# Pioneer ELITE



## Chas3 (Jul 14, 2007)

Hey everyone, I have recently bough a 50' pioneer elite. The alesman said it would connect to your computer but it only connects to PC. Do you thin I sould install windows vista o my mac or get apple TV?


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## teeterboy3 (May 22, 2005)

Get the Apple TV - it's nice I will tell you not to have the computer fired up to watch content if you want. But the beauty of it lies in the fact that iTunes keeps track of stuff you have watched, are watching or have yet to to watch, between the computer, iPod and Apple TV. All right were you last left off.

And now with TV shows available in Canada iTunes store, you have another reason. Though, I've had my AppleTV for about 3-4 months and it was worth the money even without the access to TV shows in iTunes.

You won't find a nicer interface between your media (ALL of it) and up to 5 computers in the household aside from getting a Media Centre PC into the mix. But my friend who has one, seems to complain a lot about the wireless integration.


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## hhk (May 31, 2006)

I don't get it. If the Pioneer has an HDMI input, it will accept a signal from any HDMI device - a PC, Mac, DVD player, whatever. I don't see how the OS would matter.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

hhk said:


> I don't get it. If the Pioneer has an HDMI input, it will accept a signal from any HDMI device - a PC, Mac, DVD player, whatever. I don't see how the OS would matter.


Yes i am just as confused as you are.


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

Chas3 said:


> Hey everyone, I have recently bough a 50' pioneer elite. The alesman said it would connect to your computer but it only connects to PC. Do you thin I sould install windows vista o my mac or get apple TV?


Most "salesmen" don't have a clue about tech specs on what they sell. Maybe this one does, maybe this one doesn't.

The thing you need to check is the native resolution of the display. If the resolution isn't supported by the Mac OS, then it won't work to your liking. If the display uses a standard resolution, you'll be fine.

What is the resolution and what Mac are you using? I haven't connected my Macs to anything larger than a 15" HD LCD TV and even that was with a VGA connector. I can't help you much beyond this but others here probably can.


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## gpchase (Sep 26, 2007)

I too just picked up an Elite Pro 150FD..fantastic panel.I also have the Apple tv.It's benefit is it is wireless and works via my Apple Airport Exreme so no cables required.I see they have a big drive now - 160 gig although mine is only 40 it's still plenty.


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## bmovie (Jan 18, 2003)

Chas3 said:


> Hey everyone, I have recently bough a 50' pioneer elite. The alesman said it would connect to your computer but it only connects to PC. Do you thin I sould install windows vista o my mac or get apple TV?


This statement doesnt' make any sense to me.... I have a 55" sony HD and my little G3 connects no problem, what I found was that the screen just changed to what ever resolution you graphics card puts out.

you should be fine connecting it.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

Pioneer's tend to use standard resolutions on their panels so I don't think there's a reason why your Mac shouldn't be able to connect to it. Exactly what did you try when you plugged it into the TV? What type of cable (HDMI, DVI, or VGA) did you use? When I plugged my laptop into my plasma with a VGA cable OS X detected the panel automatically and ran through a quick calibration...worked very smoothly.


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## ZRXer (Jan 18, 2007)

We have the exact same plasma, and it has plenty of hookups - 3 HDMIs, component, DVI, etc. 

You'll have no problems hooking either a Mac with an adapter cable or an AppleTV up to it. 

And a previous writer was correct - it switches resolutions to match the source very well - we've never had issues with hooking up our iBook or the AppleTV - both work fine and look great. 

If you want to hook up the computer, use the PC port and get a DVI adapter for your computer's video out plug. Simple as that.


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## Got Mac? (Aug 18, 2004)

[deleted]


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## Sony311 (Nov 28, 2007)

bmovie said:


> This statement doesnt' make any sense to me.... I have a 55" sony HD and my little G3 connects no problem, what I found was that the screen just changed to what ever resolution you graphics card puts out.
> 
> you should be fine connecting it.


It's an obvious case of UDNRM (User Did Not Read Manuals). I have the slightly higher model and it works fine to connect to a PC...


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## Chas3 (Jul 14, 2007)

titans88 said:


> Yes i am just as confused as you are.


The connection panel for wirelessly syncing says PC.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

Chas3 said:


> The connection panel for wirelessly syncing says PC.


I think that is a generic label used to identify any computer connection.


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## Chas3 (Jul 14, 2007)

I really forgot to mention one thing. My entire house is wired, that means speakers in the ceiling everywhere, plasmas mounted to walls, touch-pads on walls, stuff like that. I dont want a big wire hanging from my pioneer-elite to my imac.


