In an effort to survive in the plasma TV market Pioneer has finally released a 60-inch 7th generation plasma TV for the European market. The Japanese company, which is shortly to release its delayed financial results needs to keep ahead of the pack in the plasma market as it has no LCD TV offering.
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The company that makes some of the best plasma TVs in the market is looking to survive at the quality end of the plasma market as companies like Panasonic take share at both the top end and bottom end of this segment. Not due in Australia untill at least September, the new Pioneer 60-inch PDP-607XD plasma has the same glamorous, high gloss, ultra-minimalist finish as the smaller sets in the 07 range.
The 607XD doesn't ship with speakers. Pioneer clearly anticipates that anyone buying a screen of such magnitude and cost will be running it alongside a separate home cinema audio system.
Connectivity with the display is very good. Two HDMIs and a set of component video jacks satisfy high definition needs, and these are accompanied by a dedicated D-Sub PC port, a digital tuner input, the usual Scarts/S-Video/composite video options, and a couple more esoteric offerings in the form of a subwoofer line out for adding your own powered bass speaker, plus a digital audio output for squirting out multi-channel soundtracks received via the HDMIs. Ironically the 607XD's HDMIs don't support the more common 1080p/50/60Hz formats.