Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020FD

Words can't do justice as to how great this TV is... We have now had this TV since March 2009. We were able to purchase the TV at a great deal from Best Buy for 2000.00. The picture is amazing right out… of the box. I have been using the optimum setting with the light sensor on for blu ray viewing. The optimum setting provides a perfect picture and really provides a real pop to objects. The TV at this point appears to be almost broken in (the blacks are becoming deeper). I have been surprisingly impressed by the quality of a standard TV source. Proportions look very good and picture looks actually quite good. Using a blu ray source the picture quality is unbelievable. The picture is life like with numerous shades of black. Movies like Saturday Night Fever really pop out of the screen and sound from the speaker bar is also extremely good. This TV is unbelievable! I have been extremely happy with this TV. It is everything I was looking for in a TV after looking for many months at all other products on the market. To date, I still don't see any TV that matches the performance of this TV. We are using this TV in our bedroom and use it mostly at night. We also have an LCD TV in the living room that can't even compare to this TV an any way. It is too bad Pioneer is exiting this business. They appear to have put a lot of engineering into this TV. One particular aspect is the black background of the plasma panel itself. This appears to be a proprietary process of Pioneer that helps the TV achieve amazing black levels. The TV is very well built. I expect to be happily using it for many years.

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We wanted to replace our 40-inch Sony KV-40XBR700 picture tube HDTV. Unlike most LCD televisions, the Sony picture tube set has very natural color, a very wide viewing angle, and very good built-in… speakers. Unfortunately, the old Sony weighs 304 lbs. (yes, really!) and it sticks out a long way into the room. So, where could we get a replacement that would retain the best features of the Sony? Accurate color? Wide viewing angle? Very good built-in speakers? The answer was the Pioneer KURO PDP-5020FD 50-inch plasma. We've had it a little over 3 months and, in a word, it's OUTSTANDING. The Sony picture tube TV was very good but this Pioneer plasma is simply terrific in every way. On the MOVIE setting, we played the THX setup thing on our Pirates of the Caribbean DVD (not BLU-RAY). Guess what? No adjustments were needed. We did this in a darkened room with just a small lamp on in the corner of the room. We have large windows in the room so daytime viewing requires a higher contrast setting. Mostly we use Optimum setting with the room light sensor enabled, or just set it on Standard without the room light sensor. Looks great either way. Don't let anyone tell you that a plasma isn't bright enough. Watched a golf tournament on the Sports setting. Wow - that was a dazzling experience! Can hardly wait for football season to start... [...] HDTV reception is from Comcast cable. We record almost everything on the Comcast DVR (made by Motorola) so we can skip through the commercials. HD programs look very good indeed, and even standard-definition programs come across smooth and clear (with the rare exception of washed-out or jagged 30 year-old reruns!). Movies broadcast in HD are a real treat, too. You won't find more natural-looking color than the Pioneer anywhere, and you can sit way off to the side and still see a crisp clear picture. This is way better than LCD sets. Oh, I almost forgot. There is no motion blur whatsoever on this TV! Plasma TVs simply don't have that problem. So, fast moving sports action is limited only by the quality of the broadcast, not by the TV. (Some channels deliver blocky, pixelated effects on close-up fast action, possibly because of excessive compression. Have seen the effect on all types of TVs.) We bought our Pioneer on a 2-day or 3-day sale at [...] That's the nearest thing to a "steal" that you could possibly hope for on a top quality model such as this! Regarding hookup, the delivery guys were just two guys in a hurry to finish all their deliveries. They wanted to leave the unopened carton on our porch and drive away. We insisted they unbox the set and place it on our stand in the living room and wait while we turned it on to make sure it worked before they left. For this review to be balanced we should say something negative about the TV. OK, here it is: Plasma TVs radiate a fair amount of heat from the screen. Right now we're having a local heat wave with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees each day. Adding extra heat from the Pioneer TV doesn't help our air-conditioning much!

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Replaced my 3 year old Sony XBR1 40" LCD with a Pioneer KURO 5020FD in February 2009. The Sony was a great set & my 1st HDTV, but as it was 720P and I wanted a full 1080P Panel, I decided hit the… reviews. After reading many professional reviews and ownwer opinions, I decided on a Samsung 850 46" LCD. Picture quality was/is my 1st and foremost concern, and while the Samsung was excellent in many ways, it just did not have the 'Natural' look I was hoping for and off angle viewing was not good. I decided to return the Samsung and replace it with a Pioneer KURO 50" Plasma. It was on sale, which helped my decision, but it turned out to be the best television purchase I have ever made. What a fabulous viewing experience! Deep,rich, natural colors. Bright and clear, day or night. So much depth it is almost 3D. Pioneer is/was known as the top of shelf in Plasma or any other HDTV, now I know why. My advice...get one while you still can, you won't be sorry. Superb viewing.

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i bought this direct from pioneer because that's the best price you can find. my first comment applies to the plasma vs. lcd.... if you have young toddlers or cats and/or dogs, you HAVE to go plasma.… plasma tvs have a glass screen while LCD haves a soft screen which 3 years olds and cats are drawn to! also, plasma from my tests has a more realistic picture. i'm very pleased with the lower speaker that comes with this. as i live in a small apt. i don't have the space or budget right now for a surround sound set up so this lower speaker fills my 13' x 13 ' living room well. i am still finetuning my time warner cable with my 5020, hey if anyone knows of a tech guy in the nyc area who could help me set this up perfectly, please reply to the comment.

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