The Official Pioneer 9G Elite KURO Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 15

oldovergrad,

congrats on the new Pro151 and welcome to the Kuro club.

One big consideration, PLEASE reconsider the bb calibration, the bb isf services have had many reports of techs with little experience, lack of quality equipment and hurrying through the calibration due to time restraints. i'm not saying that some may do an ok job but for what your spending you can do much better.

Contact Jeff Meier, accucalhd.com, he post as UMR here on the avs forums, he is a well known highly respected ISF tech that does tours around the country. He has calibrated several members Kuros and Kuro Elites so you know he has the experience as well as using some of the best equipment available to give your new Pro151 the best isf calibration possible. He also does your audio sound system so you will have a great overall a/v setup that your equipment and room can provide you. it will cost more than a bb calibration but you will get the true quality that you expect and paid for.

If you don't use Jeff find a good ISF tech in CA, just don't use bb.

for more info look for avs member htwaits, he has many calibration reports from avs members linked in his signature. Besides those links HT just had his 6010 calibrated by Jeff and was very pleased.

yes, there were some blotch issues and some members did get their panels replaced. go ahead and do the breakin and give it a chance.

then if you can see in anyway the blotch area having any effect on the pq during viewing return it if you bought it locally or contact pioneer and have them send a tech out. yes, you will need to have the room in a condition that makes it easiest for the tech to see and document it.

good luck with it, hopefully it turns out not to have any effect on your pq and you can enjoy your new Kuro.

I work for magnolia/best buy and i can say that the isf calibrators in my area are top notch and very thourough. We had our pro 150 calibrated in store and we used 50% less energy comsumption and the picture quality was amazing. YMMV

No, your calibration did not cut the energy consumption by 50%! That is a fantasy if you even think it did.

UMR (AVS name) comes to your area two or three times a year. He is outstanding, but will only take jobs that include both audio and video. Before he came to work on our whole system he gave me advise that saved at least as much as he charged for the outstanding work that he does. Of course I spent the savings too.

You don't have to have a high end audio system to benifit from having it calibrated to your room. You can read about what it did for me in the flat panel list of reports.

If you are looking for an outstanding calibrator to do video only, David Abrams (AVS name) is in your area, and he is also outstanding. Right now he isn't posting at AVS.

PM me for contact information, or follow the instructions in the two calibration lists that are linked at the bottom of my post.

That was quite an impulse buy you just made. Enjoy.

Who is good in our (south Bay) area?

thx

bob

so theres no debate about this

the newer 9G 111 and 151 are up to par or better than the blacks on a CRT - correct?



because I saw that demo at CES and was told that the one on display was a 8G and the one next to it was a prototype maybe 10 or 11G - the 8G looked crappy in comparison kinda like when I see a LCD next to a plasma

yea the prototype was muck blacker but if the 9G is much better than the 8G like the 8G was to the one before the Kuro line came out I am in for sure

it is so disturbing to see these issues like blotching before even the forum sponsors have started selling their elites....
added to that , some people are already whining about the lack of details on picture due to excessive blacks...

let's not "rain" on any 9G owner's parade

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been under the impression that the great black levels on these TVs will only serve to enhance color, detail and depth of the picture. I would imagine this to be true especially considering the increased contrast - this gen is brighter than any previous gen.

that`s not true... having deeper blacks is good but at the same time even one of the forum sponsors mentions that deeper blacks do kill the minute image details and he was advising those people who have concerns w/ that to go for the pansonics plasma

I think this is incorrect.

Kuro PQ kicks the crap out of panasonic any way you slice it - color, detail, depth, processing, even brightness on these 9Gs. He probably only said that because he is a known panasonic dealer. The Elite has so many adjustments that I'm sure you could avoid crushing blacks/killing minute details in any circumstance. And like I was saying before, my thought is that the amazing black level that kuros are capable of is one of the main reasons why it has a better PQ in all areas. Hopefully DNice or somebody who really knows will weigh in.

I`m not an expert in this....i myself am getting a pioneer 151fd but after my discussions with some forum sponsors who sell both elites and non elites...my conclusion is that kuros have better blacks,colors,processing but defnitely lose out on image details due to excessive blacks...imagining that both kuros and panny are profesionally calibrated

I disagree, I think the better black levels will enhance detail. Go look at an 800U, it can't even hold a candle to a xx20 series, let alone an Elite.

This is a ridiculous statement.

Wrong!!! I posted this in another thread:


Without blacks, your colour would be washed out. Ever increased the brightness
to the limit on a TV? Notice how the colours become washed out and has no depth?
Well, that's because you nixed most of the blacks and introduced excessive light.
You want to see the image true to the source and not distorted. It's also why i
argue that if a scene appears crushed, it's probably the source and not the TV as
the TV is displaying stuff as true to the source as possible.

we all can say whatever we want... probably some of the AVS dealers are trying to sell pannys over kuros but only when professional reviews come out , we will find out the truth

impossible.......at least the 50% energy consumption part of the statment. the pq on the Pro150 is amazing when plugged in

and that just further proves the point of bb employees not knowing what they are talking about.......

