Digital Trends

Pioneer 505HD

March 8th, 2003 | by Ian Vanhoof

Introduction

If you have ever seen one of these babies at Best Buy or Circuit City, you know what I mean when I say it will truly make you cry when you have to walk out of the store without one. This 50-inch beauty provides a super detailed, unprecedented view into the electronic window created by any high-end signal sent through its many inputs. 

The Motive

Let's start at the beginning; my team needed a high definition display that could be used in a variety of different ways. I needed to be able to hook up Desktop Computers, Laptops, VHS, DV, Beta decks and DVD players. I also wanted to hook up a Playstation2. We work hard and we play hard.

With that in mind we started searching the Internet for a product that could do all these things. I will not go into detail about the other products we found that could generally show a moving picture on a 50-inch screen. Most of them just didn't have the number of inputs we needed. So we'll center on the reasons we picked the Pioneer.

The reason we picked the Pioneer 505HD was that the number of inputs was just right for what we wanted. Of course, the 50 inch high definition plasma display had something to do with it also. The huge, crisp, luminescent display still sends shivers up my spine every time I turn the thing on.

The Screen

The unit has a 50-inch screen, which takes up most of the console. It's only 4 inches in depth. Have I mentioned the High definition part? Pioneer uses what they call Pioneer Automatic Format Converter (PAFC). The PAFC basically converts the analog video signal to digital format on the fly. As mentioned in the specs below; this screen has a 160x160 degree viewing angle. As far as my eyes can tell there is no weird streaking, color dithering, banding or jaggies.

The Resolution

The resolution is incredible. XGA resolution is native 16:9 aspect ratio coming in at a nice 1280x768 75Hz. Using the aforementioned PAFC technology; the 505hd automatically converts any signal to 768 display using 16 million colors at .858mm x .808mm pixel pitch.

Not surprisingly, the 505hd produces a very crisp color correct picture. To tweak the color; Pioneer allows you to adjust the “color temperature”. The only thing I found lacking in color was the black. The blacks were not true blacks; they were a dark grey. The reds come close, but still retains an orange/red blend.