Looking for a worthy successor to the Pioneer Elite Kuro PRO-111FD... Can the new Panasonic...

I have read numerous comparisons and the general opinion is that the Panasonic VT50 series is indeed a worthy successor to the Kuro line.The Sharp Elite in some ways has a better picture, but it is nearly double the price and has some color accuracy flaws. I doubt you'll be disappointed in the VT50. If price is an issue, the ST50 is almost as good, but not as readily calibrated and with a somewhat poorer black level.

The vt30 gets little love on this forum....it has amazing blacks and produces outstanding pq....
I also own a pioneer elite 150fd.. 60 " and,IMO,the vt 30 is every bit as good,,and in any many ways surpasses,the elite.

^A VT30?!

from what i have read on this forum...and from what i have personally seen...the vt30 ,as far as blacks and pq are concerned,is equal to the 8th. generation elite....BTW,is the extra 5" a deal breaker for you?

They certainly are. Scroll down to check the power consumption measurements for the 55" ST50: http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/panasonic-tc-p55st50/4505-6482_7-35118300-2.html

Calibrated, it uses 246.97 W versus 293.06 W for the 50" Pioneer PRO-111FD.

I took delivery on a 50"G-50 last week for my living room. I have a calibrated Pioneer F-110 in another room with my sound system. I expect the G-50 to look better once I put more hours on it, but it doesn't look bad now in THX Cinema with C-Net settings. To be honest however, it's not a Kuro. The built quality is not the same and the picture detail and pop on the Pioneer is hard to beat. The plus side however, is the Panasonic has more bells and whistles than the Pioneer, which makes it a better fit for a lot of users. Bottom line for me is that I would not sell the Pioneer and will baby it for a few more years.

yeah....this from frontpage review:

PANASONIC VT30 REVIEW

VT30 is the new flagship model from Panasonic and we are excited to finally have it in our own testing room. We saw VT30 in London earlier this year and with a new slim one-sheet-of-glass design, a new improved Infinite Black Pro 2 panel and a new Smart TV interface Viera Connect & Viera Market, VT30 certainly looks interesting on paper.

But has Panasonic managed to make further improvements to picture quality compared to last year’s VT20/VT25 model? And is VT30 a better TV than the cheaper GT30 range that we tested last month? And what about compared to Samsung’s plasma TVs? FlatpanelsHD will find out in this Panasonic VT30 review.

Panasonic VT30 is available in 55 and 65 inches in the US called TC-P55VT30 and TC-P65VT30. In EU VT30 will be available in 42, 50, 55 and 65 inches called TX-P42VT30, TX-P50VT30, TX-P55VT30 and TX-P65VT30. The TV is basically the same.

I'm surprised since that's 2011's model unless I'm totally confused.

hodge you are confused vt30 is not the latest flagship vt, the 50 is, the blacks on the 30 match a 8g i believe not a 9g:D

sorry vinnie wrong quote

No,you are on the money...I recommended it because of it's ability to equal
The 8 g kuro...as I understand it,the 9 g Kuros were not rated that much higher than the vt...
My reasoning also took into consideration price....great bang for the buck.....this tv has,somehow,fallen off everyone's radar...even though it's one year older,it should not be ignored.

OK, well, even the VT50 is not quite on the same level (black level-wise) as the 9G panels (VT30 even less so obviously), so that might lead to a bit of a disappointment for the OP.