I paid $3100 for my 101 and I agree with you. I'd pay full MSRP for my Signature Elite ($5500, or something like that).

Well dude8370, I 1st saw the Kuro at local Audio/Video store around Sept of 2008. The price was the full $5000. I started saving my $$$$. One day, I forget exactly what day in early 2009, I saw on the Internet that Pioneer was going out of the HDTV business. In the mean time the price on the the Kuro kept on dropping at this store. At the point when Pioneer made their announcement I had enough money to buy the Panel so I immediately placed my order so as to have the order in the pipeline & assure myself of getting one. I paid the $2999.99 plus tax & was GRINNING from ear to ear. :D :rock: I will NOT give this HDTV up! I'll kept it until it dies.

[QUOTE=I will NOT give this HDTV up! I'll kept it until it dies.[/QUOTE]

Haha Fair enough. I wouldn't give it up either haha.

FWIW - CNET reviewer god David Katzmeier just posted his review and concluded:

1. The Sharp Elite is the best looking TV since 2008.
2. Deeper blacks than the Kuro!
3. It's not better than the Kuro, "but it was a close call".

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-t...=mncol;rvwBody

The Kuro cult just got a big feather in their caps! Hats off to you.

Kuro rules, I've seen it and the Sharp Elite... Nevertheless, I'm waiting for the 80" Sharp Elite. That may tip the scales.

Not to boast - but us KURO owners have too many feathers in our caps. Aint no room left. Its amazing that a TV that has been out of production for 3-4 years is STILL being compared to and STILL seems to be the set to beat. And they still cant do it. :bow:

That being said, when I eventually get around to having to replace old reliable, one of the latest Sharp sets with some KURO sauce will be at the top of the list. ;)

Me too. :)

Meh, I'll take 3D, deeper blacks/contrast (at least Kuro was dethroned there), internet services and vastly superior energy efficiency. ;)

That said, Katzmeier has the opinion I most respect in the industry, so I'll have to admit that all the annoying Kuro gloating is justified for now, however close of a call it was.

That said, there's supposed to be a firmware fix to improve the Sharp Elite color accuracy. I wonder if that will shift the verdict any.

Well - you can have most of that gimmicky stuff and Ill take the superior video processing, still amazing blacks, better viewing angles, and that "Pioneer" thing that causes so much angst & annoyance in the industry. Its hilarious. :D

The fact that 4-5 year old KUROS are still mostly crapping all over current LED/LCDs is truly amazing. 3D is worthless to most people and degrades image quality. Internet services are available on just about every device we already have in our systems so thats hardly a groundbreaking feature. Energy efficiency is about as important as the price of mango fruit in Hawaii. Totally inconsequential. I actually ENJOY that my KURO eats up electricity. It runs super HOT and tree frogs are dying because of it. hehehehehe. Its a trivial amount of money anyways. :) Image quality is all that matters with a video display. Like Ash reminds Ripley in Alien - "All other priorities are secondary/expendable".

Katzmeier is smart. He knows the deal.

That being all said - Im glad that some of the latest sets are finally starting to perform good enough to be worth replacements for the Might Pioneer sets. KURO owners used to crap our pants thinking about what could replace our sets. For years and years there wasnt anything even close.

Well said! :thumbsup:

Killing tree frogs...Love it! :lolcry:

I'm the type of person who has solar panels on his roof and drives a Prius around, so energy efficiency is pretty important to me.

Also, I love 3D! It's like surround sound for your eyes; it makes things more immersive.

At any rate, I emailed the big K about if he thought improved color accuracy from a firmware update might change the equation, and this is what he replied:

"there's no telling...although my guess is still no b/c of
the Kuro's uniformity/off-angle advantages. But the Sharp Elite with
perfect color would be the best picture in the sweet spot (over the
Kuro) hands-down."

Sooo... if the Sharp Elite does manage to achieve such a feat, I'm revoking that feather in the cap thing. I only watch from the sweet spot anyway.

We'll see, I guess. The firmware update is rumored to come within a week.

You would love my 8mpg Viper ACR then ! :D ...and there's no revoking of the "kuro" feather!!! (my cover (hat) just wont look right):cool:


I'd like solar panels for sure. I know this is kind of a shoot in the dark type question but how long does it take for them to pay for them selves ? I guess you had a local company get you setup, or did you do it yourself?

