Pioneer PDP-428XD / 508XD

With its 'Kuro', blacker-than-black styling, the Pioneer PDP-428XD does live up to its hype. It might sound like a ridiculous thing to say about a TV but we really fell in love with the styling. It would make a great centrepiece to any home cinema and ...

Black levels ; picture quality ; styling ; menu system ; build quality ; sound ; connectivity ;

Picture can look a little soft with certain settings engaged ; price ;

A high-quality TV with the sort of black levels that we last saw on CRT TVs. It's not perfect but it does move home cinema screens up to a new level where they can offer something the LCD-based competition can't

Pioneer's top-of-the-range PDP-508XD is without doubt one of the best screens we've ever reviewed. Its design and build quality are difficult to fault, it has no less than three HDMI inputs and the picture quality is truly outstanding

Awesome black levels ; blazing colours ; smooth motion ; heaps of picture tweaking options ; classy design and build quality ; great range of connections ;

Lack of 'Full HD' 1080p resolution ; some reflections on screen ;

Televisions don't get much better than this. A winning combination of excellent picture quality, stylish design and user-friendly features, this 50-inch plasma should be at the top of any serious home cinema fan's shopping list. It's pricey, but it's ...

Near-perfect pictures, features galore, awesome audio, designer finish ;

Expensive versus most rivals ;

None more black

>Best black levels ever., Superb picture. ,

No full-HD. Pricey.

The best plasma there is, but purists may want to wait for the full 1080p version.

The Kuro's fantastic pictures are matched by its looks

Unprecendented black levels, Excellent colours, Impressive audio

Pioneer's PDP-508XD really is as uniquely good as it thinks it is, and were it not for its premium price, the competition might as well just pack up and go home. Project Kuro looks set to be a real success

Pioneer continues to show that its Kuro plasma screens are the new black.

The very worst thing that can be said about the 428XD is that its overall impact isn't quite as great as that of the 508XD. But we only say this because picture quality this good just looks better the bigger the screen you see it on; there's nothing ...

When we looked at Pioneer's 50in PDP-508XD plasma recently, we didn't just find it good: we found it positively revolutionary. So our expectations for the 42in version of the TV are understandably sky high

Superb pictures and black levels, Generous connections, Excellent sound

Expensive

The smallest of Pioneer's new 'Kuro' plasma screens is every bit as world-beating as its bigger brother

Deepest blacks with full preservation of shadow detail, Glorious colours with accurate decoding

Need to know when to apply certain settings with different source,    material to avoid introducing artifacts,

Pioneer PDP508XD is the cream of a bunch of 8G Kuro plasmas that delivers class-leading picture quality.

With so many different TVs doing much the same thing, it can be difficult to separate the best from the rest. But Pioneer's 50-inch plasma work of art is undeniably that - the best looking and most technologically advanced television with the best ...

Branded as Project KURO (Japanese for black), Pioneer's new TV range has been created with all new technology to solve plasma television's biggest sticking point - accurately reproducing blacks without losing contrast, brightness and colour ...