SIDE BY SIDE: At events for the press, makers of LCD televisions sometimes offer side-by-side comparisons of their new models and predecessors to demonstrate the improvements that, say, 120 Hz frame doubling can do for picture quality. (It lessens picture blur in fast-action scenes.)

But only the makers of plasma flat-panel sets stage competitive "shoot-outs" of their new screens against rival manufacturers' models, an exercise that's lots more fun and instructive for a comparison shopper such as yours truly.

These guys can afford to be braver. Because in a room with "controlled" (low) lighting, with the brightness of each set turned down, the blacks will definitely look blacker and the colors pop better on a plasma screen. Here's why:

In conventional LCD displays a backlight is constantly on, even when there's no picture on the screen. And some of that light leaks through the closed, "off" liquid crystal display shutters, which is why an "on" but blank screen looks dark gray instead of black.

The gas-filled picture elements (pixels) of a plasma screen also emit a bit of glow in the "off" (really "standby") mode. That's because a little electricity is always feeding to each pixel. But this degradation has always been less obvious. And in recent years, plasma makers, Pioneer especially, have come up with improvements to turn down the idling current even more, so that Pioneer's newest Kuro (Japanese for black) models really live up to their name.

THE LINEUP: The set maker proved the point last week in a shoot-out pitting a new, 50-inch Kuro Elite PRO-111FD set (hitting stores next month) against one of last year's much-acclaimed models.

Also on the wall for side-by-side comparison were current, 50-inch plasma rivals from Panasonic and Samsung, and top-of-the-line, 46-inch LCD screens from two of the three leading brands, Sony and Samsung. (Missing was the third market share grabber in LCD, price-slashing Vizio.)

No surprise, given who was hosting the event, the new Pioneer Kuro absolutely looked the best. With a high-def video of fireworks, the explosions looked almost three dimensional. Last year's Pioneer PDP-5011FD (a model I bought) came in a pretty close second, though I was still feeling some envy.

A Panasonic Viera TV (often my "value for the money" pick) showed well in third. The Samsung plasma (PN-50A550) scored fourth, in my estimation.

While deploying a new LED backlighting technology that ostensibly eliminates leakage through the LCD pixels, the Samsung 4681HD LCD set still came in fourth, with less impressive blacks. And Sony's 46XBR5, a soon-to-be-replaced 2007 model, trailed the field by several lengths, looking like a grey ghost in comparison to the front-runner.

The Pioneer folks claimed to have played fair in their set adjustments. Still, I did sense that they pushed up the contrast excessively on the new Kuro to make its already great blacks look even inkier. (My clue? The shady side of faces in night scenes showed less detail than was evident on other screens.)

Conversely, the paler-than-the-rest skin tones evident on the Sony set suggested a less-than-optimum adjustment of that TV.

But on this day, at this shoot-out, Pioneer's technology won my heart again. I was also glad to learn that the new models are finally Energy Star compliant (more energy efficient) and also less expensive than last year's equivalents.

Retail prices for the new 50- and 60-inch models in the basic Pioneer (PDP-5020FD, PDP 6020FD) and step-up Elite lines (PRO-111FD, PRO-151FD) range from $4,000 to $6,500.

ANOTHER OPTION: Prefer a really big-screen experience from a front projector? Pioneer's finally jumping into that category, too, with an LCOS (liquid-crystal on silicon) technology-based Elite Kuro Projector now shipping for a mere $9,000.

Knowledgables in the demo room said it bore a marked resemblance to a top-rated JVC model. A Pioneer guy said his version had added . . . proprietary mojo.

CASH THAT REFUND CHECK HERE: Nobody wants your federal stimulus check more than RadioShack or Sears.

RadioShack is offering a 10 percent discount on purchases of $50 to $2,500 when a stimulus check or IRS tax refund is used as payment. And any unspent balance will be put on a prepaid MasterCard usable wherever the credit card is accepted.

Sears Holdings (Sears, K-Mart and Lands End) also has a deal going. Convert the entire amount of your stimulus check into a company gift card, and they'll give you a second gift card valued at 10 percent of the check amount.

FILLING THE DISH: Dish Network added 22 HDTV channels this week, bringing its full-time lineup of national HD channels to 51 (plus dozens of live league sports feeds in HD). The company said that it will have "more than 100" national HD channels by year's end.

Dish hasn't been adding subscribers as fast as competitors. Maybe this will help. But there's another tech innovation that could really get videophiles back in Dish's corner. Its hardware-making sister company EchoStar recently bought Sling Media - maker of that cool device that lets you watch video from home-based sources on a portable computer anywhere on Earth with Internet connectivity.

When these guys get around to integrating the guts of a Slingbox with a Dish receiver, I'm thinking it will sell like hotcakes. *

E-mail Jonathan Takiff at takiffj@phillynews.com.