Hitachi 42PD6600 Post delivery & Setting Up

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Dave Sayer said:
ajm295.
By the way I have tried changing Sky box to RGB (moved scart to position 2) and cant say that I can see any change in picture quality!
Any one else noticed the same?

Also had my sky box connected to Scart 1 initally with no problems, moved it to scart 3 and tested toggling sky box between PAL / RGB but wasn't effecting picture so presume only first 2 scarts are RGB.

Have it on Scart 2 now and can't say i can see any difference in quality either.
 
Looks like I am going to be having a bit of a problem with the delivery of my 6600. I am moving to London in 2 weeks from Bristol, and they won't transfer the delivery. If it does end up that it needs to be delievered after this then I will have to have it sit in Currys' warehouse in Yate (nr Bristol) for however long it takes me to get a car there to pick it up. That's rather sucky isn't it! I suppose I will just have to hope that they can get it delivered to me in the next 2 weeks... Fat chance. Ah well - gonna be a road trip from London to Bristol and back.
 
Can someone please confirm that the 42PD6600 comes with a wall mounting bracket? The salesman at Curry’s says it comes with the product by default.

kevinday has posted a link to where one may buy a bracket – which now has me doubtful.

Getting anxious now, can’t wait until it’s delivered. Was told it would have been delivered last week already, now Curry’s have said this coming Friday (but still can’t commit to a date and time slot). I hope they don’t disappoint me again.

John
Surrey
 
mine didn't come with a bracket, so I assume that none of them do!
In fact Curry's gave me prices of them in the store, so I think you can sfaely assume you need to buy one. ;)
 
johnwesterduin said:
Can someone please confirm that the 42PD6600 comes with a wall mounting bracket? The salesman at Curry’s says it comes with the product by default.

kevinday has posted a link to where one may buy a bracket – which now has me doubtful.

Getting anxious now, can’t wait until it’s delivered. Was told it would have been delivered last week already, now Curry’s have said this coming Friday (but still can’t commit to a date and time slot). I hope they don’t disappoint me again.

John
Surrey

it doesnt, more dosh needed! :thumbsdow
 
Could somebody confirm for me what the pixel shift function is for me (forgive my ignorcance!) - is to counter screen burn?
 
Plop90 - I can help you out mate! Have it delivered to my house in Swindon and I will give you £1500 on the doorstep. My order was cancelled, so I'm still waiting for the price to come down again or Currys Senior Management to respond positively to my complaints.
 
Thanks for the offer Vince. I would definitely not cancel my order - would much rather hand it off to someone here who has been screwed over. However, I will be doing my damnedest to get hold of it for myself. I have minions I can send to do my bidding should I so desire so I am afraid I am unlikely to be giving it to you.
 
ol'dirty said:
Could somebody confirm for me what the pixel shift function is for me (forgive my ignorcance!) - is to counter screen burn?

Yes it is mate :smashin: It moves the picture a couple of pixels every so often, hence moving solid lines about. It's not noticable and is recommended IMO :smashin:
 
Any body managed to get 1280*768 to work through the PC input?

Its listed in the manual but does not appear to work (tried powerstrip but it will not accept the res).

1024*768 and 1280*1024 work, but I really wanted a 16:9 res to work so that my circles are circular!

Thanks

Nigel

Laptop using geforce go 6800 on pc input.
 
Don't know what you are using it for, but if you just want to use it for video and you absolutely can't get it to work I know that media player classic allows you to show video in anamorphic widescreen form, hence a 4:3 picture is output but when it is stretched to 16:9 the aspect ratio becomes correct.

It does seem a bit odd that the screen couldn't take native widescreen images. Can other plasmas? I have never tried.
 
I got mine last week but its been sitting in the box unopened all week due to decorating and my paranioa that the paint will ruin it! However, I finally cracked it open today and hooked it upto my xbox and my sky doesnt get installed untill Wednesday and I couldnt be botherd to unhook my dvd from its current setup!

The first thing I would say is that you really really really need to take the contrast down straight away. Why it ships at 100% contrast on all inputs I have no idea. I then spent some time playing with the settings and now have it on natural colour mode with pretty much all the settings between 20-35% of max and it is looking superb. Unfortuatly I do not have the xbox high def kit and am just running it through the standard xbox scart cable. However, I have a small issue and I wonder if anyone can help.

