Pioneer Kuro Plamsa HDTVs

[jlahk]

Originally Posted by antennahead

Hi, there, just joined your forum, longtime mag reader and fan.... do a lot of reading and occasional post over at AVS. Anyway, I am going to purchase either the non-Elite or Elite 50" Kuro after Christmas/first part of January and move my 4th generation Pioneer plasma into the bedroom. My question for those of you who may know is this: I have a large collection of SD DVDs. I have been waiting out this war, and when I get into it, many of my DVDs may not be issued on HD/BD, or I may not choose to spend the additional money to replace some of them. I am looking at possibly the Oppo 981 to go with the Kuro, and move my Denon 2910 into the bedroom along with a Denon receiver with HDMI (hoping the "handshake" works so I can use the video switching along with my DTV receiver). Now the question "smiles", sorry for all the pre-explanation: Is the scaler and de-interlacer in the Kuro better than most of what is available in a good DVD player, or not? The reviews for the Oppo rave about the pic scaled to 1080P. It uses the DCDI chipset I believe. Or........ is the scaler and de-interlacer in the Kuro so good that I would be better off to send it a 480i signal and let the Pioneer do it's thing. I realize this is somewhat subjective and dependant on the DVD player being used; just seeking opinions from those of you that have this plasma or have seen it, as well as knowing something about the internals. Thanks!!!

John
PS: one other caveat I forgot to mention, the Kuros I believe have a "1 to 1" pixel match option. Curious if a better picture is obtained sending the plasma a 1080p signal and setting the Pioneer to "1 to 1". I realize the Oppo 1080p is an upscaled 480i, but curious just the same. Also Oppo is coming out with a new model, the 983, that uses Anchor Bay technology for de-interlacing and scaling ..... may be my solution until a winner emerges.

I've heard that the Faroudja is getting a little old (I asked for a comparison between the DCDi and the Reon HQV). From Clint DeBoer at audioholics:

Reon has better motion adaptive noise reduction in most systems I've tested. It also handles unflagged content better than the current batch of FLI chips form Faroudja. With that said, both are very good if implemented correctly.

The problem with Faroudja is that it is OLD. I keep checking to see if they've come out with new HD-based technology and they seem to keep falling behind. The current FLI chips were made to handle SD source material and are being handily passed up by the new Gennum VXP and HQV systems that are really tweaked for HD.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums...ad.php?t=39390

[glocksout]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

I can't believe they aren't 120khz?

They're 60/72Hz. This does the same as 120Hz. It displays at 60Hz for video and 72Hz for film (72/24=3).

We have one of the 768p panels by the PRO-FHD1 1080p panel from last year and it smokes it. We have the KDL-52XBR4 1080p LCD and it also smokes that panel. It's gorgeous. Colors are spot on even without an ISF calibration, but the ISF menus should be used to get it to the top.

One thing everyone should know is the Pioneer and Elite models are identical except for the following:

Elite adds gold connections, ISF menus, and additional preset settings.

That's it folks. Unless you are going to get an ISF calibration, the Pioneer will look just as good.

[Kevin Miller]

Hey guys,

You have a lot of misinformation here. First off, I dont know what you guys are looking at, but I haven't seen an implemetation of 120Hz that doesn't completely screw up the picture. It makes motion pans look like cartoons, and in some cases introduces some serious artifacts into the picture. The Pioneer 72Hz function has been Broken since its inception. Try looking at the opening sequence of "Star Trek: Insurrection, 480i of course, with the 72Hz on on the Pioneer and watch the Buildings shake like a California Earth Quake.

As for the Pioneers and their differences wrong again. The PDPs color decoding is terrible and pushes red like crazy. TThe Elite's decoding is dead on accurate. And on the PDPs the primary and secondary colors are not even close to the Pioneer Elite's accuracy in Pure mode. This of course is done on purpose to differentiate their product lines.

Finally, if you want the best performance from anything you should have it Professionally Calibrated by an expert with good credentials and top notch test gear.

[voigtskins]

Originally Posted by Kevin Miller

Hey guys,

You have a lot of misinformation here. First off, I dont know what you guys are looking at, but I haven't seen an implemetation of 120Hz that doesn't completely screw up the picture. It makes motion pans look like cartoons, and in some cases introduces some serious artifacts into the picture. The Pioneer 72Hz function has been Broken since its inception. Try looking at the opening sequence of "Star Trek: Insurrection, 480i of course, with the 72Hz on on the Pioneer and watch the Buildings shake like a California Earth Quake.

As for the Pioneers and their differences wrong again. The PDPs color decoding is terrible and pushes red like crazy. TThe Elite's decoding is dead on accurate. And on the PDPs the primary and secondary colors are not even close to the Pioneer Elite's accuracy in Pure mode. This of course is done on purpose to differentiate their product lines.

Finally, if you want the best performance from anything you should have it Professionally Calibrated by an expert with good credentials and top notch test gear.

I have a 6010 FD in New Hampshire and want it calibrated .I can only find one at BB and would like one that knows a Pioneer set.I live close to Mass.so that could work .Could you give me a ref. of one that is sharp on Pioneer cal.I have used Jim Dolittle before but have not seen him advertize as of late. I just do not trust a tech from BB. Thanks

[glocksout]

Originally Posted by Kevin Miller

As for the Pioneers and their differences wrong again. The PDPs color decoding is terrible and pushes red like crazy. TThe Elite's decoding is dead on accurate. And on the PDPs the primary and secondary colors are not even close to the Pioneer Elite's accuracy in Pure mode. This of course is done on purpose to differentiate their product lines.

My Pioneer rep told me this directly, so I'd probably have to go with what he says.

[Kevin Miller]

Hi Glocksout,

Why on earth would you swallow what a company representive feeds you versus a known video expert who is unbiased, and has no ulterior motives?