Pioneer has come a long way since its 1938 start as a radio and speaker repair shop in Tokyo. The Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-110FD Plasma television was recently judged a 2008 International CES Best of Innovations Design and Engineering Award honoree in the Video Displays category. Competing consumer electronics products are judged by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, independent engineers and members of the trade press. The most impressive products in each category are selected as honorees. The only difference in specification between the 110FD and the 1150FD plasmas is the larger 60 inch screen size.

The Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-110FD and 1150FD are both full 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080) having a 16:9 Wide-Screen Aspect Ratio. Improvements Pioneer have made from previous models include HDMI 1.3 with implementation of the Deep Color and CEC control support that this version provides. There have been further efforts put into reducing the possibility of burn-in effects. Not only does the KURO come with a built-in digital tuner, it also has a second to enable users to record a digital broadcast on a DVD recorder while viewing another digital broadcast. Important for low ambient light theaters, Pioneer’s remote control has an illuminated keypad.

With their KURO plasma display range Pioneer have placed emphasis on black from their product name, KURO which means black in Japanese, through all their marketing literature. Their contention is that black gives each color greater definition, additional shades, more depth and the sharpest details.

New Crystal Emissive Layer

Pioneer have used a new crystal emissive layer with a newly developed cell structure including a new Electron Emission Source material to speed electrical discharge and improve the pixel blackness between frames. In fact, black luminance is now about one fifth of previous models. This a primary reason for the impressive 20,000:1 contrast ratio of these 1080p KURO models.

Direct Color Filter III

Pioneer’s third version Direct Color Filter further minimizes light reflections in high ambient light conditions. Directly attached to the front of panel, the filter assures a wide horizontal viewing angle without any mirror or reflection effects.

Video Processing

Picture quality is becoming increasingly dependent on video processor performance. High definition displays magnify any image defects which may include noise and image artifacts caused by poor video processing. Image defects masked by lower resolution displays are evident on a HDTV. Image noise and artifacts can be introduced through the compression required to pack hundreds of channels within limited transmission bandwidth or during deinterlacing which is required to convert NTSC or PAL interlaced signals to progressive-scan for digital display.

Video processors de-interlace and scale video signals to fit native resolution however, they also have algorithms to improve image quality and remove any noise or artifacts. Pioneer have revamped their video processing. To improve performance they have included an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (an integrated circuit customized for a particular use) instead of relying on a general purpose one.

Some of the video processing technologies included in the KURO plasma’s include:

• 3D I/P (Interlaced/Progressive) Conversion produces clear video images by eliminating comb-shaped noise commonly seen in scrolling text and smoothing jaggies along diagonal lines.
• A Noise Reduction System to minimize block noise which commonly occurs in moving images (small dot-shaped mosquito noise artifacts along the image periphery). It also minimizes noise from compression and definition conversion as well as analog video noise.
• High-definition Resizing for reducing noise generated when a 1080p video signal is converted to 1365 x 768 or 1024 x 768
• Optimum Video Mode which automatically processes images based on the signal and room conditions (ambient light).
• Film Smooth Motion Mode for providing smoother movement when reproducing 24-fps film material. It works by generating intermediate video images to boost the frame rate to 60fps (frames per second). This technique suppresses awkward movements (judder) during conventional 2:3 pull-down conversion to achieve smoother movement between frames.

Deep Color

Pioneer’s KURO plasma full HDTVs implement the new xvYCC color standard (IEC 61966-2-4 color standard called xvYCC (short for Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications). The xvYCC color standard which provides an extended gamut (color space) which supports some 1.8 times as many colors as the commonplace sRGB color space. This increase in the number of colors that can be produced gives the plasma displays a more lifelike or natural appearance as it brings their color palette closer to that the human eye can perceive.

Deep Color term refers to the use of 30-bit, 36-bit, and 48-bit color in flat panel displays which is an increase from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification. The extra bit depth (no of bits) is actually required to reduce the chance of posterization which can occur with extended color gamuts such as xvYC. Posterization occurs when part of an image with continuous graduation of tones is replaced by a number of regions of fewer tones. It looks somewhat like tidemarks between distinct steps in color. The effect is sometimes referred to as false coloring.

ISF C3 Capability

Pioneer have included the ISF Custom Calibration Mode licensed from the Imaging Science Foundation, Inc which conforms to ISF C3. The custom calibration mode process provides the capability for a certified calibrator to accurately adjust color, contrast, sharpness and tint for day and night time viewing scenarios covering all local installation factors. Factory settings can be restored if required.

Audio

The KURO plasmas have an integrated digital amplifier and newly developed twin 17W speakers focused on delivering improved linearity in amplitude and less low range distortion. The bottom speaker is detachable.

SRS WOW (including 3D, TRU-BASS and FOCUS)

Pioneer’s KURO plasmas have WOW patented sound technology by SRS Labs. WOW improves the dynamic audio performance of twin speakers by expanding the size of the audio image and improving the perception of low frequency sound (action flick’s deep rumbles).

TruBass

TruBass enhances bass performance, restoring the perception of low frequency tomes by using the harmonics present in the original audio source to recreate the low bass frequency information. It delivers the perception of deep, rich bass up to an octave lower than the physical low frequency limitations of small, medium or large speakers and headphones.

FOCUS

FOCUS lifts the dialog out of the sound mix and elevates the sound image, creating the perception of image height. Where speakers are located below the height at which viewers will be listening (such as with the KUROS bottom speaker) the sound field produced can be raised electronically.

Connectors

Both the Pioneer Elite KURO PRO-110FD and 1150FD come with an excellent range of connection options including no less than four HDMI, a couple of component-video, USB for use with the HomeGallery feature, LAN (10/100 Base-T Ethernet), PC VGA port and a CableCARD slot.

User Reviews and Price Comparisons

Pioneer PRO 110FD – 50″ Elite KURO plasma TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – HDTV

PIONEER PRO-150FD

Extended Service Plan

Specifications

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