Despite its looks, this 50-incher isn't a plasma TV. It's actually a display, meaning that it doesn't come with home comforts like TV tuners or built-in speakers.
That said, it is intended for the home market, and for home cinema fanatics especially -- you'd have to be quite the enthusiast to consider shelling out the wallet-pounding AU$11,000 it costs. Because of its ultra-high resolution 1,920x1,080-pixel screen, it's one of only a very select group of plasma screens able to show 1080p high definition. And with two HDMI sockets and one component video input, it's certainly got the potential to be a hub for several hi-def devices.
Design
50 inches used to be pushing the upper limits for a home cinema display, but with Panasonic throwing out 65- and 103-inch models recently, it's starting to seem pretty average. Okay, so we're not serious. This is a very large, imposing screen and it's not the sort of thing most people will want to put in a 3m by 2m living room -- it needs a bit more space than that. It's actually surprisingly light, though, and moving it around isn't the hernia-inducing task we'd expected -- good news if you plan on wall-mounting the thing.
The PDP-5000EX is a really nice-looking, solidly built product, too. The frame surrounding the screen gives off a glossy shine, and the desktop stand you get with it is inoffensive enough to fit in with the decor of most rooms (it doesn't swivel, though). Part of the reason for the good looks is a total lack of speakers -- there are, however, standard spring-clip terminals around the back so you can connect up your own.
All the display's sockets are located at the back of the set. Again, because it's not strictly speaking a TV, some of the things you expect to see just aren't here, such as a connection for an aerial. You do, however, get two HDMIs; one component video-compatible BNC (you might need three RCA adaptors to connect your component video kit to this); one DVI-D (with HDCP, so it could be used as a third hi-def digital input, albeit one without a built-in audio feed); and one S-Video and one composite video input. So altogether you've got four hi-def inputs, which isn't bad going at all. We'd have liked to see a dedicated VGA input for PC use here, as well as at least one Scart for convenience's sake, but it's an excellent selection for those with hi-def kit. You also get stereo inputs for each video connection.
Features
Because of its 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution, this screen has the rare ability to accept a 1080p video signal from a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, but only via HDMI -- via component the maximum resolution available is 1080i. Not only that, but if you do feed it 1080p or 1080i, you can also select a 'dot-by-dot' aspect ratio that displays the source image in its entirety, with each pixel from the source corresponding to a pixel on the screen. This results in a sharper, more detailed image. Most screens will overscan the image slightly, shaving a little off the edges, so it's a great feature to have -- especially if you plan on feeding in a PC via DVI or HDMI.
The display also includes a bevy of Pioneer technologies to enhance picture quality. There's a Direct Colour Filter, which sees the glass filter used by most plasmas replaced by a thin plastic one, reducing both reflections on the screen and refraction through it, so you get a slightly sharper picture and have to worry less about ambient light affecting the visibility of the picture. Then there's noise reduction technology (for both digital and MPEG noise), a scaler to improve standard-definition pictures, active contrast adjustment that reacts to the amount of light in the room -- the list goes on. There's even something called a Deep Waffle Rib Structure, which apparently improves the brightness of each pixel.
The menu system is extremely simple -- there's no TV tuning to worry about, and the remote control is truly excellent. It's a reassuringly weighty device with no more buttons than necessary, and one of our favourite features is the fact that it has a button for each external input. This means you can quickly switch to your DVD player, Blu-ray deck, satellite box and games console without having to dip into the menu or cycle through each and every one.
Performance
There's only one word for this screen's performance: sublime -- and that goes for both HD and standard-definition images. Because of the high resolution, great black levels, bright colours and strong contrast, HD material from Blu-ray, HD free-to-air and our Xbox 360 all looks absolutely drop-dead gorgeous here -- you don't get the intense sharpness you might from a top LCD, but the image is more lifelike and almost totally noise-free. Movement is silky-smooth, too, which is great news for gamers, and we had no issues with impressions of static images 'burning' into the screen, either.
What's also interesting is just how good standard-definition material looks here. Most flat panel TVs don't really shower themselves in glory when showing SD programmes, but we have to say that the Pioneer does a spectacular job of making the bad stuff look good and the good stuff look great -- it seems to be mainly down to the way it deals with noise, but we're sure that the combination of all the technologies helps. The fact that it can blow standard-definition material up to 50 inches and make it look good gets a major thumbs up from us.
STRICKLANDPB
10/02/2008, 12:07 AM
rating
10/10
TRULY AMAZING
Pros: BEAUTIFUL
Cons: NONE
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nghy9700
01/01/2008, 04:12 PM
rating
9/10
Can some body tell me how to set a color pioneer pdp-5000ex
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Rich
26/05/2007, 10:25 PM
rating
10/10
Pfft it's nothing to do with the government. ABC and SBS are lazy. Labor actually wanted Australia's digital tv to be standard def with more channels. I'm glad we didn't get that and lets hope we don't get that amateur team of Labor politicians winning the next election. Europeans made SD digital as the norm years ago and are now changing to HD.