When I run some xbox games, it looks simply superb. This is true of Forza Motorsport (thank god!!!) and allmost all of the EA Sports titles. However, on just about every other game there is significant ghosting and two black bars are presented vertically across the screen each about an inch deep when it is displaying blacks. This is most noticable on Project Gothum 2 and Top Spin. I have absolutly no idea what could be causing it.

I have changed the input method from scart to composite and the ghosting does not vanish. I then changed it so that my xbox was going via an amp though non-RGB scart (thats all I have avalable at the moment) and the ghosting still did not vanish. This is not occuring with my PS2 (although Ive only tried 2 games on PS2) or via DVD movies.

The next step of troubleshooting was to manually change the colour mode that the 6600 was using as it is auto-detecting Pal 60 for the problem games. All of the other modes are un-viewable, although standard NTSC does remove the ghosting, it just goes to a strange purple colour (not black and white as I would expect).

Its not the end of the world and I am sure that an xbox high def kit would resolve my problem, but any idea how to fix it without forking out yet more money?!

One final thing to note on the xbox front... i have a chipped xbox and when i last flashed it i somehow erased the default MS bios (oops). This means that I cannot get into the ms settings to change my xbox config, heck, I dont even know what options are in there to change becasue its been so long! Is there anything in those options which might help me (if so ill find an origonal bios image and re-flash it).

Next question.... I now need a new all-in-one dvd player and 5.1 combo as my trusty Sony DAV-S300 is long in the tooth now days (although it has served me extremly well). Anyone have any suggestions on a £200-£250 budget (I dont mind getting it off the net) for an all in one dvd and 5.1 setup (with or without speakers) prefrebly with RGB Scart and component outputs and a couple of composite (or anything) inputs to hook a ps2 and xbox up?

Ill put some piccies up of the screen when I get it fully setup to sky etc on Wednesday!
 
OK first, I don't know about your problems with the black bars, sorry. Can't think of anything that would help you with that. I can however tell you about the options in the MS Dash.

In PAL mode on the MS Dash, you get the option for Normal, Letterbox and Widescreen TV modes, aswell as 50/60Hz option. A PAL xbox cannot output a progressive scan signal. To do this, you need to load a program called Enigmah video mode selector and then switch to NTSC. You should be able to find Enigmah somewhere on your evox dash if you have that. Otherwise it is downloadable.

However, when you have activated that, and you have connected your high def kit, you will need to access the MS Dash to tell it to allow output at 480p, 720p and 1080i. If you don't do this, it will continue to output 480i over component, and the difference between 480i and 480p is simply indescribable. I can't get over how great it is. Seriously.

So when you get your all-in-one system, don't connect up your ps2 and your xbox with composite. You should get a component switch so you can have the xbox and the ps2 and the dvd player all connected to the TV through component. It may degrade the signal very slightly, but it will certainly be much better than any other way to connect, and definitely better than Composite!!!

As for an all-in-one dvd player and 5.1 combo, I have decided to go down a seperates route. I am getting a Samsung HD-950 HDMI upscaling player (117.99) to make use of that HDMI port, and a Sony STR-DB795 Receiver (£179.99). That is just less than 300 quid. you coudl get that, have the component connection free on your tv for the xbox with the high-def kit, and then just use your sony speakers (not sure if the impedance will match, but you could investigate). You could then upgrade to a better set of speakers later. I haven't decided on speakers yet but will most likely go for the Mordaunt Short Avant Premiere system (£265), or the Premiere Plus (same but with meatier sub) (£395).

- Nick
 
Thanks for the help mate. Looks like Im going to need to get into the xbox settings... time to head over the the xbox scene forums to figure out how to reflash the origonal bios. Enigma sounds like it could be the answer to my prayers though, if I can use that to force my xbox to output at Pal50 untill I get my high def kit it should remove the bars and ghosting as I now know that all the EA games that look pretty are forced to Pal 50 mode and the problem games are all Pal 60.

If that fixes it I will hold fire on the high def kit till I get my 360, it doesnt look that bad via composite belive it or not. I know its not as good as a high def kit, but its certinaly acceptable.

As for the dvd / 5.1 replacement, I am seriously debating taking a trip to richer sounds tomorow to pick up a Toshiba SD63HK. It has RGB Scart and Component outputs, 6.1, progresive scan, etc, etc all for a penny short of £200. Could be the answer to my prayers as Im fast running out of money!
 
