Amazon.com Product Description
Get the most out of your high-definition plasma television purchase with the 55-inch Hitachi 55HDS69, which offers a wealth of advanced technological features that will ensure superior picture and audio performance for years to come. Its blend of refined aesthetics is ideal for any home while its fully high-definition display--with 768 vertical lines of progressive resolution--provides stunningly vivid and colorful entertainment. The set's built-in ATSC (DTV) tuner pulls HD signals (480p/720p/1080i) right from the airwaves, and its QAM tuner is fully compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception. The set's CableCARD port means the set will also receive digital cable television systems services directly from a compatible cable operator without requiring a bulky, external cable box. A standard analog NTSC tuner receives standard-definition (SD) programming.
Plasma display technology offers the widest viewing angle of any type of television. The wide viewing angle makes plasma the ultimate choice for wall mounted television. Plasma television performance is also exceptional for producing high quality images of fast motion content, like sports programming.
This set's video is powered by the PictureMaster HD III processing technology, which features third-generation 1080p processing and new histogram processing for enhanced contrast, sharpness, and color for a clearer, sharper picture. It also offers extended color capabilities to reproduce the purest reds, greens and blues, a maximum 16-bit/281 trillion color capability, and a 16 percent brighter panel.
The 4 MB, 10-bit digital 3D Y/C comb filter separates brightness and color signals better in 3D domain to eliminate cross-color, cross-luminance and dot-crawl distortion. It performs field-by-field comparisons of the television image to accurately separate the color from the black-and-white information and remove both horizontally and vertically hanging dots, as well as dot crawl, resulting in a razor sharp image. This set also performs automatic 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal, too--a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. To adapt 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video, frames in the original movie must be duplicated; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this duplication by removing the redundant information to display a frame-accurate picture.
The 55HDS69 has a 1365 x 768-pixel resolution, and a high-contrast black rib structure that provides excellent contrast and deep blacks with any source material or viewing environment. It's designed to make a big impact with images that will literally jump off the screen. Other video features include three color temperature settings, four-step black enhancement, multiple aspect ratio formats (four HD, six SD), and split-screen/picture-in-picture functionality. The anti-reflective, high-contrast screen effectively absorbs ambient room light, reducing reflections and producing richer blacks, vibrant color and increased detail in shadows and highlights. Convenience features include on/sleep timers, closed caption decoder, V-Chip parental controls, several screensavers, and three-language on-screen display (English, French, Spanish).
It has a three-way, 36-watt speaker system that can produce simulated surround sound and a bass boost. The set can also be used as a center-channel speaker in a full surround sound system. It includes the following video and audio connections:
- Composite A/V: 4 rear, 1 side
- S-Video: 2 rear
- Component Video: 2 rear, 1 side
- HDMI: 2 rear, 1 side
- RF: 1
- Digital audio output: 1 optical
Tech Talk
HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats--standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV).
What's in the Box
Plasma TV, remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions
Customer Reviews
Great TV
After searching for the past year, I deceided to go with a Sharp 45" LCD. Then I saw C/C had dropped the Hitachi 55" to $3149.00, much lower than I could get even online. Went to look and was blown away by the pic. It was a no brainer, the Sharp for $3,000.00 (Costco) was good, but couldn't pass up the Hitachi for less. Only gripe was no stand. While Hitachi may not sell the stand with the TV, retailers should keep one or two in stock. Found one at a local Hi Def TV store for $399.00. High price, but wife didn't like the idea of a wall mount.
Now to the TV. Great Hi-def pic. Standard cable fair to good when streached to fit screen. I usually don't run any 4:3 programming to avoid burn in. Sound from built in speakers better than I expected, but also have a 500w kenwood surround sound systen for backup. I like that you can plug a sub-woofer into the TV, but had to turn mine down as bass was overboosted. Standard DVD and VCR very good using high quality cables, but plan to upgrade the DVD in near future. The remote is actually very easy to use for TV, but lacks functions when controlling my digital cable box or stereo. I decided to use the cable remote instead. If using over the air or basic cable, TV remote works fine. Right now, all cable boxes and accessories are hooked up with monster cable, but have an HDMI cable on order, cheaped on-line than in store. I expect even better pic quality with this setup. The only bad experience with this purchase was a pushy salesman, who was pushing any TV but the Hitachi, and an expensive warranty.
I would recommend any who like large plasma units to take a look at this, or the other 55" Hitachi units. A great TV, that even my wife likes.
Great tv for its price
Pros
The picture quality is unbelieveble. HD quality is second to none. It is probably the sharpest picture I have seen (researched plasma/lcd tvs for over 2 years). It has lots of inputs for all devices and the setup out of the box is pretty easy. Picture in Picture quality is great.
TV comes with a WIPE functionality. This allows you to clean the plasma screen and prevent any burns. (Usually available with much more expensive models)
Cons
Remote is bit antiquated for the price of the tv. Picture in picture works only if one of the feeds is HD. Base needs to be bought (add $200 to the price.)
Bottom line - I would recommend buying this tv. Shop around and you should be able to find it for less than $2500.
research research research
All I have done for 2 months is research Plasmas, and this bad boy is the one I picked. I am a techno freak and for the money ($2,300 at HH Gregg, nothing holds a candle to it. The TV uses the same glass technologies as the Pioneer, costing less than 1/2.