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## dona83 (Jun 26, 2005)

I'd be concerned about burn in... plasmas shouldn't be used with Macs, PCs, or gaming consoles for that reason..


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## MickMac (Oct 11, 2005)

hhk said:


> I don't get it. If the Pioneer has an HDMI input, it will accept a signal from any HDMI device - a PC, Mac, DVD player, whatever. I don't see how the OS would matter.


Well, it's been a while since I looked at the Pioneer Elite plasmas, but as I recall this is what the salesman was talking about: The Elite will connect to a network drive to display photos, videos, etc. It looked like a cool feature to me, but the set was out of my price range so I never really looked into whether or not it would connect to my Mac via the network. As for an HDMI connection, I'm sure it would work with just about any Mac or PC with HDMI or DVI output.


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## billwong (Jan 6, 2002)

If you are concerned with the wire showing, you can probably connect the iMac to a video port on your AV Receiver (which I assume you have since you have a complete setup installed). If your iMac has DVI output, you can use a DVI to HDMI cable to connect to your receiver's HDMI input. Then use the receiver to switch to the computer. If you don't have an empty HDMI input, you might find a VGA or at least an empty S-video input on the receiver - as well as a matching audio input.

The new iMacs provide capability for DVI, VGA, or S-video output (with appropriate cable adapters with the mini-DVI output slot).

This will involve running a cable between you're iMac and AV receiver, which may be difficult depending on the physical setup of the equipment in the room.

One thing I did find with connecting to my Pioneer (not Elite : ( was that the resolutions that worked with the system depended on the input used. The DVI-HDMI solution resulted in a high resolution which left the print too small to read comfortably and with black bars around the screen. This could not be adjusted properly with the TV (zoom cut off the desktop all around). The VGA input enabled a perfect fitting resolution that was easy to read and of decent resoulution/size.

I connected a mac mini to my plasma. I have a wireless KB/mouse on my coffee table so I can surf the web from the sofa. Front row works nicely as well, nice to view movie previews, then surf the web for show times. The mac mini is left on in sleep mode, just tap the KB and switch the TV to PC input, and you're off and running. A good random screen saver is used to ease my mind about screen burn-in in the event I leave the PC on, but usually I'm not on it for too long a period. And today's Plasmas are much more resistant to this problem.

I am contemplating an installation like yours, with hidden cables, etc. However, I found over the year that I was always adding and changing equipment that a built-in system would have precluded. I just added a Blu-Ray player (finally really affordable) and now want to upgrade the AV receiver. Once I'm happy with my setup, I may finally renovate this room - which may be never. Right now it looks like a typical "guy's audio room" from the 70-80's with extra speakers and components lying on the floor - plus a nice Plasma TV.


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## Corvillus (Nov 15, 2007)

I would say that the TV should work fine with Mac OS X. The worst case scenario would be that your Mac would only be able to output to the TV at standard HD resolutions (1280*720, 1920*1080) but it definitely should work (and more than likely at the native resolution). As was said before, most salespeople don't know what they are talking about in terms of tech specs, and even of they do, most major stores refuse to provide support for anything but Windows PC's as part of their policy, so any mention of Mac or Linux will net you an "it doesn't work" response, even of it works just fine.


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## titans88 (Oct 3, 2007)

dona83 said:


> I'd be concerned about burn in... plasmas shouldn't be used with Macs, PCs, or gaming consoles for that reason..


The issue of "burn in" with Plasma's is greatly over exaggerated. I have used my 50" LG with various consoles with no issues to date. Most half-decent plasmas come with built-in technologies to curb these "burn-in" effects we read about so much.


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## gpchase (Sep 26, 2007)

My Elite Pro 150FD even has a cycler that cycles a white vertical band left to right to "erase" any burn-in effects that runs for an hour or so at a time should you require.


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## teeterboy3 (May 22, 2005)

We just got a Panasonic Viera 42" plasma after a *lot* of research online. Seems the issue of burn-in isn't what it used to be, and so much of a stigma that some companies aren't even referring to their new HD sets as plasmas when they do in fact use that technology.

There was a pretty good discussion in the Future Shop threads, as well as links out to other forums discussing the old LCD vs. Plasma battle. I am really glad I read them because I was all set to get a LCD set based solely on the idea that burn-in was still a problem, and that brighter (or over saturated) was better.

