The Big Picture

<B>Opprobrium</B> <I>1: Something that brings disgrace. 2a: Public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong.</I>

<I>For the average consumer who takes a new LCD or plasma TV out of the box, what is the best way to set it up for home use? What is the name of the DVD used for adjusting and fine tuning?

Panasonic's 152-inch 4K plasma is nothing new, but it never fails to impress, especially when seen next to a person, in this case PR rep Courtnee Coburn. CTO Eisuke Tsuyuzaki told me some people have actually built a house around this monster!

It's been a bad week for Panasonic. A report of suddenly rising black levels in its 2008 and '09 plasmas gained some serious traction throughout the A/V community over the past few days, even though it's been brewing since July 31, 2009, when AVS Forum member Orta (who I assume is male) <A href="http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1167339">posted that his TC-P50G10 doubled its black level literally overnight, with measurements to prove it</A>. As you might imagine, this led to a flurry of concern, to which Panasonic finally responded with this official statement:

The daily deluge of news into my inbox included a very sad item yesterday. Insight Media, a display-industry analysis firm, reported that Samsung will not be making so-called "active retarder" 3D LCD TVs in collaboration with RealD. This approach places an active polarization-switching layer over the LCD layer, much like the polarization switcher placed in front of a projector lens in a commercial RealD theater. The viewer wears standard passive glasses, and the TV quickly alternates the polarization in sync with the alternating left and right images on the screen.

<I>A reader posed the question whether he should buy a Pioneer Kuro now that they have been greatly discounted. I want the best too, but this raises another question. Do the new Panasonic G10, V10, or Z1 plasma TVs surpass the Pioneers' picture performance, and at what price? The dilemma is this&#151;if one waits too long and the Panasonics disappoint, the Pioneers may be sold out forever.