New Pioneer plaz...

[1tribeca]

From what I could gather yesterday talking to my contact...

The new (and final completely Pioneer made) panels will be coming in about 90days. There is no longer any 768p displays, they're all 1080p. It looks like there will be no more 42" panels available...just 50" and up...meaning 60" I'd assume. They're boasting 80% better blacks than even the PRO-110!

Apparently there's gonna be 2 Pioneer displays, and 4 Elite panels (I might've screwed up the numbers, but I think that's right!) Among the Elite displays, will be a similar model to the current PRO-110...1080p, speakers incl., and built-in tuner. Then, I understand there's gonna be another option in the Elite level for a panel without tuner or speakers (I guess this would be like the FHD-1)

Pricing? don't know yet, but historically Pioneer starts of the pricing of there new panels with the final price of their previous panel of the same size. In other words, if the last of the PRO-110 panels are purchased by resellers at $4000, then most likely the new panel will be $4000...or about.

As far as the price of the non-tuner/non-speaker display, take a guess. One can assume they'll either be a bit cheaper because they have fewer frills, or possibly more because the panel itself might have technical improvements over the other.

The slick 9mm panel displayed at CES will be something they most likely release after whatever merge they make with a display builder (Panasonic or otherwise)

With Pioneer's fiscal coming in just 3 days (in Canada anyway) it looks like there won't be any huge blowout of remaining PRO-110 panels, so I'm waiting for the new ones...then I'm grabbin' right away!

 

[Biggiesized]

Most of what you've relayed is old news. There is a dealer on the AVSForum that has confirmed as much per the monitor models without tuners they'll be selling like the old PRO-FHD1. They'll be selling slim bezel sets, too.

 

[1tribeca]

Cool. I'd like more deets...cut & paste maybe?

 

[Biggiesized]

Unfortunately I can't help you here at work (since a lot of sites--especially forums--are filtered), but go to the AVSForum and then to the Plasma Display forum. There, look or search for a thread about the 2009 Pioneer plasmas. I think there are two. They are both pretty short, and in one, a dealer, Robert, reveals some of the information he has heard, like yourself, about the upcoming displays. It's a lot of what you just mentioned, but he gets more specific about release dates with respect to the different models and sizes (Kuro/Elite/Monitor, regular/slim bezel, 50"/60", et cetera). Still no word on pricing. However, people are start to latch to a ~$3500 price point for the PDP-5020FD (50" 1080p Kuro). I, myself, have my eye on that model. He also said that Pioneer will release all the news about their 2008 lineup in early May at the latest. In June is when the first products start rolling out.