I plan to hook in a Panasonic 5 disc 1080p upconverting home theater in a box which has an iPod doc built in to it (how cool is that!) and then my AppleTV into the two HDMI ports… I figure that is all I will need.

Oh and the rear speakers with the surround system are wireless and the system has capabilities to run more speakers in other rooms wirelessly too.

Sorry to get off topic from the original post but I wanted to chime in about the plasma v. LCD debate.


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## Chas3 (Jul 14, 2007)

billwong said:


> If you are concerned with the wire showing, you can probably connect the iMac to a video port on your AV Receiver (which I assume you have since you have a complete setup installed). If your iMac has DVI output, you can use a DVI to HDMI cable to connect to your receiver's HDMI input. Then use the receiver to switch to the computer. If you don't have an empty HDMI input, you might find a VGA or at least an empty S-video input on the receiver - as well as a matching audio input.
> 
> The new iMacs provide capability for DVI, VGA, or S-video output (with appropriate cable adapters with the mini-DVI output slot).
> 
> ...


you were a lot of help, but I did renovate my whole house at this time which costed, electronics wise, about 50-55 thousand


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## RunTheWorldOnMac (Apr 23, 2006)

I am in the market for the Pioneer Elite 50" PRO-1150HD; I will be living in Oakville in 2-6 weeks. Where did you all get your tv's and how much did you pay if you don't mind me asking. I can get them for 3562.99 in Ottawa.


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## Chas3 (Jul 14, 2007)

RunTheWorldOnMac said:


> I am in the market for the Pioneer Elite 50" PRO-1150HD; I will be living in Oakville in 2-6 weeks. Where did you all get your tv's and how much did you pay if you don't mind me asking. I can get them for 3562.99 in Ottawa.


Its hard to say because I got them from a specialty store that does custom hookups. So it was really an all in one price.


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## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

People have such archaic and misinformed conceptions of Macs. Your mac outputs a signal just like a pc does. The only difference is the mac outputs signal that displays a different picture. You have osx popped up instead of vista. 

You should go back and inform that salesman of his ignorance. I mean in a nice way though. He should be informed of the product that he is selling.


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## Doum (Feb 14, 2008)

The Pioneer Elite have a built-in 'media center' ...
Juste plug a RJ-45 cable between your TV and router and you can access your audio, video and photo files with your TV remote ... but for this you need Windows media player 11 (I think it's beacause windows media connect) to give the path and the right to your Elite TV.

Is anyone know a software for mac capable of the same thing as Windows media connect ???


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## Doum (Feb 14, 2008)

HINT for people with custom install with no RJ45 cable to your tv : you can use a wireless game adaptor plugged into your Elite TV to get a wireless connection to your wireless router !


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## RunTheWorldOnMac (Apr 23, 2006)

Doum, when I went into AVU (who are knowledgeable) he said the same thing, gotta connect to Windows, or run Parallel...which I won't do. He said I am poopoo'd at this time. Unless, as you inquire we find a 3rd party tool that will handle it. Or buy Apple TV; that is why I was asking about ATV.


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## RISCHead (Jul 20, 2004)

The Pioneer media center is DLNA compliant, so EyeConnect/NullRiver/Azureus should all work... famous last words


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## JkEw (Oct 10, 2007)

RISCHead said:


> The Pioneer media center is DLNA compliant, so EyeConnect/NullRiver/Azureus should all work... famous last words



I agree give Nullrivers medialink a go.....It works great with the PS3


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## Doum (Feb 14, 2008)

Finally I found a nice prog called Twonky Media ( TwonkyVision ) 
Works on Mac, Linux and Windows but the greatest thing is the program use iTunes library !

Work's fine on my Kuro Elite with MacBook !


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## RISCHead (Jul 20, 2004)

JkEw said:


> I agree give Nullrivers medialink a go.....It works great with the PS3


Very true - however, I find I have a problem where the PS3 will quite frequently drop the network connection while streaming - no problem if I copy the video over.
Have you seen the same? Any thoughts? I've run into this with both EyeConnect and NullRiver.
My PS3 is at the latest 2.10 update and I'm running OSX 10.5.1 at home (still need to update my home to 10.5.2).


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## JkEw (Oct 10, 2007)

What kind of wireless setup do have? 

What sort of files were having the problems?


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## RISCHead (Jul 20, 2004)

Its a vanilla 802.11g setup with PSA/TKIP (D-link DI-524 router).
I've had the same problem at my friends place (Linksys WR54G as well as the new N).
The files are generally Divx or xvid.
Copying them over works every time.


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