Pioneer announces its enhanced KURO plasma TVs with separate media receiver - the 50-inch KRP-500A and 60-inch KRP-600A - together with its 50-inch KRP-500M and 60-inch KRP-600M monitors. All new models are 'HD ready 1080p' and feature the exceptional black levels that have become synonymous with the KURO brand. With a thin depth of 64 mm the screens look more sleek and elegant than ever, be it wall-mounted or on a stand. Their glossy black KURO-style design contributes handsomely to any interior decor.

The new 64 mm TV models with separate media receiver have inherited the inner workings and features of the recently launched one-body Full HD KURO plasma TVs - delivering uncompromised quality, finely-tuned performance and intelligent design. Pioneer's KURO monitor range follows in these footsteps and offers excellence to videophiles and may be well suited to professional custom installations where nothing but the best plasma screen is demanded. Incomparable black levels and extreme contrast make both ranges prime candidates for use in a private home theatre, a living room or a professional setting.

Pure Mode

Contrast 32
Brightness +1
Colour 0
Tint 0
Sharpness -15

PRO ADJUST

PURE CINEMA
Fim Mode OFF (SKY) or Advanced (BLUE RAY HD) OFF (SD DVD)
TXT Opt OFF

Intellegent Mode OFF

PICTURE DETAIL

DRE OFF (more accurate) or Low if you want more fake contrast
BLACL LEVEL OFF
ACL OFF
Enhancer Mode 2
Gamma 2


COLOUR DETAIL

Colour Temp Manual (PUSH FOR ENTER FOR 3 SECONDS)

Red High -4
Green High 0
Blue High -3
Red Low -2
Green Low 0
Blue Low -2

CTI OFF

Colour Management

Red 0
Yellow 0
Green 0
Cyan -1
Blue 0
Magenta -2

Colour Space 2

Noise Reduction All Off

Options Menu
scroll to second page

Drive mode
1 for DVD and Blue Ray

Without doubt the single most intriguing string to the 500A's bow is the Pure AV mode. For it really does appear that if you use this mode with a high quality HD source, the resulting picture looks subtly different - in a good way - to the results achieved using a PDP-LX5090. There seems a touch more sharpness, a touch more authenticity to the colour palette, and a touch more ‘texture'.







I should say here that when I say ‘texture' I'm to a large extent talking about grain, but since grain is an inherent - and deliberate - part of many HD film transfers, the 500A is merely doing what it's supposed to be doing in Pure mode and revealing every last thing a source has got going on.


This fact makes me feel the need to stress that I'd maybe only really recommend the Pure mode with a HIGH QUALITY HD source. For the mode's inevitable ‘warts and all' tendencies mean that if a source has any severe weaknesses caused by poor encoding (and believe me, such weaknesses aren't as rare as they should be, even on Blu-ray discs), such as a curious colour palette, lots of dot crawl and/or a tendency to over-stress edges, in Pure mode the 500A won't be able to use its clever processing to actually make things better.

The 500A's knack for improving things extends to standard definition sources too, which look to my eyes slightly more stable and noiseless than they do on the LX5090 - and vastly less noisy than I'm used to seeing on many other Full HD TVs.



Verdict


Provided you're feeling flusher than most right now, all you need to know about the 500A is that it actually outperforms even its own sensational LX5090 sibling - and in doing so can justifiably claim to make the best better. In fact, I might even go so far as to call the 500A a Christmas cracker were it not very likely that Riyad would sack me for my trouble.

Picture / AV Selection = USER
Contrast = 15 to 20 (this is the killer bit for running in)
Brightness = -10 to 0 (lower is better, but it´s your call as to what is reasonable to watch). Brightness should be set to the point where you can´t see the pixels starting to emit light in dark parts of the image. Having brightness too high is unlikely to cause any issues during run in except make the image look washed out. Contrast is the killer not brightness.
Colour = -10 to -5 (lower is better, but it´s your call as to what is reasonable to watch). Most people never go below -10.
Tint = 0
Sharpness = -9 to -3

Pro Adjust


Pure Cinema OFF (for progressive source) & STANDARD (for interlaced source), but see the question dealing with judder/interlacing in the Picture Quality section. It doesn´t matter what this is for running in.

Colour Detail


Colour Temp = MID-LOW or if you want to MID depending on preference for white balance (the default colour temp is very cyan)
CTI (Colour Transient Improvement) = OFF

NR (Noise Reduction)


DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) = OFF or LOW
MPEG NR = OFF or LOW

DRE (Dynamic Range Expander)


Dynamic Contrast = OFF (very important)
Black Level = OFF
ACL = OFF
Gamma = 2. The gamma tends to flip between 2 or 3 dependant on the source. Some people swear by GAMMA 1, although there´s a feeling that 2 is likely to be most accurate most of the time.

Other


I-P Mode = 1

Power Control


Energy Save = Save 2

Option


Drive Mode = 100Hz (DVD and PC input should be 75Hz)

The following recommendations also seem useful during running in, but your mileage may vary:


Play video games using the "GAME" mode (under AV Selection) for the screen, and try not to play them for more than a couple of hours at a time
Don´t leave static images on the screen, and definitely for less than 2 hours at a time

First impression after the KRP 500A was installed...
I gotta say, its a little underwhelming... the wow factor, even with BR isn't as great as I imagined...

Sure its a little brighter, darker, and if you looked hard, a little more detail, I put it down to the fact that the Pioneer 507 was also good.

The panel is much slimmer, and the two box configuration means I have to find space for it, and the panel can sit closer to the wall, increasing my viewing distance, but thats fine.

It does look a little small actually... well more when it is run in then

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x244/pe...wPioneer007.jpg