Pioneer says the new PDP-5000EX is one of the few HD plasmas capable of accepting and displaying the 24Hz rate for viewing a film’s original sequence (Pioneer says the refresh rate on the panel is actually 72Hz). The panel was shown for the first time in the U.S. at NSCA.

Pioneer is targeting film studios, post and authoring houses as early adopters of this panel.

The company says 15 years of development went into some of these newer technologies. The Deep Waffle Rib Structure “makes each cell deeper to increase overall phosphor area for a brighter image.” By casing each cell with horizontal ribs, light leakage is lessened from neighboring cells for sharper, more accurate images. A new T-shaped electrode prevents misfiring of individual cells despite the fact that each individual cell is half the size as previous generations, so Pioneer says the PDP-5000EX can maintain sharp, bright accurate images when reproducing at a native 1080p resolution.

There is a Crystal Layer sandwiched between the plasma glass and the individual light cells, which the company says conducts energy more efficiently, so each cell is charged and discharged at a faster rate, improving contrast and brightness while using less energy, and giving you a smoother transition from color to black for deeper blacks and better detail in dark scenes.

Other technologies include High Quality Up-Conversion to 1080p for minimizes interlacing motion artifacts, PURE Drive 2 HD Signal Processing for low noise, high contrast and natural color, and a Direct Color Filter reduces ambient light reflection.

The PDP-5000EX will ship in the spring and pricing is TBA.

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