Blackerness

"Pioneer pushes ever closer to their goal of absolute black by further reducing the idle luminance and improving black levels five times over the previous 2007 KURO models." The result is Blackerness. Take a look at Engadget's Blackerness photo comparing the black levels of Panasonic, Samsung, Sony plasma and LCD displays with the 8G & 9G Kuro. From the photo, here is the black level ranking with some measured luminance values in fL (foot-lamberts):

1. Pioneer Kuro 9G - 0.001 fL
   
2. Pioneer Kuro 8G - 0.004 fL
   
3. Panasonic plasma - 0.008 fL
   
4. Samsung plasma - 0.026 fL
   
5. Sony LCD - 0.032 fL
   
6. Samsung LED LCD - ? fL
   

The Kuro's ranked on top and all the plasma's beat out the LCD's when it comes to having the best black levels. The two LCD's were photographed slightly off-axis which accounts for their gray backgrounds. LCD's black levels quickly degrade when viewed off-axis.

It is interesting that the Sony CCFL LCD has a better black level than the Samsung LED LCD which is last years 81F model. Many reviewers said that the Samsung LED backlit LCD had an on-axis black level (fL luminance) that rivaled the Kuro 8G's.

vs. Kuro 8G improvements

The 2008 second generation Kuro plasma HDTV (9G panel) is an amazingly beautiful sight to behold. It is an incremental improvement over the previous Kuro 8G series and here is a list of the changes:

improvements:

• 5x deeper blacks for improved contrast ratio
  
• black level luminance changed from 0.004 fL to 0.001 fL
• all models have a native 1920x1080p resolution
  
• panel is 1.2" thinner and 10 pounds lighter
• new redesigned remote control
• improved Graphical User Interface (GUI)
• clear-QAM tuner
• HDMI 1.3 now with Deep Color support
• three more aspect ratio settings (Auto & Wide modes)
• inputs labels can now have custom names
  
• automatic 3:2 pulldown @ 60Hz for PureCinema 72Hz mode
• non-Elite models have light sensor for optimum video mode
• non-Elite models have DLNA Home Media Gallery (HMG) via Ethernet and USB
• energy save modes
• energy star compliant (less than 1W standby)
• MSRP is $1000 less

features removed:

• one of the YCbCr component video inputs has been removed
• TV Guide On Screen Interactive v9 removed
• cableCARD slot removed
• video processing controls removed on the non-Elite models
• one of the analog NTSC tuners has been removed
• one the RF antenna inputs has been removed

Many of the new features are very nice and useful. The main disappointment is the removal on the non-Elite's of the video processing controls (gamma, noise reduction, DRE, black level, ACL, ...).