Pioneer KURO KRP-600P

Could this be the greatest TV?

Pioneer’s KURO plasma TVs have the same effect on home cinema fans as the black monoliths did in 2001: a Space Odyssey. Awe, confusion, fear flicker across the faces. How can Pioneer’s panels be so much blacker, more vivid and more realistic than all the others?

The truth is, while other brands have been dropping plasma altogether, Pioneer has been pushing the boundaries of the technology for years and is now way ahead of the game. This is the corporation’s ninth generation panel and it’s the biggest yet. There’s another 60-inch model, but this is the range-topping flagship product with a thinner screen (just 64mm) a new graphical user interface (GUI) and a separate media box with integrated DVB and satellite TV tuners. This is in short is the best TV on the market. Fact.

KURO means black in Japanese (clever folk those Pioneers) and it’s the spooky black levels that make Pioneer’s flatscreen rivals fade to grey. LCD technology still can’t come close. Its resolution is 1920x1080, which means Full HD compatibility and each of its four HDMI v1.3 inputs can accept a 1080p signal at 24 fps supporting Deep Colour. In other words, the highest quality video feed available.

The understated black bezel is cut from a single piece of glass with no buttons or detailing on it at all. We had to run our fingers all the way around it to find the hidden power button (a bit daft). The panel connects to the media box by a single HDMI-like proprietary cable, which keeps all of the messy connections away from the screen itself and removing all those gubbins makes this KURO a very thin TV indeed.

Play a well-produced Blu-ray disc like Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and the awe, confusion fear comes back momentarily (how does Deep look good in chaps?). This really is the most lifelike image you’ll get on anything other than a front projector, and on this epic 60-inch scale it’s initially quite startling. There’s no visible panel structure or pixilation at all, even on very close inspection, and almost no banding, where colour gradients appear as visible bands. In fact, none of the pitfalls of plasma technology are apparent here.

Cutting back to the opening titles is where you get to see the famous black levels. Pioneer really has discovered a new kind of black somewhere from within its Japanese R&D lab and employed it with devastating effect in its latest panels. In fact, when there is no actual text on the screen, you’ll find yourself glancing at the standby light just to check that it’s still switched on.

What is less talked about are the white levels. The scene with Captain Jack loosing his marbles in Davy Jones’ Locker, for example, looks dazzlingly crisp and white. The bright colours meanwhile, are all superbly natural and contained.

Clearly this set was developed with HD material in mind, so unsurprisingly, the standard def feed from DVD or its own DVB and Freeview tuners is a big climb down from Blu-ray at 1080p. At least the handsome metal remote and greatly improved user interface make accessing them all refreshingly simple. Keeping the media box separate brings a welcome level of convenience and flexibility that will please both the professional installers and the die-hard home cinema fans that this set is aimed at.

Link: Pioneer KURO