As Greavsie said to Saint, "it's a funny old game". Pioneer's epic Kuro range of plasma TVs are arguably the best in the business, but the manufacturer has recently confessed to experiencing sluggish sales, and is switching to LCD. The reason for this change of direction can be concisely summarised – price.

The Kuro range of plasmas rank among the plasma cream, but they are also the most likely to give your bank account a kicking.

Premium plasma performance often goes hand in glove with a premium price tag, and as such costs too much for your average punter to contemplate, slobberingly fantastic as their pictures are. Enter the PDP-LX508D, stage left...

Problem plasma

This superb 50-incher is a prime example of the 'Pioneer problem'. The PDP-LX508D is a high-performance bigscreen plasma TV with a Full HD resolution. The asking price is a whopping £3,300. And that price doesn't generally include speakers or a desktop stand, either.

Compare this with the likes of Panasonic's 50in Full HD 50PZ70 – doing the rounds for about £1,200 from various online retailers – it's clear that the PDP-LX508D has one hell of a mountain to climb to justify that price hike.

The PDP-LX508D begins by seducing us with its sexy looks: it's every inch the premium model in its ultra-minimalist, slender, glass-coated black bezel. All the connections you could desire are here too, including a USB port, an optical digital audio output, a PC port, a subwoofer line out, and – naturally – three v1.3 HDMIs.

These HDMIs can handle both the Deep Colour image format now found on a couple of HD camcorders, and 1080p/24 feeds from Blu-ray players.

Kuro dominates

Unquestionably, the most important feature here is the TV's Kuro technology, which produces genuinely revolutionary pictures, especially when it comes to black levels.

These bends-inducing black levels are generated by a combination of a new pixel structure designed to reduce light and colour bleed; a new Crystal Emissive Layer built into the screen to enhance the screen's brightness, contrast and response times; plasma cells divided by unusually high walls, so that light and colour can't seep between them; and image processing designed to work completely differently for dark and light footage. In short, some killer tech that'll cost you a hefty admission fee.