Price Paid:  $5000.00 from magnolia Hi-fi

Summary:
Wow..This T.v is killer. There are little problems with it like the internal line doubler, but no big deal. Go out and buy a DVDO V3 in replace of the internal and you have a picture better than any T.V on the market. You will not tell the difference between HD broadcasting or a DVD movie...serious no joke. That combo is so incredible, I do not have the hours to tell you about it. The urishi finish is really nice and blends everything around it together. There are no major differences worth talking about between the pro-700, pro-710, pro720. If you can pick up a 700 or a 710 for cheap...do it and buy a dvdo V3 and you will be so impressed you will take the extra 4k and go out and buy yourself a new audio gear with the savings. I have a friend who just bought a pro-720 and he told me my picture is alot more true and blended-in than his...so he is going to buy a dvdo and use that instead of the internal one in the pioneer. GOOD LUCK in what you descide..because if you choose a pioneer Elite series T.V you will be happy because they are the best Wide screens you can buy for the price.

Strengths:
Picture is bright and sharp. Matched with the DVDO V3, you have the best T.V in any price catagory. Built to last.

Weaknesses:
Pioneer should of used the dvdo instead of there line doubler. Price. Could of made the power cord longer.

Similar Products Used:
mits diamond series,panasonic,sony

Price Paid:  $7000.00 from Ken Crane's

Summary:
Purchased this guy a little over a year ago, and
was always happy with it. At the time, the best
on the market was the Pioneer, there were similar
units from Mitsubishi and Toshiba, but both of
them were deemed unacceptable when viewed next to
the Pioneer.

When I got my pioneer home, I noticed a high frequency
noise that was obvious especially in darker pictures. At
first it appeared like power supply noise. I tried
all I could to isolate it, and finally found out
the problem was in the internal line doubler. I just
purchased a Silicon Image Iscan-Pro V3 on a recommendation,
and this solved the problem. When I plugged this in,
I was now looking at the best picture I had ever seen
on a TV this size. The 700HD already has a nice picture,
especially when compared to its peers, but with the
Iscan unit hooked up, it was simply awesome. (The
Iscan unit was $700). If you get an 700HD or already
have one, go get an Iscan V3 right away. If Pioneer
had included this, this would be a ***** product.

Strengths:
Nice picture, lots of potential

Weaknesses:
Internal line doubler is bad. Tuner gets messed up and tv needs to be power cycled

Summary:
I bought the set in August of 1999. I noticed the problem of constantly shifting, shimmering horizontal line right away, but attributed it to the power noise. After trying several line conditioners, it became clear that the problem was with the set itself. The line doubler causes video noise in converting the NTSC signal. After multiple attempts to fix the proble, I finally got a commitment from the Pioneer Service center in Long Beach to trade up to the PRO710HD model, which apparently solves this issue. I am optimistic, since most reviewers were happy with the TV. The service people told me only 1% of customers noticed this problem and were unhappy with it. Hard to believe, but I guess not everyone cares about the noise.

Strengths:
Very clear picture

Weaknesses:
Terrible horizontal lines video noise

Summary:
I originally purchased the Pro 700 from Sound Advice for $6200.00. I was informed that the TV was on the floor for only a couple of days. I immediatedly noticed a problem with the picture when I got the TV home. It was determined that this TV had a defective A/V unit. After much haggleing, Sound Advice agreed to replace it with the Pro 710 at no additional cost.

What a difference. The 710 has the most beautiful picture I have ever seen on a TV. I felt that it has a little sharper picture than the Mits and with it's high gloss finish it is much prettier to look at with the TV off. The 710's has a few things that the 700 didn't. The 710 has "Super Woofer", that does seem to add a little extra base and the line doubler is supposed to be alot better. The picture quality when watching DVD's on my Pioneer 525 DVD is film quality or better. (Remember that not all DVDs are the same quality. I found that the best place to see how good a DVDs picture quality is is at "Thebigpicturedvd.com". They rate the dvd quality for you. That way you can better judge how your system works.)

I have no regrets purchasing this TV. This is simply the best TV anywhere in this price range. I think it is worth the extra grand to have the best.

Strengths:
great picture, good sound,beautiful finish,remote

Weaknesses:
price

Similar Products Used:
mitsubishi diamond series

Summary:
This is a followup review. I have now had the elite for closer to one month and am sorry to say that I am returning the set for a 710 model. The interal line doubler is not satisfactory for my viewing habits, as I like to watch cable in addition to HD and progressive scan DVDs. The pro700 line doubler noise issue is well known and discussed on the internet, but I had not looked into the problem enough, until I started watching NTSC signal at home. The line noise on my set is terrible. The best way to show how really poor the quality is, is to use the video essentials DVD and play the SMPTE color bars. The purple and yellow bars have so many horizontal waves in them that you could get sea sick! This is a good comparison, because I have the component out (non progressive) and the progressive both hooked up to two different inputs on the set and can do a A/B compare. This is where the line doubler noise is really obvious. (it is there all the time, but this is an easy way to show it) I have spoken to my local service rep, and he has called the regional pioneer service center, who as of 3/3/2000 still does not have a fix available for the problem.

Don't get me wrong, I really like the elite line, but I think that pioneer released a set with a major design flaw, and know does not know of an inexpensive way to fix it... Several people with the pro700 say they do not have the problem and I am glad for them, but I wonder if they are just excepting the NTSC quality as "poor cable signal"? Any other owners of pro700 sets, if you feel like it, try the smpte color bar test I mentioned above and see for yourself if your set has the same problem. I am sure that pioneer would also like to know if there are 700s out there that do not have the problem, because according to my service rep, it is a problem with all of the 700 line doublers. He has even tried replacing the board in several other 700s in the hopes that this would fix the problem, but it did not. This approach then leads to having to reset all of the facotry settings which is no easy task either...

Bottom line - Great set, terrible line doubler. If you are going to watch NTSC material for the forseeable future, you might want to wait for the 710. ( I am told this is a complete redesign of the line doubler and does not have the problem)

Strengths:
Picture quality (when not using the internal line doubler)
Comparable to the Runco sets costing almost twice...
Ability to add the SH-D07/D09 HD decoder. This is a huge strength for the elites, since the d09 family looks like it will be upgradeable to firewire with the addition of an option card...

Weaknesses:
Internal Line doubler, pioneers ownership of this problem.

Similar Products Used:
mits, tosh, elite 610, runco, panasonic