Feather still stays because it took 4 years to be matched measurably. Even then its only a small advantages that can only been seen side by side. If at all. I still prefer the look of my 151 over the sharp. The only thing i can say it does better is sharpness. But only by a little. The kuro just has this certain look about its video processing that i just don't see on other TV's.

Call me spoiled.

I have a wide viewing area so while I'd say most viewing is done within 15 degrees of the sweet spot, when I have friends over to watch I want them to see as great a picture as I do.

For that reason plasma is still very likely the only sets I'll be looking at around 12 months from now when I finally upgrade to a big screen...but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what's in store for 2012 3 weeks from now at CES.

I have no brand loyalty, but I do get cost +5% on Panasonic and cost +10% on LG, Samsung and Toshiba so there's that too.

I can't seem to find another thread for these TV's on this site, so does anyone here know where I can find a new Elite for a decent price up here in Canada? Any help is appreciated.

We are spoiled. No doubt about it. Incredible image quality is routine for us. Nothing wows me as far as TVs are concerned.

The KURO "certain look" is hard to describe. Its more 3D than other sets. It has a deeper looking image than other sets. Its very pleasing to the eye. Any angle is perfect too.

Still, at some point I would like to get a larger sized set and the Sharp line is on my very short list ;)

Solar contractors will walk you through the ROI, but it's typically in the decades range. If you install panels, I think it's more for the principle more than the cost savings at this point. Costs continue to come down, however, and there are some new, innovative ways to get an array at relatively little upfront cost, e.g. solar leasing.

One tip, if I may, though. It's typically cheaper to find ways to conserve electricity before finding ways to produce it. Energy efficient lighting works wonders!

Back on the subject of Kuro vs. Sharp Elite, I agree that there's no taking away from the fact that it's been the king of picture quality for so many years. However, if the Sharp Elite DOES manage to perfect color accuracy with the firmware update and it DOES end up beating the Kuro picture in the sweet spot, I'd say that's quite an accomplishment in itself!

It's worth noting that the Elite is said by Katzmaier to beat non-Kuro plasmas (including the class leading VT30) even from fairly far off angle.

I know a few of the folks on the AVS forum Sharp Elite Owners' Thread are dealers who do mail order. You might try asking around there.

After 3 long years, finally the 2008 Pioneer PRO-141FD can go head to head with the 2011 Sharp Elite PRO-60X5FD after calibration and when viewed from a center seat in the room. The new Sharp Elite is the best LCD screen with LED backlighting that Home Theater magazine and CNET has every reviewed so far. Sharp should be proud of making a display that is almost as good as a 2008 Pioneer Kuro in overall picture quality. In some picture quality areas the Sharp Elite outperforms the Pioneer Kuro in other areas like off angle viewing the Pioneer is King. The Sharp Elite is not enough of a so called improvement to justify a so called upgrade for existing Kuro owners. Also I know several family members with 50 inch Pioneer PRO-101FD's that cannot use a 60 inch or 70 inch Sharp Elite unless they replace their expensive TV cabinets in their bedrooms and mount the TV on the wall. I hope that maybe in the future consumers might see both a 50 inch and 80 inch second generation Sharp Elite (50 inches is wishful thinking). The 2011 60 inch Sharp PRO-60X5FD is 3.1 inches thick when compared to the 2008 Pioneer PRO-141FD which is only 2.5 inches thick.

For someone that does not already own a Pioneer display the Sharp Elites are the best available display on the market for 2011. If I did not have a 2008 Pioneer already I would have went with a Sharp Elite.

For at least 3 years the 2008 model Pioneer Kuro’s have been the King of flat panel picture quality. Around the year 2013 after the 2008 Pioneer is 5 years old there most likely will be one or more flat screens on the market that clearly beat the 2008 Pioneer Kuro in all areas or at least offer an overall better picture quality. Perhaps a second or third generation Sharp Elite will improve on off angle performance. Also I want a 3-D flat panel display that offers 144fps triple flash technology. The first generation Sharp Elite is 120Hz refresh rate and maybe future models will offer true 240Hz native refresh rate in 2-D.

It's nice to see reviews come out that support the findings of our shoot-out event. Here's a link to a nice article that I was interviewed for.

I was interviewed and featured in an article published by Jenny Donelan, the managing editor for The Society for Information Display. The article is titled "Enabling Technology... Navigating This Year’s Models"

This is a great read.

Enjoy!

-Robert