Pioneer to Exit TV Market

[Jimmy]

I just read in Home Theater Magazine that Pioneer is exiting the TV business. I wonder if any of their Kuro technology will be licensed to other Plasma manufacturers? Who will be stepping up to fill the hole in High-End Plasmas now?

[PHC1]

Originally Posted by Jimmy

I just read in Home Theater Magazine that Pioneer is exiting the TV business. I wonder if any of their Kuro technology will be licensed to other Plasma manufactures. Who will be stepping up to fill the hole in High-End Plasmas now?

It is sad but true. Not sure if the Kuro will be passed on to someone else but the sets are just fantastic. My local dealers had a special of $2800 for the Elite Kuro sets.... Then the price jumped to $4k and now they are pretty much all gone.... I have their 50" set in my bedroom and it is pure eye candy.

[Jimmy]

Every Kuro review that I read and folks who own them (such as you Serge) absolutely love them. This was going to be my TV of choice for my HT project, but now will have to look elsewhere. I see where Panasonic gets pretty good reviews but not as good as the Kuro, I guess time and the economy will dictate who will emerge as the new High-End Plasma manufacturer. I read Pioneer’s TV division had not turned a profit since 2004, I guess they had no choice but to exit the business.

[PHC1]

I remember being so impressed with the Kuro Pro when I had my set delivered that I took some pics of the actual screen. Of course much fidelity gets lots when you take a picture of the screen but I think these speak for themselves.

[Masterlu]

Extraordinary!

I have a Kuro 60" in the Cape.

[Waboman]

It is sad. Unfortunately, the reality is the basic consumer wants cheap, e.g. Vizio, type crap and doesn't care at all about real quality. Sigh...

[Jimmy]

Originally Posted by PHC1

I remember being so impressed with the Kuro Pro when I had my set delivered that I took some pics of the actual screen. Of course much fidelity gets lots when you take a picture of the screen but I think these speak for themselves.

Most Impressive. . . we can only hope someone will Lic the Kuro technology.

[KingRT]

Originally Posted by Waboman

It is sad. Unfortunately, the reality is the basic consumer wants cheap, e.g. Vizio, type crap and doesn't care at all about real quality. Sigh...

Vizio is not making any more plasma's either!
So the cheap guys are out too, in regard to plasma's.

[JFR0317]

This is indeed a shame. I have three different Pioneer plasmas, and I love them. Unfortunately, they were already having problems before the economic problems surfaced, and today's market makes it that much worst.

I'm going to try to score at least one more while any are still available.

[MikeSp]

Originally Posted by PHC1

It is sad but true. Not sure if the Kuro will be passed on to someone else but the sets are just fantastic. My local dealers had a special of $2800 for the Elite Kuro sets.... Then the price jumped to $4k and now they are pretty much all gone.... I have their 50" set in my bedroom and it is pure eye candy.

I doubt if anyone else gets the Kuro technology since LCD with LED backlighting is the current wave of the near future for high end. After contacting Pioneer, I found that they were guaranteeing that parts would be available for the Kuros for 7-10 years and longer if necessary so I purchased the last 60 inch Pro at my dealer. Another local dealer indicated that they were out however the warehouse had many but the price had gone up as the number of Kuros warehoused became less.

My crystal ball is charged up this morning for a few seconds and it gives me the impression that Pioneer will be out of the display business for a year or two (giving the world economy a chance to rebound) and THEN come back with another high end killer display and since they got into bed with Sharp who makes LCD panels, I suspect that Pioneer will engineer the very best LCD/LED display and hope that they do.

MikeSp