Pioneer Elite vs. Pioneer "Standard" Kuro Plasmas

Panasonic was making the panels and then the deal fell through.......according to two different dealers in my area. Just repeating what they told me. They were also trying to get me to buy a "real" Pioneer before Panasonic
made the panels.......go figure.

Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc.

We truly appreciate your support for KURO. We believe that our KURO displays are true innovators in the display business. e Our focus will be on the home A/V business, and we will continue to introduce cutting-edge products into the market. We appreciate your continued support.

Thank You,

Kathy
Customer Service Representative

This is a response sent to me Feb. 24, 2009

Maybe their right. Besides the fall in high end sales could be Pioneer sees the end of the technology. This could be the last of the great plasmas before something like Mitsubishi's laserview technology wins out.

Didnt mean to, but just pulled the trigger on the 151FD and BDP-05 from local BestBuy of all places.
Turns out they have Elite line because they shut down their higher end local stores(MagnoliaHiFi), and they were willing to match Amazon prices.
Was intent on the 111, but upon audition looked too small for my room. With speakers on side and cable image cropped at top and bttm, it created kind of an illusion of a big fat bezel and small rectangular pic...And so I up sold myself to the 60" 151. Couldnt help it, last of the great plasmas at irresistable price and terms.

What kind of price did you nabbed from Best Buy - I just got informed from Axxis Audio that Pioneer just dropped there prices on the 151 model by couple of hundres of dollars - did you get it hooked up and your result is......

They had the 111 on sale for $2799 and 151 on sale for $5899. Settled on $4699 for the 151 and $550(799) for the BDP-05. Had to point out where the best Amazon pricing was. They also offered 2 years no payments or intrest on their card if your so inclined.

I left with the BDP-05 and will pickup the 151 today after work. ( They wanted 100$ for delivery only, no white glove setup available) Will wait 5-8hrs before turning on after moving.

The blu ray player slightly bests my denon5900 even with std dvds and std tv.
Did a firmware updated to BDP to from 1.08 to 1.25hdmi
Hooked up BDP-05 via component to my good ole 1080i sony wega xrb 34" crt and saw and improvement in picture quality over my denon 5900 with 1080i dvi setup.
Only complaint is the same one I have with the denon, the analogue outs are so tightly grouped together it is hard to fit better analogue interconnects to.(audio goes out via analogue to cj met1 pre)

Cant wait to see what happens when I switch cable service back to direct tvhd...Now if only my job holds up.