Price Paid:  $2000.00 from Ultimate Electronics

Summary:
I must be one of the luckiest people alive. I have been looking for a HDTV for a while and really love Pioneer equipment. I didn't have the 8300 to just pluck down on a TV. Ultimate was closing out discontinued items that were left in there store and wala, I end up getting this thing. As one other person said, God is good. ;-) This has got to be the best HDTV that I have ever looked at. I was going to buy a Mitsubishi series HDTV and probably only a 50'. This is a huge TV, but it has a very good picture. I was not impressed with the way it looked in the store at all. It seemed dark and not as detailed as other TV’s. When I got it home there was a really big difference in how it looks. The whole picture is crisp and detailed. The picture was even better than our older Sony Trinitron TV. I have it hooked up to a pioneer elite DVD player and it looks amazing. Progressive scan really does make a difference. Yeah the TV probably looks good with a regular DVD player but why would you pay for the TV and not have the best possible signal? I don't understand that logic at all. I have watched movies all weekend long and can't keep my eyes off of the TV. The picture looks excellent from top corner to the center. It’s also nice to be able to stretch you images from any signal. When watching TV this is a great feature. It doesn't really bother me to be stuck in full mode on progressive, because you can just use interlaced and change modes just fine.

Strengths:
The best picture on a HDTV. Modes for any signal (except progressive).

Weaknesses:
Cost a lot (unless you get a great deal)

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I'm not going to bore you with describing how great the picture is, if you have looked at this TV you know it's superb. I do have a few points I would like to make though. ISF CALIBRATION! Get it done! For those not familiar with this it stands for IMAGING SCIENCE FOUNDATION (www.imagingscience.com) and it is a must! If you don't get it done you're only seeing 75% of your TV's potential. Don't waist extra money on some guy from the local TV store to come and tinker with your set for 20 minutes just tweaking the factory presets - make sure he is ISF trained. I spent $225 and the guy worked for 2 hours on mine. This is basically what he did. First he took the bottom grille cover off the front of the set and removed the piece of wood that is there to expose the spaghetti of wires inside. Then he hooks up a laptop computer to it and measures how your 3 guns are firing. My red gun was shooting way too high. So he evens the guns out so they are all firing the same - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! He then puts in his own dvd and gets a big white square to come up on the screen. He then puts a suction cup on the screen and this measures how bright your picture should be, not too dark or too bright. Then he hooks up a $10,000 Philips color analyzer to make sure all the colors are acurate. The greens are green, not yellowy-green etc. He then ajusts the convergence for you. This is done for every input source you have be it satellite, dvd, vcr, or whatever. I'm telling you it makes a huge difference. C'mon folks you spent thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on the set - spend a few hundred more and get it PROPERLY calibrated - ISF! Remember... tweaking the picture presets is useless unless your guns are all firing evenly first. It will also add life to your guns - my red gun was firing waaayyyy too hot. DVI CONNECTIONS!! (Digital Visual Interface) A TRUE digital connection. I am extremely mad that I spent all this money on an excellent TV, and I may not be able to watch ANY high def TV in the future. They want to make it so ALL high def shows come through this connection only(or firewire). The Pro 710 has no DVI input but the 730HD has 2! If they make it so that all high def material can only be accessed through a DVI input the 710HD will still be able to view the channels, but they will be down-converted to 480P instead of the 1080i. That is no good!!! I have found one problem with my set. When I bring up the 72 point convergence screen I noticed that my white lines running horizontally are a bit crooked. They slant down on one side by half an inch, therefore I am looking at a slightly slanted picture. I have had a Pioneer technician look at it and he did go into some menu only he could access to straighten out the lines. The problem was that any line he manually moved affected all the other lines so now the original line is corrected but now others that were fine before are now slanted. I'm having him come out and work on it again but the Pioneer people are very slow to accomodate you. One word of advice concerning progressive scan dvd players. I spoke to my Pioneer guy and he told me not to waist my money on a $250 Toshiba progressive scan unit as it will have no benefits over the line doubling system in the PRO710. He told me the only way to get a slightly improved picture is to buy a decent, more expensive unit like the Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai for around $1200 US.

Strengths:
After ISF calibration there is no way on earth anyone could ever find fault with this gorgeous picture!!!

Weaknesses:
Crooked convergence lines make for a slightly slanted screen. NO DVI INPUTS!!! I may be left out in the cold with high def.

Similar Products Used:
panasonic 27 inch TV

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Outstanding television! Clear and deep picture. DVD movies, particularly with a progressive scan DVD player, are wonderful to watch. Cabinetry is a definite plus - gives a feeling of luxury (no cheap plastic casing here). Distance from the screen is critical. You cannot be too far away (withing reason), but if you are less than 10 feet away, the clarity suffers a bit (same as if you viewed ANY television too close). At 10-15 feet away, I believe there is no better rear projection TV on the market. Period. The new DLP systems are phenomenal, but for the money, the value and quality of the Pioneer Elite are unparalleled. If you cannot see $5000 difference in picture, why pay it? Shop carefully, there are good deals out there.

Strengths:
Build quality, picture, cabinetry

Weaknesses:
None

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $7900.00 from Bjorns

Summary:
I looked at every HDTV on the market and this one was the best RPTV I could find. I had it for about 3 months and decided to upgrade to component inputs...WOW, big difference. I then waited another couple of months before I decided to have an ISF certified technician calibrate the set...another WOW, huge improvement in too many ways to discuss here. If you own this TV, you spent some bucks, don''t be a dork, spend the money to have it professionally calibrated by an ISF technician. You will finally be getting your $$$''s worth. I wasn''t to comfortable dropping that much cash on a TV but now that I''ve got it set up properly, it is just an awesome television.

Strengths:
Detail, saturation, color accuracy, very low distortion, accurate black level, very good line doubler, more inputs than you could need.

Weaknesses:
None really

Similar Products Used:
At the time this tv came out, there were no similar products. It was way ahead of the competition.

Price Paid:  $5700.00 from Crazy Eddie

Summary:
I have had my 720HD for about 2 weeks now and am THRILLED!
I have seen and read about every big screen out there and NONE compare to this 720HD...even the ones with the 9" guns
(Zenith, Philips etc). Even my wife who would regularily care less about Audio/video equipment sat in wonder as she watched Schrek. I cannot imagine the picture getting any better...I even fear having it calibrated by an ISF guy because he/she may degrade the picture I already enjoy.
I have never seen such beautiful color in all my life on any type of screen and that includes in movie theaters. Final Fantasy looks far better than when I saw it at the theaters...hell every movie looks better on the 720HD. NO other HDTV can compare either when it comes to build quility. This is a gorgeous piece of furniture. Another huge surprise was the sound. I was expecting cheap audio quality because most folks hook it up to a theatre system right away...you do not have to, it sounds great right out of the box. This is good because I cannot afford my sound gear any time soon. Please view this set before you decide to buy anything else...You will not be sorry.

Strengths:
This is a Elite 720HD review...Picture sharpness, color, build quality, features, sound (yes sound).

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
none