Replacement for Pioneer Kuro

Don - mine did the same - see the thread down. Cost me ~£330 to fix via the 'authorised' route but I understand from others on the thread, this may not be a necessary path. The base bill was materially lower but more needed to be done vis replacing the whole power board, with attendant cost and delays. 

Mine continues to work fine, albeit plasma screens are more power hungry than the new equivalents.

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...92#47323792897023992

Many thanks for the link HL. Looks like mine has a very similar problem.

For c.£330 I will probably get it fixed, even if it takes a few weeks.

Did you just call a Pioneer service centre that was listed in the handbook, or did you make arrangements through your dealer ?

Cheers

Don

Don - I called the local centre listed in the handbook/per Pioneer's web-site - but I would explore other service centres too. Kuros were popular TVs. SteveJ's advices in the thread duly noted.

The base cost (then) was ~£130 (IIRC) for collection and repair. The service place was ~5m's away and collected, as they use a special cover and have a van with an upright rack.

Sadly, until it gets opened up, nobody can tell what's wrong. The handbook isn't overly informative. I understand more often than not it's the PS board which goes. I too had the death-click, which followed some patchy operation, with flashing blue light events. I once got to the point, when the 6 Nations was on, that I left it on o/night, in case it failed to restart!

At £130 I could tolerate the worst news, £330 was a tad more bracing, but at least this was identified as the fully fixed cost.

Might be worth scouring some other media kit web-sites to see there are other posts on this subject.

Don

Agree with getting it fixed if you can because OLED 4K HDR sets are close at hand and they are a stunning leap forward. Your Pioneer will get you through in the interim. Good luck.

I have a PDP-428XD which has had a lay down a few times but a power cycle has always revived it

In realising it may soon shuffle off its mortal coil I've been looking for a comparable (picturer wise) TV

It doesn't help that this TV was in a class of it's own so I've settled on on the LG OLED65E6V :-)

I think you'll be happy with any OLED but do also look at Quantum Dot as they're cheaper

I bought my 50" Kuro in 2009, around the time rumours started circulating that they might be the last of the breed from Pioneer as they were getting out of the business. 

Threads like these, along with AV2 problem threads give me the chills as i don't know what i'd do if either product gave up the ghost. Both are great bits of kit IMO and would be hard to replace without spending absolute fortunes. 

Hoping i can get a good few more years service from them yet.

Rackkit,

I agree.   With all due respect and to those who have moved on from the AV2,  I find it is unique in capability and slim profile, not to mention brilliant sound quality.  

Nick

Happy Listener,

If you are reading this you might be able to help.

The KRP-500a has continued to work for the past 4 weeks but only if I turn it off with the switch on the bottom left of the screen. The blue light on the Media Receiver usually blinks 8 times, pauses then blinks 8 times, pauses etc. It's getting more and more difficult to coax it into action

It has become more temperamental and clearly needs to go in for repair.

The Pioneer web-site listed a repair firm in Swindon, but when I contacted them they referred me to a firm in Oxford. I contacted Pioneer directly and they referred me to a recommended repairer in London.

Both the firm in Oxford and the firm in London have mixed reviews. Either 5*(Superb) or 1*(Cr*p), leaving me somewhat reluctant.

Any recommendations ? bearing in mind Forum Rules............

Wow Pioneer Kuro,  words I have not heard in a long time.  Mine still supplies lovely pictures and great sound.  Must be 9 years old now.

staffy posted:

Wow Pioneer Kuro,  words I have not heard in a long time.  Mine still supplies lovely pictures and great sound.  Must be 9 years old now.

Mine too................when it's working !

Is their a model out today thats considered to be the new Kuro.   The Panasonic 802 range seems tempting.

Don -

Sadly, I cannot locate any of the paperwork from my repair - I know the repair place was in Mitcham, South London.

I think you may be better off doing a web-search around Pioneer Kuro repairs etc and see what lands. I know there are repair businesses which cover the major brands, and Kuros can quite easily be repaired. AFAIK, all the electronics supplies are available but not screens - I was advised my PS parts were sourced from Japan.

I think Mitcham is a fair trek from you and wouldn't work in any event? I know they like to collect.

If I can find their 'phone number, I'll give them a call and see if they have any ideas - I have a rough idea where you are located.

