wickedly sharp and true colors of projected image. ability to have huge adjustment capabilities of projection guns.

the protective screen is pretty relective. other than that, nothing.

here is a review i posted in eopinions.com dated in july 2001. i was probably one of the first to have a pioneer elite 610. though it may be considered older technology, it is still the best set out there in my opinion. the only other set i have seen that compares and may exceed it a little is, of course, the new pioneer elite plasma. no other company comes close to the clarity of pioneer hd's. the other companies my brag with stats and whatever highest technology they put into it but the real test is consumer satisfaction. every set i have sampled falls painfully short of a pioneer elite. eopinions.com review: Well, after what seemed like an eternity of himming and hawing, my wife and I decided to get a large screen hdtv. We looked at a lot of models and styles. We looked at plasma televisions and CRT based HDTV?s. We decided that a projection HDTV would suit us ideally both size wise and economically. Plasma televisions were small, with the maximum size being 50 inches. Also the price was a factor since most were between $12,000 to $18,000. We also looked at CRT based HDTV?s. Again, the size was small for the price you paid. I am by no means an electronic expert but to me, HDTV looked the same regardless of which mode (plasma, CRT or projection) was presented. What I did notice was differences in the manufactures. Slight things like if the picture was soft or hard, how bright it was, blah, blah, blah. Specs were important to a certain degree and I guess it would be important to those who judges a piece of equipment by specs first and performance second. All we wanted was a good TV to enjoy watching our dvd?s at a theater quality level. After looking endlessly at a multiple of various dealers? showrooms, we decided that pioneer made the best projection HDTV?s that suited our desires. The picture was bright and crisp without being overly ?hard?. At first we were going to get the ?regular? pioneer HDTV but when they showed us the elite models, we just loved it. We saw ?The Mummy? on a progressive scan dvd player and were floored but how ?theater quality? the entire experience was. I could see individual hairs on the actor?s head. Amazing! So, after a few more months of going to various dealers and looking for something that would exceed our personal standards set by the pioneer elite, we found that nothing compared to it. I even registered on some HDTV forums for opinions about which HDTV those who are really into it really thought highly of. Pioneer elite came up numerous times. So we bought it as our anniversary present for us! The day of we received it was fun! The delivery people take this monster of a box off their truck and wheel it to our front door via a dolly. They then proceed to remove the TV from its box because they have done this many a times and the box does not fit through the door! After a few huffs and puffs from them, they get it into the place where it was supposed to be! Man, it is a lot bigger in the house! They connect my sound system to it and connect the dvd player to it. I put in ?the matrix? dvd and hit play. No picture, just sound. I was worried that either the connectors were broken or worse yet, the TV! After about ten minutes of plugging and unplugging of the same wires, I see a switch to put it into progressive scan mode! D?oh! Voila, ?The Matrix? on my new HDTV! My wife and I watch this thing all night! The most amazing movies were ?Toy Story 2? and ?Dinosaur?. I could see every hair on the computer-generated monkey. Absolutely amazing. One forgets how sharp the picture is until you switch back into ?regular? broadcast TV. The broadcast signal is very fuzzy and grainy compared to HDTV. ?Sigh?, I guess we are permanently spoiled? on HDTV now. The good thing is that I don?t watch a lot of regular TV. We are so pleased with this television, we could not have been happier with it! I did not include all the technical jargon because, to me, what is important is the final result: the enjoyment of the movie. Hope this helps! Take care!

Similar Products Used:

looked at mits and the other hd sets from plasma, crt and projection when i was in the market for a hd tv. all fell short except for the pioneer elite. whatever the price, it is well worth it. even if it went for the same price as it does today.

convergence excellence , clarity of pix.seems not to have problems on hdtv upconversions that other newer sets have. remote actually works really well even though it is not exactly the easisest to sue. There are features on the set and the remote which I suspect most casual users will never get around to.

not enough cmponnet imputs, no dvi or firewire. Blacks way to black and on an older magnavox 32 I can see in the darks where on the 610 it is simply muddy black. Needs to be professionaly installed, my dealer kids simply dropped it off and turned it on. Turns out it was dusty on the lenses but I suffered with poor picutre for almost a year until I found two technicians and the second(suggested strongly and to their credit by the dealer did it right. spend the money on a good tech. don't count on a dealer. Pioneer Customer support was just about non existent and on many occassions either ignorant of the product or unwilling to provide help==I was extremely unhappy with the Pioneer Elite "support" I felt I had been suckered into something for going the "elite" route. The set itself is still very good but I know better now. Yamaha's support--for other products-=-was a 9 to 10 of ten, pionner was a tepid 3-4 although one guy was a 8 for sincerity (but a 4 for product knowlege).

excellent tv but getting dated esp. no dvi does not have the problems other newer sets have with up conversions and and the like. great for dvd movies.

