Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my first review on Amazon, usually I don't see any point in writing any. But because no one has reviewed this awesome TV, and because I spent over a week dedicated to going to stores all over town (Best Buy 5 times, Ken Kranes 3 times, and several other stores multiple times) I feel I know what I'm talking about - at least more than when I began looking. I also have jet lag and can't sleep so learn well, young Jedi. First off, don't get sucked into the hype of LCD's like I almost did. If you look at this Pioneer TV then go back to a top of the line LCD like the Sony XBR3, you will realize the picture quality of LCD is a total joke. Also don't get sucked into the contrast ratio game. Ie this TV has 10,000:1 or that one has 7000:1. All the paper statistics on a TV are worthless. You gotta go and see it. I almost bought the new Sharp Aquos LCD. From what I read about the contrast and colors it sounded amazing, in fact I almost bought it sigh unseen, but when I finally saw it in the store it looked like garbage. Looking back, I totally got sucked into the LCD trap and was so close to buying the 46" Sony XBR3 (their top of the line LCD), but something told me to hold off before I blew $3700 and take one last look at all my other options including plasma. I walked into Best Buy and found myself totally captivated by a movie on a flat panel TV. It felt like I was really at a movie theater - the picture quality was amazing. I asked the salesman about it - he said it was last year's plasma. The whole world of plasma was opened up to me. And I'm so glad it did, because the plama picture quality is the best out there. A salesman explained to me that plasmas have phosperous (or some element that sounds like that) that LCD's can never have, and that is what makes for their superior color. Whether that phospherous line is true or not, either way it was clear to my eye that higher end plasmas looked so much better than any LCD out there. I've had the Pioneer 4270 plasma set up in my living room for over a month now and I couldnt be happier with it. It's 5 times better than the top of the line Sony LCD and $1500 cheaper - price was not a factor for me - I just wanted the best flatscreen. Word of warning: it is a plasma TV and they are subject to burn in. So if you are planning on using it for video games, as a computer monitor, or have kids that may leave the DVD player menu screen on the TV for days this might not be the best choice. (Video games often have static score boxes, etc which never move and could burn into your screen.) That aside: Here's some reasons why I think it's the best flat panel TV out there: 1. Picture quality is awesome. By picture quality I mean the colors are awesome. -Artifacts are little bits of snow or bits of the picture that don't form completely on the screen. Look at a small bit of the screen andyou will see may see it doesn't look accurate. It's caused by a TV's processor not being able to handle the signal. On the Pioneer the artifacts are not even noticible. Once you see the pioneer picture you will see how aparent artifacts are in other televisions. -The Pioneer handles fast paced movement across the screne great. If you look at some of the lower end LCD's you will see someone appear kinda jumpy as they move around on the screen. -The blacks on the Pioneer are still not as defined as a a conventional picture tube television, but still they are as good as any other plasma/LCD as far as I could tell. You can wait till they improve the technology years from now, or enjoy a new TV now. I found it not a big issue at all. 2. The sound is great and has great volume. For watching TV I couldn't expect better sound. the speakers on the TV are hidden really well so you hardly even know there are speakers in the TV. The speakers are in the bottom of the TV and are removable. 3. Multiple HDMI inputs. You really need more than one, unless you plan on blowing an extra $600 on an HDMI switching stereo receiver. I have my HD direct TV in one HDMI input, and my Sony HDMI DVD player in the other input. And I think I have a 3rd HDMI input I can use as well, say for a video game system, etc. 4. It looks spectacular even when it's turned off. Just sitting in my living room - it looks amazing. I had it sitting on my coffee table while I figured the best way to mount it. It looks great with the stand it comes with. Clean, simple, smooth lines. -It is a bit heavy, about 60 something pounds without the stand. I needed it set up in the corner of my room, and yet still mount it on the wall. I looked at some articulating wall mounts as an option, but thought it might be a little risky especially since the wall is not really that sturdy. I opted to get an amazing looking pole stand called, "Premier Mounts PSD-VT Vu Terra Home Theater Stand." 5. I didn't have to read the manual to start watching TV. It's so simple to get going right out of the box. Some stores may try get you to pay for someone to come to your house to set this up for you. Total rip off. Just plug the power cord into the wall, plug the HDMI cord into the TV, hit the master power switch and it's done! Note- there is a master power button hidden on the bottom of the TV which you need to push to turn the TV on. Then you can use the remote to turn it on/off at will. I know I freaked out at first thinking the TV was broken because it wouldn't turn on at first. 