Pioneer PRO-111FD Review and Calibration

Recently something wonderful has happened in the plasma TV market. Pioneer has dropped prices on their 9th-generation displays to levels never before imagined. I was incredibly fortunate just a few weeks ago to pick up a PRO-111FD for a mere $2900. Six months ago this was a $5000 display. The funny thing is it’s worth every penny of $5000. At $2900, I’m practically stealing it!

The plain truth is the 9th-generation Kuro plasmas are the best performing televisions you can buy. That is no exaggeration. Their color accuracy, clarity, video processing and most importantly, dynamic range, are without equal. I’ll throw out a number right now: 51,080 to 1 On/Off Contrast Ratio. This is literally what I measured in the ISF Day mode. Minimum black - .001fl, maximum white – 51.080fl, incredible! Color accuracy was equally amazing. The measured color gamut is a perfect overlay of the Rec 709 HD colorspace. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll continue with these amazing performance specs a bit later.

The PRO-111FD is the 50-inch model in the Elite line. There is also a 60-inch panel, the PRO151FD and monitors in 50 and 60-inch sizes, the PRO-101 and 141. Everything about the set exudes quality. The base and bezel are finished in a high-gloss hard plastic. The back of the panel is all metal. There are four HDMI inputs (one side-mounted), one component input and two S-video and composite inputs. There is a side-mounted USB input for the Home Media Gallery feature. This allows you to show photos and videos from a USB device directly on the display, very slick. There is also an optical digital audio input which can handle a Dolby Digital or DTS bitstream and downmix it for the TV’s speakers. These speakers by the way are the best I’ve ever heard on a television. They certainly won’t replace a 5.1 surround system but they blow away any other speakers built into a display. Pioneer thoughtfully made them removable as they add about eight inches to the overall width of the set. The remote is also of excellent build quality. The face is brushed aluminum and all buttons are backlit. It can be programmed to operate other components.

Setup is quite easy. If you use the internal tuner, you can scan for available channels. If not, simply connect your components to the generous selection of inputs. There are seven picture modes: Standard, Optimum, Performance, Sport, Movie, Game and Pure. Pure is the most calibration-ready mode. It has the most accurate colorspace and a perfectly flat gamma of 2.2. You will need to calibrate the grayscale as it runs a bit warm out of the box. Movie is similar but it has a slightly expanded colorspace. Some people prefer this but it’s really not necessary with this TV. The color saturation and tint are dead-on accurate at the factory default settings in Pure mode. There is no need to pump up the color since the luminances are close to perfect.

The user menus are quite extensive offering a large variety of calibration options and other features. You can find the white balance settings and color management system in the Pro Adjust submenu. This is also where you can make choices for Pure Cinema, Noise Reduction and other image enhancements. There is a very handy Tools menu that has its own button on the remote. This menu lets you change the AV Selection (picture mode), Screen Size (aspect ratio), blank the screen and other options. You can view your current input resolution, AV Selection, input number and Screen Size by pressing Display on the remote.

The real reason to go for the Elite TVs is the available ISF modes. These can only be unlocked by connecting a laptop to the RS232 port and using ISFccc software like ControlCAL. There are two modes, Day and Night. They can be set up any way you like. You can have a Night mode with less light output. You can have a black & white mode with a 5500k grayscale, whatever you want. This can be done independently per input. After activation the ISF modes appear in the AV Selection list and in the Tools menu. All user adjustments are locked out when the ISF modes are engaged. This way no one can tamper with the modes you paid good money to have calibrated. The ISF modes can also increase the peak light output. On my set, the peak reading went from 38fl in the Pure mode to 51fl in ISF. This makes a huge difference in picture quality. The Pure mode seems dull and drab by comparison. That extra output is nice in rooms that have some ambient light coming in. I have no trouble watching on a bright sunny day.

Since I’m calibrating this TV through a control interface, the procedure is somewhat different than other displays. I began by connecting my laptop to the RS232 port. After cycling the power, I was able to establish communication with the TV through ControlCAL’s ISFccc connection. This gives me complete control over the calibration plus video processing and aspect ratio. There is a color management system, settings for the Pure Cinema modes and a 9-point RGB gamma control. After activating each ISF mode (Day and Night), I performed a separate calibration for each. Using ControlCAL along with Calman calibration software makes for a very smooth setup. With both applications on screen and Calman controlling my signal generator, I could literally calibrate this TV without looking at it! Controls behaved exactly as they should with no interaction.