My understanding is that the 9Gs are Energy Star certified anyway, in certain modes.

And if certain modes can reduce energy consumption, then why is it outside the realm of possibility that having is ISF calibrated can reduce energy consumption as well?

We can argue about the 50% part, but let's not throw the baby out with the BB bathwater.

SethS (AVS user name but not active now) is outstanding. At your option he will do both video and audio. Seth lives in Santa Cruz and did our RPTV in 2005.

Seth Schnable's web site.

UMR comes to the Bay Area several times a year.

Jeff Meier's web site.

David Abrams also comes to the Bay Area several times a year.

David Abrams and Eliab are partners in Avical.

This is a group I would start with.

If only that were true.

I love the smell of new electronics in the morning!

Delivery guys weren't supposed to be here until late this afternoon, but they called and asked if they could make me their first delivery. They've been gone now about an hour and I thought I'd post up some pics because...well, just because.

Please ignore my very unfinished room and setup. In spite of being told to expect a June delivery, I really didn't expect it to arrive until August. That's when I'm hoping that some of the newer AVR's and/or pre/pros and BD players that can handle the lossless codecs to appear.

Consequently, I haven't got squat installed. Heck, I don't even have a HD cable box as yet. All I have hooked up right now is a DVD player. It's running the break-in disk as we speak. I'll be spending this weekend reading the manual and watching the pretty colors.

BASED ON MY INSPECTION SO FAR: No broken panel/glass...no stuck/dead pixles...no blotches...and, most importantly, NO BUZZ! After the delivery guys powered it up, I put my ear about a foot in front of the panel and heard...silence!

As I'm an over-the-hill guy (alright...I'll admit...I'm over 50) who's high frequency hearing may not be all that great, I had the youngest of the two delivery guys (he was about 18 or 19) see if he could hear anything. We turned off the air conditioning...an overhead fan...anything that could have possibly added ambient noise. He and the other guy listened, changed position and listened again. Nothing! Finally, after walking right up on it and putting his hear to the panel he said he could hear a faint little "something", but he had to really listen for it.

I'm hopeful that all this is a good indication of an issue-free 151FD. I suspect the vast majority of them will be trouble free as well. That said, my heart goes out to those who have discovered issues with your set. I do understand your anxiety. In spite of these reports, I would encourage others considering one of these to not hesitate about getting one. Like all consumer goods, it's a numbers game and the law of averages are on your side.

I have a "blotch" (or dirty screen) issue with my set, however it seems to be less now as the break-in DVD continues to play. The biggest effect was turning off those noise filters in the menu...as that helped smooth them out to the point where it's almost hard to see the blotches (or dirty screen).

I bet you during REGULAR video viewing, it won't even be noticeable. I will know more by late Monday night.

I'm even going to see if I can clean the screen, however I know I'll have to be carful once I learn how to do that. And I bet you that anyone that has this issue, can't even see it with regular video programming 99.9% or more of the time.

Does Pioneer talk about this issue in their manual? If so, what do they call it?

[

My 111 finally arrived this morning!

After about 6 hours of viewing various directv HD programs (can't do break-in disc since my DVD player was literally fried by the heat from my DVR), I have to say the picture quality is amazing, even in daylight! I can't wait until it gets dark out to see what this baby can really do.

My only "complaint" so far is that the picture looks a little soft with the 720 & 1080i signals compared to what I remember with my 5010. Does anyone else feel that way about their set?

Since there are so many settings and menu options, I think I probably just haven't stumbled on the right combination yet since the manual is oh-so-helpful at explaining the differences. The sharpest pic I've gotten so far (with a little help from the 8g forum posts), is in dot-by-dot mode, DRE set to mid or high, enhancer at 2, and I-P at 1. I've tried turning the sharpness up to the max of +15 , but it doesn't help that much, so I've settled at around +7. Does anyone know of a better combination?

And for those that are curious: I have very sensitive hearing and do hear what I would consider "normal plasma" scene changing buzz from my ideal seating position 7ft away. However, compared to the two 5010's I had to return due to extremely loud directional panel buzz, it is much, much quieter and gets drowned out easily by other sounds. I can almost eliminate it completely if I put the set in Energy Mode 2, but the picture does get a little dimmer.

Shutterman, congrats! Love the set. Thanks for the pics. Can't wait to get mine. I hope it is next week, but I still don't have a clue yet. August is going to be a long wait for the blu ray players and receivers. Can't wait to read your initial impressions.

9G Display Profiles for ControlCAL have been Released!

I've been given the go-ahead to release the 9G Profiles which will allow you to access the ISFccc Modes in the Pioneer 9G Elites.

Visit the Forum at www.ControlCAL.com for more information.

Payment not required for Personal Use for your own Display!

asystole, The company is stating availability of 7/18. I just received an email from c-net.com which linked to amazon showing shipping of 7/7-7/14 for a pre-order of the 51FD, not sure if that's the same for the Elite 05FD. I know Robert at VE is taking pre-orders now, too. Blue

No kidding, Von...August, late August at that, is going to seem like an eternity. Please post when you get yours. I'm sure it's going to work out great for you.