This tv rocks but if you want a plasma with this kind of picture in a bigger size then look at the Panasonic 65" 1080p model. It's a dream too!
Pros: Best Picture Available
Looks
Build Quality
Only 50" 1080p plasma on the market
Cons: Price
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mixja
10/04/2007, 10:39 AM
rating
9/10
This is an amazing display that provides excellent performance on SD signals and out-of-this-world performance on HD signals. Having just watched Open Season on Bluray encoded in H.264/AVC, I am amazed at the performance of this unit with HD content.
I actually initially purchased a Sony 52in Bravia X 1080P LCD panel, but I was very disappointed with its movie/TV playback, stuttered motion, black reproduction and the appearance of the white backlighting when viewing from a 20 degree or higher angle. The Sony wasn't even as good as my 2-year old Pioneer 43in plasma.
I have to say the PDP-5000EX is leaps and bounds ahead of the Bravia X, and despite paying 20% more for the Pioneer, it is well worth the extra money. Even watching standard DVDs upscaled to 1080i through my Pioneer DV-969AVi DVD player, the picture quality is tremendous.
One strange thing I have found so far - viewing 1080P signal from a PS3, I can't alter many of the Pro user settings to fine tune the picture. I think these are quite important to have access to, especially for darker movies. I worked around this by configuring my PS3 to output 1080i, which gives me access to all picture settings. The funny thing is that the PDP-5000EX automatically upscales all signals to 1080P anyway so I'm not actually losing anything by using a 1080i input instead of a 1080p input.
Another tip is to watch all 1080 content with the "Dot-by-Dot" screen size setting - this configures the screen to perform no picture stretching whatsoever, and noticeably improves picture quality.
Pros: - Brilliant colour reproduction
- Excellent contrast and black reproduction
- Sharp vivid picture with virtually no noise
- Beautiful design, quite operation
- Dot-by-Dot allows you to view 1080i/p content with absolutely no picture stretching for the highest quality picture possible.
Cons: - Most pro user picture controls are not available when viewing 1080P content.
- Reflections can be a problem for day time viewing
- Expensive
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paul avery
24/10/2006, 07:01 AM
rating
10/10
Saw it today - perfection has arrived and I can't afford it
Pros: The most photo like picture ever with great nautral colors - a perfectionist's dream
Cons: It costs 3 times what I am willing to spend at his time
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16/10/2006, 11:04 PM
rating
10/10
the perfect tv
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clint
05/10/2006, 11:45 PM
rating
7/10
Try and ACER LCD 1920x1080
I own a ACER 37" LCD TV that has a resolution of 1920x1080.It only cost me a little over $3,000.I use it for XBOX 360 and it is great,have had it for about 3months without a problem.So you can be future proof for a lot less than the pioneer.I also have a 50" panasonic plasma for DVD's with a resolution of 1366x720,running this with a HDMI Pioneer upconversion DVD player it really is amazing.And I have a major eye for detail.Tried a panasonic HDMI upconversion player on it and it was not quite as good as pioneer for clarity.
Pros: It sounds fantastic.
Cons: Most people would not be able to tell the difference in picture quality between 720P and 1080P.In about a year this TV will be about half the price it is now.
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HD Audiophile
05/10/2006, 02:50 AM
rating
9/10
future proofing comes at a price
I needed to make the jump to "full" HD now because of remodelling a living room, and waiting 2-3 years for the "new generation" of HD plasmas to fall in price wasn't really an option. I saw one in action at Harrods in an A-B comparison with LG, Panasonic, Sony, etc and was mesmerised by the accuracy of the images and the build quality, so absolutely no regrets. Like high-quality audio, you only know what you've been missing when you meet the real deal.
To put this into perspective, consider that the typical plasma TV's built-in speakers have 10% THD (total harmonic distortion) compared to the .001% THD of a top-end AV amp, a difference of 10,000%. Not surprisingly the latter has phenomenal clarity that has to be heard to be believed, especially when heard through speakers like ATCs. Likewise the PDP-500EX's unsurpassed picture quality explain its lack of in-built speakers and tuner, because it was never meant to be all things to all people, or a one-stop system. If you buy one, plan on spending nearly the same again on the AV audio components, otherwise you're wasting your money.
Pros: Slimline minimalist looks, excellent interface support for a monitor (2 HDMI, DVI, Component, S-Video etc) , 2Mpix resolution means truly accurate colour/shadow gradients as well as peerless fine detail, minimal video noise, genuine straight edges, so even non-HD content is highly watchable for lengthy periods.
Cons: Cost, but they can be bought for 10% less than RRP.
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mick
20/09/2006, 08:33 PM
rating
3/10
lots of pro's-lots of money-does it include lot's of warranty
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Steve
04/09/2006, 07:08 PM
rating
5/10
How can you rate a monitor you've only read about?
What sort of tossers, below, who, in their infinite wisdom, can pass judgement on this display...ie "great quality" and "great picture quality"...without having seen the unit, on the Pioneer reputation alone?? I'll wait until I see it. My rating of 5 is just because I HAD to choose a rating.
Pros: True HD
Cons: Cost
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