I have had the 506 XDE for a week now and here are my views which I hope will help all those deciding weather to buy one or not and also to quell some of the points that have been raised in previous threads. Bear in mind that these are my views and as always you should do your own research.
Well it started out well, the company supplied 2 sets of speakers, 2 wall mounts and 2 table stands and 2 media boxes, as I have only 1 years warranty these may come in use later but will probaly sell them on ebay. Unfortunately they only sent one panel!!!!!!!!
The screen is wall mounted and the viewing distance is about 9 feet.
The settings out of the box dont do justice to the panel and I spent a couple of hours going in all the menus and tweeking the settings while using freeview, followed by sky and then by DVD. Spend plenty of time on this because the factory settings out of the box will leave you why you bought this beast.
Let me say that before I spent my 3k I did plenty of research and on switching it on I felt a bit sick at the picture quality. After setting it up I can now say that this is the best panel out there in my opinion at the moment.
Blacks - A major step up on the previous model, ignore what other people have said, plenty od detail and when set up properly they are black and not dark grey.
Colour - Very rich out of the box and needs to be turned down drasticaly, fully saturated and rich.
Jitter - I have read elsewhere that these sets are prone to jitter, I speak as I find and can report a rock solid picture, lots of my friends have been round and there have been no comments on this.
General observations - Freeview and Sky picture are breathtaking on the prime channels, ie BBC chanels and ITV but average on the likes of UK Gold, understandable I guess. DVD performance will blow your mind with a progresive scan model. Heven knows what this set will do with HD pictures.
Must also say that this set is fantastic looking and beets all comers by a mile.
Any negatives - not really, I am so glad I bought this and not the Panasonic.
Like all plasmas dont sit to close to them or you will be disapointed with the pictue quality. From 9 feet the pioneer looks even better than my old 36' CRT Panasonic. Viewing by the freeview tuner it takes a couple of seconds to switch channels. When adjusting settings via the menus the menu screen blots out the middle of the picture so its harder to get the settigs spot on as I normally use the face of the presenter to get the skin tones right. Dont crank up the noise reduction to much as it softens the picture to much. I keep mine on the low setting.
Let me finish by saying that this is a fine set and I think this is as good as it gets at the MOMENT. This is my opinon and hope it helps anyone out there who is considering the 506.
Well it started out well, the company supplied 2 sets of speakers, 2 wall mounts and 2 table stands and 2 media boxes, as I have only 1 years warranty these may come in use later but will probaly sell them on ebay. Unfortunately they only sent one panel!!!!!!!!
The screen is wall mounted and the viewing distance is about 9 feet.
The settings out of the box dont do justice to the panel and I spent a couple of hours going in all the menus and tweeking the settings while using freeview, followed by sky and then by DVD. Spend plenty of time on this because the factory settings out of the box will leave you why you bought this beast.
Let me say that before I spent my 3k I did plenty of research and on switching it on I felt a bit sick at the picture quality. After setting it up I can now say that this is the best panel out there in my opinion at the moment.
Blacks - A major step up on the previous model, ignore what other people have said, plenty od detail and when set up properly they are black and not dark grey.
Colour - Very rich out of the box and needs to be turned down drasticaly, fully saturated and rich.
Jitter - I have read elsewhere that these sets are prone to jitter, I speak as I find and can report a rock solid picture, lots of my friends have been round and there have been no comments on this.
General observations - Freeview and Sky picture are breathtaking on the prime channels, ie BBC chanels and ITV but average on the likes of UK Gold, understandable I guess. DVD performance will blow your mind with a progresive scan model. Heven knows what this set will do with HD pictures.
Must also say that this set is fantastic looking and beets all comers by a mile.
Any negatives - not really, I am so glad I bought this and not the Panasonic.
Like all plasmas dont sit to close to them or you will be disapointed with the pictue quality. From 9 feet the pioneer looks even better than my old 36' CRT Panasonic. Viewing by the freeview tuner it takes a couple of seconds to switch channels. When adjusting settings via the menus the menu screen blots out the middle of the picture so its harder to get the settigs spot on as I normally use the face of the presenter to get the skin tones right. Dont crank up the noise reduction to much as it softens the picture to much. I keep mine on the low setting.
Let me finish by saying that this is a fine set and I think this is as good as it gets at the MOMENT. This is my opinon and hope it helps anyone out there who is considering the 506.
Enough said
