Pioneer is the New Black

This post is excerpted from the New York Times CES Bits pages

Black Is the Color of My True Love’s TV
By ERIC TAUB

When TV manufacturers tout their excellent picture, they often refer to the display’s resolution, the number of pixels it can put on a screen. But image aficionados know that pixels don’t make up the whole picture, so to speak. Equally important to good picture quality is the screen’s contrast ratio, its ability to display a wide range of tones, from dark blacks to white whites.
According to Pioneer executives at a C.E.S. press conference in Las Vegas Sunday, the debate as to who has the best contrast ratio is over. In a new plasma TV now in their labs and not yet ready for production, Pioneer says it has achieved blacks so black that they literally can’t be seen. In a pitch-black room, Pioneer execs said, a viewer cannot even tell the set is on if it is showing only black. Which makes their contrast ratio “off the charts.”

“True black is the holy grail of providing a great picture,” said Russ Johnston, Pioneer’s executive vice president of manufacturing and product planning. “This is an end to the discussion.”  Follow this link to see for yourself. 

And by the way. Foss-AVI has been selling a lot of Pioneer Plasma's, so they must be doing something right. Check out the photo courtesy of Pioneer of their 60 inch plasma display.