Pioneer PDP4280XD Review

[Vincent]

Please discuss the Pioneer PDP4280XD review in this thread.

[Phantoma]

Very much looking forward to the rest of this review Vincent.   

It's impressive how Pioneer have created a niche market for their great line of Plasmas even though they're selling them at a premium price to the competition.

They're selling like hotcakes here in OZ.  Three to four week waiting period before delivery to your door after putting the cash down.
The 50" models get installation and calibration as well (built into the price of course...nothing is really free).

[KURO]

Finally Vincent 
Still waiting for the benchmarks!

Success with the review,

Marcel

[Frank]

Vincent i hope your review is good. I am thinking of sending my second 508XD back and go for a 50pz700.

[Phantoma]

Vincent i hope your review is good. I am thinking of sending my second 508XD back and go for a 50pz700.

What's been going wrong with your 508XD Frank?

Pioneer have dropped their prices here and I think it's because of the Panasonics.  I was seriously considering stepping up to a 50" 8G Pioneer panel instead of the 50" Pana pz700.

[Frank]

Phantoma,

Every generation of pioneer plasmas has it problems. 508XD has a glass pannel problem. Both where broken on delivery.

I have the 508XD and 50PY700(50PZ700) in my store. Both are good plasmas. So for my personal life and harmony at home i bought the 508XD. And for harmony at home i am going to send the 508XD back and deliver the 50PY700 to my home.

Phantoma The pioneer has a 3 HDMI 1.3, 10 bit Pannel, 24fps and Deepcolor. The 50PZ700 has 3 HDMI 1.3, 16 bit pannel, Deepcolor and 1920x1080.

I hope this helps,

Frank

[Mark800]

Hi,

When can we expect the final part of the Pioneer review? Good stuff so far.

[Phantoma]

I have the 508XD and 50PY700(50PZ700) in my store. Both are good plasmas. So for my personal life and harmony at home i bought the 508XD. And for harmony at home i am going to send the 508XD back and deliver the 50PY700 to my home.

Phantoma The pioneer has a 3 HDMI 1.3, 10 bit Pannel, 24fps and Deepcolor. The 50PZ700 has 3 HDMI 1.3, 16 bit pannel, Deepcolor and 1920x1080.

I hope this helps,

Frank

Thanks Frank, I'll be interested to hear which one you prefer picture wise.
I'm curious to see how the 50PZ700 handles 1080/24p material.

[Frank]

Phantoma,

I love the PZ for REAL life colors and REAl life details.The pioneer gives more a LCD color for me.(Samsung 40M86BD)

My wife loves the 508XD for the colors??? 

I think Vincent can explain it bether about the colors and the 1080/24. If Vincent can tell me what to look for. I can tell you the diffrence i hope.

Maybe this helps. When i placed the 42PZ700 and the 50PZ700 on the sales stand here. My sales of ALL LCD tv's  dropt by almost 40%.My sales for Pioneer plasmas is still the same.All televisions show a Astra HD signal.

I hope this helps,

Frank

[Phantoma]

Phantoma,

I love the PZ for REAL life colors and REAl life details.The pioneer gives more a LCD color for me.(Samsung 40M86BD)

My wife loves the 508XD for the colors??? 

What I have been reading about the 7G and 8G Pioneers is that they need proper calibration to bring out the best out of them so that's probably why Pioneer over here includes calibration into the price.

The panel gets delivered and a day or two after an authorized calibrator comes over to optimize it.

I think Vincent can explain it bether about the colors and the 1080/24. If Vincent can tell me what to look for. I can tell you the diffrence i hope.

When playing 1080/24p material on the 50PZ700 the thing to look for is if there is any juddering because I don't think it officially supports 24hz.  We'll see in Vincent's review soon enough.

Maybe this helps. When i placed the 42PZ700 and the 50PZ700 on the sales stand here. My sales of ALL LCD tv's  dropt by almost 40%.My sales for Pioneer plasmas is still the same.All televisions show a Astra HD signal.

I hope this helps,

Frank

That's promising news because even though Pioneer have dropped their prices they are still more expensive than the Panasonics. 

However, customer service from Panasonic Australia when something goes wrong is said to be crap by some unhappy buyers who have had to quote Consumer Law to them over here to get things fixed, so maybe I would prefer to pay more and deal with Pioneer who have impressed a lot of people with their service quality.

[the_m0ney]

Hi will you be posting your settings you used once you had calibrated the 428 i found them very useful on my 427 and would like them to try on my 428

[Phantoma]

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Pioneer-PDP4280XD/

A fabulous review Vincent.  Better than any other one on the net.  I'm really leaning towards Pioneer right now even though Frank's experience with his 508XD has puzzled me.

[Mike]

Thanks for the review.
Do you use ANSI-contrast when stating contrast ratio?
It'ld be much easier to compare if this is the case because dynamic contrast is really bullshit...

[Uhtoff]

I was wondering what this TV was like for gaming with the PS3, there seems to be an accepted wisdom of gaming=LCD, is this truly the case?

[swinster]

I am now in the market for a plasma, but have been looking for along time since way back to when the Pioneer 43" plasmas were king. Of course, I am now in a quandary as as these new Pioneers are over £600 more expensive than the Panasonic 42PX70's. I had budgeted for around £1500 but once I consider a AV table/cabinet, the swivel Pioneer table stand and connection I will be looking at well into £2000. I am wondering if the extra cash really is worth the investment?

Then there is the case of the slightly different Pioneer models - the PDP4280XD (as reviewed) and the PDP428XD with extra features and connectivity.

I would like to know if the extra controls on the later model is again worth an additional £200, and if so why? I am a bit of a computing geek so will be linking the screen to the home network via a media PC and networked amp, but I am wondering if the USB connection is really worth it, and I also believe that there are additional picture control settings which I'm not sure are necessary?

Maybe I should wait until September when 1080p models are expected (I think) and the prices of these units may dip. The vast majority of media I will be watch will be SD, however, I am certainly intent on getting HD sources at some point in the future, even if the first port of call will simply be an upscaling DVD player.

Swin