Pioneer PDP-5060HD

Pros: Wonderful color. Excellent black levels. Slick design. HDMI connections. External tuner.

Cons: Price. Plasma speakers will not work if already using HDMI for video and audio from cable box.

Summary: I reviewed this plasma for over four months before making the purchase. Originally I was set to buy the Pioneer PDP-5050HD but found several reviews about poor black levels on the PDP-5050HD. I went to my local electronics store and compared the PDP-5050HD to a Panasonic TH-50PX500U side by side. The Panasonic had better black levels but comes with a built in tuner (more wires to hide if mounting to a wall). I waited for the PDP-5060HD to come out because I heard the black levels would be corrected. I saw the PDP-5061HD(this is the same as PDP-5060HD they put a 1 on the end of this model # so that Best Buy does not have to match competitor $ing) in Best Buy and sure enough the black levels were corrected and look wonderful.

I purchased my Pioneer PDP-5060HD online from 6th Avenue Electronics. If you are considering buying your plasma online I recommend you visit the Pioneer Electronics website for authorized online dealers. See this website...

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/article/two/0,,2076_83644739_277297187,00.html

If you buy from an unauthorized online dealer Pioneer will not extend the 1 year warranty.

After breaking in my plasma I am very pleased with its brilliant colors and wonderful black levels. The menu is very easy to navigate and the remote has a nice backlit feature. If your cable provider supports HDMI for video and audio I recommend purchasing a high end HDMI cable.

If you are planning on using an existing home entertainment system which has 5.1 or 6.1, the speakers that come with this plasma will be useless. You have the choice of only using HDMI for audio or using the component connection...NO COMPINATION. This may not be an issue with some but since my audio digital signal has an occasional 1 to 2 second signal lose I can not fall back on my plasma speakers to make up for the 1 to 2 second lose of audio...annoying when watching movies.

I highly recommend this product and hope you enjoy it as much as I do.