OTHER TECH

PIONEER

Elite Kuro PRO-110FD 50-inch plasma HDTV February/March '08

After reviewing Pioneer's Kuro PDP-5010FD 50-inch plasma TV (November '07), my first thought was, "Could an HDTV get any better?" As it turned out, a superior option was just around the corner: the Elite Kuro PRO-110FD ($6,000). Both of these 1080p-resolution plasmas deliver crisp high-def pictures with detailed shadows and incredibly deep blacks - the deepest I've seen on a flat-panel TV by a long shot. High-def is what makes these Pioneer TVs sing, but their exceptional video processing also ensures that low-rez standard-def programs look good, too. Choosing one model over the other will mostly come down to color: The Elite TV offers a wider range of adjustments to fine-tune its color reproduction, allowing tweaky types to dial in those settings to near perfection. Pioneer says its intent with the Kuro project was to redesign its highly regarded plasma TVs from the ground up, to make them even better. From what I can see, the company easily achieved that goal, and in the PRO-110FD, created an extraordinary HDTV any enthusiast would love to own. pioneerelectronics.com -Al Griffin

SAMSUNG

LN-T5281F 52-inch LCD HDTV February/March '08

Among all the TV technologies, LCDs got most of the attention in 2007. Reviewing these models in the past yielded mostly predictable results - good performance with bright pictures, not so good with dark ones - but several new models we checked out in '07 performed extremely well. At the top of that list was Samsung's 52-inch LN-T5281F ($5,000). The company chose to shake things up for its 81 Series sets by replacing the standard fluorescent backlight with an LED array. Several of the TV's processing modes successfully take advantage of the advanced backlight's modular structure to improve performance. LED SmartLighting, for example, dims select areas in the picture to deepen blacks and enhance contrast, while LED Motion Plus cuts down on motion blur. The LN-T5281F isn't perfect: Picture contrast shifts noticeably when the set is viewed from off-center seats, and its screen is highly reflective - a drawback in well-lit rooms. But by pushing the LCD-performance envelope with the LN-T5281F, Samsung has staked a bright future for the technology in the high-end segment of the flat-panel TV market. samsung.com -Al Griffin