Then you have merely to finesse sound and vision to your liking. Sound appears to just mean Surround Sound on or off. The Surround Sound effect was rather echoey and best left off except for extreme blockbuster movies.
Sideshow: additional interfacing for camcorders and the like
Picture manipulation is not much more complicated and the factory default settings are pretty good. And the picture, let’s be clear, is darned impressive. No pasty greys from an over-dominant backlight, with colours muted into pastel versions. The contrast is deeply impressive, the blacks are much stronger than on most LCDs and Pioneer has matched the film-like quality its plasmas excel at. Is it as good as plasma at deep, rich blacks with details leaping out of shadows? No, but it’s certainly better than most other LCD screens.
The Pioneer filter on the front of the screen is remarkably successful. This TV is a trifle more reflective than regular LCD screens, which takes getting used to, but it imbues everything with a cinematic sheen. The KRL-37V also has an ambience monitor which adjusts the brightness of the backlight according to the light in the room, which helps with the cinema feel. The 100Hz refresh rate also smoothes the picture.
This is a Full HD panel so, as you’d hope, it’s especially strong with HD content. In an episode of Lost on Sky 1 HD, the lush jungle shone out appealingly, while gushing flames in the ancient undercover lair – we’ll avoid spoiling too much for those waiting for the DVD – were glossy, but persuasive. Since a lot of HD drama is shot with little or no make-up for the men, it’s there we need to look for detail. Skin tones, from Jack Shephard’s blood-blotched complexion to Locke’s sweaty permatan were convincing.
Base concerns: free screwdriver with every set
Older footage such as Mary Poppins on Disney Cinemagic HD had that reassuring Technicolor warmth we recall from childhood, with great sharpness and detail even down to Dick Van Dyke’s sooty chimney-sweep clothing.
COMMENTS
Full HD (@Dan)
One good thing about Full HD is that 1080 content need not be resampled, and 720 content can be resampled very simply. Whereas it's all too easy to mess it up with a 1366x768 screen.
HDMI
"Setup is simple enough – though as you plug in your Sky+ HD box, Blu-ray player and PS3 you’ll notice you’ve just used up all the HDMI sockets. For the price premium this set commands, a fourth socket on the side of the TV would have been expected, but no, three’s your lot."
You want four HDMI sockets? Why? Please explain why it should have 4?
1. Blu-ray
2. Cable/Satelite
3. Games console
What you plugging into the fourth that wouldn't actually replace one of the others?
Try finding an amp with 4 HDMI inputs for a reasonable price because that's what stands in between most sources and a high end panel.
It's as if you're just trying to find something to bitch about.
Re:Blu-ray AND PS3?
No, the PS3 does not piss over all but the very top end blu-ray players. Not even close. True when it first came out but not even close now. sony 350 and Panasonic BD35 both rated higher and both nowhere near top end.
Re: Mike
They pulled out largely due to the strong Yen making it very expensive (and therefore unprofitable) for them to make the panels, not because they didn't think they were a success.
I've heard (unconfirmed) rumours that they will continue to make plasma TVs by sourcing the panels from other brands. If so, I have doubts about the quality of such.
The real question...
The consensus, at least until recently, was that full-HD was useless on anything below 42 inches. Nevertheless, manufacturers across the board added it to various TVs because gullible people wouldn't touch buy unless it had a full complement of mystery acronyms.
The real question is whether this is worth the extra money over the Panasonic 37PX80 plasma. The Panasonic is considered a bargain at £600-700, not least because it manages to keep the price down by avoiding un-necessary spec add-ons.
Sizes
"After all, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Pioneer plasma smaller than 50 inches"
Umm - no, not all. Sorry, but all a bit nonsense that whole section about size.