The ISF Night mode was set about 15fl lower, peak output. Otherwise, I left all other settings the same. I set the Pure Cinema to Advanced. This allows for 72hz operation with 24p content from Blu-ray disc. It also performs inverse-telecine deinterlacing from 480i and 1080i sources. With film-mode DVDs, motion is much smoother since the repeated frames are discarded. Blu-rays play with a 3:3 pulldown. Frame interpolation is available if you select Pure Cinema Smooth. I find this look to be unnatural. It makes film look like soap opera video. It also introduces annoying artifacts and judder in content that isn’t mastered correctly. My recommendation is to go with Advanced and leave it at that. I set the Screen Size (aspect ratio) to Dot By Dot. This is a true 1:1 pixel mode with no overscan or pixel blanking. Test patterns confirmed that every pixel was rendered. Screen uniformity was visually perfect.

As previously stated, On/Off Contrast measured 51,080:1 in ISF Day mode. This is phenomenal performance. Gamma was ruler-flat at 2.2. Grayscale tracking measured within 75k of D65. Delta E* was under 1 for all stimulus levels. A Delta E* of 3 is the point where errors are visible to the eye. The color measurements were of comparable accuracy. Primaries and secondaries were within a whisker of perfect and luminances were also nearly perfect. You can see all the results below. I used Calman 3.3 and an EyeOne Pro meter for all measurements. Patterns were provided by an Accupel HDG-3000 signal generator.

Once complete, I closed out the ISFccc interface and all settings were saved. I was able to set up the other inputs just as easily and accurately with ControlCAL. Disc-based test patterns were used to adjust and verify my Denon and Panasonic disc players. When exiting ControlCAL, calibration information is saved to the display that can be viewed by the user. It’s cool to hold down the Display key on the remote and see my name, calibration date and phone number. I save this same data to all clients’ displays.

Since calibration, I have lived with this excellent display for several weeks. Even though I have the Night mode available, I find myself leaving the TV on Day mode. I never have my room totally dark and I am sitting about ten feet away. I like a bright image and 51fl is quite comfortable for my wife and me. There is no question that I have purchased the finest flat-panel display available. By activating the ISF modes, I have tapped into its full potential. There is literally nothing I could wish for with this TV. All performance specs are a close to perfect as my instruments can measure. Perceived picture quality is simply unparalleled. This is truly a TV that makes you want to watch your entire movie collection over again. With an artifact-free image, perfect color and stupendous contrast performance the Pioneer Elite PRO-111FD is literally without flaw. Now that prices have dropped within reach of most of us, there is no better time to add one of these fine TVs to your viewing room.

Pioneer Elite PRO-950HD Plasma Calibration

Pioneer Elite PRO-950HD Plasma Calibration
I have calibrated several Pioneer Elite plasmas of late but I wanted to write about this one because it’s the first 720p model I’ve worked with. Besides resolution, the spec sheet reads identical to the 1080p models, the PRO-110 and 150. It employs the same screen filter and coating which contribute to its outstanding black-level performance. It also includes the same menu structure and high-quality video processing of its higher-resolution brethren. At 42 inches, this TV is perfect for smaller rooms. It has plenty of light output so it can be enjoyed in a wide variety of lighting conditions.

The calibration procedure was identical to the PRO-150FD (click here for my article) so I won’t reiterate it here. My main purpose with this article is to talk about the superb performance numbers I achieved. While other calibrators have stated they couldn’t measure black levels on these panels, I had not encountered this phenomenon. I could always measure at least .001 fl. This panel however would not register a black level reading. Even after raising brightness from the default (Pluge patterns did not show below-black until this was done), I could not measure the black level on any pattern. I check these numbers with a full-field 0 IRE and an ANSI contrast checkerboard. No part of the screen registered a reading. My instruments therefore returned an infinite on/off and ANSI contrast ratio! Gamma was still a solid 2.2. I viewed the Pluge patterns in low to mid-level room light. Patterns were generated by an Accupel HDG-3000.

Performance in other areas was identical to the 1080p models. Color primaries were slightly oversaturated and decoding was error-free. Edge enhancement was easily defeated by reducing the sharpness control. I did encounter one interesting thing that I had not dealt with before. My client occasionally connects a computer to one of the TVs HDMI inputs to view photos. When connecting this way, there is no control over pixel clock or phase. The result is the TV displays a different portion of the computer’s desktop. To view the slideshow, my client has to drag the pictures off the top of the computer’s screen so they are visible on the TV. I can only speculate that this is a product of HDCP. The only workaround is to use the VGA port on the TV. This allows adjustment so you can sync the computer and the TV. It depends on what outputs are available on your computer.