Great Picture

Price, but you get what you pay for.

Fantastic! Now that I've had the set for 2 Years its even better. Being frugal I looked at every TV available, well almost. The Pe610 blows them away. The picture was great until I got my monster AVS5100 power filter & AVS2000 power stabalizer,and "better cable" component Video cable, but since hooking them up the picture is fantastic. I suspect some of the negative reviews are due to cheap cables and power souce prolems.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic

I am amazed at the reviews here stating that this set has picture problems of ANY sort. Any RPTV HAS GOT to be properly calibrated - and I don''''t mean the internal calibration that Pioneer adds with the set. I am talking about having a professional come and do it right through the service mode. Takes about an hour to do it right but the results are really astonishing. Most dealers worth their salt do this for you when they deliver it, at no charge. Mail order buyers have to take their chances, but as good as it looks now, it will look far better when properly converged. I have a 64" Pioneer set (non-Elite). This set, which is converged and calibrated, looks noticably better than an out of the box Elite. But when the Elite is converged IT looks better than the Pioneer. A couple of hundred bucks to have this incredible TV calibrated properly is nothing compared to the price of the set, and the difference will make your jaw drop.

Picture quality. Build Quality. Knowing you own the best.

Price is a little high, but then again a Porsche costs more than a Taurus! Both get you there, one does it in style.

Had to respond to the post by Steve ''The audio/video specialist''. Do YOUR homework Steve. Any RPTV set you buy needs to be calibrated by a professional after it has settled in. When this is performed on the Pioneer Elite sets, they simply have the best picture available in an RPTV set Steve, and that is why the price is oh so high. Ask any educated, trained professional. Don''t rely on your own eyesight until you''ve had Lasik! You are entitled to your opinon, but it''s sad to see you knock down the ratings on the best RPTV sets one can buy! Are you one of those guys who argues that Bose speakers sound better than high-end speakers?? Are you running standard 12Gauge zip-cord to your speakers?? Then, go for a lesser set! As for me and my family, I will provide the best I can afford.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi, Sony, Mitsu (Diamond)

Excellent line doubler. Scan Velocity Modulator can be turned off. 72 point user adjustable convergence

Looking at a standard TV broadcast in a widescreen format take some getting used to. Preset modes Movie, Live, Standard and Game tint the whites either to blue or in the case of the Movie setting, additional yellow is added. The Standard mode is the most correct.

Best resolution of all of the other big screens I reviewed prior to this purchase. My previous big screen was a Sony 53" XBR, so I started my pre-purchase evaluation with Sony, but the lack of a wide screen format and poor resolution caused me to drop Sony from further consideration. The other sets failed becasue of poor resolution and or poor color fidelity compared to the Pioneer I bought the set primarly for movies and I have not been disappointed. Use the best component video cables in order to achieve the best performance. Poor quality video cables are ruthlessly exposed for what they are. Use Video Essentials to override the preset modes to obtain a more accurate picture until the set in broken in enough for professional calibration. I plan to have the set calibrated within the next few weeks. I can't wait.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 53" and 61" XBR (16x9 format not available) Toshiba -16x9, Sharp - 16x9 Mitsubishi. Could not find a Panasonic
16x9 in stock at any store here.

Tinted protective screen seemed to enhance picture quality and doesn't collect dust like a regular tube picture. Multiple screen enhacement options such as dual tuner, widescreen zoom, 4:3 option, etc.

Like the previous reviewer, preset modes for movies, standard, games, etc. needed to be fine tune for correct color hues. The remote response isn't top notch like other brands when changing settings, I think there seems to be a 1 sec delay in between keypad presses. The Digital Tuner addon for digital broadcast signals is fairly expensive then other brands.

I had a chance to make a number of side by side comparisons on different brands which makes a world of a difference when choosing an HDTV in this size and price range. I also was able to compare using satellite feeds from DISH Network and DVD movies. The Pioneer HDTV stood out from the others in sound and picture quality. Of course, sound doesn't really matter since you more then likely will be hooking it up to your home audio system but it shows you the extent of the workmanship and quality that Pioneer went through in both audio and visual. The Pioneer HDTV shines the most when it comes to DVDs. The clarity, contrast, and sharpness is unbelievable wishing I had bought the PRO710HD for an even bigger screen. My DISH Network channels are fairly sharp depending on the signal strengths. I need to however upgrade to the 5000 series receiver to take full advantage of the HDTV. For cosmetics, the laquered black casing gives it an even more expensive look then the flat black color on other brands. My only disappointment is with the remote controller, in feel and response as indicated. My fix for this was to move all of the functions to my Sony remote commander. If you want to get the most out of your DVDs (especially widescreen format)and digital broadcasts, you can't go wrong with the Pioneer Elite HDTV line.

