We usually use strictly regular line pioneer panels with aurora video cards or some other seperate processing which look great but someone HAS to spend the money on a 50" elite. Is there that much difference? From looking at them at cedia and ces i would have to say no! At least my .02

After seeing both of them side by side I think that the Elite looks about $35 better than the standard. I do like the Aroura board and it helps immensely and since the two models now have the same menu system and same bezel <-(sp?) I say save the money. The multimedia tower that comes with the Elite has a HD OTA tuner that really SUCKS and is slow on top of that! I think that the only difference is that the Elite has HDMI whereas the standard has only DVI with the Auroura board. Still the standard is a much better value. With HD programming you really have to be a computer to tell tell the difference. By the way did you know that you can remove the bezel from the old Elite ('03) and make it look like a standard Pioneer with exception if the menu system of course. So, what am I trying to say.... Buy the standard and use the extra money to buy a cool popcorn or espresso machine.

I'd spend the extra 500 bucks. The HDMI input is HDCP compliant.

my 2 cents.

Warranty is a big issue. The Elite warranty is twice as long as the regular line Pioneers. You really can't go wrong with either one though, they have the best picture on a plasma that I have ever seen.

New to forum and just came across this post and wanted to update based on recent research. Actually the HDMI interface on both the PDP and Elite series are HDCP compliant. In fact it is the same external media box - the only difference are the gold connectors on the Elite version.

After quite a bit of research I can't find sufficent difference to warrant what at least in my area is about a $1500 to $2000 difference in price. As for the extra year of warranty I can buy a 5 year extended warranty for $750. The other differences are very sublte. According to Pioneer they use components that bench test at a higher quality level to assemble, the glass on the front of the screen is supposed to be better (optical quality), and the gold connectors on the media box. My "budget" would accommodate either - I just don't see the added value for the $. I am going to be purchasing whatever the latest non-Elite PDP504x model (5045?) is in the next few weeks. The 5041 is currently like $6500 at Best Buy. The Pro-Elite 1110 is $9000 at Tweeter. Be careful buying Pioneer via mail order as they will honor warranty. They are very clear about this on their web pages and even have pop-ups stating this every time you visit a page with a plasma model. -M

This message was edited by Matt Kennedy on 10/27/04 07:59 ET.

Matt,

I see what you mean about Pioneer not honoring mail order warranty.

Makes me wonder how PlasmaNext.com handles a Pioneer warranty which they sell brand new model PDP-433CMX for $3295.00 on EBAY.

By the way does anyone know if the Elite 50 inch Plasma use a built in fan ??

-Don B

From what I hear the 1110HD has no fan, but its media receiver does.

What about the refill policies, any difference?

What about the refill policies

Jazzman what do you mean by refill ?

-Don B

what is this aurora video card that was mentioned and how and where does it install and how much.