In summary, I was most impressed with this TV. At a 42-inch screen size, 720p was a more than sufficient resolution for high-quality imaging. DVDs and high-def cable looked excellent as did the photos from a computer. At an MSRP of $2700, I consider this an excellent value in plasma TVs. Given that the cheapest 1080p model (the 50-inch PRO-110FD) has an MSRP of $6000, you’re only giving up a little screen size for a huge savings.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the view!

Pioneer Elite PRO-150FD Plasma Calibration

The Pioneer Elite line of plasma TVs has always represented the pinnacle of the technology. These displays are truly deserving of the title “reference.” The build quality, image accuracy and features of these displays are truly without peer. The latest generation of this line is called Kuro (the Japanese word for black), and with good reason. Pioneer has really gone after the holy grail of display attributes with the lowest black levels this side of a professional CRT. The PRO-150 is the 60-inch version of this panel. As this TV is very large (duh!) Pioneer thoughtfully made the side-mounted speakers removable. The bezel is a high-gloss piano black as is the pedestal stand which looks like a heavy glass plate (it’s actually Lucite). Four HDMI inputs are included along with one each of component, composite and s-video.

The glass for this panel is the same as used by the non-Elite models. Both lines also incorporate the same excellent video processing. The similarities end there. The Elite panels have a different front screen element to provide even higher contrast. In practice the difference between the Elite and non-Elite’s contrast ratios is small. It can be measured but not really seen. The main reason to go for the Elite is its more extensive calibration controls. There is a complete color management system and full grayscale controls. There are seven picture modes but for calibration purposes, I only explored two, Cinema and User. One of the first things I do with any display is measure the different picture modes to determine which one has the most accurate colorspace. There are also different picture “enhancements” in play but Cinema or Movie modes generally turn these options off. On the Pioneer I found the Cinema mode to be the closest to Rec 709 with nearly spot-on color decoding. I did attempt to adjust the color gamut with the Color Management system in User mode. I was able to achieve a perfect CIE chart but not without a tradeoff. When I attempted to adjust grayscale, I found it impossible to achieve decent tracking. I finally settled on Cinema with its almost-perfect color so I could have perfect grayscale tracking. The default Gamma setting of 2 produced a perfect 2.2 curve. It’s interesting to note that this curve remained correct regardless of the changes I made in other areas. It’s nice to see adjustments not interact for a change!

The other major area I addressed with this TV was motion processing. Since this display accepts 24p input and supports a correct-multiple refresh rate of 72Hz, I wanted to be sure and set up the signal path from the client’s Blu-ray player correctly. Blu-ray output is a no-brainer. Set the player for 1080p/24 and enjoy judder-free and artifact-free playback from hi-def discs. For standard DVD though, I experimented with 1080i. The only way to engage inverse-telecine in any TV or video processor is to feed in an interlaced signal. The processor reverses the 3:2 pulldown and tosses out the extra frame effectively giving 24p playback. Unfortunately, this combination did not look as detailed to me as feeding the TV 1080p/60. The judder was reduced but the image was softer. If you sit far enough from the display, the softness would not be a problem but my client was about 10 feet away and he preferred the 1080p signal. I experienced the same thing with my Panasonic projector. This demonstrates to me that there is still a need for high-quality standard DVD players. As we’ll all be watching NTSC for the foreseeable future, we need a good player to handle that format for displays that just get better and better every year. I’m really hoping a manufacturer will step up and produce a player that supports 1080p/24 output from standard DVD. This to me is the final frontier for NTSC video. Currently, the only way to do this properly is with an outboard video processor. To the Pioneer’s credit, motion processing of 60Hz signals was excellent. Zone Plate patterns showed virtually no loss of resolution. Even though judder was present, it was far less noticeable because detail was preserved during pans.

Obviously the end result of the calibration was superb. Even though this TV is better out-of-box than most, it most certainly benefits from a precise, instrumented calibration. Finding the right balance of picture modes, colorspace, decoding, levels, gamma and motion processing is the key to having the best possible image. Luckily with the Pioneer Elite, no compromises are needed. You really can have your cake and eat it too with this display. Yes, it’s very expensive. I believe the MSRP of the PRO-150FD is currently $7500. For the absolute best plasma display available however, I can’t really call it overpriced. Even the Panasonic commercial 65-inch panel is $6000. Big glass is big bucks! For anyone wanting the ultimate plasma, look no further than Pioneer Elite. It really is the best direct-view TV out there. If you can’t quite justify a $7500 TV though, don’t feel like you’re settling for a non-Elite Pioneer or a Panasonic. They are excellent displays sure to please even discriminating videophiles (like me!). It is my privilege however, to have the hands-on experience with the Elites that I do. They are a pleasure to work on. To quote Ferris Bueller, “If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one of these up!”

Thanks for reading and enjoy the view!