Similar Products Used:

Reviewed 16x9 HDTV Mitsubishi Diamond Series, Toshiba, and Panasonic lines. Sony didn't have a 16x9 HDTV screen available at the time.

Best picture quality and looks!

None so far.

I went with this size as it was the perfect fit for my basement home theatre and plus if it was an inch bigger I would'nt be able to get it in without scratches.

I did my research into HDTVs and this was the best! I have it setup with Dish Network's HDTV 6000 receiver and currently HBO and Showtime 2 channels are being broadcasted in HDTV. Its just amazing...

Highly recommended

Similar Products Used:

PRO-510 & PRO-710

Built in Line doubler is incredible - the absolute best for all RPTV's under 10k. Amazing picture from all sources including VCR and Satellite. Fairly decent remote (if you care about that kind of thing).

Haven't seen one yet!

I decided to get an HDTV after my buddy bought the Mitsu 55x81. At first I went with the Sharp 64', because I heard that that model Sharp shared most compenents with the Pioneer Elites, but at a much lower price.

This was true, as it turned out - only the components it shared were from last years Elite's, the 600 and 700 series. Come to find out those aren't exactly the most popular Elite TV's ever made - the built in Line Doubler was crap, same as with the Sharp.

Appearently somebody at Pioneer is paying attention because the new 510, 610, and 710 models have a new LD that is the best I have ever seen. It's so good, you don't even need to waste your money on a DVO iScan (the low end, high quality doubler of choice these days). I've seen the Mitsu with an iScan and the 610 is better (and doesn't lock in the aspect ratio either).
It is so much better than the Sharp or Mitsu LD, it isn't even funny. If you were wondering where all the money goes in this RPTV, that's it.

Thanks to the LD, even normally sub-standard sources like old EP VHS tapes look good. DVD's are mind blowing. This TV is so good, it makes my regular DVD player (Sony 850) look as good as the Toshiba 5109 progressive DVD player looks on the Sharp or Mitsu. In fact, there's so little difference between the line-doubled interlaced and the progressive image on this TV that I took the 5109 back to the store and saved myself $600. I also really like the "Natural Wide" mode, that stretches 4:3 material to fill the 16x9 streen without the "fat-head" effect you see on other 16x9 TV's. I don't watch anything in 4:3 grey bar mode.

The Elites may well be the ultimate in RPTV's, unless you go for a 20k Runco.

Geoff

Similar Products Used:

Sharp HSP64000, Mitsu 55x81

Picture quality on DVDs. Look of the unit is top notch.
Tweakability of picture. HDTV ready,RGB input

Protective screen,

After extensive research into hdtv ready, large screen tvs, I slowly landed into the pioneer Elite series.
There are alot of choices now in this range of sets, + or -
15" of this size.
Because of features and picture i went with pioneer again. Features that stand out, good choice of tweaking picture to perfection and being able to save in the user mode per input type(dvd,dss,vcr,hdtv), convergence setting is simple and precise,72 point, and can be adjusted also for each type of viewing( natural,cinema wide,etc.),RGB input for hdtv & computers.
My concern about getting this tv was the ability to watch dss tv. At least untill the hdtv boxes were more common place later this year.If you go into the cinema wide mode for regular tv or dss it is certainly ok for most of that viewing. Some channels are not that great, but I dont seem to be that interested in those channels anyway.It seems the more recent programming looks the best, makes sense. Probably meaning this set is very sensitive to the particular s-video feed. Not why I got it anyway.
Dvds are stunning, darn near blows away the theather.Do the component in from a progressive dvd and wow, its worth the investment(cant wait to do hdtv). And that is what is so hard with investing this much money. You have to have this stunning , wow, effect. On this set your going to spend 5k plus, you have to have the picture and the right features, its a must.
The only situation that has come up is:
the protective screen on my unit seems to have some vertical noise type of look to it, i had a service tech look at it and he agrees some sort of defect on the filter screen not the screen. Take the screen off and it looks even more stunning, and this is the real way to watch it anyway.
So easy enough, replace the plastic glass filter with a new one.
Just like my previous pioneer perfect, only this time elite perfect.
One quick note is to use video essentials to set up dvd players.
On this unit, turn down sharpness to -30 and reduce the contrast to -20, and POW , you have pictures popping off the screen, amazing.Color temp is standard, and calibrate what? Dont need it.Pioneer seems to be excellent in consistancy.
If you are wanting top quality at a price, its unbeatable.

system:
Sony es777
Toshiba 5109
Atlantic Tech 350 thx
Simple , inexpensive, for the quality i have. For now....

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer 50"-1994