Compare: Hitachi 42PD5300 to Pioneer PDP-435XDE

Hello all,

I'm looking at the Hitachi 42PD5300 / 42PD5200 series tv's and comparing them to the equivilent Pioneers.

Have been and seen the picture of the Hitachi's and it seems to be very sharp. I have also seen the Pio and these are realy sharp too. However I have not seen them back to back to comparre them. On paper they seems tto be similar but the Pioneer that seems to be around 900 GPB extra. These are the specs I have found for these TV's so far:

Hitachi:
Size: 42
Res: 1024 x 1024 [Better]
Contrast: 1000 : 1 [Worse]
Brightness: 1100 [Same]

Pio:
Size:43
Res: 1024 x 768 [Worse]
Contrast: 1200 : 1 [Better]
Brightness: 1100 [Same]

I'm keen to get something that is slightly future proof. I'm looking to hang onto the unit for 3-4 years and and sure that HDTV will be usefull to have. I'm going to be running the unit using XBox and Sky+ to start with. I'm favoring the Pio / Hitachi 5300 as they have just a single cable to the TV, making building into a wall easier.

My first question would be is the price difference between the Pioneer 43 XDE and the 42PD5300 justifiable?
I have read elsewhere that the Hitachi 5200 is better than the 5300 as it has better connnections on the back for HDTV etc. is this true as it is also cheeper!

Thanks in advance.

 

Dont be fooled by the resolution of the Hitachi Plasma its an 'alis' panel so it kind of pretends to have that resolution.

Only the Pioneer is HD ready and future-proof

 

I went for the Pio - had better colours and a more filmic quality to the picture IMO

 

go for the hitachi looks good proformes fantastic it will blow you away

 

pio has 7 billion clours

hitachi 16.7 million

pio has less colour banding, solorisation when fed digital tv source.
go for the pioneer.

 

It doesn't pretend to have that resolution. The rows of pixels are scanned in an interlaced way, that's all.

As for Mr Etome's comment on the number of colours, that is really down to the source, not the TV.

 

simple if you have the extra money go for the pionner if not the hitachi is a great display and i believe it is coming down to about £1700 because the new hitachi has been released in hong kong and will be similar spek to the pio and is geting released this year,for the money i personally would go the hitachi root but if i was flush it would be as i said the pio

 

MR ETONE you've said it. Less colour banding.
It does not take more arguments to choose the Pio.

 

The Hitachi is not European HD standard compatible no matter which model, it will not take 720p/50, and does weird things with 1080i signals. Even if it could be made to, it has an internal refresh rate of 60Hz (well 30 in reality) so is unlikely to work well.

 

pio in my opinion well overpriced this year is the year for good prices on plasma and lcd so i think it may be wise to wait

 

i just bourght the pio O sooo nice

 

i would have bourght the pionner if it had not been over £700 more
instead i have the just replaced a faulty LG for a hitachi 5200 and am very happy
the picture is great not to worryed about hd
these the best 2 plasmas i could buy
but as with everything in life i comes down to cost

 

A good touch of realism there. I thi nk it's clear the pioneer is better, but is it £700 better to you? How important is HD might well be the question.

 

Where did you hear it was coming down to £1700 please? I would like to buy one soon but will possibly wait.