once there was both shadow and
light, this Pioneer won hands
down. Consistently the best.” He
continued, “e Master and
Commander clip was pretty
awesome. I’m used to a well-
calibrated CRT rear-projection
set, and they do shadow detail
very, very well.”
“Deep, rich, and earthy colors,”
commented one judge aer
viewing the Pioneer on Legends of
the Fall. He also praised the rich,
comic-book-like colors on e
Incredible Hulk and how well the
set distinguished the subtle shades
of a horse’s mane in Hidalgo.
Another commented on the
natural skintones, which were
redder than the tones on the
Samsung and Sony. But he said
they didn’t put an extra red tinge
on clouds.
On Hidalgo, one panelist wrote
that the Samsung looked a bit
more dimensional in the brightest
scenes, although he rated both
excellent in this regard. is may
relate to the fact that an LCD (like
the Samsung) will look brighter
on bright full-screen images than
a plasma. But this is never overtly
visible and was the only time in
the test that anyone made a
comment that might be due to
this characteristic.
e positive comments far
outweighed any criticisms.
“Everything looked natural, and
e Incredible Hulk, with its
heightened color palette, looked
awesome,” noted one judge.
Another observed that the
Pioneer “always has the best
detail, clarity, and pop, even o
axis. Colors always jump but are
never garish.”
e panel praised the Pioneer
for its smooth performance on
motion. One judge noted that it
produced the cleanest detail on
horizontal motion, holding small
details in the background and
foreground.
However, another felt that the
set lost detail in the pan across the
thatched roof at the beginning of
Shakespeare in Love. He also
commented on visible noise in
some scenes, particularly large
areas of solid color or white.
Another viewer, however, while
noting the noise, felt that this
was simply the Pioneer’s detail
resolution bringing out noise
in the program material. is
panelist praised the Pioneer’s
performance on standard-
denition material. During
Legends of the Fall, she remarked,
“Surprisingly crisp with excellent
contrast. is is standard
denition?”
Conclusions
e two comments from the
panel on visible noise in some
images needs further comment.
When setting up the test, I
noticed that when viewed from
very close to the screen, some
images (particularly those with
large areas of solid white, gray, or
color) clearly showed a random,
dither-like noise. No other set had
this (not even the Panasonic), so it
isn’t a universal plasma character-
istic. But I could not see it from
the normal viewing distances we
used in the test. Apparently, three
of the ve panelists didn’t notice
this either since they did not
comment on it.
Apart from that, the Pioneer
totally wowed the panel. Four out
of ve judges ranked it rst
overall. It also ranked rst in all
four of the rated performance
categories. (It tied with the Sony
for blacks.)
Most of all, it consistently
handled all of the program
material. Perhaps one judge
summed it up best when he
commented, “Fantastic. Every-
thing looked awesome. e
high-def stu was the best I’ve
ever seen.”
Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. •
(800) 421-1404 •
www.pioneerelectronics.com
Dealer Locator Code PIO
VIDEOHDMI 1.3 (4), PC RGB (1),
component video (1, shared), S-video (1, shared), composite video (3, 2 shared),
antenna AUDIO: L/R stereo (5), PC (L/R minijack) AUDIO:L/R analog
(fixed), digital (optical), subwoofer, speakers (L/R), headphones
USB, Ethernet, control out, RS-232C, IR repeater out, color sensor terminal
For the picture settings used in this
review, go to www.HomeTheaterMag.
com. All the measurements here were
taken in the Pure AV Selection (picture
setting mode), through an HDMI
input, with the set adjusted for
the most accurate picture in a
darkened room.
T
he Pioneer’s full-on/
full-off contrast ratio
speaks for itself. The
software needed to use the
set’s more precise ISF calibration feature
(ISF-CCC, which provides 10 calibration
steps in the brightness range instead
of the usual two) was not available
to us at test time. Even without it, the
PRO-111FD calibrated beautifully. Post-
calibration, the result deviates from
nearly perfect compliance only at the
darkest end of the brightness range,
below 30 IRE.
The white triangle in the pie-shaped
CIE chart shows the set’s color gamut
in the Color Space 2 setting (Pure
mode). It’s a virtual overlay of the ATSC
standard (the black triangle, nearly
invisible here).
The Pioneer’s resolution was superb
up to the limit of our resolution test
patterns in 1080i and 1080p. The 720p
resolution was slightly less impressive
but still only a step short of excellent.
The same held true for 480i/p.
Component resolution was a definite
step down from HDMI at 1080i but
equal to HDMI at 720p and 480i/p. In all
cases, the luma (black-and-white) and
chroma (color) resolutions extended
out to the maximum frequency that
are required by HD and SD, respectively.
(1080p component resolution was not
tested.)
Put simply, I would choose HDMI
with this set for the best resolution
results at 1080i/p, but either HDMI or
component will provide excellent
performance at 720p or 480i/p.
The Pioneer’s overscan (in
the Dot-by-Dot aspect ratio
setting) was zero in 1080i/p. It
averaged around 1.5 percent per
side (roughly a 6-percent loss
of image area overall) in 720p
and 3 percent (a 12-percent loss) in
480i/p. (Dot-by-Dot is available only in
1080i/p.)—TJN
Color-tracking charts were generated in Datacolor ColorFacts.
FULL-ON/FULL-OFF
CONTRAST RATIO:
37,700:1
0.001 37.7
BEFORE CALIBRATION
AFTER CALIBRATION
Plasma
50
1,920 by 1,080
ATSC, QAM (cable in the clear)
Not specified
Stand
56.9 x 28.5 x 3.7 (without
stand); 56.9 x 31.1 x 13.8 (with stand)
82.4 (without stand); 88.0 (with stand)
$5,000
Features
Visit our Website
for a detailed
explanation of our
testing regimen,
plus a list of our
reference gear.
Posted with permission from the February 2009 issue of Home Theater ® www.hometheatermag.com. Copyright 2009, Source Interlink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
For more information about reprints from Home Theater, contact Wright’s Reprints at 877-652-5295.
12M1002-54203
