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Pioneer KURO PDP-5020FD Review
Pioneer KURO PDP-5020FD - A great HDTV!
A member of the distinguished Kuro line from Pioneer, the PDP-5020FD is an extra-ordinary HDTV that delivers top-notch and unrivaled performance. Pioneer proves that it reigns supreme when it comes to the large plasmas, though high-quality does come with a hefty tag. The PDP-5020FD is in fact the cheapest in the Kuro series for this year, yet it still costs much more than competing brands.
Design
Pioneer maintained the unadorned look of its plasmas in the PDP-5020FD - a shiny black frame surrounding the screen with a removable speaker at the panel’s bottom. The clean sheer look is perfect, though the screen is not flushed with the frame, leaving a thin strip that reflects bright lights that may become distracting. Moreover, this set comes with a solid-looking, non-swiveling stand that limits viewing to only one position.
Pioneer re-designed its remote for this year and some of the changes aren’t quite welcome. The new remote ditched the different shapes for secondary functions and replaced these with tiny, uniformly-sized keys, added more buttons and arranged these in a neat grid that lends itself to frequent remote-pressing mistakes. The direct access to the TV’s inputs and glow-in-the-dark buttons are nice touches, though. The menu system was also overhauled, and gratefully, the changes implemented here are well-thought of and are quite welcome.
Screen/picture clarity
As usual, the PDP-5020FD gives the deepest black in HDTVs. This is expected, as Pioneer made the contrast ratio five times more intense than the previous models, affording never-before-seen black levels that pave the way for breathtaking images, impressive shadow details, and vibrant colors. There are color accuracy issues, with red and green deviating slightly from HD standards, but generally, these are not deal-breaking ones. The anti-reflective screen is also among the best, giving exceptional picture clarity even with open windows and bright lights.
Equipped with a dejudder and 72hz. refresh rates, the PDP-5020FD smoothed images and played Blu-ray discs without apparent issues, though some artifacts may arise when the dejudder is engaged. The plasma also deinterlaced 1080i sources and resolved standard-def materials quite well. Even as PC monitor, the PDP-5020FD resolved every line of the 1,920×1,080-pixel PC signal, when connected as digital.
Features
The PDP-5020FD is a non-Elite model in the Kuro line, so its features are relatively fewer. Picture control settings are limited, and it doesn’t have color temperature presets; it has seven picture presets, including the Optimum mode which adjusts intelligently according to ambient conditions. The plasma has four HDMI ports, an Ethernet port that allows streaming over the home network, USB port and an assortment of connectivity options. Other features include side-by-side picture-in-picture viewing, anti-burn features, and power-saving modes.
The PDP-5020FD is undoubtedly an expensive HDTV, but for home theater enthusiasts, splurging on this TV may just be the right decision, as this TV surely rocks when it comes to picture quality. It also has advanced features that ensure pure entertainment, so you certainly wouldn’t go wrong with the PDP-5020FD.
<< Click HERE to Read The Latest Pioneer KURO PDP-5020FD User Reviews >>
This TV can only be described as awesome. I’ve now had the TV a little over a month. It was delivered in 4 days via CEVA white glove delivery which was great. All I had to do was plug in the HDMI lead from my cable DVR and the power lead and turn it on. The setup menu is really easy to use to customize the settings to one’s liking in a short time. I looked at many brands and models of TV’s for around 3 months before I finally decided on this one. The picture on the Pioneer was the best I saw by far in side by side comparisons that I observed in big box stores. The picture looks even more awesome in my family room entertainment center. My old DVD movies are like watching the original movie in a theater.
I received my 5020 Pioneer plasma last week. My son, who is an audiophile, had been pushing me to take the plunge for some time. I visited him during the Christmas holidays and thoroughly enjoyed watching his 5020. I wrapped up my research including educating myself about plasma versus LCD and visiting showrooms to view the set. I became convinced that Pioneer’s 5020 was the right one for me. I made one last visit to the showroom before making the purchase. After installation, I’m excited that I made the right decision.
As I view and enjoy this outstanding video technology, I couldn’t help but recall another personal experience. It was in 1947 on a visit to NYC that I had the opportunity visit the RCA Building and to see an early demonstration of TELEVISION. What excitement for this 17 yr. old. At 87+ yrs. old, the 5020 generates similar excitement. I’m looking forward to a few more years of viewing pleasure.
I have never seen a television with the color quality of this set. Clear, crisp picture with brilliant color. Spend the extra bucks on Pioneer and you won’t be disappointed. The only television close is the new Panasonic Plasma sets, but still they don’t have the rich color of the Pioneer.
