Pioneer Elite PureVision PRO 1110HD User manual

ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM MARCH/APRIL 2004 ISSUE 53

The evolution of plasma television has
been interesting. First came sets with
dark images, horrible black levels, many
picture artifacts, and lousy colors. (As
an added bonus, they generated enough
thermal energy to warm your cold hands simply
by holding your mitts in front of the screen.)
With each succeeding generation, picture, con-
trast, efficiency, and color have improved.
Pioneer Electronics has been a wild card in
the progress of HD plasma. Like a small scrappy
fighter compared to Goliaths such as Matsushita
and Hitachi, it has led the way with many prod-
uct improvements and innovations. The PRO-
1110HD claims further breakthroughs, includ-
ing true 10-bit color processing, improved scal-
ing, built-in ATSC tuning, and 3-3 pulldown. I
set out to examine if and how these improve-
ments advance the state of the flat-panel art.
The first thing one notices about the 50"
widescreen PRO-1110HD is that it’s finished in
elegant piano-black lacquer, like a giant onyx
American Express card. For awhile, it seemed as
if almost every new set was silver or accented in
silver—a trend I hated, since I prefer the way
black frames an image, the way it improves con-
trast between the set’s borders and the active dis-
play. The panel is supplied with a tablestand,
also finished in piano-black, which I attached to
the plasma with the help of friendly delivery-
men. The glossy black side speakers come with
two sets of attachment brackets—one for a flush
look, the other for a recessed appearance. I chose
the flush-mount.
Gary Merson
Pioneer Elite PRO-1110HD, 50" Plasma TV
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March/April 2004 ❘www.theperfectvision.com
The PRO-1110HD, like other high-end plasmas TVs,
uses a separate media center for switching and signal pro-
cessing, but it is also the first plasma I’ve seen that comes with
a built-in over-the-air ATSC high-definition tuner. This set
was also my first encounter with what will someday become
the ubiquitous HDMI connector. This new interface provid-
ed a number of challenges. To begin with, I had to find a
cable with a male DVI-D connector on one end and a male
HDMI connector on the other—currently, not an easy feat,
though I eventually did get one from the folks at Meridian.
The media center (PRO-RO4U) is sold with the panel,
stand, and speakers as part of the package. It uses a combi-
nation umbilical cable, with a DVI-D connector for video
and a second connector for audio, to connect the media cen-
ter to the display. The PRO-RO4U offers a full array of
input choices, but only four sets of inputs, meaning that
most of the inputs will be doing double or triple duty. You
may choose to connect a composite, S-video, component
video, or HDMI source to any of them, but you only have
the ability to switch among the four. (A fifth analog/RGB
computer input, on 15-pin D-sub connector with left and
right audio, can be accessed by the PC button on the remote
control.) Given the relatively small number of inputs, the
set’s big saving grace is Pioneer’s inclusion of two FireWire
ports (called i.LINK) on the back of the media center.
The Pioneer remote is a learning type, with backlit but-
tons that include direct access for the four inputs. All other
adjustments are made via the graphic user interface, with its
typical multilayered menus. Each input has its own memo-
ry, thank goodness.
The unit has the usual aspect-ratio controls (4:3, two
LINEAR zooms, a progressive STRETCH, and FULL), plus a
sidebar option for 4:3. This last allows you to change the
standard gray sidebars to slightly-blown-up black-and-
white repeats of what’s being displayed in the left and right
quarters of the picture (I’m not kidding). This looks really
weird and confusing, and I cannot imagine why anyone at
Pioneer seriously believed that a consumer would choose to
view a movie or program this way.
There are five picture modes (STANDARD, DYNAMIC,
MOVIE, GAME, and USER); as with other sets, these have pre-
set values, though each is adjustable. A word of caution: I
tried the MOVIE mode and discovered that there is a built-in
dynamic brightness level, not described in the owner’s man-
ual, that cannot be adjusted; in other words, stick with USER
settings to make adjustments for all inputs.
Plasmas are made up of three important parts. First is
the glass itself. This controls the native resolution (in this
case 1280x768), as well as the potential brightness and
color accuracy. The second part is the drive electronics.
