"Pioneer's third generation product harnesses the most technologically advanced capabilities available in plasma today," said Craig McManis, vice president for the industrial display division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "We've realized across-the-board enhancements in this unit, offering everything from lower power consumption, better brightness controls to protect against the chance of burn in and markedly improved image quality. On top of that, we've taken the technology into an entirely new direction, developing an expansion slot, allowing its open architecture to provide developers, installers and end users the ability to customize the unit and its capabilities."
Key advancements in the PDP-503CMX include a new Pure Color Filter, a feature that decreases external light reflectivity to bring forth a higher contrast even in direct light environments, as well as Pioneer's improved Digital Enhancer, a pixel-by-pixel image correction that provides a more natural and sharper rendition of characters by increasing data display clarity. New advanced Continuous Emission Display Technology improves gradation rendering and color reproduction, achieving crisp, detailed picture quality. The unit also features a removable bezel, allowing for increased flexibility in design and color to match a variety of architectural environments.
"The technological and aesthetic advances of the PDP-503CMX plasma display panel encapsulates Pioneer's vision of plasma display development," said McManis. "Pioneer engineered the PDP-503CMX so that system integrators and end-users can be assured of an investment that will not become obsolete in a versatile marketplace, even with rapid technological advances."
Developed as an open-source innovation, the PDP-503CMX unit also features new expansion slot technology that allows third-party manufacturers the option of developing mountable expansion boards, thereby increasing the future capabilities of the unit as new emerging technologies are offered to systems integrators and end-users. The expansion slot allows for the addition or removal of various boards, providing end-users the ability to "future-proof" their investment as users' needs and technology changes. Optional accessories that Pioneer also will make available for the PDP-503CMX include a video board (for compatibility with video and digital RGB input), side mount speakers, and a tabletop stand.
Embracing an open architecture, the PDP-503CMX's expansion slot is compatible with several possible interface installations including DVI, FireWire, picture-in-picture and SDI. This compatibility allows the systems integrator to install the interface appropriate to custom needs of the end-user. Several third party developers are developing boards that will take advantage of the company's expansion slot technology, widening the market offering for plasma capability.
In addition, the PDP-503CMX 50-inch professional plasma display panel surpasses true XGA resolution (1280 x 768), and offers the benefits of plasma's emissive display capabilities. Unlike conventional CRTs, this technology delivers bright and even colors, better contrast ratios, and clearer images with more than 160-degree viewing angles.
Marking an improvement in the encased cell panel structure offered by earlier Pioneer plasma displays, the PDP-503CMX features True-Matrix Imaging now with Deep Encased Cell Structure that virtually eliminates nearby light leakage from other cells, resulting in a brightness that is 60 percent greater than Pioneer's previous models. Other new features include the Energy Star-recognized Power Save function that reduces normal power consumption by 20 percent, as well as overall increases in bright area contrast levels that have resulted in sharper high-definition images even in the brightest of locations.
