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""Awesome picture! No Regrets!!! Will take your breath away!"" on by jmwren
Pros: large 55" screen, awesome picture! black case, format settings, can hang on the wall
Cons: none yet...
Summary: Well we actually bought the 52" Mitsubishi DLP 1080P but because of our small children and the fact we could not hang it on the wall we decided to look into the plasmas. So glad we did, we had to take the Mits back to Hhgregg but they let us exchange it. When we first saw the Hitachi we weren't so sure, they didn't have it hooked up quite right and the picture was very bad. We almost left and kept the Mits but the saleman decided to show us the 42" Hitachi so we could see the picture better, (it was hooked up correctly) We were blown away. He then messed with the picture on the 55" and got it to look better, but it still wasn't great.
There were three reasons why we opted for the Hitachi, one was we could see the picture at all angles, (unlike the DLP's) and two we could hang it on the wall out of reach of my sons, and last of all we had no worrys about bulbs blowing out by going with a plasma.
We still got an extended warrantee, but not from Hhgregg, actually I called Hitachi and was able to get a 5 year extended full warrantee through them for $499, which was was a better deal than we were offered at Hhgregg.
Well we brought the new Hitachi home and hung it on the wall, I held my breath while my husband and his friend lifted the monster (lol) onto the wall and attached it to the bracket he had just installed. Then it was up there and what a beauty! It looked awesome. So we then hooked it to our Samsung vr325 (which does upconverting of the 1080 signal) through the hdmi and popped in a dvd and I was blown away, not even high def and the picture was awesome!!!
So a few days later our new tivo/hdtv direct tv box came and we had it installed and finally got to watch this beautiful piece in true high def, and was blown away once again. I can't describe the lifesize, true color picture on this piece but let me say this, I have a hard time looking at my old tv's now, lol..
Of coarse non high def channels don't look that great, but that's with any hdtv. All my dvd's look awesome, especially movies like Nemo and sharktale, the computer generated graphics just jump out at you, much better than in the movie theatres. It's truly unbelievable!
Another great feature is the ability to change the aspect settings for all types of pictures. It doesn't just stretch it one way either, it does it both ways so you have less picture distortion. So if you are watching a show in 4x3 and there are bars on the sides, hit one button to change it and it will stretch the picture so it fills the screen in both directions. Then you can even adjust it further by a slider. It's a feature I didn't notice on other hdtv's, but maybe I missed it. It also does the same for 16x9, say you are watching a movie in widescreen but there are still bars on top and bottom, just hit the aspect button and it can be changed to 16x9 zoom which then fills the screen correctly proportionally.
I highly recommend this tv and if you go and look at it and it doesn't look so good in the store, ask the salesguy to work on the picture or see if they can pop in a dvd. Trust me when I say it was 1,000 times better once we got it home, in the store they have too many sets hooked up and the signal is degraded.
Hhgregg also price matched the best price I found online which was $4195, plus s&h for a total out the door of $4495.
BTW: the black case is also a must as it really shows off the picture. I can't imagine it looking as good in silver, but that's just me.
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"So Far So Good" on by powderdog5
Pros: Looks Great
Cons: Remote Control is Horrible
Summary: I purchased the Hitachi 55HDT52 a couple weeks ago. I did my research by going to every store in the area and looking at what they offer. I also looked at a lot of online reviews to see what other people are saying. I was pretty set on buying a 50" Panasonic (#1 rating) until I viewed the Hitachi and Panasonic next to each other. It seems to me that Panasonic has a problem with greens. Maybe the problem with greens is an easy to fix but I noticed it at a couple different stores. Some of the reviews mentioned that the Hitachi has a problem with black coloring but I did not (have not) noticed any problems (looks great). So far, the only knock on this TV is the remote control (it's horrible). I think that when you spend almost $5000 on a TV (after tax and stand), you should be able to point the remote in the general direction of the TV and change channels. You almost need a laser pointer on the remote to make sure you are pointing at the right place on the TV. I got the swivel stand and think it's a nice feature.
