What should replace my Pioneer Kuro LX5090H?

My Pioneer Kuro LX5090H just died on me
And the Norwegian Pioneer support told me there is nothing they can do, there is no parts, no replacement or anything they can offer to replace my faulty and now dead LX5090H! There is simply no more LX5090H or KRP-500 for that matter available in Norway.

So I'll be getting a full refund, which is nice.. But still sad considering my pro calibrated LX5090H is still one of the best, if not still the best 50" TV monitor on the market!


But it's time to move on and find something to replace it I guess.


I can start of with describing my usage:

60% is SD-quality (upscaled from my digital IPTV decoder by my Yamaha RX-V3900 AV-receiver 570P --> 1080P) Norwegian soccer.

10% is HD-quality 720P (upscaled to 1080P by the RX-V3900) Norwegian soccer.

The rest is Blu-Ray video from my PlayStation3 Slim, along with some random digital IPTV watching and some Xbox360 and PlayStation3 gaming.


My PlayStation3 might get replaced by a dedicated Blu-Ray player in the near future, if it will provide me with some benefits when it comes to audio / video quality.. But so far I've felt that my Yamaha RX-V3900 is doing all the work anyway, so there hasn't really been any reason to replace my PlayStation3 for the Blu-Ray part.


So my main focus is Norwegian soccer league, in other words there is at least one - two games each week, mostly in upscaled Standard Definition / PAL quality done by my RX-V3900 receiver, the source is coming from Homebase which is my IPTV provider (fiber optic Internet), which provides us with this crappy Motorola VIP-1910 digital decoder which I've set to 570P in order to get my RX-V3900 doing all the upscaling, rather than the ****** Motorola decoder doing it! (Please leave feedbacks if you would recommend me using some other settings other than lowest quality on the decoder, and full upscaling on the RX-V3900)

Every now and then my Molde FK matches is broadcast live on TV2's main television channel, instead of through their TV2 Sports channels and then I'm able to receive their signal in HD (720P) where as my RX-V3900 upscales it from 720P into 1080P.


So that's the main goal for my TV monitor, to be kick ass when it comes to upscaled standard definition / PAL and HD (720P) soccer, along with some other sports like Ski Jumping etc..

It's also being used to watch Blu-Ray movies, along with some random TV-shows and some gaming.. But that's nowhere near as important as the soccer matches!


Everything displayed on the monitor will go through my Yamaha RX-V3900 AV-receiver, which got some pretty good upscale on both digital and analog sources, in other words the upscaling provided by the monitor itself isn't of much importances, as I've yet to know of any monitor on the marked actually outperforming the upscale capabilities of my RX-V3900?

Please correct me if I'm wrong!



The monitor will be placed in my department, which is a rather darken basement, where I'm able to block almost all light sources if I want to. I also got the best girlfriend in the world, which put video and audio quality in-front of both design and size, so thickness and looks isn't of any importances, it's just awesome picture quality and capabilities that really counts!


Obviously I don't want to go down from 50" to anything smaller, so I'll rather have it bigger or the same, just not smaller!



So what do you think would be the best pick for me to replace my LX5090H?
Would it be some of Panasonic's Plasma TV's, or perhaps a Samsung Plasma-TV? Or move towards LED-LCD's like the new Samsung series or LG series?


I'm open for about anything! And I personally have no clue on what advantages and disadvantages there is between Plasma and LED-LCD in 2010, I know I don't care about ultra-slim, no noise and low power which rolled out LCD's back when I first got my Pioneer Kuro LX5090H, I do appreciate and value picture quality instead of thin, light, "sexy" and low-powered monitors.



Whether I want 3D or not I'm not quite sure, I've never been a big fan of 3D, I've of course watched Avatar in 3D on the cinemas, along with quite a few other movies the last half year, but I still don't get the whole point, I feel like it most cases it just gives me a bigger challenge focusing on the image, more blurry effects and motion etc.. Not to mention the headaches I often get.

But on the other hand, it's always nice to have the 3D support in place, you'll never know whether I might find it amusing in the long run or not!

To be honest with you all, I never really bought the Pioneer Kuro LX5090H because of it's superior black level quality, nor is supposedly awesome colour accuracy (?)

The simple reason why I bought it "back in the days" was of it's rumour of being the best TV monitor currently available, and because of the nature of Plasma technology I was told it would be superior in the regards of watching soccer / football and other sports because of Plasmas more natural "flow" within the panel technology itself, compared to LCD's which because of lots of processing etc.. Would give my much more jigger and unnatural flow.

If you get what I mean?


Since I've got my Pioneer it's been a massive release of different LED-LCD's all over the globe, everything from Edge-LED to Full-LED, with or without Local Dimming.. You name it! And I haven't really being following this technology, or the releases of newer Plasma panels for that matter as I had my Pioneer Kuro anyway and wasn't thinking of replacing it before a few years.


Now the situation have changed, and I'm in the business for a new TV monitor for the usage I tried to describe above, and honestly I have no clue on whatever disadvantages there would be between choosing something LED-LCD or Plasma, a LG vs Samsung LED-LCD or Panansonic vs Samsung Plasma etc..


That's where you "Guru" guys come in, to direct me in the right direction!
I've loved my Pioneer for what it has been for the time I've had it, it has not been without it's flaws though, for one I've found the "accurate colours" to be somewhat awkward? For an instance the grass on different football / soccer matches have for me felt more brownish than greenish? If this is because my Pioneer is showing the grass for what's it's worth, in order words if the field is bad and actually is more brown than green I would easily see this on my 50" Pioneer that's okay, but my friends 55" Sony Bravia W3500 the exact same match got much more green-feeling grass?


That's something that have really been nagging me for some time, I've just taking it for granted that my Pioneer is showing the right colours as I've got one of the better ISF-calibration companies in Norway to calibrate it, but still it feels a little strange sometimes, but it might just be me liking the colours being a little more VIVID than what's considered accurate and realistic?


The black levels have always been nice, but my Pioneer has suffered from some black crush since day one, I still have to crank up the brightness or gamma in order for being able to tell the darker objects in some movies apart from each other? Just like on my glossy MacBook Pro 17" screen.



So all in all, I've been very satisfied with my Pioneer Kuro LX5090H, but I don't find it to be perfect at no means? This might be because I've got some bad panel or something? Or perhaps me, myself and my eyes are just straight out awkward?




But there is no doubt that I'll go out and get myself something to replace my LX5090H in the next few weeks, the question is just what to get?

I've been looking that the Panasonic V and VT20 / 25 series, I've been looking at the Samsung new 2010 LED-LCD series (mostly the 8000-series because of it's local dimming) and the better LG LED-LCD series etc.. But I have no clue which would suit me, and my usage the most out of all these?


I did get the impression once, that LCD is more for those whom want a slimmer, not power hungry and 100% silent monitor, whereas Plasma was more for those who didn't care much about the above, but simply wanted the straight forward best picture quality?

I've no idea if that's really the case, but that' the overall impression I've got last time I was in the business for a monitor and ended up on the Pioneer.



I don't need or want a Plasma or LED-LCD in that regard, I simply want the monitor that would work the best for me, I guess every monitor is having it's own pros and cons, I'm trying to figure which one would be the best for my situation and my usage which I tried to describe in my first post!



And everyone is talking about the superior black level of the Pioneer, for me the whole black crush issue I was facing kinda ruined the whole impressive black levels thingie for me.