72-Point Digital Convergence, Automatic format converter, 5 screen modes, very easy to move (on wheels), excellent sound, great picture

can not use any of the screen modes or split screen features with digital cable or DTV.

Several months ago I was looking through these reviews trying to get as much information about this HDTV before I purchased it. As a lot of the reviews point out, the picture quality is far above all other large screen TVs when looking at them side by side. I would definitely recommend this product, although I would like to point out a couple of things first.

When reading a some of the other reviews, it was often pointed out that the picture on basic analog NTSC cable was very poor. I have this television currently hooked up to basic cable and the picture is very good (better than my 27" picture tube...digital cable is not yet available in my area). A couple of things to remember about basic cable. The signal is affected by your outside surroundings. If there are large buildings or mountains in your area, the signal could be weak. Also, another individual mentions to have your cable company come and test your signal. I 100% agree with this. It does make a difference. Also, I have the Monster HTS1000 surge protector ($149.95 @ BestBuy) and all Monster II cables ($24.99 @ BestBuy) with this TV. Total cost was about $300.00, but when you are talking about making this kind of investment, spend the extra few dollars and make sure you use the best cables (your signal will only be as strong as the equipment that carries it to your tv). Depending on your location, the picture quality can vary. Also, if you can look at this tv on display, ask the salesman what kind of signal you are watching. At BestBuy in Pittsburgh, they had a basic analog signal that looked very good (again with all Monster cables and surge protector...the surge protector also filters the signal to improve your picture quality)

One last thing to point out is DO NOT PURCHASE THE DV-434 PROGRESSIVE SCAN DVD player with this television. Several people have recommended this, and unfortunately they have wasted their money purchasing the progressive scan feature (at least on the DV-434). This television has its own "Digital Progressive Scan Processing IC" and it is far better than the one in the DV-434. Because of this, you never are using the feature in your DVD player (don't believe me...check with the engineer's at Pioneer 1-800-421-1404). You would need to purchase a much higher quality DVD player with progressive scan to out perform the one in the tv. If you don't upgrade above the DV-434, then go with the DV-333 which is exactly the same as the DV-434 without progressive scan.

Hope this was helpful...you can't go wrong with this tv.

Great Picture, plenty of inputs, a boat load of adjustments can be made to the set, build quality, Pioneer Quality Control

None so far

First off I would like to thank the Audioreview.com community in helping me make my decision and a special thanks to Rick who reviewed this product before me and took the time to email me back with answers to my questions. I spent quite some time doing research on this product and checked various sites on the web as well as visiting about a dozen electronics stores. After a few months of reading reviews and seeing these sets I choose the SD-532. I was torn between this unit and the 582 but found that the 53" set was fine from my viewing distance of 12'. I also sound the 532 was brighter than the 582. The only real competition to Pioneer came from Mitsubisihi in my opinion. The Panasonic 56WXF95 was a huge disappoinment after all the positive reviews. I saw this unit next to the Mitsi and the Pioneer and two different stores and the picture looked faded. It did not perform well in HDTV mode or cable. The Sony was way too much and had only one component input. I also did not like the "flash convergenance" which many have stated they had problems with. I also heard the Sony requires multiple calibrations a year. The Hitachi was nice as well but did not seem all that well built and was pricey compared to the Pioneer. Needless to say but the Pioneer Elite 510 was the best but not by much. Secondly I could not justify paying triple for the Elite. The 532 is a awesome TV and the model is now being discontinued. The 533 will be in the stores by October but just because it is new does not mean it is better. Granted it will have 3:2 pulldown and an enhanced line doubler but I am very pleased with my 532. The picture is superb from all inputs and the screen is bright with vibrant colors. I recommend this HDTV highly and would try to snatch one up before they are gone. I feel I got a great deal at 6th Avenue Electronics. $2350 for the set + $69.00 delivery. They also threw in 4M Monster 3 Component cables ($119.00 retail). I bought one of the last 13 they had. Get this set you will not be disappointed. I will never go to the movies again now that I have this TV since the quality on it is better than movie theatre quality.

Similar Products Used:

Mitsubishi 55807, Sony XBR5710, Hitachi various models, Panasonic 56WXF95

Bright, sharp picture, nice cabinet, good reception, plenty of viewing modes, beautiful picture with DVDs, least noticable stretching of 4:3 material, feels sturdy.

Stretches the image of some anamorphic (widescreen) DVDs using progressive scan, light blue glow around whites on the left side of screen, ho-hum line doubler.

Thanks to all for posting their reviews- they helped me tremendously in the decision making process. I tried picking one of these up at Sam's Club due to the incredible price but they were all sold out so I found one at Frye's Electronics for almost the same price. I had read nothing but positive reviews about this model and it seems like every other model has at least some negative reviews on one site or another. I've only had this TV for 24 hours but wanted to post a review ASAP as this model is now on clearance and doing a post in a month or two would be worthless to anyone.

My setup...
I sit 12 feet away and am using a Toshiba SD-6200 progressive scan DVD player, some Panasonic S-VHS player, and Dish Network satellite.
The 53" screen is the perfect size for the distance that I sit. If you were to sit further than 14 feet away, I'd recommend the 58" Pioneer. The Toshiba DVD player works great with this TV. Progressive scan definitely adds to the picture quality but interlaced is pretty good, too, although the TV's internal line doubler doesn't impress me that much. I don't know if it's my VHS player but even with the S-Video hookup, VHS is noticably worse than interlaced DVD, worse than even satellite coming through S-VHS. Satellite is pretty good but some channels that have excessive MPEG compression look pretty bad (of course, that's the satellite company's fault). Regular TV comes in pretty well and in some cases, looks better than satellite (no pixelations, at least). I use the "Natural Wide" setting for most 4:3 broadcasts as you lose only a small percentage of the top/bottom and have only slight stretching of the image ("Zoom"- you lose too much of the top and bottom and the other "Wide" modes do too much stretching although they don't look bad).

