HDTV Almanac - Runco Still Offers Plasma

[alfredpoor]

Many videophiles lament the departure of Pioneer from the plasma HDTV market, citing their products for excellent image quality (provided that you can keep the ambient lighting in the room to low levels). But you have not seen the end of high-end plasma HDTV offerings. Runco is arguably the top brand for luxury home theater [...]

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2009/07/hdtv_almanac_runco_still_offers_plasma.php]Read Column[/url]

[stevekaden]

Interesting, I just purchased two Pioneer KRP-600m (monitor versions of the Elite line). I had them calibrated.

A subjective view:

I have one facing a south-west pointed, somewhat all glass wall, with only light curtains. And for the other one, in a room with better blinds, and the panel does not face the windows - BUT, in both cases we usually watch in normal light. And in the first room, have watched during the day. Yes there is some reflectivity, but generally only noticeable during times of large black areas of the screen. In no way do I feel the visual quality has suffered. Peak quality is undeniably in ideal conditions.

I had PRTVs with excellent anti glare coatings, and find these monitors to be as good, or better in reducing reflections (except for the mirror black frames). The RPTVs blurred the reflections more, but I found both to be equally watchable, and surely the Pioneers are crisper and sharper when in optimum viewing setups.

I usually do watch in the evenings in reduced light, but the only thing I feel I really NEED to do to accomodate the panels, is to Ideal-Lume backlighting to ease the eyes as they are profoundly black and the contrast can strain the eyes (and I am used to using Ideal-Lume).

So....I would not aggree with the statement in the article about Pioneer - and would not like to see somebody not take advantage of the incredible prices on the remaining Pioneer panels because of that comment. At $3,000 the 600m (and about $2000 for the 500m) I don't know that there is a deal that comes anywhere close to the quality/cost effectiveness. (or I would have made that choice, I am not married to Pioneer).

I will not denigrate Runco's offerings, I have not yet seen them, but for me, their prices are out of my range. I feel lucky to be able to get the quality and useability I did with the Pioneers. (reminds me of Oppo vs. Denon, though not as extreme).

[alfredpoor]

Steve, thanks for sharing your experience. My concern with plasma (in general, and I'm not intending to pick on any single make or model) is that they have lower light output than a corresponding LCD. At the extreme limits (think of most cell phone screens in direct sunlight) insufficient light output results in substantial loss of contrast, which in turn affects the image quality. Great blacks are only good if the rest of the image is bright enough to see the difference between them and black. I'm not nearly as concerned about reflections from the screens; you can adjust for that, or in many cases, you can just ignore it.

Alfred

[Richard]

Alfred, I think you are referring to...

[quote]LCD actually does a better job of meeting the numbers than plasma. A dirty little secret of plasma for years now is that it uses dynamic gamma to either compensate for a power supply that can

[alfredpoor]

Thanks for that, Richard. I didn't have that effect in mind, but it can also be a factor. (Plasmas only have so much power that it can deliver, and the limitation can attenuate images for very bright images.) This is less of a problem in dim rooms as your eyes probably can adjust (though you're probably right about it being more visible with side-by-side comparisons), but I can see how it might add to the problems of viewing plasma in bright rooms.

For the record, CRT (picture tube) television and monitor makers used to play games with the light output for their devices, too. They'd put up a small, pure white square in the middle of the screen and take a light measurement. Concentrating the output power in this small area meant that you'd get a better number than if you made the whole screen white.

Alfred