The Official Pioneer 9G non-Elite KURO Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 154

Yes, the aspect ratio on the dvd player. It should be set to 16:9. It's probably set to 4:3 since this is the first time you are using it with an HDTV. If the player doesn't have a setting for 16:9, using the zoom on the Kuro is fine. Just make sure the entire screen is filled. No black bars for the first 150 hours or so.

Also, you may want to think about replacing that old dvd player with a nice, shiny, brand new blu-ray player. Your Kuro, and yourself, will be very happy.

Specifically I mean thru my cable box as the AV source. In the manuel I have the AV options of Auto, Full, Dot By Dot, etc to Wide, Wide 1 and Wide 2.

Then there is an option to select side masks. This is where it gets confusing to me. Any help out there?

Yes, this is exactly the plan. Just need to save a little money first.

Thanks,

I have no problem with a 4:3 image on a 16:9 screen as long as the side bars are black. My complaint was that Pioneer's 4:3 modes had gray side bars.



Unfortunately ControlCAL doesn't run on any of my computers. Thanks for the tip. It should just be a couple control codes sent to the 6020. I'll check out their forums for the info

may be quicker and easier to figure out how to get ControlCAL to work on at least one of your computers.

I have a 5020 only Movie mode permits no edge enhancement.
Edge Enhancement (Sharpness) can make digital artifacts much more pronounced. For this reason, I use movie mode. Many people and some reviews find Movie mode a bit flat. However, ti can be tuned up using ControlCal which makes it look much better. I am very pleased with the results.

It is a bit unfair, but my Lumagen Radiance makes SD significantly better. Of course, a $4000 scaler for a display that costs half as much is ridiculous. That said, a DVDO Edge might be a reasonable addition.

I am beta testing a new Blu-Ray player that has excellent upscaling to 1080P. In dot-for-dot mode, the results are incredible so this is another cost-effective way to get the most out of your panel.

- Rich

fiddlyd , did you find the answer, anybody else using a mount from monoprice? i have a 5020

http://www.monoprice.com/products/su...09&cp_id=10828

thanks

Since I was having trouble with the break-in DVD being that the blue and grey shades would change every .5 sec while the green and red would change every 30sec.

So I tried the thumb drive images and all the shades look exactly the same. At first I thought it was a problem with it being stuck on the same file, but then it switched to the next color.

I rechecked the picture setting and all settings are as DNice's break-in settings. I checked the files on my computer and can see the slight differences in shades, but I cant on my PDP 6020. I know its not the TV set because I didn't have this problem with the break-in DVD.

How can this be?

Are you sure you have your slide show on "Repeat All"?

Hi, I am just about ready to buy the 5020 and had a few questions.

1. Is the buzzing issue a major problem?

2. During the burn in, do I just run the DVD for 100 straight not being able to enjoy normal viewing?

3. I have read that because of the perfect blacks the lighter colors, such as whites suffer. Is there any truth to this?

Thanks Much

1) Plasma sets do buzz, but setting to a power saving mode reduces the buzz, on mode 2 I cannot hear a thing. Also helps in cutting power consumption. It lowers light output but plenty with curtains drawn and lights off.

2) Just use it normally, watching channels with no logos, and full-screen, in reduced contrast / movie mode. Watch a season of 24 and it'll be run in.

Dross, I just purchased a 6020 and I don't have any buzzing at all. I'm in my second week and two days ago I started the break in files on a thumbdrive for about 20 hours a day. We watch regular programs during the evening and this set is great. I contacted Pioneer customer service and asked about the break in period and was told that it wasn't necessary but, It was a good idea. I just run it all night and during the day while playing golf (I'm retired).

Just because your set doesn't buzz doesn't mean it's dross Out of two Pioneer plasmas 7th and 9th gen, both buzz. As did a Fujitsu plasma. Many other people have reported buzzing, some louder than others, and some with little to none.

oops I thought you meant rubbish not replying to dross the member.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post14740159

Pioneer plasmas buzz. Whether a person's hearing is good enough and/or the environment is quiet enough to detect the buzz are the determining factors.

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, so I'll just enjoy my set buzz free! I would however consider bringing the set back if it did buzz very loud so I guess where you purchase it from is important. I bought mine from Costco and they have a very liberal return policy and an additional year warranty plus a third year if you buy it with your Costco American Express card.

Ahhh good point, at 64 my wife tells me I can't hear her most of the time.

Major/Minor is in the eye of the beholder. Outside of possible variance from unit to unit it depends on
A) How sensitive you are to relatively minor levels of audio noise and
B) Your environment acoustics

For me it's a total non-issue for instance. I've never heard it in watching many movies, games and TV. Then again, I make no special effort to hear it.

If it requires a special effort to find a 'defect' in a unit, why would I want to find it? Unless there an issue that requires attention to keep it from developing into something worse, I don't see the logic.



There is no issue with whites, lights or any other color. Keep in mind that your white color is a relative reference point. Your perception will primarily be affected by the color tempature of your settings and the amount of light in your room, not by any issue with the display itself.

Originally Posted by dross333
Hi, I am just about ready to buy the 5020 and had a few questions.

1. Is the buzzing issue a major problem?

There is a small buzz to any Plasma. Depending on how far you are from the set, the amount of echo in your room, how good your hearing is etc. Chances are if you will not hear it. However , be sure you buy from a store with a GOOD or LIBERAL return policy where you can return it if it buzzes.

A store will not replace a set with that fault, as it's within spec.

