wow that looks sweet

When I have enough money to plop down on a tv that will probably end up costing as much as the average person spends on a car, I'll buy it!

Wow! I wish I have one.

To think my family waited such a long time for the 60 inch elite kuro... only for this to be unveiled less than 2 months after we bought our current set.
Damn society's fast progress.

Japfa:
Well you didn't think TV technology was gonna stay stuck with crappy LCD backlight bleeding, did you? I held out forever on getting an LCD TV and monitor, and only upgraded a year ago for the TV and six months for the monitor, knowing that the black levels and refresh rates weren't where I really wanted them to be, but figuring they were good enough and I couldn't wait forever. So I'll have to upgrade again in another couple years. But I figure I can dump the TV and monitor for half price on some unsavvy schmoe who can't tell the difference, and won't care, when that time comes. I kinda regret waiting as long as I did actually... I probably coulda gotten the monitor six months sooner at least.

Aww man, that's a plasma screen, not an LCD. That means it'll prolly put out tons of heat and will fail in a few years or be susceptible to burn in, or have a grainy/noisy picture. :(

@Elliuotatar: Heh. Have you even seen one of these in person? I love how you qualify your dig on this tv, saying it will probably do this and probably do that. Such an informed opinion.

kind of makes sense tho..... black should never emit light.

why da f$ck i never thought of that.........

looks like contrast ratios really are obsolete now!

oh god i sound like such a fanboy...

I give this the ph15h seal of approval. (Which means I'm Buying it once it releases even if it makes my newly formed credit horrible.)

How long do I have to wait for a "none more black" joke?

The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice!

once you go black, you never go back

this might imply some racist comments...

My new Kuro 5010FD cries with jealousy

I can't wait for these to be released, I guess I will just have to upgrade again

This Kuro has colored me impressed...need to do some research on my next TV.

wow.. what to say.. this just looks awesome..

Yeah, they really weren't hyping it when they said the contrast wasn't an issue.

Alex:
I have a perfectly legitimate reason for saying that, and that reason is that every plasma I've ever seen has had two or more of those issues.

Yes, it's possible that this plasma won't have those issues. It's also possible that the Playstation 4 will have a holographic display and give you blowjobs.

That doesn't mean it's likely.

@Elliuotatar: You're an idiot for thinking that about plasmas. Do some research and real life testing before you talk crap about the best TV out there.

Or better yet, go put a black screen on your LCD, turn your lights off, and bask in that wonderful grey light.

Holographic Playstation 4 gives blowjobs?

NICE (Marcus Fenix voice)

@fusiongt: Wow, you sir are an outraged fanboy. It's cute. :-)

Seriously, I imagine magicians and other showmen(women) will really be able to spiff up their shows with these. Put one of these on the end of a dolly and move it all around a dark stage. It would look like whatever was on the screen was hovering in space. Cool.

@Elliuotatar: I'm an unsavvy schmoe who can't tell the difference so I'll take that off your hands for cheap. Hey, anything is better than my 10 year old Goldstar.

Wow. That's amazing. Black is actually Black. GIMME GIMME GIMME!

wow, how quickly we forget our old friend the CRT.

The contrast game wasn't an issue before LCD and Plasma showed up.

That crazy, glad I went with a pioneer instead of spending alot more on a kuro. Looks like I made a good choice for now. Have to move my panny to another room and pick up one of these bad boys in the future.

Sold

You almost gotta wonder why they show this thing off, since it will make some people put off buying one of their current models (who might have otherwise buy one) until this concept tech trickles into the real world.

Isn't it the same reason computer makers don't show off their next generation wares which discourage current sales?

I wonder how much these are going to retail at, 'cause if the price is right, man. I've never seen such beauty.

I'm taking that these are going to be a small fortune for all but the most techy of technophiles.

@barco:

That's true to a point. Even with CRTs however blacks were never truly black. The phosphor on most consumer grade CRTs glowed long after being excited. If you had a studio grade monitor that was a different story. If you doubt my statement turn the lights off and take a flashlight turn it on and stick it to the face of the CRT. Now turn off the flash light. You will see a glowing spot for quite a while where the flashlight was.