My gripes-
(1) as Rick mentioned before, I have a slight blue glow around whites that is noticable on the left side of the screen and I can't get them out using the convergence settings as they surround the whites in all directions. Maybe someday, I can pony up the bucks for an ISF guy to come out- that might take care of the blue glow.
(2) I misunderstood (stupid me) what others were saying about locking into full mode while watching progressive scan DVDs- the problem is that while watching some anamorphic DVDs (I'm not sure why not all anamorphic DVDs- email me if anyone knows), the image is stretched across the television. Essentially, if approx 35% of your viewing area on a 4:3 TV was taken up by black bars, you will have the same percentage of the widescreen TV screen taken up by black bars as it stretches horizontally (or compresses vertically- however you please) the image. What you end up with is a very thin, wide, flattened. I've noticed this with Clear and Present Danger, Crimson Tide and several others but not with anamorphic DVDs like Gladiator and X-Men. I do have my DVD player set to output to a 16:9 widescreen TV (vs. the default 4:3) but it only seems to help on some DVDs. Anyway, with the troublesome DVDs, I have to switch off of progressive scan in order to avoid the image being stretched across and being left with the same black bars as a 4:3 TV. This model doesn't have a great line doubler and the interlaced image is not nearly as nice as the progressive (at least not a stretched progressive anyway). This all is documented in Pioneer's manual. It's very frustrating but it's important to note that this will not happen when viewing HDTV broadcasts and doesn't happen with some of my newer DVDs.

With those gripes aside- I really do love this TV. It produces a stunning picture and other than when watching those aforementioned troublesome stretched DVDs, I feel like I'm truly in a theater and can't imagine the image being any better without producing better quality original film (the blue glow isn't very noticable while watching movies/TV). If the flattening of the image on some DVDs doesn't bother you, I'd highly recommend using a progressive scan DVD player with this (it makes a big difference) and not to offend, but I wouldn't use the Pioneer 414 model as it's not true progressive scan from everything that I've read but I've never seen it either so... If you can get this TV below $3000 (including delivery and tax), I'd highly recommend it- otherwise, I'd wait for the new SD-533HD5 which will hopefully correct my few gripes. One last word of advice- I would not buy a floor model. From what I've heard, you'll be lucky to get 5 years of average viewing (a few hours a day) out of a NEW big screen HDTVs and most of the floor models have been used for up to one year running up to 12 hours a day every day. You'll probably get a 15% discount but they've killed a much higher percentage of the TV's lifespan- IMHO.

I love this TV and would rate it 5 stars if not for my couple of complaints.

Similar Products Used:

First HDTV but I compared with the Toshiba 56H80 and the Mitsu 55" 807/857

Just to add to my previous review. After some calibrations, now my DTC100 and Pioneer combo through VGA connection works great. Picture is still slightly compressed to make images look thin, but tolerable. However, true HD contents through VGA feed really shine. After watching some HBO-HD movies on DirecTV, I will never go back to movie theathers ever again. That is how good HD movies are. The clarity, vibrant color and details of the pictures draw so much of my attention I often forgoet what movie I was watching.

If anyone thinks DVD on the Pioneer set is worth all the money, just wait till you get to see actual HDTV in action.

Excellent for viewing anamorphic DVDs!

No aspect ratio control of DVDs when using progressive scan
72 point convergence for each input is tedious

Excellent for viewing anamorphic DVDs in progressive scan and non-anamorphic DVDs using the component inputs (for aspect ratio control). Let's hope Pioneer's upcoming DVD players will have aspect ratio control or that DVDO adds it to their line doubler.

Keep your direct view TV for watching cable TV and your VCR - I found watching these on the Pioneer to be unacceptable - even after the cable repair guy tweaked the signal. Strongly consider satellite TV to get best results and HDTV programming. Upgrading to a S-VHS VCR is also recommended.

I also had to get video-shielded speakers due to visible picture distortion caused by my electrostatic speakers which have large unshielded woofers.

Overall, I really like this unit but the above flaws necessitate a 4 rating at best. In retrospect, I'd probably buy the Elite model for a better line doubler and defeatable scan velocity modulater or the Toshiba which has aspect ratio control over its progressive scan inputs.

Similar Products Used:

Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Panasonic

great remote, easy hook up, rolls on casters, 5 viewing modes

cable tv signal really looks bad

I have had the 532HD for just over a month now.
We went back and forth between it and a Sony 38" Wide-screen Tube TV. I'm glad we went with the Pioneer.
At first I was dissapointed, I wasn't getting the picture I saw at the store. I know we will not have HDTV here for a while. But I was hoping for better pictures from my DVD player. What I got was slightly better than the Dish signal, but I was still seeing lines and aliasing.

This week I got a Pioneer DV-434 Progressive Scan DVD and it has made all the difference. In progressive mode, with Monster-3 Component cables, the colors really shine. The 434 can do nothing about my bad cable reception, but when viewing a DVD, Enhanced or not, it really shines.

I have spent about 3 hours tweaking the picture, comparing modes. It has the 5 viewing modes everyone else has talked about, but there are also 4 settings for each mode for Stand view, Movies, Games, or user settings. The 72 pt convergence needed little adjusting, just some around the edges.

You cannot go wrong with the SD-532HD5 and the Pioneer DV-434 together, AWESOME picture and total bargain. With the preffered Customer sales at Best Buy, I got both for $3669.

Similar Products Used:

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