Temperature on Pioneer Elite Plasma

[LordoftheRingsEE]

Originally Posted by Rayooo

I recall it was only a few months after I'd gotten my Kuro...and it seemed that Pioneer was poised to do extremely well, at least in the high-end monitor biz...then they abandoned it. I never did really understand why.

Probably as simple as margins and market size and the sense the world was moving in droves to LCD.

-----First things first,
Kuro's inky blacks - the blackest blacks - were unmatched in the industry. The deeper blacks also yielded superior shadow detail and resolution. While most manufacturers were hell-bent on making the brightest possible displays, Pioneer took the opposite path with Kuro. Originally conceived as a broadcast monitor, the Kuro's image quality was on par (according to some experts) with Sony's $25k professional monitors. The Kuro line was initiated by Pioneer USA, not in Japan, and the Kuro engineering team was drawn from Pioneer's professional division.

-----What really made the Kuro different was that the optical filter was directly bonded to the plasma elements instead of the display's glass, which is the way every other plasma display was made. - It is a design approach like putting Carl Zeiss lenses on your camera. - That design innovation required additional engineering time to perfect, which made the Kuro more expensive to manufacture than other plasmas. The engineers were unable to devise cost-saving measures that woudn't compromise performance.

-----Pioneer's exit from the TV market wasn't the end of the Kuro. Panasonic purchased most of the associated patents and technology and lured a significant segment of the Kuro engineering staff.

* Pioneer Kuro plasma line was introduced in 2007, and phased out by 2010.

>>> Making the best does not necessarily mean that people will buy it.

______________

I took some help from my audio/video mags. ...In the interest of people to better understand, regarding your question.

[Rayooo]

Thanks for the detailed info Bob.

I didn't realize Kuro could have almost been called a skunkworks project, which in itself may have been a factor in it's demise.

[prepress]

Some Pioneer engineering is involved in the Elite series of LED LCDs also. Sharp and Pioneer collaborated on it, and I saw one at Value
Electronics in Scarsdale. Absent the issue with Cyan (which I think they've solved), it was a great-looking set with the best black levels out there. It still has some of the LCD limitations, though (off-axis viewing being chief).

But it's expensive; the 60" is now $5,500 I think, down from the original MSRP of $6,000 when introduced last year.

[LordoftheRingsEE]

---Yeah, the Elite PRO-60X5FD 3D LED LCD HDTV, from Sharp.

[JDMMAC]

My 60' runs warm also. Had it for years and no issues. So if you can find a new one which is unreal go for it but consider the new 4K models first. Looking to run a SONY 84" OR VIZIO 120" to replace it.

[PioneerGuy]

My 500M runs pretty hot too so I run the fans on MAX all the time!..