Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: pioneer, kuro, plasma, hdtv, lcd | Themes: Home Theater, Display Panels and Monitors
The announcement that Pioneer would be ditching the TV business was a sad one for all home theater aficionados.
Pioneer’s Kuro plasma HDTV line is regarded as the very best in the business. Sadly, due to hard economic times and financial losses, Pioneer decided to call it quits on making TVs.
Today we found out just that the last Kuro plasma TVs will be produced in April, with production being completely over by May. According to CrunchGear’s report on the Japanese press release, on April 1 Pioneer will roll out two 50-inch (RP-500A and KRP-500M) and two 60-inch models (KRP-600A and KRP-600M), but only 2,500 50-inch models and 500 60-inch TVs will make it off the line before the closure.
No doubt that the new and very limited models will be highly sought after by those who both want what will be undoubtedly a gorgeous display as well as a piece of history. Those who do manage to purchase one of the last Kuros won’t have to worry about support either, as Pioneer said in its statement that it will continue to warranty the new panels for eight years--keeping a stockpile of repair parts until 2017.
The future looks bleak for plasma TV. While many LCD HDTVs are stunning in their own right, especially the LED-backlit 240 Hz models, it’s still nice to have choice in technology for different applications.
Check out our nine reasons to save plasma TV.
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Load up and eBay them. It's sad to see one of the best flat panels fade away.
Sony XBR8 and Sammy A950 are pretty darn good LCDs though. LED backlighting will surely come down in price and become mainstream.
Tom
EasyEcoBlog.com
Not only TVs, but rumor has it the other Pioneer lines will take a hit as they shift more towards car audio. Say what you will about their low end receivers, but the Elite series is among the very best in mainstream audio.
Stupid friggin' economy.
read that somewhere else long ago.
they also said that some of pioneer engineers are now working at Panasonic. and we should see nice screens from panasonic and a technology like the kuro.
the link
http://wesleytech.com/pioneer-anno [...] plans/610/
Panny already makes some great looking plasmas....my parents have a 2 year old 42" Panny plasma in their house, and only now with the LED panels are the competing technologies starting to look as good as that Panasonic.
Panasonic already makes the glass panel for Pioneer. I have a Panasonic 50" 800U and its beautiful. Nobody will ever convince me that LCDs look as nice as Plasma. Just can't be done. Plasma will be around for a good long time as long as their prices are the same or below LCD
Agreed but it seems to be the nature of the business now.
I felt the same way about CRT monitors and still do. The LCDs for desktops are just not on par with their bigger brothers and show their weaknesses compared to the older CRT technology. Insufficient black levels, motion blur and the probability dead pixels are issues that CRTs were free from. But we don't have a choice in the matter, CRTs are dead and Plasmas will soon suffer the same fate once Panasonic drops the technology too.
CRTs had their own annoying issues, at least the larger ones I used to have....moire patterns, screen geometry imperfections, neither of which were completely fixable, and very noticable when you stare at them every day....I agree LCDs have their shortfalls, but overall, I'm happy to not deal with those two CRT issues anymore.
the new lcd's are led backlit? that's a nice change. but losing plasma is a pretty bad hit across the hdtv industry. Hopefully Panasonic won't quit until oleds are feasible.
DLP is also dead so no one has TV bigger than 62/63"
DLP killed because of its size and Plasmas because of its power use. At least we are moving in the right direction.
My parents have a new 42" Panasonic Plasma. They also have an LG lcd that is about two years old. The Panasonic's picture is much more natural. There is much more detail in bright and dark scenes. I don't have an HD tv just yet, but when I finally do buy one, Panasonic will be on the very top of my short list.
Kuros were out of my price range, but it's a shame to see what is basically a flagship to the tv industry come to an end.
it's just one of the many brands that stop producing plasma's.
Plasma lost the battle to LCD,partly due to power requirements.
After the announcement that Europe will stop allowing plasma's to be sold, this will be one of the many more companies following.
If you like plasma over LCD, try looking at OLED technology!
CRTs had their own annoying issues
Lets not forget CRT flicker on most standard monitors = immense eyestrain working on a computer all day.
My eyes were tangibly relieved when I got a decent LCD panel.
I still prefer DLP with the LED light system. But yeah as mentioned that seems to be going away too. Which is a bigger shame to me than plasma. I could give a fig if my TV is wall mountable when its depth is less than that of my stereo receiver. The 2nd gen LED DLPs from samsung are still pretty juicy for the price.
Sad to see the demise of the Pioneers. The Elite models were truly the best of the best, and one of the few TVs that allow for professional-grade calibration without having to mess with the service menus.
Unfortunately, Pioneer could never figure out how to reduce the costs enough to make their PDP TVs profitable. To this day, my understanding is that their plant still can only cut one glass panel per sheet. Everybody else has been cutting multiple panels out of a single sheet for years.
With Pioneer's engineers now at Panasonic, the torch has been passed. I've been reading that Panasonic is looking to expand their presence with high-end installers, and expanding their product lineup accordingly.
With regard to CRT, I've always felt that they had the best picture quality and were equally adept with both HD and SD signals, something that cannot be said for any of the fixed pixel formats.