One thought I have just had about your black bar problems...

Could it be that the xbox is set to letterbox, so anything in 16:9 outputs with the black bars...

That wouldn't explain the ghosting, but if you install the MS Dash again then you can change the 50/60Hz option - that might help... Maybe....

- Nick
 
If your after component leads, B&Q do a set for £12.95, quite good quality and I think they have improved the picture from my Panasonic DVD player. Although the missus says I Just need a better pair of glasses :D

All kidding aside the leads are 1m long and are very good value, unlike most items in said superstore. Bought mine from the Ashton branch. I think that £45 mentioned in a previous post is a little too much myself. But as has also been mentioned you pays your money makes your choice.
 
I have bought a set of Acoustic Research component leads off ebay for £17.77. These have been reviewed and they seem to be pretty good. What have you compared the B&Q leads to - can you send a picture - someone might recognise them and know what actual brand they are.

PS I have often found that Homebase also offer decent quality leads. I have no idea about whether they have component leads or not though. Don't live near a Homebase right now.
 
Whoops - just ordered the Mordaunt Short Premiere speaker pack. Was a slip of the hand. Honest.

Now that I am getting a respectable kit through I should do one of this little signature things...
 
How about this.
 
about87 said:
When I run some xbox games, it looks simply superb. This is true of Forza Motorsport (thank god!!!) and allmost all of the EA Sports titles. However, on just about every other game there is significant ghosting and two black bars are presented vertically across the screen each about an inch deep when it is displaying blacks. This is most noticable on Project Gothum 2 and Top Spin. I have absolutly no idea what could be causing it.

It sounds like the same problem I had. I had a Gamecube plugged into Ext1. On all 60Hz games I had a fuzzy screen with two long bars down the screen.

When I moved the to Ext2 or 3 the ghosting disappeared. There was also the added advantage that these sockets are RGB and the picture quality was significantly better.


I've had my 6600 since Thursday. I had budgeted for a Panasonic, but I still don't feel the technology is mature. I had this nagging feeling that no matter what Plasma I'd bought I would have to replace it in a few years time with a new one, probably for a third of the price. I decided the 6600 was a good compromise. If it doesn't work out, I won't feel too bad about replacing it.

First impressions:

Picture Quality
Picture quality was okay. Playing with the settings dramatically improved the situation.

I work with colour all day and at times there can be colour banding with flesh tones. However, it's rare and not too distracting.

With Freeview, the sharpness needs to be turned down otherwise the picture can be very harsh with noticeable pixellation on some of the more compressed channels or when there is fast movemt. I'd say the picture varies from poor to good.

With DVD (via SCART), the picture is very good. Lord of the Rings was excellent. It dealt very well with the action sequences as well as the dark scenes in Moria.

Playstation (S-Video) / Gamecube (SCART) - Generally very good. But I've been trying to avoid using them during the settling in period.

Sony Laptop (1024 x 768 via VGA)
Ran some high def wmv's. Very good picture

Powerbook (1024 x 768 via VGA)
Very good picture. My iPhoto collection looked stunning.


Sound quality
Average.


Image retention.
There is some. Early on while I was changing the settings, there was a very faint outline of the menus - it disappeared after about 20 seconds. I also saw a small amount when I was testing my Gamecube. There was some bright white text on a black background which I had on the screen for about 5 minutes while I was moving SCARTS around. I was very close to the screen and could see a very very faint outline of the white text when the screen went to black. Again the image faded very quickly. But to be honest I've seen similar on my old Panasonic CRT. It's nothing I'm worried about.


Overall though. For £1500, this is an excellent screen and would make the same decision.
 
Ooh - meant to ask. I seem to remember that the 6600 has a subwoofer out port on the bottom - am I correct in thinking this? Ta

- Nick
 
spidersheep said:
Sony Laptop (1024 x 768 via VGA)
Ran some high def wmv's. Very good picture

so if I wanted to try some HI def WMV, do I just connect up my laptop to the 6600 and play?, (having downloaded some suitable wmv of course)
 
Yes, just as long as your laptop is capable of playing the high-def stuff. the 1080p stuff requires some serious processing power, but you may be alright on some of the smaller stuff.
 
anything to test out even a bit of HD on my new telly!
thanks for that :thumbsup:
 
That's fine. if you have your 6600 already can you just have a quick check on the back for a Subwoofer out port. Ta
 
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