To be honest those images seem to highlight a marginal improvement over the 1G, whilst both old and new Kuros continue to be light-years ahead of the competition in displaying "true" blacks.

the blacks do look rather impressive especially compared to the others

Pioneer Plasmas make me wet.

Now it's time to re-evaluate buying a plasma.

@radikaled: As well you should, my Pioneer 5080 is magically delicious.

(sarcasm)
Wow. Just wow! Your pictures here are like describing colour to a blind person.
Or showing hires photos in a newsprint ad.
Or watching HD detail on a YouTube vid.

(black on my LCD of a black plasma...that just is not really black)

@jkoppee: I think we should take a moment to salute MLK. Without his tireless efforts, comments like yours (and a presidential candidate!) -would have never taken place.

Comment on Pioneer Kuro 2008 First Impressions: New Thin Plasma and Projector Beat All Although I have no doubt that these new plasmas are amazing. I think the demo was a little misleading. There is no way that the samsung lcd/led monitor looks that bad. If a large portion of the screen is black then the samsung lcd (81 series) can generate true blacks as well. Although in areas with black and white like the center of the fireworks I do agree that some blooming might exist. But something is just off about the first picture in particular, like pioneer turned off the dynamic backlight.

Sure, when you put it side by side like that. But how many of us would be able to tell that the black is not that black if we only had one screen to look at?

The monitors you have there all have good enough blacks if you're sitting at home watching a movie. I have never heard anyone say to me, "wow, you're blacks are not that black on your 42" plasma" when they're over watching something. And I have a 4 year old Panny!

Also, I just want to point out that sometimes you get black crush instead of real black. For example, in that middle photo of your up above, the woman sitting at the throne, you can't see the detail carvings of the chairback on the Kuro 2G but you CAN see it easily on the Sony for example. That, is black crush.

well i guess i have to get a new kuru t-shirt now. this is good, as my current one is starting to fade thus not accurately rep'n true pioneer blacks

Holy fuck, do want!

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: i'm pretty sure your capable of making a comparison relative to the other displays and the viewing environment, at least insofar as the camera can be trusted.

the comparison pics are unfair to the lcds because they were taken from a side angle and lcds get lighter with side viewing. a better comparison would have been done by using more straight on shots.

This kuro 2 looks awesome!
@Log1c: I'm with you!

so black - I couldn't see anything - fantastic.

@Aloof: Agreed, the 5080 is the best TV I've ever owned...

Actually the Samsung plasma did pretty darn good on the 2nd and 3rd pictures... if you ask me.

I wonder what the price difference is?... Samsung makes pretty darn good stuff too....

Kuro's blacks are amazing....

@NoobsRUs: I have a Pioneer 1140 and its the best set I've ever owned. With that said, with the lights off, I can definitely tell that its not quite black (just looking at the screen's contrast to the front bezel makes it apparent). I have Kuro envy. But not so much that I don't really really really dig my 1140...

Correction... I have a 1540.

@SigmundTheSeaMonster, ReginaldRareware, Savage1005: You guys seem to forget one key element: I WAS THERE. These pictures, out of about 100, are the best photographic representations of what I actually saw. To the naked eye, this stuff is impressive and the differences are totally obvious (at any angle).

I do agree with Noobs-R-Us that once you take just one TV home, it's harder to think comparatively—to an extent. As for Noobs' black-crush comment, I know full well what it is, and can safely say that the darker blacks help AVOID it, by giving you more gradation of darker shading. And when everything is blasted with backlight, you may not get black crush, but you get the opposite—white explosion?—which is most unpleasant.

Another thing: The LCDs were doing dynamic contrast stuff, too, so that at any given point, a region of the Samsung LED-backlit panel and the entire Sony CCFL-lit panel were varying their brightness to look darker than it was. You could see this pretty clearly—I wish I'd had video of that. That's why the brightness can look relatively different from one pic to the next.

I had heard that Samsungs are catching up to the pannies in PQ, it looked like that somewhat in the photos. Did it look like that IRL?

I am a converted LCD whore btw, I'm all plasma now(except my DLP front projector, but that's another avsforum)./

A fine day for Pioneer!

Well done. Gizmodo: I love this.

Wonder how much that projector is going to be...

Wonder how much longer my current projector bulb will last (thus giving me an excuse to upgrade!)

"Ehm... Percy? Did you ever see the 2008 Kuro?"
"...No, my lord.... But I know people who've seen it, and they say it's very, very black indeed!"
"Ah. And Percy, did you ever see any other Plasma screen?"
"... No, my lord..."
"So what you're telling me, is that something you've never seen is slightly more black than something else, you have never seen."
"Nnn... Yes, my lord..."

@jamesuschrist: $9,000—which is why I said, "The hype-if not the price-seems totally worth it." Not that $9K is high in projector land, but it's still too rich for my blood.

There's a reason Pioneer won Popular Science's Best of What's New 2007 feature. Pioneer's KURO redesign of plasma technology delivers results.

Details on the technology behind KURO at

[www.presentationtek.com]