Pioneer Unveils Super-Thin, High-Contrast Plasma TVs
Today, Pioneer showed off two significant concept models for its flat-panel plasma TV product line. Under the banner of Project KURO, a sci-fi-sounding internal anthem for change, Pioneer unveiled both the thinnest flat panel TV and a flat panel that boasts an unparalleled contrast ratio.
To give you a better perspective, one TV has a screen frame 9mm thick (thinner than the iPhone!), as opposed to contemporaries that are 3.5 inches thick. The other, in techno babble, eliminates all idling luminance – or, if you prefer an example in English, the screen would not be visible in a dark room when displaying a black screen.
The latter, dubbed the Extreme Contrast Concept Model, adheres to the golden rule of the plasma TV viewing experience: Black is the most important color on a display, controlling where an image starts and the shadows it projects. By developing a screen that gives off no ambient light, the black is the blackest, to put it simply.
The 9mm flat panel, on the other hand, creates a new form factor for 50-inch screens, getting rid of the bulky frames that characterize current models. While the concept models exhibited at CES do not combine the two innovations, Pioneer plans to integrate them when this next generation of flat panels becomes available to the public at some indeterminate point in the future.
In case you hadn't noticed, we're pretty psyched about this announcement. Not only will we get to that holy grail of picture clarity, but the TV will seem to blend into the wall upon which it is attached. And, hey, we're not excitable folk – unless it comes to technology that really matters to you.
From Pioneer
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