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"The Best Priced 55" Plasma Available. If you are located in California go to Video Only." on by Dread Nought
Pros: Everything you need for the now and future connectivity. Automatic Swivel Base command from the remote control! Great Picture Quality 1366x768, Virtual 1080P processor, Anti Burn in Panel
Cons: Not as sharp as other plasmas on the market. Black levels could be an improvement to focus on for next year's model. Swivel Base is an additional price.
Summary: Warm color processing and natural detail. Hitachi creates their plasma glass hand-in-hand with FUJITSU in the same manufacturing facility. Apparently they have now bought out Fujitsu taking their company's ownership to 80% of the Japanese manufacturing plant. This means you are dealing directly with a manufacturer and distributor of their own product. Most others (Panasonic, Toshiba, rely on separate entities as their plasma glass suppliers.
Take advantage of attractive pre-order prices at Video Only with Jonathan in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Mateo, CA location.
By the way, Hitachi is one of the only companies that has nationally published articles which state their panels will last 60,000 hours plus! This is an industry leading level!
2 HDMI / Fire Wire (IEEE link), PC, HD cable card tuner, USB Photo, endless connectivity. Sub Woofer output; trust that the speakers are that good to the point where you only need the integrated sound system with a Sub. IR blasters for universal control of external components that may be completely concealed with no visibility for wireless, clean appearance. -
"Stunning HD clarity!" on by Ken K
Pros: Connectivity, appearance, HD pic quality, swivel stand
Cons: Analog picture quality
Summary: Based on HD picture quality displayed in the stores I visited (Best Buy, Circuit City, Sears), I decided to buy the Panasonic 42" HD. But when I learned the Panasonic only had one HDMI input, I realized I would have an HD receiver and, soon, an HD-DVD that would both be competing for the same HDMI jack. If I was going to invest in HDTV, I wanted the best HDTV from all sources, not just one.
Sets offering more than one HDMI input are very few (pricey Pioneer, LG). Then I found this Hitachi. In the stores, its picture quality was almost as good as Panasonic, but when I took a peek at the back of the monitors on display (at ALL stores), I noticed they were receiving HDTV signals from component video cables, not HDMI. Best Buy and the other guys were obviously trying to save money on cables (a 4 foot HDMI cable costs about $50), so I knew I wasn't seeing the Hitachi at its best.
I brought the Hitachi home and when I connected it to my HD satellite receiver with an HDMI cable I was stunned by the picture quality. Did Kevin Miller see the same TV that I did?? Did he use the an HDMI cable or component cables? This was far and away the best HD picture I have seen (not that I've seen HD at its best in stores, based on their cable connections).
The swivel stand is a nice touch, too.
Only negative is picture quality with analog signals -- a complaint I have about all HDTVs. But after seeing HD signals on this set, any other type of signal would look bad. -
"Awesome TV ,everything ya need if your a Gamer too!" on by Dean_Barbarian
Pros: Swivel base (sold seperate) , The resolution when I set the X-BOX 360 to 1080 widescreen setting. Screensaver options, 3 differerent settings , screenwipe. Awesome!
Cons: I have to go with the remote, it should be more cooler and more spaceage for the cool Plasma . Is a little Pricey >
Summary: I have had the TV for 3months, I still on cable so my HD effects are out, But when I use my x-box 360 on it , it rocks like something out of a SCI-FI movie. The game like Call of Duty 2 for it is unbelievable. You can actually see the grains of the wood on the stock of the rifle. People that get the HD channels will be blown away of colors & clearity of the Plasma. I believe you cannot go wrong with this TV. The screensaver options allow you to set it for a fullscreen shift by 2pixels every 20,40 or 60 minutes options so I hope and so far OK that screen burn in will not happen. The swivel base should be included with the TV like its smaller version (42HDT52) comes complete. Speakers in the TV are good to, as for you movie buffs ,it will not do. Nothing beats a good 5.1 theater surround system to complete the Plasma and a good gamer system also (X-BOX 360). Take care & Enjoy.
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