Will the Kuro be dethroned in 2011?

Three years later the Kuro 9G is still the HDTV king of picture quality and black level. In the fast moving world of consumer electronics how is this possible? How long will the Kuro's reign last? I don't know but CNET has an article titled "Will any 2011 TV best the 2008 Pioneer Kuro?"

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20034816-1.html

I agree with the author in that 2012 may be the year that the Kuro's performance is finally bested. Just think, the Kuro 12G would be released this year if Pioneer had stayed in the HDTV business. It makes you wonder what could of been.

Kuro beats Panasonic G20/25

It has been a sad 15 months since Pioneer canceled the Kuro 10G and said it was leaving the plasma TV market. Well, technology keeps marching forward, or does it? Panasonic recently released its 2010 series G20/25 plasma TV's. According to this CNET review:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20004882-1.html

The 2008 Kuro 9G still beats it when it comes to picture quality and black level. Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Panasonic G20/25 is a fantastic TV but come on. It has been 2+ years since the initial release of the Kuro 9G, which is like forever in the tech world, and the competitors still can't beat the Kuro. Maybe 2011 will be the year when the Kuro gets to pass the torch?

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.