One of the world's great innovator electronic companies since 1938, Pioneer Electronics has in recent years been experiencing some financial difficulties despite its well-reviewed Pioneer Elite Plasma TV products and its Pioneer cable TV and broadband interactive program guide (IPG) products. In 2008, the company announced that it would be outsourcing production of Pioneer plasma TV products to other manufacturers.

Pioneer TV products are part of its KURO display line, which includes the Pioneer ELITE TV (also known as Pioneer Pro Plasma TV) and the Pioneer KURO Flat Panel HDTV.

Features of high-end (up to $7,500) Pioneer ELITE Plasma TV products include:

1. HDTV
2. Pioneer TV screen sizes up to 60"
3. Deeper black resolution for screen picture contrast
4. The Home Media Gallery supports a wide variety of video (including MPEG and WMV), audio (including MP3, WAV, and AAC), and photo formats (including JPG, PNG, GIF, and TIFF)
5. Detachable side speakers
6. TV Guide interactive programming guide
7. IP network compatibility
8. Zoom picture function

Features of Pioneer Flat Panel TV (up to $6,500) products include:

1. HDTV
2. Pioneer TV screen sizes up to 60"
3. Deeper black resolution for screen picture contrast
4. Detachable bottom speaker
5. Room light sensor for picture adjustment
6. Energy Star compliant
7. Picture aspect ratio control
8. IP network compatibility

Pioneer broadband interactive cable television technology includes Passport programming guides sold to TV cable system operators for digital cable set-top boxes. Their Passport IPG was one of the first such products and is the current industry standard, even though the Pioneer Digital Technologies (or Aptiv Digital) part of the company is now owned by Macrovision.

Pioneer broadband IPG products include:

1. Passport, a Pioneer programming guide made for Secure Access (SA) digital cable set-top boxes
2. Passport Echo, a more advanced Pioneer IPG for DVR-enabled cable television set-top boxes
3. Passport DCT, a Pioneer IPG for Motorola-enabled cable television set-top boxes used by millions of cable subscribers

Passport interactive program guide features include:

1. Search for TV programs by title, time, or category
2. View in-depth program even as program airs
3. Customize guide for parental controls, closed captioning option, and specific language options
4. Purchase on-demand or pay-per-view programming

Passport DCT interactive guide features are similar to Passport guide features, except geared toward Motorola cable boxes.

Passport Echo IPG features include:

1. Play, fast forward, and pause functions for recorded programming
2. Sorts recorded programming
3. Controls live television programming with pause, rewind, and fast forward functions

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

If your TV cable service includes DVR, check out Passport Echo and Passport DCT (by Pioneer cable)

Pioneer Echo IPG for DVR offers a wide variety of functions beyond common IPG functions. If your cable TV service doesn't include DVR, it will probably include a Passport DCT guide.

I recommend: You can take an online tour of the Passport Echo IPG at the Aptiv/Pioneer Digital website. Macrovision offers more technical Passport Echo information. Also at the Aptiv Digital website, you can download a full Getting Started Guide (PDF) for the Passport DCT IPG. And Macrovision provides in-depth feature information about the Passport DCT programming guide.

Explore the features of KURO Pioneer plasma TV products

In particular, the Home Media Gallery features for Pioneer ELITE plasma TV products may require more exploration.

I recommend: The Pioneer Electronics website includes detailed information about Pioneer flat panel TV products, including its ELITE KURO product line and KURO Flat Panel HDTV products. As counterpoint to Pioneer's product information, UltimateAVmag.com and CNET offer in-depth pro and con reviews of Pioneer TV products.

Compare Pioneer plasma TV products with similar products from other companies

Because Pioneer plasma TV is an emerging technology, reviews for specific products are mixed.

I recommend: Consumer product comparison website Buyer's Edge offers a long list of comparative product quality and pricing reviews. CNET has a selective list of the "Best HDTVs Overall," including the Pioneer KURO flat screen TV. Or you can read full reviews of 110 plasma television products with a paid online subscription to tried and true Consumer Reports.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Because IPG is an emerging television content technology and Pioneer Passport (by Pioneer cable) products are the current market leader, technologies evolve and with it come new products from new developers.
• •  Plasma TVs currently have a shorter lifespan than other television technologies. A burned-out tube cannot be replaced with other types of televisions.