News Release：Pioneer Launches New "KURO" High-definition Plasma Televisions in Japan

August 2, 2007, Tokyo, Japan - Pioneer Corporation announced today that the company will introduce the four new "KURO" high-definition plasma televisions for the Japanese market. Under the new brand name of "KURO", a Japanese word meaning deep, black and penetrating, Pioneer will unveil the new panel's unparalleled ability to create deeper black levels. The new, most advanced line of flat-panel televisions includes two 1080p models and two XGA high-definition models, ranging in size from 42-inches to 60-inches diagonal.

At the end of 1997, Pioneer led the world in releasing the first 50-inch high-definition plasma TV. Since then, the company has continued to pursue superior picture quality for the age of high-definition video, and has consistently been at the forefront of the industry in developing innovative, world-first flat panel technologies. More than 10 years of research has culminated in the release of Pioneer's "KURO" plasma displays featuring the stunning expressive power of deep blacks, which ultimately leads to richer colors, sharper details and unrivaled performance.

The KURO technology of Pioneer's new-generation plasma panels was first unveiled in October 2006 at CEATEC 2006 in Japan, and pre-release models were exhibited in January 2007 at International CES 2007, attracting high acclaim for their remarkable picture quality. These plasma models were finally released in North America and Europe in June 2007, and are now being released in Japan as well. Releases in other markets are being planned.

The PDP-6010HD, PDP-5010HD, PDP-508HX, and PDP-428HX will be available between early September and early October for a suggested retail price of 990,000 yen, 720,000 yen, 560,000 yen, and 450,000 yen (including tax) respectively.

Main Features:

1 ) Newly-developed panel designed for high picture quality with deep blacks and vivid colors

• Unmatched contrast in dark area (20,000:1 for 1080p models, 16,000:1 for XGA models) to create deep blacks which results in the richest, most three-dimensional colors
  Owing to Pioneer's further advanced "Crystal Emissive Layer" to reproduce deep, intense blacks, and newly-developed cell structure where a new material has been employed for "Electron Emission Source ", the speed of electrical discharge has improved and the pilot flame has become smaller, and thereby black luminance further decreases. This reduces black luminance to about a fifth of previous models, and realizes a high contrast ratio in dark area of 20,000:1 for the new 1080p models PDP-6010HD and PDP-5010HD and 16,000:1 for the new high-definition models PDP-508HX and PDP-428HX.
• Three primary colors red-green-blue (RGB) are vividly reproduced with smooth, delicate gradations even in dark scenes.
  The new panel's advanced expressiveness for blacks has improved the reproducibility of color hues in areas of low luminance. Each of RGB can be reproduced with greater clarity and beauty even in dark scenes.
  Pioneer's proprietary drive system for smooth, high-density gradations of black has further evolved together with the new panels. Besides lowering the level of black luminance, setting more detailed gradation steps in areas of low luminance results in smoother gradations in dark scenes.
• Newly-designed Direct Color Filter to minimize external light reflections and produce vivid video images.
  The new plasma displays' Direct Color Filter has been employed to minimize external light reflections on the picture. Even in bright living rooms, viewers can enjoy sharp video images with intense blacks and vivid colors. In addition, the application of a film on the front filter instead of glass has overcome focal problems caused by multiple reflections occurring between the front filter glass and the plasma panel. The 1080p models have a Direct Color Filter with even greater color purity to enhance color expressiveness.

2 ) Further advanced panel performance

The newly-developed digitalized video processing maximizes the performances of the new plasma display KURO by including the following technologies:

• Pioneer's proprietary High-performance 3D I/P (Interlaced/Progressive) Conversion realizes clear video images by eliminating comb-shaped noise seen in scrolling text and other areas on the screen or minimizing jaggies along diagonal lines.
• High-performance Noise Reduction System effectively minimizes block noise that easily occurs in moving images, small dot-shaped mosquito noise occurring along the periphery of the image, compression noise contained in digital sources, and noise remaining in analog video sources. It also effectively reduces noise that tends to occur when conventional TV images are converted to a high-definition size.
• High-definition Resizing thoroughly reduces noises generated when 1080p video signal (1920 x 1080) is converted to high-definition sizes (1365 x 768 or 1024 x 768). Plus, the new plasma panel KURO offers other newly-developed functions:
• Optimum Video (Living-room) mode automatically processes images based on the signal and room conditions for generating the ideal video image in real time. This new mode utilizes a sensor to detect the room lighting condition, and internal intelligence to adjust the parameters that are used to process the image, optimizing it for the viewer.
• Newly-developed Film Smooth Motion Mode reproduces 24-fps video material with smoother movements. This new technology uses a proprietary algorithm to automatically generate intermediate video images when frame-rate converting 24-fps (frames per second) film material to 60 fps. It suppresses awkward movements (judder) during conventional 2:3 pull-down conversion to achieve smoother movement between frames.

3 ) New digital amplifier and speaker units for high sound quality enabling overwhelming, transparent spatial expression

The new KURO sound technology, which has been developed based on the high quality sound technology that Pioneer has cultivated over the years, ensures high fidelity sound reproduction for terrestrial digital broadcasts, and easy-to-listen sound reproduction appropriate for television viewing. The users can fully enjoy high quality digital broadcast sound with a sense of presence without any stress.

• The newly-developed 17W + 17W stereo digital amplifier, for higher signal processing response and improved S/N ratio
• Newly-developed speaker units, for greater linearity in amplitude and reduced distortion in the low range

4 ) Glossy black, high-grade simple bezels enhance viewing comfort

Unwanted elements have been eliminated from the bezels wherever possible. This sophisticated design allows users to concentrate more easily on the video contents.

5 ) A variety of easy-to-use features including "HDMI*1 control" and "Picture Quality Adjust"

• HDMI control allows users to synchronize the new plasma displays with other Pioneer HDMI-control enabled home theater products such as Pioneer Blu-ray Disc player BDP-LX80, Pioneer A/V amplifier VSA-LX70*2, to operate their basic operations including Playback or Power ON/OFF with a single remote control. Anyone can easily perform these operations by pressing the HDMI Control button on the remote control and following the menu displayed on the screen.
• New Picture Quality Adjust allows users to adjust picture quality while comparing the adjusted quality with the existing quality.
• Three HDMI 1.3 terminals supports 1080p/60-Hz and 1080p/24-Hz input signals, and Deep Color 36-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths for color reproducibility of greater detail as well as 16-bit, 20-bit, and 24-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths.

• Expanded Electronic Program Guide is suitable for large screen plasma TVs. TV Programs for the user's favorite eight digital broadcast channels are displayed on the entire PDP screen. The EPG function for analog broadcasts supports the G-Guide*3 technology.
• Quick Program Search for single-button genre searches. This function allows the viewer to easily and quickly search for desired programs by using the genre buttons on the remote control.
• Double Digital Tuner enables users to record a digital broadcast on a DVD recorder while viewing another digital broadcast.

6 ) Lowest levels of power consumption in the industry*4 only for PDP-508HX and PDP-428HX

Highly efficient luminance technology and other various power-saving technologies allow the new KURO plasma televisions to consume the lowest power in the industry among 50-inch and 42-inch high-definition plasma TVs equipped with digital double tuner.
  PDP-508HX: Annual power consumption 351 kWh/yr, rated power consumption 368W
  PDP-428HX: Annual power consumption 261 kWh/yr, rated power consumption 296W

Notes:

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