Issue 324
/
What Video & High-Defi nition TV
/
047
‘ALWAYS BET ON black’, they say. And Pioneer
seems to agree with this adage, as it’s staking
arguably its entire future on a belief that the black
level performance of its new TVs is so remarkable
that a notoriously tight-fi sted UK buying public will
be compelled to shell out premium prices to get it.
To fi nd out whether this gamble will pay off for
Pioneer, we got our hands on the PDP-428XD: a
42in model costing a considerable sum that does
not even include a desktop stand or wall bracket.
Can this plasma really be so much better than
anything else around that it justifi es parting with
such a sizeable amount of money?
Features:
★★★★★
The inevitable starting point has to be with the
428XD’s supposedly revolutionary black levels. The
screen quotes a contrast ratio of 16,000:1 – the
highest yet seen on a fl at TV. In fact, Pioneer is so
confi dent in the ground-breaking black levels of its
new TVs that it’s calling them Project KURO
(meaning black in Japanese).
Four main innovations are responsible for the
428XD’s apparent black level prowess. First, a new
Ultra Black Crystal Layer
element incorporated into
the screen radically boosts the effi ciency with which
the plasma cells discharge, resulting in quicker
response times and swifter white/black transitions.
Pioneer’s so-called Deep Waffl e Rib pixel
structure has an important function too, as it
prevents leakages of light and colour from one
plasma cell to another.
Then there’s the company’s Direct Colour Filter,
which replaces the usual thick glass front of plasma
screens with a material which soaks up ambient
refl ections, making the panel lighter in the process.
Finally, Pioneer has focused the 428XD’s image
processing on responding in very specifi c ways
when dealing separately with dark and light scenes.
///
The darkest corners
of the darkest scenes in
the darkest movies all
look utterly black
///
WHV324.pion42 047
WHV324.pion42 047
24/7/07 13:52:15
24/7/07 13:52:15
