Long live the Kuro

"It has been a sad 15 months since Pioneer canceled the Kuro 10G ..."

from Kuro beats Panasonic G20/25

The Kuro is dead, long live the Kuro!

Panasonic NeoPDP plasmas 2009

At CES 2009 Panasonic announced details for its NeoPDP plasma displays. The new product lines are the X, S, G, V, and Z series. THX and VieraCast Internet connections are back on some of the higher end models. Black levels and power consumption are improved. The panel half life has been increased to 100,000 hours. Many new screen sizes will be available. The 24fps flicker problem is also said to be fixed.

The new NeoPDP will have what Panasonic is calling Infinite Black technology which basically turns the display off when displaying a completely black screen, current Pioneer Kuro have this feature. Contrast ratios have also been slightly improved but not to Kuro 9G levels.

The NeoPDP's are greener and producing the sme light output they will consume half as much power as last year's models.

A new selection of screen sizes are available in the 2009 Panasonic line; 42", 46", 50", 54", 58", and 65". A native resolution of 720p is back for the smaller screen sizes. The 58" and 65" models will be available in August while the smaller sizes will be released in the March to June time frame.

Panasonic is claiming to have fixed the 24p flicker problem that last years PZ800U's suffered from with their 48 Hz refresh rate. Pioneer Kuro use a 72 Hz refresh rate with 24p sources and don't have this flicker problem. Panasonic has increased the plasma subfield drive from 480 Hz to 600 Hz which is said to eliminate the 24p flicker. Whether this means Panasonic increased the 48 Hz refresh rate is unknown. Since 600 is equally divisible by 24 and 120 but not 48 or 72 then there may be the answer. The 600 Hz subfield drive is also said to improve motion resolution.

The Kuro 10G will be using this Panasonic glass but Pioneer will be using its own power supply, subfield drive, and processing electronics. The Panasonic glass is a slight improvement over last years but the question remains if it is up to the level of the current Kuro glass and does that even matter? What really makes a Kuro? The glass or the electronics? Good question, we'll have to wait and see.

Source

• http://panasonic.net/avc/viera/
  

NeoPDP 5 lumen/watt tech

Panasonic will release plasma panels with its NeoPDP tech in Spring 2008. NeoPDP is a 5 lumen/watt technology that improves the luminance efficiency of plasma panels. This doubling of efficiency can be used to double panel brightness, halve power consumption, and/or improve image performance by using blanking and timing tricks that would of been too resource expensive with the prior technology. The final embodiment of 5 lumen/watt tech will probably be a balanced combination of all of those attributes. This technology may also lead to thinner and lighter panels.

Pioneer and Panasonic are sharing numerous plasma patents. Next years Pioneer Kuro 10G plasma displays will be using Panasonic glass and are expected to use this new 5 lumen/watt technology. So will the next generation Panasonics be as black as the next generation Pioneer Kuros? Or does Pioneer still have some tricks up its sleeves?

I've heard that the zero idle luminance of the Extreme Contrast Concept requires the 5 lumen/watt technology. It is unknown whether this new technology is the sole source of the zero idle luminance or if darker filters coupled with increased brightness are to be credited with this significant "extreme" improvement. Zero idle luminance will likely be a combination of these two techniques which will question the accuracy of "absolute zero" and "infinite contrast" claims. Does black enough really require a divide by zero error?

For comparison reference the current Pioneer Kuro 9Gs utilize a 3 - 4 lumen/watt technology and achieve a 0.001 fL idle luminance. This is low level of idle light is beyond the current measurement limit of many calibration tools. In a completely dark room human eyes have no problem discerning it though.


Source

• http://hdtvorg.co.uk/news/articles/2008110201.htm

panels will be supplied by Panasonic

In an effort to control costs Pioneer is outsourcing its plasma panel production. The third generation Kuro, which would have been Pioneer's tenth generation (10G) panel, will have plasma panels that are supplied by Panasonic (Matsushita). The panel consists of the glass and the plasma module. As part of the deal, Pioneer will share some panel construction technology with Panasonic that will likely be used in future Panasonic plasmas. It is interesting that Pioneer says that "performance isn't solely built around the glass or the module." The video processing circuitry and color filter will still be built by Pioneer which is how the Kuro will distinguish itself from the Panasonic plasma HDTVs.

The 2008 Pioneer 9G Kuro's are available in 50" and 60" sizes. The 2008 Panasonic 80U, 85U, 800U, and 850U plasmas are available in 42", 46", 50", 58", and 65" sizes. Since Panasonic will be building the panels for Pioneer it is likely that this generation of Kuro will be available in new sizes: 50", 58", and 65". Pioneer has a deal with Sharp to build Kuro LCD displays so the existence of a 46" Kuro plasma is very unlikely.

For more details read the Sound & Vision interview with Pioneer VP Russ Johnston.