I have spent 2 years waiting patiently for the perfect TV to buy. And in my two years of research i had convinced myself to buy an lcd. The samsung 46a650 was the one i sold myself on. I had looked at many lcd TVs and that was the one i thought was the one. The only problem i had with lcds was when you watched movies with the 120 hz processor, they had a “soap opera” effect to it. And i said to myself, well i can just turn off the 120 hz and it will be ok, which was true to a certain extent. For the most part, when i turned of the 120 hz it fixed the issue. But in the movies there were still a couple scenes where i saw the dreaded “soap opera” effect. And i always told myself lcd was the way to go, that plasma simply couldn’t satisfy my needs when i wanted to watch tv in the day light. i was afraid of the glair. Well let me say, i was sadly mistaken. I work for best buy, and before that i worked for american. I have spent hours picking the tv sales mens brains and they all tried to convince me that plasma was the way to go. and for some reason i kept fighting it. I was convinced that plasma was dead technology. Well a deal that i got with my employee discount from best buy was too good to pass up, so i bought the 5020. All i have to say is wow. My dad owns the xbr 6, and let me just say, his tv has nothing on mine. This tv truly turned me into a plasma believer. Even in the day time this tv delivers. All i can say is that i was still not convinced that plasma was the way to go until i watched it in my living room. Like i said i waited 2 long years to buy a tv. I am a very patient person, and if you were like me, trying to decide which to buy, i say go plasma.
Go for the true Japanese Pioneer KURO before they get outsourced in 2009 to who knows where. Delivery was great, set-up was a cinch. I have it hooked up to my computer and a Sony Blu-Ray. ‘Tis an audio-visual delight! Amazon rocks!
pioneer pdp-5020fd 50-inch 1080p kuro plasma hdtv-we had a big screen tv and didn,t think there would be that big of difference! boy was i wrong it shows so much more detail and when watching the hd channels it looks like you could walk right in to the picture. we love or new hd tv
Amazing Plasma TV - There really isn’t much to say. i researched a lot of televisions. i wasn’t sure if i wanted a plasma or lcd. i then narrowed it down to plasma cause the room it was going to be in was on the darker side, not much light coming in. then it was down to panasonic or pioneer plasma. i went with this pioneer kuro. haven’t regreted it a bit. classy and expensive looking. beautiful design. lots of features and expandability. amazing picture quality. vibrant colors and deep blacks. i can’t tell you how happy i am that i chose this plasma over all the others. i’m thinking about buying a second one for the bedroom. buy it, you won’t regret it. question is what size you want. 50″ or 60″? you decide. they are both amazing televisions.
“Just received this TV recently and all I can say is OMG, where you have been my whole life? I realize anyone who is reading these reviews already are fully aware of the KURO reputation. It truly does not disappoint!! I have been keeping my eye on this one for a while now. The price was the major drawback to not having purchased this set in the past. At least for me, spending over $4K on a Plasma was a little out of my price range. It has now dropped in price over 50% as a result of Pioneer getting out of the Plasma business, which is quite sad by the way. This tough economy has hit them hard as well. Well the price finally hit my trigger point and I ordered this online from BB. The picture this Plasma produces is really breathtaking. Pioneer’s level of black detail is truly unmatched by any other MFG. The deep black level allows the TV to reach astounding shadow details. I have noticed things on this TV that I have never noticed before, the little details. After all, it’s the little things in life that seem to matter the most. The color accuracy is right on the mark. This combined with the deepest black’s, outstanding shadow detail, give THE best picture IMHO I have ever, ever seen. This set produces that POP I was looking for from HD sources. SD is adequate, but HD is where it is at. The KURO will spoil you, so be aware, be fully aware. The KURO is meant for HD and has blown me away. I have DirecTV as one source of HD and the other is BD. I have the Samsung BD-P2550. 1080P BD movies are simply a sight to behold on the KURO. As I mentioned before, this KURO will spoil you. I do not want to leave my house it is THAT good. Combined with a good 5.1 system, I am in total KURO HD heaven. This TV comes with a separate speaker bar that you attach to the bottom of the set. There are times where I do not want to listen through my receiver and utilize the onboard sound system. The sound it produces is very, very good. I was quite surprised at the quality of the included sound bar. It gave surprisingly solid bass at higher listening levels. The KURO is feature packed and has many adjustments you can make. Enough for the average person. Many people have decided to calibrate this TV and I may do that in the future. I have it set to OPTIMUM and right now I am so pleased with the results. I really can’t imagine a better picture. Do yourself a favor, if you are on the fence at the moment about purchasing this KURO, go out and get it today. They will only be around for a short time since the MFG has ceased. I am not regretting my decision at all and am really glad I made the purchase. I am confident you will too!!!”
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.
I have now owned this plasma tv for about a year and it is still amazing to look at it. I have other LCD’s in the house and they do not even come close to the quality of this TV. It is a shame that Pioneer is exiting this space, more of a shame that quality no longer matters to enough people to pay for the difference any more.
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…
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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!
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.
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.
Still the best TV ever created the 9th gen Pioneer Kuro’s still have not been topped even today. Don’t settle for inferior LCD tech or a step down with Panasonic plasma’s. Get the real deal…the King..Pioneer Kuro.
I’ve had this TV since January 2009, and the picture clarity continues to amaze me. Colours are pristine, and the image is absolutely razer sharp. Watching a 1080 broadcast is like looking out a window. At the time I purchased it, I checked out every LCD at the local Best Buy, and none of them came even remotely close to the Kuro.
The only nitpick with this Kuro is that it makes a slight buzz that’s audible from 7 feet away when there is no ambient noise. During the daytime, when there’s traffic outside, I cannot hear the buzz, but at night with everything quiet, the buzz is fairly evident. I’ve been told that every plasma has this noise. To reduce it, I set the picture brightness to the middle value (out of three values).
Overall, still the best TV made. It is a true shame that Pioneer left the HDTV market.