Panasonic will be the plasma glass supplier, the will likely be a large beneficiary of Pioneers superior glass panel technology. But there is a lot more to Kuro than just glass plasma panels.

I just bought a Pioneer PDP-6010 and am floored by the great picture. I'm sure Vizio is fine for the masses that won't pay a premium for a "premium" HDTV. No doubt, many more people eat fast food (a la Mickey D's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, etc.) than eat from a more finely prepared restaurant.

I belong to Costco and Vizio makes a fine plasma at a bargain price--but it isn't remotely close to a Pioneer plasma in performance--the blacks are grayer, the shadows are muddier, and the picture isn't as sharp and the contrast isn't close to the Pioneer. But most people buy what their budgets can afford. I certainly have no problem with that.

As far as HD and Blu Ray are concerned--I refuse to live in the past. I have an HD player and will buy a Blu Ray format 2.0 player when a good one is released. I expect the Panasonic 50 series will be excellent when it drops and I would expect the next generation Pioneer's will be much better too.

I've wasted far more than $200 on beer and other "rentables", so I'm sure not gonna feel poorly over my HD purchase and I will gladly look forward to my Blu Ray purchase. It doesn't pay for me to "roll" any other way.

Greg

[Pioneer National Trainer]

Originally Posted by PRO-630HD

So are they actual Pioneer plasmas or tweaked Sharp or Panasonic models?

'gstarr' has the facts pretty much in hand. This year's 9G will be the last manufactured entirely in-house.

Like the rest of the flat-panel brands, Pioneer purchased glass of specific tensile strength and optical properties from glass sheet manufacturers (Asahi was a major player, but they just recently got out of making glass for flat-panel display companies; Corning is another glass-producing brand for FPD), and then---using patented processes in-house---etched into the glass the Deep Encased Cell Structure, coated those cells with red, green and blue phosphors, laid down the transparent electrodes for power and addressing, etc. etc.

As FPDs keep getting bigger and bigger, the major problem has become how to get those gigantic sheets of glass from the factory 'cross country or overseas to brands like Matsu****a or Samsung or Hitachi or Sharp without breaking them (multiple displays are cut from single sheets of glass, in case you didn't know). Some brands are footing the bills to have glass companies build their factories across the street or right next door to new and future FPD lines.

[kennyt]

Just opened the new Sound Advice flier to find the 50" Elite Kuro on sale for $2,299.

[DaveC]

A sad announcement, but it would seem not a dagger to the heart of good Pioneer plasmas being offered in the future. It was 20 years since I bought my last TV (Sony 32" XBR squared) and finally bit the bullet, buying the 60" Kuro (150 FD). Stunning is not the word for it. I've seen 2 gazillioin (perhaps an exaggeration) televisions of every possible kind in friends' homes over the years and just have never been impressed by anything other than the very best projectors. this flat panel blows me away - in every conceivable way. It's only been running for 3 weeks, and so not even calibrated yet, nor have we bought a Blu-ray player yet to experience movies in 1080i at their native frame rate.

As for loosing one's excuse to run out and buy a 50" Kuro for the bedroom (or any room for that matter), no offense to the far fairer sex, but who's wife is reading this column? I'm still heading back to the store for mine, given the idea posted several pages back!

PS - Is there any better picture being transmitted out there than the one on the Tennis Channel in HD. WOW!

PPS - I've never owned a Pioneer product of any sort before, but they sure the heck impressed me with this Kuro line. I hope they stick with the edge on quality

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by kennyt

Just opened the new Sound Advice flier to find the 50" Elite Kuro on sale for $2,299.

The 50 in. PRO-110FD for $2299?

[kennyt]

Yep, listed as $1,200 off, usual price $3,499. I almost went to buy one!