WTS: Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020FD (50" Plasma 1080p)

[kareface]

I'm selling my TV and cheap! First off, let me say that the only reason I'm even consider selling this TV is because I found the 60" version of the TV for a good deal. I honestly love this TV, I'm an home theater geek, and if you know anything about HT it's the Pioneer Plasmas are the best image quality for TV's on the market. I bought this TV in February, and I haven't had a single issue with the TV. I had the first hdmi port tuned (300$ value) and the image quality is breathtaking. I would also note, if you are looking at the pictures I've posted below, the graininess is from the compression on the photos. The TV is clear and sharp. I have it setup if you want to see for yourself. I honestly love this TV, and ONLY reason I'm selling it is to get the exact same TV in a 60" version. I still have the original manual and remote. Comes with everything that the TV came with. I think it's still in warranty, I'll have to read the details of the warranty card again. I live in Seattle and would prefer not to ship the TV. However, if you want to pay for the cost of shipping it, it's all yours. If you have any questions you can PM me here.

Looking for 1700$

http://stomped.com/mini/setup/tv1.jpghttp://stomped.com/mini/setup/tv2.jpg

[happydude]

Good luck on selling for that price.. Plasmas are crashing in prices since LCDs and now LED/OLEDs are dominating the market. Nice TV and setup though

[thestalkmore]

Do want, wish I hadn't just bought a bunch of new skydiving gear

[kareface]

Good luck on selling for that price.. Plasmas are crashing in prices since LCDs and now LED/OLEDs are dominating the market. Nice TV and setup though

Have it up on craigs, already got 3 replys. People who know HT love the kuros.

[Darus Grey]

4real.

LCD is a joke compared to high-end Plasmas.

[kareface]

http://stomped.com/mini/kuro-comparison2.jpg

Note: I did not make this image, don't ask me about their choice of wording.

[Cephius]

I too have a Pioneer Plasma and it is a beautiful television. Highly recommend.

[kareface]

I was playing around with my digital camera and thought that this was a cool pic. Thought I might share:

Spoiler: show

http://stomped.com/mini/hangingout.jpg

Knida sucks tho, the camera makes everything really sandy. If you look at the yellow walls behind the TV you'll see what I mean. Hard to show how crisp an image is when your camera can't take a decent photo...

[kareface]

Soldeded via craigslist.

[Penthesilea]

Grats on the sell. Just bumping in case anyone else cares to know that Pioneer TVs are fantastic.

I've got my 50'' Elite sitting at home that is gorgeous. Wish I had more money at the time I bought it, as I would have gone for the 60''

[Tekki]

Sorry to hijack but Im considering a few TVs atm and threw plasma's out of the window as an option. Now that you guys are saying they are beautiful I am intrigued. Sell me on it. What makes that particular brand break the norm for plasmas, with all of the complaints I see. (Other then quality of the picture)

And even with the quality said, are their better ones out there? (Even consider forms other then plasma)

[Tyche]

Is the placement of your TV going to be near a lot of ambient light? Will you be watching it primarily at night? How are you mounting it? I bought an LCD because

1. The living room has a huge bay window that allows light to shine on the television.
2. Plasmas hadn't really got the whole reflection technology down when I bought it.

Now-a-days, I think plasmas have an anti-glare film built into the screen. Something to consider. Plasmas weigh a bit more than LCDs as well. Something you may have to keep in mind as well.

[Atreides]

sometimes I think I'm the only person who prefers Plasmas to LCDs for pure gaming TVs, but I could be retarded, and LEDs could be different

[kareface]

Sorry to hijack but Im considering a few TVs atm and threw plasma's out of the window as an option. Now that you guys are saying they are beautiful I am intrigued. Sell me on it. What makes that particular brand break the norm for plasmas, with all of the complaints I see. (Other then quality of the picture)

And even with the quality said, are their better ones out there? (Even consider forms other then plasma)

The best TVs on the market right now are laser TV"s. If you are willing to put out the money and you don't need it to be super thin, you can't beat them for quality. If you are willing to spend 6-7k, then I can give you more details on the TV's, but because of their price I'm going to assume you wouldn't be interested.

I'll go into a little detail for things that you should look out for in TV's. As far as the picture goes, the important details are, color accuracy, contrast, black levels, brightness, viewing angles, and artifacting during motion.

Color accuracy: Plasmas are generally the best on the market. LCD's are catching up with LED back lit TV's, but you have to watch out as a lot of manufactures are doing a 1/2 cathode with LED's along the rim setup with LCD's. It's better, but not nearly as good as led back lit. The kuro's color accuracy is not perfect, but still leagues above most LCDs.