These circuits energize the plasma glass and influence such
things as the number of available colors and shades of gray,
power consumption/heat, plus certain types of artifacts and
video noise. The third part is the signal processing.
With this model, Pioneer has greatly improved both its
drive electronics and its signal processing. The glass itself is
similar to previous generation, though, sans a phosphor
change, the reds appear redder to me. The drive electronics
now have 10-bit video processing, which means 1024 levels
for each red, green, and blue phosphor between black and
white and a palette of over a billion colors. False-contour-
ing is not visible at any reasonable viewing distance—to the
point where it is not an issue, even with movies with the
word “dark” in their titles (like Dark Man)!
This 50" screen requires only 363 watts to light. It is cool-
er and consumes less power than its competition and should
actually save a few bucks on your energy bill compared to
other makes. By the way, it also failed my hand-warmer test.
With this display, if you have cold hands, get gloves.
All fixed-panel displays must take native video sources
(and in many cases computer scan rates) and convert the
signals to the native matrix of the panel. Even if the glass
and drive electronics are excellent, poor scaling will make
non-native content look bad. How does this one do? Let the
adventure begin.
Using the Unit
I was excited to sample this unit because of my high
regard for Pioneer’s previous models, and I was not disap-
pointed by its performance. Right out of the box, the set’s
black was neutral, not green as is the case with many price-
leader plasmas (such as Gateway and others).
I began by trying out DVI-equipped sources (DVD play-
ers and satellite boxes) with my DVI-HDMI cable. This pre-
sented a challenge. There is no mention of HDMI in the
owner’s manual (something I made Pioneer aware of and
that, I hope, will be corrected by the time this goes to print).
I hooked up one end of the cable to Input 1 and the other end
to my VOOM receiver, and…there was no picture. I called
Pioneer and was informed that there is a toggle “on” for
HDMI connection in the set’s GUI; nevertheless, none
showed up on-screen. My Pioneer contact speculated that this
could be because of improper communication from the
source, so after turning the plasma panel and media center off
and on again (always a good first move with digital compo-
nents), I connected my new Sencore 403 signal generator,
equipped with DVI, to the set. Sure enough, the letters
“HDMI” appeared on the GUI. I pushed ENTER and toggled
to enable HDMI. I discussed this with some folks at Pioneer,
and they agreed the default should be “HDMI on,” not
“HDMI off.” (As noted, this may be corrected by the time
you read this.)
Next I connected my over-the-air antenna (OTA) to the
DTV antenna input. I quickly discovered that the unit will
not decode QAM cable signals, and all over-the-air stations
must first be scanned in to be received. Both omissions are
disappointing for an integrated HDTV of this caliber. Once
This Pioneer has the best built-in
scaler I have seen on HD plasma.

March/April 2004 ❘www.theperfectvision.com
the scanning process was complete, however, the tuner did
an admirable job of displaying all the local digital stations I
can normally receive with other tuners.
Performance
The scaler in the PRO-RO4U converts all accepted
inputs (480i/480p/720p/1080i) to the native resolution of
the panel (1280x768), but unlike any other scaler (that I am
aware of) sold with a plasma or built-into one, it can dis-
play all content at a 72Hz refresh-rate, instead of the 60Hz
other plasmas display. According to the manual, you will
need to set the on-screen PRO CINEMA CONTROL to
ADVANCED to engage 72Hz refresh. With the control thus
set, the media center’s scaler detects 24fps film-based con-
tent and produces what is know as “3-3 pulldown,” dis-
playing each film frame three times (i.e., every 3/72 of a sec-
ond) before proceeding to the next frame.
There are a number of advantages to this. For example,
with a normal 3-2 cadence (at 60Hz), horizontal pans
appear jerky at times. However, when each frame is pre-
sented for an equal amount of time, this problem is elimi-
nated. I looked at a number a film-based images with hori-
zontal pans such as the Video Essentials montage, and I did
not see any jerkiness with horizontal motion.