The new lg oled55b6v seems to be the one to get now, if you want to wall mount it.  

many thanks for the reply Happy Listener.

I once lived in Mitcham, many moons ago in Abbots Road and Mrs D at that time lived in Streatham. But yes, a bit of a trek to/from Newbury for a repairer to collect and deliver !

The two firms that emerged from Pioneer have such poor reviews that i'm somewhat reluctant to contact them. Its possible that Richer Sounds in Reading could do the repair, I think they have one of their repairers actually based in Reading. But if I have to transport the screen to them, along with the media receiver, I might give Grahams in Canonbury Yard a call, that's where I bought the set some seven years ago and they have a good repair facility IIRC.

Well, I took the media Box to Pioneer's Authorised repairer in West London yesterday and left it with a non-refundable payment of £108.

The guy seemed to know what was wrong when I telephoned him earlier, but his workshop/premises matched my low expectations given its general location, so I was disappointed. Still, hey-ho here we go..................

..............I started looking at Panasonics, LG OLEDs and Samsung Quantum Dots on the way home, they looked good, but I hope it was a waste of time

Fingers crossed your repairman can come up with the goods. I was going to suggest doing a search on AV Forums for repair advice. Somebody on there would surely know a good repairer for these sets. 

Their is a member on AV forums called Bumptious who actually sold the Kuro and is well versed on the model.  He should be able to assist you.

If it helps, after extensive reviewing,  I went from one of the last Panasonic plasmas, a 65" model, to the same size Samsung 4K Quantum Dot HDR model. The picture is superb, a step up from the Panasonic, and IMO just as good as the LG OLED models I looked at (the blacks are as black as a very black thing) but rather cheaper.

From a man who is actively looking for a snazzy new telly...

There appear to be 2 different technologies that meet the new 4K HDR standard:

1. LCD (e.g. Samsung)
2. Organic LED (e.g. LG OLED)

The LCD TVs go brighter than OLED but the OLED goes darker than LCD.  In other words (and to be non-scientific about it), Samsung type TVs go from dark to very bright indeed, whereas LG OLED TVs go from very dark indeed to bright.

In order to accommodate the different performance of these 2 different technologies, the HDR standard has 2 acceptable brightness/contrast ranges.

So what does this mean to the customer?  
Go to a TV showroom and look at both types of TV.  
They have pretty much the same level of picture definition and contrast.  
However, they don't look the same and you will prefer one of them.

We found that the OLED TVs went very, very black indeed but that brighter colours looked un-natural, with surfaces like grass looking as though they had been coloured in with a fluorescent highlighter pen.
We preferred the Samsung HDR TVs and finally found them to have caught up with a good plasma TV (e.g. Panasonic) when it comes to making colours look natural rather than artificially exaggerated.

It would be interesting to learn if others see it the same way (pun intended)

Hope this helps, FT

Why not get a Panasonic 902 the best of both worlds.

This black discussion business always becomes a key point in a any internet discussion on tvs. It just like bokeh being a major issue in lens talk. It's like nothing matters except these values. Black levels and booked really are way, way down the list of important qualities imo.

Looking at a tv in a showroom and making a judgement is a complete waste of time. 

Bokeh not booked, obviously.

staffy posted:

Why not get a Panasonic 902 the best of both worlds.

Ah ha!!

Just what my friendly dealer over at Grahams recommended.

The 902 seems to be affected by a number of picture glitches, according to some owners on AVF. Suppose it depends if you can put up with these.

The RTings website seems to have some nicely detailed and reasonably objective reviews if you want to weigh up the pros and cons of the Samsung LCDs vs LG OLEDs

Just bought the lg oled55b6v. The 2015 models were flawed, but the new B, E & G range have received rave reviews and so now seemed the right time to buy. I liked the B because it doesn't have a soundbar and mounts on a wall perfectly. 

No dead/stuck pixels, no banding or strange colour casts. Skin tones are excellent and picture looks absolutely stunning. It's taken many years for a tv to come along and beat my trusty Pioneer and this is it.

How long does one wait for the perfect tv? Next January, better tvs will probably be announced, but there again, maybe they'll all have the bult-in soundbar, useless 3d feature and maybe more expensive or perhaps a drop in standards to cut costs. Who knows.