Pioneer Kuro club members - anyone sold their TV yet?

Heartless you are. I bet the Kuro looks at you all doe-eyed when you go in the kitchen, and you, you just ignore it, grab your food and drink, then flirt with the Samsung in the parlour. A Korean mistress, in the parlour of all places. And the poor Kuro can hear everything you know, everything.

You know the Japanese are quite suicidal, and it will be all your fault if the Kuro clicks the switch on itself. 

Well, I suppose I should confess that I actually spend more time in the kitchen than in the parlour! I'm in the parlour only to go on the computer, whereas in the kitchen I cook and also eat on the fairly large kitchen table, wash clothes, iron .... I guess that I spend at least twice as much time in the kitchen as in the parlour, which was the main reason why I was keen to get a reasonably decent sound system in the kitchen also, precisely so that I wouldn't have to be going to the parlour all the time. In actual fact quite often I don't have the television on at all, if I'm really concentrating on something. A lot of the time good old analogue FM Radio 3 and Radio 4 rule, via the Denon and Yamaha receivers. Mind you, the parlour does get used when I run my film nights, which happens about once every three months. And I can assure you that if I can save up and get a Panasonic TX-P65ST50, with a bit of luck by Christmas, then the Samsung will also be relegated from the parlour to the kitchen - without a second's thought.

But enough about me already. Come on, BBB! Everyone wants to know how the Panasonic 50GT50 compares with the Pioneer 508. Get the new Panasonic connected and purring. I fully expect that you'll be so glad you did, and it will make parting with the Pioneer a wee bit easier, if parting there must be. I expect also that the blacks on the Panasonic will be as deep as on your Pioneer, and it will also be quite a bit sharper.

Spent a lovely sunny afternoon in the house unplugging the Kuro, arranging some of the furniture etc., and then plugging in the new Pana.

Initial impressions were poor, but checked the picture setting, was on Dynamic. So straight away I changed that to THX Cinema, and wow, what a picture. Blacks looked a bit blacker than the Kuro, picture looked more dynamic, then..............

OH MY GOD!!!!

SCREEN BURN!!!!!!

Either John Lewis, or more probably the people who bought it and returned it had burnt the screen big time.

I've rung JL, offered to send an engineer to replace the panel, but I can't be doing with that. So they're coming to collect it in just over a week, and then will refund me.

Gutted. But at least I'm still a member of the Kuro club. " />

Hi mate

Ah not good!  How bad was the screen burn?  And where was it?  I would have taken another new one - you sure you don't want to do that?  Check out the picture still and tell us what you think, night time it gets even better.

Welcome back! 

Gel, they didn't offer me another tv (probably because it was clearance), they just offered me an engineer to change the panel. That would be ok, but I always think the bezel would get damaged if they start taking it all apart and replacing the panel, and I don't want to go through all that.

Screen burn is terrible, it's kind of reddy pink all down the right hand side, across the bottom, and even some on the left hand side too. On the right hand side you can almost read what it says, and it's visible on white or darker background. 

I am impressed with the picture, it really is quite stunning. Blacks are defintely more black, and it has a more vibrant picture than the Kuro. I think the picture is a little sharper, with more defined edges, so I would recommend it, though it compares to the KRP500 or 5090 I couldn't say. 

I'm going to plug the Kuro back in, then run the scrolling bar on the Pana throughout the night to see if it can remove the damage, but I'm not very optimistic.

Thank you sir, it's nice to be back 

Ah that don't sound good!  Pity they didn't offer you a new one.  I am a bit surprised John Lewis did not check it out - or if they did that they sold it on again.  Oh well at least you still have a great TV.

True gel.

Could be that JL caused the damage in store, as it was on dynamic when it arrived here.

Kuro's back on. Looks great, just tweaked the contrast up a few notches, and bingo, looks lovely and vibrant. 

But the blacks on the Pana do beat it, I'll admit that.

Will stick with the Kuro now, and revert back to plan A, buy a WD TV Live.

Hi all,i have just got my pioneer lx508d back from the repair shop ,had a problem with a reddish screen when no input was running threw the screen,they replaced the pannel and hey presto the blacks are back ,the screen looks fantastic ,i know they dont have the gizmos of the smart tvs after all there just gizmos ,even if they did i wouldnt use them,so when it comes to the picture quality the pioneers are still out there with best.I still believe that the pioneers are still the astin martins of tv,so dont sell them cherish them.:grin: 

I love my LX508D as you will see if you read earlier in the thread, but I have to say the new Pana GT50 does beat the LX for blacks after seeing them side by side.

I think the build quality of the Pioneer 8th generation Kuros is unmatched, though I am a little concerned by the fault that your tv has developed as I only have 5 months left on the 5 year warranty. How old is your tv?.

I've bought a WD TV Live to turn my Pioneer into a smart tv, so looking forward to using that when it eventually arrives.

Still happy to be a Kuro club member.  " />

hi ,my tv warranty runs out in october this year.with my tv fault it was just one of those things,when speaking to the the repair shop i asked on a normal month how many pioneers do you have in for repair they said we hardly get them in at all they have more of the smart tvs in .i must say that i hear what your saying about the panasonics black is better than the pioneer but if your pioneer was a new screen and then compare them i think you would be surprised like me when they replaced the pannel on mine.dont forget that your screen is 4 years old ,i had forgotten how good it was .i think given the choice of a new panisonic or my pioneer ,it would be the pioneer. david

The original Pioneer PDP-5000EX 50" cost £6k back in 2006, and I think that this is nearer the price they needed to sell at (50"), for the quality that went into them.

It's no wonder they lost money on every TV they sold, even if they had a premium over the other brands. Quality-wise I think they are more in line with B&O or Loewe.

I also think that at the price that current (less premium) brands sell at, it is impossible to meet the quality standards set by the Kuros.....I won't be selling mine any time soon.

I could of course be wrong (and in some ways hope I am)

Cno

I have been taking some more pictures, so I thought I would upload them again for you guys:

I have done a video too, anybody know how I can upload it?

Cheers