From what I can tell about this new Kuro the phosphors are extremely fast and maybe have another way of shutting them off as well.

I just got a Kuro 5080 and I don't see how it could BE any blacker. It's incredible.

Go Pioneer.

I recently purchased a Kuro as well and was simply amazed by the blacks as well. I am glad I went with Pioneer for my first HD-TV purchase, and this post now made me a Pioneer whore... :)

Two questions -
When will the future version be available?
Will the future version be available in 80"?

I'm happy to give Pioneer or Panasonic a pile of my hard earned cash as soon as they start making units that are more than 75"

@MacBandit: poor-quality CRT's might have had higher persistance, but it was still in same color, which didn't degrade contrast nearly as much as today's digital panel issues.. LCD's gray light-leak issue is a different animal entirely, and Plasma's issues has more to do with the drive electronics (read: production cost-reducing) than the phosophor.

It's just too bad that something as stupid as consumers saying "oooh, it's thin!" put us back into the video-stone age for an entire decade, right when CRT technology was fast becoming video-nirvana.

at least things are starting to look better (or, tolerable) these days.. Hell, I'll take that Kuro for the bedroom, but I'm still going to keep the 6-year old BarcoReality 909 in the theater (3200x2500 at 100,000:1 CR on a 12 foot screen? beat that, digital!) and my 10-year old, 21" Barco Reference Calibrator monitors on the PC, still the most color accurate monitors in the world.

Digital still has a lot of work to do to merely catch up to 1995-era CRT technology, sadly.

Contrast Ratio- Infinity:1

I'm just a little suspicious at the lack of test card style demos in that comparison. Sure the technology can have brilliant colours next to jet black backgrounds but what's the in-between like?

Greyscale demo please!

@MacBandit:

"From what I can tell about this new Kuro the phosphors are extremely fast and maybe have another way of shutting them off as well."

If you read the release is says it no longer turns on the pixel. Previous generations of PDPs had idle light because they turned all on pixels with an idle current. Now they seemed to figure out how to turn on a pixel without having to have the idle current leaking light hopefully without effecting pixel response time.

wow try that on any LCD o.O

balls, i no longer want a Kuro. :(

I want a future Kuro!

Go Plasma! Smack that LCD!

Okay, I might just be crazy, but since on the monitor that im looking at right now shows the Kuro concept to be completely black and the Kuro to be grayish blueish. Does that mean my monitor can display blacks as dark as the Kuro?

This is a similiar effect that i noticed when i used to have VHS and they would advertise DVD and the footage "seemed" more real even though it was still VHS. BTW im looking at this with a c panel samsung 226bw.

I bet the real life difference isn't so drastic. Looking at the pictures, I conclude brightness and contrast is optimized for Kuro concept, however, brightness on Kuro is turned up way way high trying to make concept Kuro look much better. Can't anyone tell that by looking at the pictures?

@BARCO: Not everyone finds it practical to have a projector or a big-ass elephant CRT TV in their living-room. Video-stone age? Give me a fucking break. Most consumers are not that stupid. People buy them not just because they're thin. Flat panels offer good quality visuals. I suspect the motive behind your rant is more to show off your elitism on the subject.

@WickedEast: BARCO is correct, CRTs displays blow LCD/Plasma out of the water in pretty much every image quality metric (I am talking about high end CRTs, not shitty Dells), only with the sets released in the last few months have they even come close to where we were 5 years ago with analog video displays. I have yet to replace my 22" Diamond Pro 2070 monitor as not even Apple or Dells $3000 LCDs offer better image quality, or even come close. One caveat though is the BarcoReality projector he mentions probably cost over 10k, and is pretty much impossible to find anywhere these days, weighs a ton, and isn't going to have as good black levels being a projector, even with a HC gray screen you aren't going to get close to the black levels of a Kuro I would imagine.

It would have been interesting if they would have put some other popular LCD/Plasmas next to their Kuro, so we can see just how white their blacks are.

My dad just got the Pioneer Elite PRO-150FD and it is "black". I did a test and it looks off when there is no input. The only plasma that i would buy after watching movies on this tv.