6. The black piano finish border is very pretty and the black border helps to focus your vision to the screen. The Sony XBR2 has a silver border and I felt my eye wanting to look at the border rather than the picture. I read some reveiwers of other TV's complain about the shiny finish to TV's. The border on the Pioneer is reflective but - I never notice it while i'm watching TV, even in my white, sun-drenched living room. 7. Brightness: I have never once been watching this Pioneer and thought to myself: I wish it was brighter, even when I watch it on a sunny day here in Los Angeles. LCD's may have a brighter picture, but what good is it if the quality of that picture sucks. 8. Watching movies is a dream. It feels like you're really watching a movie in a theater! I find myself wanting to watch more movies now at home. The 42" screen and the quality of the picture and the processing power of the TV really make it feel like a movie. 9. The 42" size is perfect for my living room. I watch it from about 12 feet away. Any larger of a screen and it would totally dominate my very spacious living room. Coming from my 25" CRT tv, it feels so strange for my eye to move around this 42" screen looking at different parts of the action... Even my dog sits on the couch and often stares at the TV. 10. The price is amazing. I got mine in October, 2006 for about $2200 delivered. It was a pretty comon consensus among the salesman I talked to that Fujitsu and Pioneer made the best Plasmas. One salesman told me that Fujitsu made the best plasma TV (it costs $4000). The same day a Magnolia salesman told me Fujitsu sold inferioir products. I didnt see any difference in quality between this and the $4000 premier plasmas like the Fujitsu. In fact one salesman told me Fujitsu took over the Pioneer TV plant. To back this up the batteries that came with my remote were labeled "Fujitsu." I didnt see any difference between this and the Fujitsu. Some extra things: Once you upgrade to a sweet flat panel TV your other components begin to look like antique relics. So I just tossed the old garbage and bought everything new. Here's what I got to go along with this TV: 1. Premier Mounts PSD-VT Vu Terra Home Theater Stand. The poles are silver and look very cool and spacey. I didn't put the front plates on so I coould show off the silver poles. The two poles are hollow and you can run the cables through them. The instruction stronly urge a 2nd person to help lift the TV onto the stand. 2. Mirage Nanosat 5.1 speaker system. (This is absolutely stunning and it's black and silver speakers perfectly match the TV's Black finish and silver highlights. It's got a really powerful subwoofer and the speakers mount easily on the walls and have a sweet removable swivel on each of them so you don't need to mess with special mounts and it mounts right up against the wall. The sound is awesome. I paid $600 and I'm so glad I didn't get sucked into the Bose hype. Plus with Bose speakers you can't connect them directly to your reciever, you have to run them through their subwoofer. Also Bose won't play one of their cube speakers by itself at their store = suspicious! 3. Sony DVPNS75H Single Disc DVD Player - it has the best reviews of any $100 price range DVD player. It's worked great for me. It's HDMI and simple to use. Only drawback is my old dvd player could scan at 8X speed, this one can only get up to 2X as far as I know. It has chapter skip so not a big problem. I'm very happy with it. 4. I bought a pretty new 5.1 yamaha receiver off of craigslist for around $60. With optical outputs from the DVD and HD Direct TV receiver who needs a HDMi receiver for $600? I would never hear any sound difference between optical and HDMI. Plus I don't want to have to turn the receiver on just to watch TV. 5. UNIVERSAL REMOTE MX-650 Omega Remote Control: it replaced my 4 remotes for all my equipment and looks pretty pimped. Without the universal it would be a pain to swich the DVD player on, the TV on, setting the TV input to DVD, etc. I push one button on the universal remote and the macro button turns everything on and set to the right input. It's digital screen lets you customize individual buttons. If you are not slightly tech savy don't plan on setting the remote up yourself. I also tucked my components to the side of the couch so the TV would be by itself in all its glory -- so I needed a stronger remote becuase the components were not in my line of sight. I even got an RF box which I didn't need because the remote is so powerful. 6. HDMI cables - don't buy the brand name rip offs. I needed two 25 foot cables and would have had to pay over $500 if I bought the monster brand. Instead I paid $20 each online and they work just as good. Same thing with my speaker cables - $20 for a roll of 100 feet. Even if there is a tiny difference I am not trained enough to be able to see it or hear it save myself $450. Also a word to the wise about screen size. As dorky as it sounds, make a cut out of the size of the TV and the screen, and put it where you would watch TV. (I found a mirror in my apartment that had the approximate dimensions and put it in the corner of my living room.) I thought I wanted a 46" TV, but after looking at a mock up in my living room, realized that would be ridiculously too big. Also measure how many paces it is to the TV from where you would be watching it from and look at TV's in the stores at the same distance. This will help you gage your picture quality. And in case your wondering I have no affiliation with Pioneer or Amazon, etc. Thanks for reading and good luck!