This is all well and good, but aren't we forgetting to mention that Pioneer no longer manufacture their own plasmas?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/07/pioneer_ends_plasma_panel_production/

Wow, what reason is there for blowing up a HDTV image to more than 26 inch?

It's probably a problem with plasma technology itself which does not seem to be able to deliver small pixels.

Well, not all of us watch TV in little box rooms, or in a bedroom in your parents house.

a 26" screen looks hopelessly small in a decent sized room.

You plainly know zero about HD. Zero.

Wow, I didn't know plasma had that problem... These the 1990's or what? :0)

"1080i - not the highest resolution possible for viewing on this screen"

Hm... <nittypicky mode=on> So it has more than 1080 vertical pixels? No, so 1080i is still the highest resolution possible (given the funny fact that resolution is indicated by the amount of pixels). What I suspect was meant here was "highest quality possible", no?

The 9G models are pure Pioneer. The 10G models (due Q3 2009) will use Panasonic glass but with Pioneer processing.

I'm sitting here watching the 60" model now. It's a thing of beauty.

I can watch Big Brother and see the sweat on their brows ?

Huge screen at Hi-Def doesn't mean that whats delivered is worth watching, simply that you can watch garbage in Hi-Def .

No thanks, I can find loads more uses for that kind of money and still have change for a watchable screen from Sony et al.

Very true, most of the time you end up watching SD material, because (at the moment) there isn't much HD.

But now having a 42" Pioneer Kuro TV, when you sit back and enjoy the rare, but truly great HD material, such as the live Glastonbury Verve set recently (BBC HD), you really do get a huge smile on your face. A smile that just probably wouldn't be as big as if you had bought any LCD or most other Plasma's.

These TV's are just amazing.

The smiley face just doesn't do it justice.

As was pointed out above, Pioneer will be using Panasonic glass going forward, that is all.... and that's in a no way a bad thing, Fujitsu used to make the best Plasmas going and they used Panasonic glass.

Oh and as was lightly touched on in the article.... buying the £2500 screen and not paying the £250-300 for a full iSF calibration is madness, it turns a great set into a stunning one!

Oddly enough, there are good things to watch as well. No, you don't particularly want to try watching Big Brother (a show in SD) on a screen that large while sitting really close to it. Or at all; it's rubbish.

The Blu-ray of 2001: A Space Odyssey looks absolutely fantastic on it, for example. Tartan's (God rest their soul) release of The Seventh Seal is jaw-dropping; noticeably better than on a £1500 Sony LCD, yes.

You're allowed to have different priorities, but a review that just says "This TV costs lots of money, and what's the point in that?" wouldn't be terribly informative.

"...If you find yourself in cocktail-party conversations saying, 'Oh, I don’t really watch TV...' then either you’re in denial, or you haven't seen the latest Pioneer Kuro..."

no. it's because i honestly don't really watch TV because 99% of it is mindless pap. serving shite on a silver platter disnae make it taste any better!

No tuners, cable or sat boxes in the house... though do have a gorgeous projector giving a glorious 200" image (even from upscaled source). 60"? Pah! Oh, and I usually have stuff to do when it's light outside...