I'm going to ask Pioneer and my dealer about this, so I don't want this
thread to get out of hand.

My new Pioneer plasma now has around 20 hours on it. Two things strike me as
odd.

Though a Kuro, the display is faintly gray when turned on. I was expecting
something closer to absolute black.

The faint gray is not uniform. There is a broad lateral "splotch" across the
center of the screen -- sort of like an irregular galaxy -- that is
significantly darker. This area is not noticeable in program material
(except once in a while in star fields), and seems to be getting larger.

Is this a normal part of the breaking-in process? (These sets are supposed
"pre-aged" at the factory.) Will the splotch grow to cover the entire screen
(which would be a good thing, of course).

Anyone know anything about this? The set is under warranty, so I'm not too
worried, but...

PS: I watched the Blu-ray of "2001" last night. It is a major revelation.
The film never looked even remotely that good in the theater -- and by the
theater, I mean 70mm Cinerama (Super Panavision) projection. This is a
Blu-ray demo disk.