Pioneer to stop making TVs. No more KUROs.

Pioneer Electronics has been known to produce one of the best plasma line-ups, the Pioneer KUROs. I’ve had the chance to see a Pioneer KURO TV up close and its black levels are extremely deep and unrivaled by any other brand, and that wasn’t even their latest generation of KUROs.

Pioneer KUROs are more expensive compared to other brands, but with news that Pioneer is going to stop production on these products soon, I’m pretty sure some stores are going to want to liquidate their Pioneer plasma inventory. The 50-inch and 60-inch KUROs went on sale at Best Buy, Amazon, NewEgg.com during the 3rd week of January 2009, they were priced at approximately $2,300 and $3,300 respectively. This was probably an early indication of Pioneer’s impending announcement to stop manufacturing televisions.

On the other hand, Panasonic comes in close at 2nd with their plasma line-up. Although black levels are not on par with Pioneer KUROs, they still come pretty close and are more attractively priced.

Hopefully there would be some way for Pioneer to source out production of their panels for other manufacturers to utilize, it would be a shame to let their technology go to waste. Although newer LCDs are coming close to plasmas in terms of picture quality and black levels, I still prefer a good plasma rather than the best LCD. Panasonic, Hitachi, LG and Samsung will remain as the big players in the plasma industry.

More coverage elsewhere: