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Pioneer KRL-V32
The Pioneer KRL-V32 TV is a 32" (81 cm) LCD flat-panel TV and made its debut in summer 2008 at a price of around 1,450 GBP.
Florian Friedrich, July 23, 2008
- High-quality workmanship.
- Highly accurate colors.
- Rich feature set.
- Awkward menu operation.
- Rather average contrast.
The KRL-V32 is a great all-around TV: The Pioneer offers a comprehensive package that totally justifies the asking price. Its combination of high-quality workmanship, an excellent feature set, and a strong picture makes this set a real highlight in the 32-inch class. A 1,450 GBP ticket price rides high for a 32-inch LCD flat-panel TV. However, this Pioneer boasts solid performance and in some aspects blows cheaper suppliers clean out of the water.
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Design:
For about 1,450 GBP, the Pioneer KRL-V32 proves a well-built TV with a luxury feature set. It has a matte-black, brushed-aluminum, beveled front panel and a high-gloss filter screen. This creates strong reflections that are balanced out by the corresponding brightness of the screen, giving an absolutely fantastic picture.
Useful Extras:
The light sensor for automatic backlight adjustment deserves special mention. The KRL-V32 also has some useful DVB-T extras. Active DVB-T antennas can be powered directly from the tuner, for example, and there is a signal-strength indicator that stores the maximum achieved value to facilitate correct antenna positioning.
There is a CI slot for chip cards from pay-TV channels and an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for terrestrial digital TV.
Connectivity:
The Pioneer is well-equipped for the future with three HDMI inputs. It also offers a VGA input, a YUV input, and two Scart sockets. A USB input, as well as S-Video and composite connections, are found on the side.
Operation
The on-screen menu is attractively laid out, but the high resolution and small text size mean it is legible only from close-up. Irritatingly, the TV comes supplied only with a shortened version of the user manual - the complete instructions are on the Internet. The remote control looks classy but is a bit overloaded.
TV and DVD Picture Quality
Thanks to the well-adjusted "Movie" picture mode, this TV thrills from the word go, with supreme color accuracy - regardless whether you are watching HDTV, standard TV, or a DVD.
Black-and-white movies are displayed with practically no coloration, something very few LCD flat-panel TVs can achieve in their factory setup. Although the analog TV picture could be a touch more detailed, it maintains a highly natural appearance. The DVB-T picture cannot be faulted; all picture details appear clean and crisp.
If you input images via Scart, however, the display indicates a composite signal, even though we are undoubtedly seeing RGB. The picture offers neutral sharpness with very few false edges, but the vertical resolution looks slightly attenuated.
DVDs via the HDMI inputs deliver a satisfactory picture throughout. Playback in 576i/p produces slight phasing with the V-Burst test pattern but is OK overall; playback in 1080i/p, on the other hand, is perfect.
HDTV Picture Quality
This Pioneer performs superbly with HDTV material, and the movie picture shows pixel-perfect reproduction. Of course, some faults are seen in highly challenging images such as a fine checkerboard pattern.
Thanks to the full HD resolution and support for 24p format, Blu-ray movies look extremely detailed, and moving objects play back judder-free - such as in the opening titles of "Casino Royale".
The dark-tinted, glare-filter screen gives the Pioneer a classy look and increases the impression of contrast, although the measured contrast ratio is no more than average.
Computer Operation
The Pioneer makes a great PC display device. Via VGA, it shows a fantastic picture at 1366 x 768 pixels; via HDMI the playback quality is perfect. The slightly reduced color resolution is our only negative observation.