Costco will accept any set within 90 days no questions asked. But, you have to repackage it and haul it over there and that's a bit of a pain in the butt.

I am looking for some advice to help me with my somewhat odd situation. Here's the setup: I currently have a Panasonic 50", the 80U model that I am pleased with bang for the buck wise. What I am missing is the bass when playing video games or during movies. I do not have a receiver and the TV has no subwoofer connection. I was looking around at purchasing a receiver when the idea hit me, maybe I should just return the set, upgrade to a Kuro for around $1000 more and hook my sub directly up to the Kuro. I know this is blasphemy to most, but here is why I am considering it, I have no hearing in my left ear. No stereo hearing means the typical receiver advantages of sound shaping have zero advantage to me, I couldn't tell the difference between 7.1, 5.1, or 1.1 audio

As far as I understand a receiver has a few main uses, hooking up to audio equipment like cd players and radios which I have no interest in, HDMI switching which the TV will take care of, and allowing me to run a sub and have the volume go up and down with the TV/receiver volume which I am very interested in.

Given my situation would it be reasonable to just spend the money on an upgraded picture and the ability to run a subwoofer which I can appreciate vs spending it on a receiver which as far as I know provides little value to me due to my hearing being mono. Are there other advantages of a receiver that I would miss out on? I realize the volume could be set much higher without distortion but I have never cranked a TV up so loud as to cause distortion, except my current Panasonic because I am missing the bass. I tried hooking my sub up directly to the audio out on my current TV but then there is no volume control, whether the TV volume is loud or quiet my sub stays at the same level.

Is there another easy way to control my sub on my current TV without needing to add a full blown receiver? Or maybe I just need to drop the cash, get a cheap receiver and use it just to control the sub, and use the TV speakers for everything else? That solution feels like overkill as I really have zero desire to setup the receiver speakers, they would only clutter my living room and cost me additional money with no benefit to me.

Because I didn't trust my aging hearing, I enlisted my grandson to listen to my 6020 with his acute 15 year old ears. Neither of us could hear any buzzing, even when we were within inches of the display. Thus, I have to assume that how much of a problem Buzzing creates varies from set to set and involves more variables than just the viewer's hearing. In short, it's a problem you can't generalize about.

Good choice! I just got my new 5020 last Wednesday. Love it so far.

1. In my opinion it is not a major problem. I have only noticed it when I'm running the break-in images from the thumb drive and there is no other sound in the room. If you are watching regular TV with any amount of sound it is pretty much gone. It's pretty much a non-issue.

2. I'm using the images on a thumb drive as a slideshow instead. I recommend this if you have one. It is very easy and there is no danger of the disk freezing or skipping out to a static DVD screen. Plus you don't have to run a DVD player the whole time. I let the images run on "repeat all" all night and all day while I'm at work (about 20 hours) and in the evening I watch whatever I want in Movie mode with the contrast turned down a bit. Honestly, to me, the picture quality out of the box was superb but I'm doing the break-in anyway. BTW it is 150 hours instead of 100.

3. Quite the opposite. Having darker blacks makes the whites seem whiter. I was pleasantly surprised with how bright the picture was after years of hearing that plasma needs to be watched in a dark room.

Yeah, it is on repeat all. I have no problem cycling through the files. Its just that all the shades of the same color look the same. I thought it was repeating the same file over and over again until i saw the next color show up. I started manually cycling though the files and saw that the different shades really do look the same. It was not like this with the DVD.

I am trying Dot by Dot HDMI connected from my PC.

The characters appear to have some edge enhancement in all modes including Movie. The only way I can get it to be perfect is by changing the HDMI option to PC. Then it is perfect. It has been reported that 24P does not work in this mode.

It is a mild affect, but you can tell the difference immediately when you switch to PC mode.

Does this work for anyone else?

- Rich

Hello all, very helpful forum. I started on page 1 of this thread 2 weeks ago and am now just up to page 54. Considering I still have 100 pages to go, I thought I'd go ahead and ask this question in the off chance (very off chance I'm sure) that this question has not been asked/answered.

I want the pro-111fd. I really really want it. But....yeah, you guessed it, money (or lack thereof) is a wee bit of a problem. So I think I'm "settling" for the 5020. It's tough when you have to settle for second best isn't it?

Anyway, my question(s). Can the 5020 be professionally color calibrated and if so, does it compare very well with the pro-111fd? Up to page 54 of this thread there is no mention of being able to access the SM by the Joe Sixpacks of us, but I have not yet read if the colors can be professionally tweaked to be, ummm, better. I confess that that is the main reason I want the pro-111fd. I know the blacks compare favorably, but I'm really a stickler for color accuracy and being restricted to movie mode concerns me greatly if I don't find that mode particularly appealing.

Thanks

I picked up a 5020 a little under a month ago. I am wondering what you ppl think about how loud this thing is. I traded in my old Samsung 550 because I found this for a decent price and had a 400 gift certificate to buy this thing. I gotta say, after about 25 days with it I really like my old 550 better. It was quieter and the color was more accurate. This set has darker blacks, I think, but I would have never noticed that. I only have 4 days left to make a final decision.... does it get better with time? lol

Simpleson,

Do you watch much standard def tv? I'm interested in whether you notice a substantial difference between the Samsung and the Pio with sd. My old pio was great at sd tv.

What do you guys think of BB current price for the 5020? Any chance tey might match todays;s amazon price? Is this a good deal? Thanks

They won't pm Amazon.