Audio Video News

This fall, Pioneer Electronics USA will roll out two new high-definition plasma displays with all digital signal paths and video performance capable of "billions" of colors.

The 50" PDP-5040HD and the 43" PDP-4340HD will lead off Pioneer's new line of "PureVision" products, optimized by several new proprietary technologies, including "Pure Drive," a pure digital signal path from source to image — no signal degradation caused by multiple or redundant analog-digital conversions. By minimizing or eliminating the A/D or D/A conversions, Pioneer claims significant reduction in digital video noise, yielding an improved gray scale and more accurate images.

For superb display of film-originated sources, Pioneer includes "Advanced PureCinema" processing for accurate reproduction of film content. The company claims to be the first to introduce advanced film detection using 3:3 film-to-video conversion at 72Hz in a plasma display. The result: film content reproduced with smooth and natural imagery, as in a movie theater. 3:2 film-to-video conversion at 60Hz, the industry standard conversion methodology, yields annoying artifacts, such as uneven motion, according to Pioneer.

The PDP-5040HD and PDP-4340HD will be the first commercial units incorporating Pioneer's "advanced continuous emission display technology II," a technique said to eliminate false contours that can appear in close-ups of faces. Instead, such images seen on the new Pioneer PDPs will have "smooth transitions from dark to light areas without losing detail or compromising the image contrast." In conjunction with Pure Drive, the continuous emission technology is claimed capable of generating over one billion gradations of color. " Pioneer has leaped ahead of our competitors in terms of image quality," said senior marketing exec Russ Johnston.

The new flat panels feature black frames and silver side-mounted speakers. A separate, matching media receiver with multiple inputs includes an ATSC tuner for true high definition television. The tuner and other digital inputs are linked to the display in the digital domain. The new displays can be wall-mounted or table-mounted using the optional swiveling stand. Both the PDP-5040HD and the PDP-4340HD plasma televisions will be available in the fall.