While it looked like the Panasonic's better color reproduction, more accurate gamma, reduced power consumption and $1100 price advantage over last year's Kuros was going to give Pioneer a run for their money, the new Kuro has stepped up with improved noise reduction and matched color reproduction and power consumption to the Panasonic. Pile that onto what Kuro is most famous for—the blackest blacks on any TV anywhere.

Unfortunately, the King doesn't come cheap: At $5,000, it's $1,500 more than the Panasonic. For the full down and dirty, check out Gary's review. [HD Guru]

The winner was, in part, determined by how much better the plasma displayed blacks compared to the LCD.

But when we looked over at the Pioneer, we immediately knew we were seeing something special. The same features were so deep that it made the blacks on the LCD look gray—even though this Samsung had the best blacks we've ever seen from an LCD. On the plasma, the car appeared more etched and dimensional against the dark background, thanks to the extra low-level detail, and the letterbox bars virtually disappeared into the set's black frame.

The LCD also got points docked for having a smaller horizontal viewing angle, having an unusually glossy screen surface, and very slightly less good picture uniformity. However, this was the best LCD they've ever seen, and they claim that the technology still hasn't shown the best it can do—meaning there may still be hope yet for LCD fans. In the meantime, this plasma TV is the Best. TV. Ever. [Sound and Vision]