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Hello all - I know there's already been discussion of this TV, but I haven't seen a review by anyone who saw it in person, so I created a new thread. If you don't want the entire story, just skip down to the bottom for my final impressions. By the way, they didn't allow photography, so sorry, no pictures.
The Demonstration
The display was behind closed doors - you have to get a ticket and wait in line to get in. The room has a surround sound system and two plasma displays - a PDP-6070HD, and the Plasma that I will refer to as the "Super Plasma". You'll find out from my review that it is fully deserving of that title!
The PDP-6070HD is playing at first, with the other display off. Well, we thought it was off. The 6070 looks great, of course. The presentation began by the 6070 turning off and the new TV coming on.
The. Picture. Was. Fantastic.
We watched a five minute clip while I searched in vain for a flaw in the picture. It wasn't there. Sometimes the blacks on my NEC plasma disappoint - not so with the Super Plasma.
A clip of a model with porcelain skin was shown, and a dark-skinned, stubbled photographer. The photographer's jacket was black leather, and every fold and shadow was accurately reproduced without crush. The model's fair skin and vivid clothing were almost 3D. Skin tones were perfect on both people, despite their different looks. Gone was the sometimes obvious green tint inherent with some Pioneers. Colors were incredibly vivid, but not cartoony - it was obviously an exceptional display perfectly calibrated.
Then the real test came - both TVs on at the same time. They played a scene from the Haunted Mansion, and the Super Plasma proceeded to simply embarass the 6070 in every aspect - color rendition, black detail, contrast - everything.
As the presentation continued, we were told that the new display has brand new processing, a new color filter, and a totally new panel. Basically it's a new TV from the ground up. They claimed 20,000:1 contrast ratio (almost definitely dynamic contrast), and 80% lower black levels than the current models.
Final Impressions
This was simply the best television image I've ever seen.
Blacks were BLACK. The room was dimly lit, and the black sections of the picture all but disappeared into the black bezel. Contrast was fantastic, as advertised. The image was equally as bright as the 6070, but had, of course, much deeper blacks. The deep blacks were even more impressive when one considers that the 50" FHD1 has worse blacks than the other 50" displays - the fact they could not only achieve such a great picture with such nice black levels is only made more amazing by the fact that the 60" in the demo was a 1920x1080 display.
There was no false contouring. Colors were more natural than on any plasma I've seen. Blacks (have I mentioned this) were BLACK. No black crush was evident in scenes with fine detail in the shadows - all detail was preserved.
Letterboxing bars were barely visible against the black bezel when I was looking directly at them, and disappeared completely when I was actually watching the image.
In short, if the product Pioneer releases this summer is of equal quality to the one in the presentation I saw, this plasma will redefine the game.
The Demonstration
The display was behind closed doors - you have to get a ticket and wait in line to get in. The room has a surround sound system and two plasma displays - a PDP-6070HD, and the Plasma that I will refer to as the "Super Plasma". You'll find out from my review that it is fully deserving of that title!
The PDP-6070HD is playing at first, with the other display off. Well, we thought it was off. The 6070 looks great, of course. The presentation began by the 6070 turning off and the new TV coming on.
The. Picture. Was. Fantastic.
We watched a five minute clip while I searched in vain for a flaw in the picture. It wasn't there. Sometimes the blacks on my NEC plasma disappoint - not so with the Super Plasma.
A clip of a model with porcelain skin was shown, and a dark-skinned, stubbled photographer. The photographer's jacket was black leather, and every fold and shadow was accurately reproduced without crush. The model's fair skin and vivid clothing were almost 3D. Skin tones were perfect on both people, despite their different looks. Gone was the sometimes obvious green tint inherent with some Pioneers. Colors were incredibly vivid, but not cartoony - it was obviously an exceptional display perfectly calibrated.
Then the real test came - both TVs on at the same time. They played a scene from the Haunted Mansion, and the Super Plasma proceeded to simply embarass the 6070 in every aspect - color rendition, black detail, contrast - everything.
As the presentation continued, we were told that the new display has brand new processing, a new color filter, and a totally new panel. Basically it's a new TV from the ground up. They claimed 20,000:1 contrast ratio (almost definitely dynamic contrast), and 80% lower black levels than the current models.
Final Impressions
This was simply the best television image I've ever seen.
Blacks were BLACK. The room was dimly lit, and the black sections of the picture all but disappeared into the black bezel. Contrast was fantastic, as advertised. The image was equally as bright as the 6070, but had, of course, much deeper blacks. The deep blacks were even more impressive when one considers that the 50" FHD1 has worse blacks than the other 50" displays - the fact they could not only achieve such a great picture with such nice black levels is only made more amazing by the fact that the 60" in the demo was a 1920x1080 display.
There was no false contouring. Colors were more natural than on any plasma I've seen. Blacks (have I mentioned this) were BLACK. No black crush was evident in scenes with fine detail in the shadows - all detail was preserved.
Letterboxing bars were barely visible against the black bezel when I was looking directly at them, and disappeared completely when I was actually watching the image.
In short, if the product Pioneer releases this summer is of equal quality to the one in the presentation I saw, this plasma will redefine the game.