Contrast: This is where plasmas shine. People don't realize what a huge difference contrast makes. A clear distinction between lights and darks make images so much sharper and crisp. LCD TV's tend to blend lights and darks together too much. Then, to make matters worse, you hear them throw around terms like "dynamic contrast ratio". This is where they darken the back light to make up the difference. However, the numbers given by dynamic contrast ratios don't come anywhere near accurate to real world situations. If you compare the same LCDs using the ANSI standard, they fall far below the mark. This gives images a dull look, as if you're always watching TV in a bright room.

Black levels: This is where the kuro's really shine. Kuros have the deepest black levels on the market. Dark blacks give a better impression of depth. Images look more real when the blacks are black, and not light grey. I would reference the image I posted before:

http://stomped.com/mini/kuro-comparison2.jpg

This will be off because the LCD's aren't being looked at from the front, but even if you were they don't hold a candle to plasmas. Even some of the cheaper plasmas have better black levels then nice LCDs. The darker the room is, the more you can appreciate it.

Brightness: Brightness is useful in rooms that are bright to begin with. LCD's are better in situations like this. However, I can say first hand, I have huge windows and the sun pours in through them. My kuro did a beautiful job and I would put it up against most good LCD's in the same situation.

Viewing angles: Plasmas rock the viewing angles. If you aren't dead center with an LCD, you'll get differences in picture and brightness. There's no way around that.

Artifacting (or motion blur): This is also something that LCD's have huge problems with. They have been trying to make up the difference by increasing the hertz of the TV's to reduce the artifacting. Which is a good and bad idea. I does help remove juddering from the screen, but... if done poorly you end up with something called the "triple puck effect". Objects become blurred and multiplies as if there were three or more of it. For things like gaming or sports, it's awful. Plasmas are great in this department. A plasma of 1/2 the hertz of a LCD will likely outperform the LCD in the artifacting department. It's hard to electronically compensate for such a huge issue like this. But newer technology is doing a lot better with it.

If you have a room that gets so much sunlight that it would suffocate any image, then LCD's are great. If you have some good curtains or watch TV in the evening then you can't really beat a plasma for image quality.

Other things to think about are weight, plasmas weigh a lot more. Power, they do consume more power. Glare, the good plasmas are the same as good LCDs in this category, so it shouldn't be an issue. Burn in is a problem with plasmas. Images that stay in the same place for long periods of time can burn in. It's mostly an issue with games that have a display that never changes or network watermarks. I've never had any problems with burn in with my screen. It's much harder to do than people expect. To be fair LCDs don't really have this problem.

However, there is one last factor that makes the single largest difference in picture quality outside of the product itself. If you get a nice TV, make sure to have it tuned. Don't go with the hacks from best buy or CC. Find a nice HT store and see how much it'll be. I would take a 2200$ tuned TV over any 2500$ untuned one. Remember that each port has to be tuned to the device, so make sure that you have everything setup how you like it before getting it tuned. Tuning a TV will make the images breathe taking, the colors will look much better and the TV will use less power in most cases (vs. untuned ones). It usually ranges from 150$-300$, but it's worth every penny. Make sure you know how many ports they agree to do. Some places will charge less but only turn it once. Having an untuned TV is like having a race car that you never take above 60. You'll never see what it can really do.

Anyways, if you have any other questions feel free to shoot. Also, remember that going into stores to compare TV's isn't always the best idea. Many places like BB will tune the more expensive TV's and leave the others untuned.





Edit: I'm building some speakers to go along with the new TV.

I'm going with the NP's seen here (only they will be floor standing, so much larger):
http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthr...o_threadsearch
A model of the cabinet design:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...akers/Nats.jpg


And center channel from this set:
http://zaphaudio.com/ZDT3.5.html
http://zaphaudio.com/ZDT3.5-system-small.jpg

[Kais]

Can I come over to your place to play Rock Band?

[kareface]

Can I come over to your place to play Rock Band?

It'd be a long commute. lol

[mootsfox]

Nice fireplace. Details?

[kareface]

Nice fireplace. Details?

It burns wood?

[Rydir]

It really is sad that plasma TV's have such a bad reputation due to problems with earlier models.

There is one nice thing about having a Plasma gaming TV and an LCD movie TV at my house. When ever friends decide to bring their game consoles over and they get a chance to play on both an LCD and a Plasma, I love the jaw dropping expressions I always get to see.

[mootsfox]

It burns wood?

Well, white firebrick is uncommon which is why I ask. Did you have it installed or was it there when you bought the place?