Pioneer Elite vs. Mitsubishi Diamond (1 Viewer)

[JJR512]

OK, I'm taking a much stronger look now at RPTV than I originall was. (Some of you may remember me earlier mentioning I was planning on going with direct-view for their superior brightness and wide-angle-viewing.) I looked at Circuit City yesterday and wasn't overly impressed with anything. They had mostly Sonys and Hitachi UltraVisions, also some RCA Sceniums (sp?). About the only thing useful I feel I learned there was that RPTVs are now much better in a well-lit room than I would have thought (this Circuit City had them on the same brightly-lit sales floor as everything else, not in a special darkened area like many stores, especially Best Buy, do).

Today I went to Tweeter, where they feature Mitsubishi. They also had some Sony, Toshiba (smaller ones), and Pioneer Elite. I think I found a really great salesman; I asked about Pioneer Elite, and he showed me the one they had out (I believe it was the 57" model). But he also showed me the Mitsubishi Diamonds, saying these were, in his opinion, the best "bang for the buck" right now. This was for the WS55909 model, a 55", price reduced to $3500. He said that the 53" Pioneer Elite was $4000, and did have a very slightly better image, but was not, in his opinion, really worth the extra $500. So I think a salesman that offers one product over another better, more expensive one, because it's a better value, must be someone who is really interested in his customer's needs.

Anyway, I couldn't directly compare the Pioneer Elite vs. the Mitsubishi Diamond because the Elite was in one of their show-off rooms, which was pretty dark. The Mitsubishi was in a common area in a line-up with most of their other RPTVs.

The Elite did appear to have a superb image. The Mitsubishi also had a great image; it was difficult to quantify a difference, but if I absolutely had to say which was better, I would say the Elite. The Elite also had a better-looking cabinet, in my opinion. The salesman also described the Mitsubishi as being more "future-friendly", which he defined as its included HDTV tuner, FireWire ports, and something else I forgot.

I've done a small amount of research here and what I've seen so far is that the Pioneer Elite is probably the best out there in its price range, but the Mitsubishi Diamond can be tweaked to look as good, possibly better. I'd like some more direct comments, though.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Justin,
I am in the same boat as you. I am going a different direction. I initially wanted a large screen size and after much analysis quickly came to the conclusion that Pioneer Elite is the best.
Then I saw the Loewe Aconda direct view set and totally changed gears. The quality of picture is so accurate and the line doubler is of Faroudja quality that I am now saving up for the set. You only get 38 inches but it is worth it for the far superior TV.
Also, I think that LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) is going to change the projector world very soon in a major way - the reports from CEDIA on the new Toshiba LCOS was very strong.
Think again about direct view. I did and I think it will be a good decision.

 

[John Royster]

Lee,

If you ever wanna chat video. Then please give me a call/PM. You may be surprised at the limitations of the elite sets.

As far as comparing the two TVs listed above. They are both great.

Pioneer will provide a much better 480i picture, but will hit a roadblock once calibrated.
Mits will offer superior tweakiblity/calibration. Esp the x909 sets.

 

[Andre*C]

I work at a similar retailer and our pioneer elite was right next to our diamond for two months. We finally had to move it back to the dark room because we couldn't sell it next to the diamond. With an HD signal the diamond was obviously crisper than the pioneer and it's colors were more accurate. The pioneer made grass look like it was watered with car coolent. I have read a few reviews confirming the in accurate colors. The diamond is the best tv I have ever seen on high definition. The toshiba 50HDX82 looks very good also but not as good and cosmetically is no comparison (but it does only cost $2400. The toshiba deffinately looks better on cable and satelit than the diamond but the elite looks about the same as the toshiba on cable or satelite. My favorite is still the diamond even though it does not have a dvi input and it's stretch correction for cable is not as good as the elite or the toshiba.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

If you ever wanna chat video. Then please give me a call/PM. You may be surprised at the limitations of the elite sets.

Interesting. May do that.

 

[greg_t]

John,

Could you elaborate on the limitations of the Elites? Could you provide some specific examples of their limitations? From what I have read from calibrators on other forums, they are pretty flexible. I'm considering an Elite 530 when they come out later this month and would be interested to hear what you have to say. Shoot me an email if you don't want to post it here. Thanks.