Pioneer PDP607XD 60 Inch Plasma Television Review

Now on their 7th generation plasma, Pioneer is admittedly getting closer to perfection, its official. This Pioneer PDP607XD high-end 60-inch plasma oozes sophistication so much that you’ll want to wear your Sunday best the day you buy. With a handful of advanced picture adjustment features and greater connectivity than ever before, this integrated home entertainment system is guaranteed to please.

Design

A plethora of new and unique components specifically designed for Pioneer are hiding under the minimalist, but sleek, piano black design. Each and every one of the 60-inches is visible to the eye, without any annoying distractions to mention. We loved the option of under-mounting or side-mounting the speakers. Its dimensions are 1470 x 880 x 118 mm, and it weighs a whopping 51kg.

From getting the TV out of the box, we spent a whole 43 minutes getting everything spot on. The menu systems are easy to use once you get used to them, but are slightly fiddly to begin with. Make use of the auto-set-up option, which will find you up to 999 channels if you’re lucky.

The Pioneer PDP607XD is mouth-wateringly packed full of goodies, to ensure the picture you see if the best ever. We won’t go through every feature in detail as it would be quicker to cycle to the moon, so we’ve chosen our favourites to mention. To start with, this plasma is 1080p supported; which gives it the True HD halo, and puts it in our good books. It comes with a dynamic HD converter, which changes interlaced PAL signals into progressive 1280 x 768 pixel signals, optimising the pixels in the process, to provide a better picture. This is substantiated by the Pure Drive 2HD, providing digital-to-analogue conversions, which reduces undesirable noise effects and decreased video quality. There’s an integrated digital DVB-T tuner, and a CI slot for top up or Pre-paid TV subscriptions. Along with the digital tuner comes thousands of pages of digital TV programming info, subtitles, picture-in picture and a timer to prevent missing your favourites. Popcorn at the ready, you’ll love the pure cinema feature. Pure Cinema kicks in to provide a video signal originating from a film source and where there’s a 2-2 pull down detection, this is exactly the same image procedure as in the theatre. This feature boosts the refresh rate on the TV to 75 hz to ensure that images retain higher resolution on the plasma for the same quality reproduction level as in your local movie theatre. A few more science lessons then, next up we have the ‘rue Matrix Imaging with Deep Waffle Rib Structure’, this increases the area of light-emitting phosphors, which in turn increases the brightness. Each plasma cell is deeper, encapsulating the horizontal ribs, so emitting light won’t leak into the cells next door. And to make the most of the Pioneer PDP607XD, take advantage of the enhanced ISF calibration options, which provides the chance to have your plasma professionally tuned to suit your home.

Performance

In comparison to the 50-inch PDP-507XD, by stuffing the PDP0607XD full of picture performance technology, Pioneer has definitely upped the stakes for plasma picture quality this time around. Pleasurable is the perfect word to sum up our time spent in front of this TV. Brightness has been raised and blacks have been deepened without any leakage of colours. The Pure Cinema mode is utterly fantastic, giving you that blown away feel, with motion handling not to be sniffed at. For everyday viewing, this plasma is perfect, but when you get a HD performance, it’s just beyond perfect. Thanks to all the technology Pioneer has shoved in you get brilliant image quality with noise reduction, transition from scene to scene is smooth and even the sound through the speakers are good.