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"An Excellent Addition to my Home Theatre!" on by sbggrace
Pros: Excellent HD Picture; Learning A/V Net; Dolby;DTS; 40-Watt Speakers
Cons: High Price; No online sales direct from Hitachi
Summary: I have researched plasma TVs for some time now. I had narrowed my choices down to the 50" Panasonic or this Hitachi. I saw them both on display and was very much impressed with the picture on the Hitachi as well as the host of other features available on the Hitachi that are lacking on the Panasonic (such as the power swiveling base!). I couldn't wait to get my hands on this TV. I have had this TV for less than a week (Hitachi just started shipping mid August)and subscribed to get all of the football games in HD. The HD picture on this set is AWESOME! It blows away the current competition. Regular and Superbit DVDs play well on this set also.
The TV has enough inputs for anything you want to connect to it including HDMI, IEEE 1394, a Monitor output and an optical audo output to name a few. The menus are intuitive, but getting use to the remote takes a little time.
The only downside to owning this TV is that 4:3 pictures have to be stretched to 16:9 to prevent the black bars from burning into the plasma screen. This degrades the picture when watching regular network broadcasts. However, this is a problenm faced by any plasma TV and not just this model. -
"Don't Always Believe The Experts" on by gmarshall
Pros: Awesome, crisp picture, great sound by itself, excellent value if you find a deal, power swivel is very cool
Cons: HD tuner is superfluous if you have a cable box
Summary: I did all the online reasearch about 42" plasmas and figured I'd get the Panasonic that CNET has been raving about. But when I looked at one at a local store, my eye kept being pulled to the set above it--this Hitachi's picture looked so much better! The resolution is higher, and you don't get any screen-door effect (which I definitely saw on the Panasonic), even up relatively close to the screen. The colors seemed more lifelike too.
So I did some more research, and although it hadn't yet been professionally reviewed by the time I purchased mine, plenty of consumers on this site and others gave it great reviews. The speakers on the set are quite decent, but when I hooked it up to my Denon stereo via optical fiber, it made an awesome theater system!
Now I'm no expert, but after the review came out here, I couldn't figure out what the CNET editors were talking about when they said the black-level performance was poor. Watching anything on this TV is an experience, and I never feel that I'm missing anything. I also paid way less than the list price. -
"Excellent addition to my home entertainment center, replaced my big CRT!!!" on by Dread Nought
Pros: PC connection, two HDMI, power swivel, roll and click remote
Cons: None discovered, said to have bad black levels, not true Allis technology is awsome
Summary: Hard to decide between panasonic. My final decision was based on extra features such as side input access, PIP, swivel base and better recreation of natural color variance. Not to mention the firewire and extra inputs. I wish it had the A/V box from last years model but I heard it wasn't to reliable anyway. Purchased from Jonathan at Video Only in San Mateo, CA. They have the best pice out of all retail locations. The internet can't even beat them with shipping envolved.
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"Almost bought the Panasonic until..." on by goinup!
Pros: Phenomenal picture and features
Cons: None - if you get it on sale.
Summary: I was finally ready to retire the old Trinitron to the bedroom, bite the bullet and delve into HD. I quickly realized few projection TV's have nearly the picture quality as plasmas, plus when you factor in bulb replacememts, the plasmas are actually more cost effective in the long run.
After mountains of research and numerous trips to electronics stores I was convinced and ready to buy the Panasonic TH-42PX500U and was just waiting for a good sale price. The panny IS a really nice display - for the money - and even though I was convinced it was the way to go, I was still bugged by its contour and other visual artifacts when compared to high end displays like the Pioneers. Since I wasn't about to pop for 4k+ for a Pioneer, the Panny was my 2nd choice, that is until I went to to buy it.
Taking one last look around the electronics department at RC Willey before I grabbed a sales person to write up a Panny, I noticed kind of tucked away was a Hitachi 42HDT52. Hadn't seen the HDT52 series previously as the other stores I'd visited only stocked the lower end Hitachi's such as the HDS52 series which aren't worth considering.
Anyway, watching the Panny and the Hitachi side by side, the Hitachi picture won hands down. The 42HDT52 has incredibly natural tones, and none of the visual artifacts that bugged me about the Panny.
Considering the Hitachi has 68 billion colors to the Panny's 8.58 billion, and 1024 x 1024 resolution compared to the Panny's 1024 x 768, its no wonder the Hitachi has such a beautiful picture. And what about black performance? Phenomenal! Add features galore and it all adds up to a much better panel than the Panasonic. Do yourself a favor and make sure you look at a Hitachi 42HDT52 before you decide on buying a plasma.
By the way, got it for $2999 on sale at RC Willey. -
"ONE OF THE BEST THINGS SINCE SLICE BREAD" on by agapay02
Pros: REMOTE CONTROLLED POWERED SWIVEL, 2 HDMI INPUTS, CABLE CARD READY AND ITS GOT A USB CONNECTION!!!
Cons: NONE FOUND YET!
Summary: THIS UNIT HAS EVERTHING THAT I EVER WANTED IN A UNIT. HAD A HARD TIME CHOSING BETWEEN THE PANASONIC 42INCH PLASMA AND THIS UNIT SO I GOT BOTH. CAN SAY THAT THIS UNIT HAS ONE OF THE BEST TRUE COLOR REPRODUCTION I EVER SEEN WITH A SHARP PICTURE. GOT A REASONABLE PRICE FROM H.H GREGG IN ALPHARETTA,GA
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