Pioneer Elite PRO-110FD Plasma TV User Interface

User Interface
The PRO-110FD's illuminated remote is a universal, learning type capable of controlling up to four devices, including the TV, though the device selector is located under a flip-down panel at the bottom of the remote, making it inconvenient to access. Also under this panel are transport controls for source components (including media files via Home Media Gallery) and several basic controls for an A/V receiver, which is not otherwise one of the four devices you can select to operate with the remote.

The best news about the remote is that it provides dedicated input-selection buttons, and the four HDMI buttons are clearly labeled as such. Other dedicated function buttons include screen size (aspect ratio), A/V mode, HDMI control, and Home Media Gallery. The number buttons are nice and large, as are the volume and channel up/down buttons. Many of the other buttons, however, are rather small, and some serve multiple functions with confusing labels.

I like the menu's organization, but many controls are buried too deep within its structure. For example, the main picture controls are two levels deep, the more advanced controls are mostly four levels deep, and the grayscale calibration controls are six levels deep!

Also, some of the control labels and settings are cryptic at best. For example, you can set the Color Space control to 1 or 2, but what do these numbers mean? According to the manual, 1 means “vivid, vibrant color reproduction,” and 2 means “standard," which isn't really much help. In fact, 1 specifies a wide color space with minimal processing, while 2 uses more processing to match the SMPTE HD color space, taking the phosphors and filter into account. This is the more accurate setting, so I used it for this review.

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