I connected a DVD player with both DVI and component
video and found that the picture looked excellent with either
connection. I was surprised to learn that, when using a DVI
source (connected to the display via the DVI-HDCP cable
described earlier), the Pioneer would not display test signals
from a DVD below 7 IRE, commonly known as “blacker
than black.” A Pioneer spokesman said this was part of the
HDMI standard. This is something that needs to be investi-
gated more thoroughly with Intel—the people that own the
rights to HDMI. There was no problem displaying blacker-
than-black signals using any of the other inputs (component,
S-Video, composite). The scaler did such a fantastic job that
I continued to use a component connection at 480i, letting
the built-in scaler do the complete upconversion.
I moved on to broadcast analog television. The results were
equally impressive. As I have said in many reviews, NTSC sig-
nals are the toughest to scale to HD resolutions. This Pioneer
has the best (built-in) scaler I have seen on an HD plasma. All
analog programming of reasonable quality looked acceptable-
to-excellent (for NTSC). The era of living with artifacts on
NTSC with a 50" plasma is over. No waxen faces, false con-
tours, or lack of dark detail. NTSC looks, well, like NTSC, not
high-def but very viewable. Congratulations again to Pioneer!
As noted above, the panel was very neutral in the dark-
est areas. Flesh tones were not perfect, but I thought I might
be able to make them better with a calibration. First, I
began to take my test measurements.
The color temperature was closest to D6500 at the low-
est color temperature setting (called LOW)—close, but not
right, with too much blue in the mix and slightly insufficient
red. With calibration, the flesh tones fell into place.
I also checked out the color decoder and matrix and it
was very close to ideal. Post-calibration, I measured top
white level (100% contrast) at a retina-searing 86.3fL and
the black at a mere .130fL, yielding an excellent real-world
maximum contrast ratio of 663.8:1. I reduced the contrast
to a calibrated level, which read an impressively bright
41.6fL, yielding a viewing contrast ratio of 320:1.
I performed my usual battery of tests, but, since plasmas
have perfect geometry, no geometric corrections were need-
ed. This set exhibited only 3% overscan, instead of the
usual 4–5% found on other displays.
With all adjustments complete, I sampled a variety of
programs, including HD broadcast programs, the VOOM
channels, and premium HD programs. With room lights on,
the slight, neutral light output in black areas was not
noticeable. Its freedom from artifacts, especially in dark
areas, coupled with its bright clean images made this display
a joy to view. Program after program yielded superb results.
Conclusion
The Pioneer PRO-1110HD is a very compelling set.
Pioneer’s plasmas (the company offers a similarly-featured
43") are among the first “future-ready” sets, providing
HDMI/HDCP and FireWire/5C copy-protected interfaces.
The PRO-1110HD also offers a built-in ATSC high-defini-
tion tuner. The only thing it lacks is a cable tuner, but with
FireWire connectivity, you should be able to control an
external HD cable box, so you really do get a set that can
handle any source you throw at it. I really appreciated the
superior color palette, its higher refresh rate (72Hz) with
the picture improvements it brings, and its ability to present
NTSC broadcasts, standard definition, and HDTV sources
without the artifacts and anomalies that other 50" plasmas
exhibit. Check this one out, and you will be looking at a one
very fine display. At $15,500 retail, it isn’t cheap, but if you
can afford it, you should give it top consideration.
PIONEER ELECTRONICS
2265 E. 220th St.
Long Beach, California 90810
[phone]
www.pioneerelectronics.com
www.pioneerpurevision.com
Price: $15,500
MANUFACTURER INFORMATION
SPECIFICATIONS
Screen Size: 50"
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Usable input scan rates (video): 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
Usable input scan rates (computer): 720 x 400 at 70Hz; 640 x 480 at 60, 65, 72,
and 75Hz; 800 x 600 at 56, 60, 72, and 75Hz; 832 x 624 at 74.5Hz (Mac); 1024 x
768 at 60, 70, and 75Hz; 1280 x 768 at 56, 60, and 70Hz
Inputs: Two FireWire (i.LINK), two HDMI, three component video, three S-video, three
composite, one DTV RF, one NTSC RF (cable or antenna), one RS232
Dimensions: 50" x 29" x 3 7/8"
Weight: 83.8 lbs.
Warranty: Two years (parts and labor)