Pioneer’s PDP-503CMX Plasma Display

[Gregg Lengling]

Summary: One of the best plasma panels available today
Target Users: Presentation professionals
Platforms: Windows 98/ME/2000

Anyone who deals with the public on a regular basis understands the importance of first impressions. People don't buy Armani suits for their durability or utility; they buy them for the caché of professionalism lent to those who wear them. By the same token, the Pioneer PDP-503CMX plasma panel may not be particularly rugged or utilitarian, but it confers upon its user a nimbus of professionalism that can be difficult to coax from large-format display systems built on other technology.

Color plasma panels are like gigantic fluorescent lighting systems with individually-addressable color pixels. Tiny electric arcs within the panel generate ultraviolet light, which is immediately absorbed by phosphors on the interior surface of trough-like pixel cells and partially re-radiated as visible light. The glass face of the panel blocks the UV light, but lets the visible wavelengths through.
Anyone who deals with the public on a regular basis understands the importance of first impressions. People don't buy Armani suits for their durability or utility; they buy them for the caché of professionalism lent to those who wear them. By the same token, the Pioneer PDP-503CMX plasma panel may not be particularly rugged or utilitarian, but it confers upon its user a nimbus of professionalism that can be difficult to coax from large-format display systems built on other technology.

Color plasma panels are like gigantic fluorescent lighting systems with individually-addressable color pixels. Tiny electric arcs within the panel generate ultraviolet light, which is immediately absorbed by phosphors on the interior surface of trough-like pixel cells and partially re-radiated as visible light. The glass face of the panel blocks the UV light, but lets the visible wavelengths through.

Where to Use It
Although the panel might do well as a trade-show display or other public billboard system, care would have to be taken to prevent people from touching the display's surface. The anti-reflection-coated face looked to be as delicate as a camera lens—definitely not something you would want to spray down with an ammonia solution in an effort to remove grimy, acid-laden fingerprints. If ambient light posed a problem, you would want to stay away from low-key content, too.

Controls for brightness, contrast and RGB drive levels were provided, but the default settings in each case were manifestly optimal. Various noise reduction and pixel processing options had no real effect on any of the source materials I viewed. One control that did have a significant visual impact was the power mode. Ordinarily, the entire surface of the display is drivable to maximum luminance at all times, which generates admirable contrast. Enabling the power-limiting mode clamps total power dissipation to a relatively conservative value, resulting in noticeable dimming of the image when too much of the display is brightly lit—as will be the case when viewing black-on-white computer text. An alternate, intensity-limiting power mode restricts the overall brightness of the display regardless of white coverage, effectively eliminating concerns about image burn-in, but at the expense of a drastic reduction in contrast.

Overall, the Pioneer panel is about as close to plug-and-play as you could ask for, and the only time you will feel inclined to touch a control is when you need to switch inputs. Upon connecting a new source, you may need to hit the auto-setup button to center and maximize the image, but this feature works well enough that it is extremely unlikely you will need to manually adjust any raster parameters.

Ironically, video inputs are not standard on the $15,500 PDP-503CMX, but they can be added with a $500 plug-in card. The base display has two RGB inputs: one sporting component BNC connectors, and the other, a standard HD-15 VGA connector. The VGA input sports a pass-through. Three inputs are added by the optional video card: composite video on a BNC connector with pass-through, Y/C analog video and a DVI interface. All connectors face downward.

The panel also has audio inputs, but the unit's anemic internal amplifier renders them nearly useless. The 503CMX lacks internal speakers, relying instead on external units connected to wire terminals. Whatever you decide to hook up had better be pretty darned efficient, however. Cranked to maximum volume, the audio level obtainable with typical near-field monitors was barely above a shout and utterly lacked dynamic headroom. Any serious installation will demand an external amplifier.

At 1.67:1, the aspect ratio of the screen is not quite up to HDTV and nowhere near the aspect used by many theatrical productions, which can range upwards of 2:1. Thus, widescreen video content will often be letterboxed within the panel, although the top and bottom margins will be somewhat smaller than they would be on a 4:3 screen. The 503CMX has a native resolution of 1,280 x 768, which is directly supported by certain graphics cards, including nVidia's GeForce series. Wide-XGA is just barely adequate for a display of this size, so the one improvement I might ask for would be an even larger screen with a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution.

Having reached the bottom line, I guess I can finally speak my mind: I want one. The review unit has been gone just two days now and already I miss it. It may not be cheap, portable or rugged, but one look at the image produced by the PDP-503CMX will trivialize all objections. You should not view one of these in person unless you're ready to part with some money, because this baby has "impulse buy" written all over it. Of course, if you use it to demo for customers that wind up being just as impressed, maybe you can justify the expense