Pioneer PDP-507XDA Impressions
First, let me get this out of the way: It's freakin' huge!!!!
The picture quality is outstanding. I thought that such a huge screen would only serve to highlight the inadequacies of the source image, but every channel looks great. Well, every "proper" channel. Which brings me to my next point.
Our house is within range of two different transmitters. One of them has a really good signal, and the other has a really poor signal. It turns out that when the guy scanned the channels, the TV picked up both transmitters, and hence we have two of every channel - one good, one bad.
Here's my first beef with the TV: I can't work out how to remove a channel!!! There is a 'favourite' menu to add your fave channels to, but it seems that you can't delete a channel altogether. I may end up having to nuke all the channels and manually scan the right ones in.
My second beef is a little more trivial. I haven't found any mention of an EPG. You can display the 'now and next' information for the channel you're watching, but not for every channel in a nice tabular format, as you can on most digital set-top-boxes. That's aggravating, even though it's probably a feature I wouldn't use much.
I don't know whether both of these features (delete a channel and EPG) are there and just hard to find, but so far both have eluded me.
Having said that, I am positively rapt with the TV. It's just amazing. And did I mention it's freakin' huge?
Can't wait to fire up a DVD and see what it looks like! Maybe after the AWDNUG meeting tonight.
Update! I've spoken with Pioneer's (surprisingly good) support line, and apparently I'm not going crazy. There is no way to delete individual channels from this TV, nor is there an EPG. Strange but true! Small issues when you factor in just what an amazing piece of kit this baby is.

Comments
#
12/10/2006 10:35 AM
My prevoius point still stands, you will NEVER go back to a standard TV again if you can avoid it !!
# Jim Lee
15/10/2006 7:27 AM
you will need to scan deeper in the DBA forums.
its the broadcasters fault there is no EPG data as they don't transmit it.
You would need a Topfield or other PVR and then web dowload a 7 day EPG. ( The free ones also tend to be iffy at times ).
# mabster
15/10/2006 10:14 AM
You misunderstand, Jim. I'm not talking about a broadcast EPG (I'm well aware of the idiocy of the networks in Australia). I'm talking about the button you find on pretty much every set top box on the market (SD and HD) which pops up a table of 'now and next' information for every channel - an overview of the current programs.
I actually called Pioneer about it, and the excuse they gave me was that it "doesn't work with hi-def tuners because they pick up digital radio and stuff" (!) ... possibly the lamest excuse for a missing feature that I've ever heard.