pioneer

Pioneer has followed the current trend of TV media streaming, introducing an Ethernet jack on the back of its latest line of Kuro televisions, the PDP-6020FD and PDP-5020FD; the latter of which we gave high marks. The set is one of a few HDTVs on the market that are certified as DLNA clients, delivering an interoperability framework that promises to allow you to painlessly stream movies, music, and photos over your home network to your attached television, using Windows Media Player 11, TVersity, or some other media streaming software. If you're not interested in using your computer as a media-hub, it might be worthwhile to check out some of these products, which offer similar streaming functionality without the clunky PC tower.… Read more

For quite some time, the battle for CNET's "Best HDTV Overall" has essentially been between Pioneer's and Panasonic's plasmas. Plasma technology may be losing market share every year, but it's still the clear winner when it comes to image quality, thanks to deep, rich blacks that LCDs still can't match. And the conventional wisdom lately has basically been that Pioneer is the best bet for flat-panel videophiles, due to its industry-best black levels (excluding Sony's little OLED set.)

We posted our full review of the Pioneer Kuro PDP-5020FD on Friday, and home … Read more

Got a big archiving project you've been itching to do? Pioneer's latest development could help you keep all your data in one nice, little circular package.

The Japanese electronics maker has been working on an optical disc, which, like Blu-ray, can store 25GB of data in a single layer. But Pioneer says it's one-upped the high-definition format to the sixteenth degree. The company announced today that it has a single disc that contains 16 layers of storage, at 25GB each. That adds up to 400GB of data capable of being stored on a single disc.

Blu-ray comes … Read more

We've offered more than 99 pennies in reward money as a challenge to the first person who can make some e-salt that will stop the snail robots from taking over our planet. Of course, running would probably also work as they are snails. Also Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting and we children don't like it. But Time Warner might. We also talk a little bit about some phone that's coming out this week. From Apple. I think it's called the over-hyped phone. Or iPhone. Or something.

Microsoft letter … Read more

We've received a heads-up from our Pioneer source on a recent Japanese launch of its videophile-grade 9G Kuro. This delivers five times better dynamic contrast than the U.S.-centric PDP-6010FD, promising even richer blacks than any existing Kuro plasma TVs on the market.

Furthermore, the KRP-600M's 100,000:1 rating puts it in the class of the recently announced Panasonic Viera TH-65PY850M. That said, the former is strictly a full-HD monitor, shipped without an onboard TV tuner and loudspeakers.

It also features multiple remote LEDs for enhanced infrared control in dark home theaters, as well as a … Read more

Right, we're sticking our neck out here. Vinyl is dead. Even if you're a DJ, those glorious analogue discs are starting to pale in comparison to CDs and other digital music. There will be people reading this who will tell you we're wrong, ignorant and just plain stupid. But hear us out: there are compelling reasons why we think 12-inch format music has had its day. The Pioneer CDJ-400 is just one of them.

There used to be a time when CD just didn't cut the mustard for DJs. If you were lucky, a CD deck … Read more

Pioneer's long-awaited announcement regarding its 2008 Kuro-branded plasmas, the successors to our favorite TV of 2007, the PDP-5080HD, includes a total of six new models. The company is claiming that the 2008 HDTVs produce "five times deeper" black levels than the 2007s, and during a side-by-side demo that included both 2007 and 2008 models, the new display certainly appeared a bit darker in the blackest areas--although it couldn't muster the essentially absolute black we saw demonstrated at CES and during our review of Sony's OLED TV. We have recently reviewed the 50-inch model, and while it did impress us with its extremely deep black levels, find out why it still didn't make the cut for our editor's choice award this year. Here's a rundown of the company's new line.… Read more

Pioneer announced two new Blu-ray players Wednesday morning, the BDP-51FD and step-up Elite BDP-05FD. Pioneer has so far taken a decidedly high-end approach to the Blu-ray market, with the company's initial players selling for upward of $1,000. Honestly, we're not sure what the appeal of these players are, but Pioneer tells us they can't fulfill the existing orders for the $1,000 BDP-95FD--proof, it would seem, that the enthusiast videophile market is alive and well. With that in mind, let's take a look at the key features of the upcoming Blu-ray players.

Key features of … Read more

Pioneer has unveiled four new AV receivers in its high-end Elite line for 2008. The VSX-01TXH ($750) and VSX-03TXH ($1,000) will be first out the door in June, followed by the SC-05 ($1,800) and SC-07 ($2,200) in August. (A 2007 model, the VSX-94TXH, remains in the lineup as well and is widely available for 25 percent off its $1,600 MSRP.) In addition to all of the cutting-edge features (HDMI 1.3; upscaling of analog video sources to 1080p HDMI output; on-board decoding for the Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution, and lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks found on Blu-ray Discs; multi-source output for up to three zones; Pioneer's top-notch MCACC auto-calibration), the SC-05 and SC-07 boast network connections for streaming digital media from DLNA-compatible network sources, including PC hard drives. The 05 and 07 also offer some super-tweaky features that will potentially appeal to audiophiles, including the Precision Quartz Locking System (PQLS) that's said to offer optimal CD playback from Pioneer's new Blu-ray players by eliminating audio jitter.… Read more