FACE OFF AT THE HDTV CORRAL
Pioneer Elite KURO
PRO-111FD Plasma
HDTV
Manufacturers of at-panel
plasma televisions have been
rening the technology for years.
But Pioneer has been particularly
successful at it. In the past, the
company made some of the
world’s best rear-projection CRT
sets, and it knew that great black
levels are the foundation of a great
picture. at philosophy has paid
o over the years, particularly in
recent-generation KURO sets.
But the technology Pioneer
uses in its plasmas makes them
among the most expensive sets on
the market, a dedication that
hasn’t been kind to the company’s
market share and bottom line.
Beginning sometime in mid 2009,
the next generation of KURO sets
will use plasma panels manufac-
tured by an outside supplier—
Panasonic. e sets will report-
edly still include features and
technologies that are exclusive to
Pioneer. But if you want an “All
KURO Inside” Pioneer for your
home theater, now might be the
time to get it.
KURO Outside
Pioneer oers both standard and
Elite KURO sets, with the former
oering fewer features. e most
signicant shortcoming of the
standard sets this year is that they
don’t oer color temperature
options in the user menu, and you
can’t calibrate them in a service
menu, according to Pioneer. My
experience with the standard
60-inch PDP-6020FD KURO
(reviewed in the September 2008
issue) wasn’t at all disappointing.
In fact, our PDP-6020FD actually
had marginally deeper measured
blacks than the PRO-111FD
tested here—a dierence that was
most likely caused by inevitable
production variations. But if you
want the most accurate color
Pioneer has to oer, you’ll want a
fully calibrated Elite KURO
model.
e PRO-111FD has four
HDMI 1.3 connections, although
it only has a single component
input. ere’s also an Ethernet
port for a home network con-
nection and a USB port. (As
with all the sets in this group,
the Pioneer will let you display
your digital photos and some
types of videos.)
e set’s speakers attach to the
sides and are removable if space is
an issue. While the judges did not
evaluate audio in this Face O,
my own experience with the sets
tells me that the Pioneer oers the
best sound by a considerable
margin—if that is a relevant issue
to the potential buyer.
Pioneer calls the preset pic-
ture modes AV Selections, and
there are seven of them. Dynamic
and Optimum are xed, but
the user can reset the video
controls for the others. While the
Mid-Low preset color tempera-
ture setting was reasonably
accurate, I performed a full
calibration for this test. e Elite
series provides full high and low
color temperature adjustments in
the user menu (and has the
capability for 10-step adjustments
in an ISF menu with special
soware that was unavailable to
us at test time).
For the tests, we used the Pure
mode, in which the set’s color
gamut was nearly identical to the
HD standard. e Pioneer’s
PureCinema control, in any
setting, automatically converts
1080p/24 to a refresh rate of 72
Hz by repeating (not interpolat-
ing) each frame three times. In
addition, when set to Advance, it
will convert any lm-based source
(except 1080p/60) to a display rate
of 72 Hz. (is will eliminate 3:2
pulldown in the process.)
We reviewed the PRO-111FD
in the November 2008 issue. See
that report for additional details.
e Pioneer’s 480i-to-1080p
video processing (tested with a
480i component input) was fair,
with some visible jaggies on my
standard palette of torture test
patterns (mainly on the waving-
ag test). It recognized 3:2
pulldown, though slowly, and
turned in a poor result on a 2:2
pulldown cadence test (for
video-based material). Its
1080i-to-1080p HDMI processing
was also good—actually better
than reported in the November
2008 review. (I recently dropped
one of the three tests we pre-
viously used for 1080i 3:2
pulldown because it may produce
erroneous results.)
The Judges Speak
Four of the ve judges picked the
Pioneer as their favorite set, and a
big reason was the depth and
richness of the set’s blacks. “Best
of the bunch,” one wrote. It drew a
lot of favorable comments not
only on its black levels but for its
shadow detail as well. In fact, out
of the rst three nishers in this
category—the Pioneer, Sony,
and Panasonic—the comments
about the Pioneer’s performance
for both of these important
characteristics were the most
consistently positive.
Although the Sony went deeper
on a full black image, the Pioneer
drew high praise from most of the
panel for the best reproduction of
both dark and near dark scenes,
particularly on its inky look into
the depth of space in the star eld
from Stargate: Continuum. One
judge commented that only on
the Pioneer and Sony could she
see that a few of the stars were red
instead of white.
e Pioneer’s deep black
foundation also contributed to its
ne sense of image depth. One
judge commented that she could
see textures in dimly lit details
better than on the other sets,
including the best facial textures
in the dimly lit Russian stargate
facility scenes in Stargate:
Continuum.
“e best on pretty much every
clip,” commented one judge. He
said, “In a eld of black, the Sony
could look pretty darn good, but
$5,000 Blacks, blacks, blacks
•
Accurate color, crisp resolution
•
Consistent
with all program material
•
Video processing short of the best
Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-111FD Plasma HDTV
Screen image courtesy of Warner Brothers
PIONEER ELITE KURO PRO-111FD PLASMA HDTV
BLACKS
SHADOW DETAIL
COLOR
RESOLUTION
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
VALUE
Composite Scores
FEBRUARY 2009 www.hometheatermag.com
