By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
24/12/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037585,44208487p,00.htm

The Pioneer KRP-500A might well be the pinnacle of the Japanese plasma advocate's offerings. That's because for future releases, the Kuro will be based on panels manufactured in Panasonic's factories paired with Pioneer's proprietary A/V electronics. How this will work out eventually, only time will tell. But for the time being, you can be assured of a no-holds-barred visual feast with this sleek 50-incher. Here is why.

Design

At a quick glance, the latest KRP-500A looks just like the 2007 PDP-LX508G. It sports a clutter-free bezel matched by a slim metal frame and is dressed head to toe in the series' familiar black piano finish. What really stands out is a sleek 64mm-thick side profile and lighter 31.4kg bulk brought about by offloading auxiliary electronics to a media receiver. Another minor tweak is its pair of side loudspeakers. These are marginally slimmer, mounted via brackets and bolts with thin speaker cables. What stays put, though, is its fixed "L" pedestal stand and an optional wall mount.

The compact 420 x 80 x 278mm media receiver houses the TV tuner, assorted control buttons and A/V ports--including front PC and USB inputs. We would have very much preferred an HDMI for a HD camcorder as well which will save us the hassle of reaching for the rear. Aesthetics-wise, the kit is shipped in matching glossy black complemented by a brushed-metal accent and a full-face flap cover that conceals the above. To hook up the screen, Pioneer has provided a 3m-long proprietary cable. It should be sufficient for most installations, except for some customized jobs.

Pioneer is throwing in a redesigned remote to go with the new two-box form factor. This has an identical quality metallic finish and ergonomics of the original, but with more boxy outlines and added chrome directional-pad and shortcuts. The handy direct video input buttons have also been regrouped and segregated from the rest for easy identification. For added versatility, the remote also offers multifunctional settop box, DVD and VCR playback control compatible with over 30 brands. The only omission here is backlighting, available on high-end Samsung and Sony TVs.

It's a dream come true for any geek as far as the structured software menu is concerned. We counted around 60 settings from elementary tweaks to in-depth variations such as four noise reduction and SpyderTV Pro-friendly white balance. These technicalities aside, the company has the less savvy users covered with up to seven picture modes. These have been factory tuned and include two fixed selections: Optimum and Dynamic. The former provides automatic real-time optimization and allows you to display key A/V parameters onscreen temporarily for inspection.

Features

Having touched on the superficial stuff, what really matters are the enhanced G9 plasma panel and video processor beneath. According to Pioneer, these deliver five-fold better black than the past G8 iteration and an extreme contrast to boot. Adding to the combination is a new direct color filter which substitutes conventional glass layer fronting the fragile panel. It's made to suppress not only glare from ambient lighting, but also internal reflections observed on lesser plasmas. In a nutshell, the Kuro should maintain its color vibrancy in day or night regardless of room lighting.

Remember the Optimum mode we mentioned earlier? Pioneer has revised this function to provide real-time audio and visual optimization. Based on actual played back content and built-in light sensor analysis, it minimizes users' guess work in the art of TV fine tuning. This puts aside the hassle of toggling between picture modes for different program genres, too. For those who prefer to go all out, you can purchase an optional color sensor probe which attaches to the panel. This adds another dimension to the overall accuracy by factoring the actual in-room color temperature.

Another performance-centric improvement is the powerful 36W audio subsystem and woofers inherited from its TAD professional audio speakers division. As with past Pioneer HDTVs, you could upgrade the TV's low-frequency response by hooking up a powered subwoofer. This is possible courtesy of a relevant sub out which filters bass to external boom boxes. On the software processing front, this Pioneer is one of few to offer SRS Surround, TruBass, Focus and Definition functions. The latter two functions are designed to boost both vocal and music instrument clarity.

Touching a bit more on connectivity options, we've only three 1080p24-ready HDMI 1.3 inputs on the KRP-500A--one short of the competition. Then, there's the less than optimal signal support for its dual component-video and PC jacks capped at 1080i and 1,360 x 768-pixel, respectively. In the same light, it is puzzling for Pioneer to restrict its USB 2.0 port to JPEG playback, though MP3 provision is pretty standard nowadays. Anyway, the Home Gallery system is compatible with thumbdrives, card readers and digital cameras with photos previewed in 4 x 4 thumbnails.

Performance

Before we dive into the assessment details, it's worth noting that this Kuro is quite resistant to burn-in and glare introduced by ambient lighting. Overall, the Optimum mode is also pretty effective for most materials, though we felt the colors were a little cooler or bluish in our opinion. Moving on, let's kick start the review by checking out its regular broadcast reception. To sum it up, we like the clean and grain-free visuals garnered from most local TV stations. The only slight imperfection was the softer details, though most sizeable subjects onscreen had sharper contours.

Putting the SpyderTV Pro-calibrated Kuro through the pace of our Avia test suite, we were greeted with a perfect grayscale tracking in distinct gradation of blacks. This was followed by a near-perfect color decoding and an obvious image clipping due to overscan processing--we tried toggling its 11 aspect ratios but to no avail. Having said that, this was offset by a strong showing while playing back the i.Robot DVD movie. Intricate details such as the carbon fiber skin of the robots' limbs were aplenty, matched by generally film-like and clear pictures, as well as a healthy depth of field.

The 3D feel was even more prominent when we switched over to the Transformers Blu-ray in fullscreen and superb clarity. Compared with its predecessor, the KRP-500A's colors were also visibly richer. This brought out the striking hues of the Autobots (especially the flame motif of Optimus Prime) in the movie, though the mild red push in skin tone was observed at times. As far as black level is concern, the Kuro is in a league of its own, too. In a three-way evaluation, the Kuro stood out with its deep black and the largest star cloud--the panel frame is still visible for the rest.

It was smooth sailing for HD-HQV benchmarks with most tests expertly tackled. That said, we observed that noise reduction really kicked in at mid level, while flickering was an issue in the Film Resolution Loss test. For gaming, setting Film Mode to Smooth (this mode may cause motion artifact for 24-frame movies) and activating Text Optimization delivered judder-free razor-sharp graphics in PlayStaion 3 Ridge Racer 7. Furthermore, the panel performed equally well on 1080i component-video in Xbox 360's Need For Speed: ProStreet with little penalty in fidelity.

If there's one area which needs to be improved, it has to be the lackluster PC resolution support. As expected, text turned out soft when we hooked up our laptop to the review unit. Looking on the bright side, our color test chart was reproduced in fine gradation sans any signs of banding. We had mixed impression when it came to its JPEG playback as well. On one hand, photos were rendered in brilliant print quality at their original aspect ratio. But on the other hand, we felt the shots could've been loaded faster at 8 and 14 seconds for preview and full screen, respectively.

Lastly, we assessed its audio subsystem. This served out rich sound characterized by extended treble and adequate mid-bass. We were able to achieve reference level at 40 percent volume in our sizeable Lab, coupled with convincing stereo imaging and an effective surround sound that expanded the sound stage. Taking everything into consideration, Pioneer has again managed to refine its Kuro plasma TV. The only major difference this time round is a much more realistic S$8,999 pricing. Pound-for-pound, this 50-incher definitely delivers more in A/V performance for about S$2,000 more than its peers.