hitachi pd5000

Kaboom

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Have been reading to much about plasma and lcd screens,i need a screen to run my av,dvd,xbox,and pc to a good standard i had convinced myself that i should go for the samsung 32" LW32A23WX lcd but after reading everything in the world i have gone for the hitachi pd5000 i dont need the speakers and now cannot afford the stand but i think i will not be let down by the performance i know that there are no real reviews as such so i will post more info as soon as everything is plugged in as i only picked this up from rs tonight (and it is just a monitor THATS IT)i hope a can be of help becuase this forum rocks (and needs help)
 
kaboom

had a look at this model on display in RS, fantastic looking screen. They did say that the matching stand was about £500 but you can take that with a pinch of salt as they were trying to flog their universal stand.

TV and video direct quoted £200 for the stand.

Enjoy your screen and keep us informed about how it works out (how you going to mount it?)
 
Since picking the screen up i have now got the tv,sky,xbox and pc linked allthough the pc is on rgb (1024*768)not dvi the picture quality is stunning.I cannot recommend the pd5000 enough colour is strong and picture is very clear using this as a monitor is a must.I have a small problem with the tv input which is giving noise to the picture but this is only down to the way the signal comes into the house.I have also made i stand for the monitor which works as well as anything i have seen if anyone wants any pictures of this just ask and i will email them to you.
 
Thanks for the report, Kaboom. :)

Would it be at all possible for you to try it with a set-top DVD player?
 
Kaboom, thanks a lot for the brief report.

I'd have "a few" :blush: questions since I'm also very interested in this plasma;

1- Did you pick up the 32" (res. 852x1024) or 42" (res. 1024x1024) model?

2- how would you qualify the blacks? I've had a look at a 42PD5200 and 32PD5200 and both had less than impressive black levels (more like dark greenish grey...). But both were connected in Y/C (S-Video) so I'm hoping things aren't so bad in reality... What's your take on this?

3- I've also seen solarisation and "pixel soup" effects on moving objects, especially close-ups on people faces. Not sure if that was due to bad DVD media though... any opinion here?

4- I also have a PC I'll connect to the new monitor. How does it look like? No geometry issue, i.e. do you see the full PC desktop on the plasma screen? Are colors accurate?

5- Have you tried to input signal in HDTV resolutions e.g. 720p@60Hz or 1080i@60Hz? Does it work well?

And yes I'd be very interested to see pics of the screen (at work if possible... ;)

TIA,
 
Okay, I'll bite.

I have the 42PD5000.

It's true to say that black is not absolutely black, but it does not seem worse to me than any other screens I auditioned. I understand the new Pioneers are good, but way out of my price range. It seems way better than other 'budget' screens I saw. I also noticed that it improved over the first week of use, I suppose because the new phosphor settles down a bit. Also a light behind the screen really improves the subjective black level (and is better for your eyes apparently). There's no green tinge to it though. If black level really bothers you, then plasma is probably not for you, but try to see this and other screens in a darkened environment before you buy.

Pixelisation/Solarisation effects seem to be very dependent on source component and media quailty. Crappy transfers will still look a bit crappy, but good transfers look amazing. Very noisy discs can sometimes confuse then processing, but Sky pictures look great, and even stuff from VCR is watchable. I got the Video essentials disc and spent a bit of time calibrating colours which has also helped. You do have to sit back a bit from the screen since colours are interpolated, which means you see swirling patterns of dots if you are less than about 3 feet from the screen. Comfortable distance for me is about 6 to 8 feet.

With a PC, geometry is perfect - theres an auto adjust to make sure you don't lose the edges. The picture looks just like the display on my laptop, only massive. For me this is the greatest plus of plasma screens since geometry issues on my old CRT used to drive me crazy. Colours look fine through the RGB VGA socket, not tried the DVI input yet.

I got a couple of Hi-Def WMV files from the Microsoft site to play with, which look incredible. I can't force my laptop to output true native resolutions for these though (1900x720/1080), or get it to output 1024x1024, but running these clips at 1024x768 or 1280x1024 is just jaw dropping. I want HDTV so badly now....

I don't have a camera which would do justice to the images, only a webcam-type thing, but I'll have a go. None of the photos I've seen show either the pro's or the con's of the screens anyway, you really need to get a good sit-down audition with a few DVDs of your choice.
 
The_Wierd, thanks a bunch for offering your opinion here, I was getting a little desperate... ;)


1- As for blacks: the black levels I've seen so far on that screen, granted under less than perfect conditions (Y/C connex. :rolleyes: ) would definitely put me off - not plasma in general, but *this* particular model, since I have seen much better contrast on other screens. :blush:
However some readings thru various places, including your post of course, tend to prove that I really need to go back and re-evaluate under good conditions - namely YUV or DVI.

2- Assuming the blacks actually _are_ kinda' black (after some normal tweaking of the picture) - how about the *level of details* in the dark areas? That's the other issue I saw, a total lack of any detail in the dark scenes (as in: just a dark grey block, and that's it!). Would you say you don't have this pbm on yr plasma screen either?

3- I'll also have a 8 to 9 feet distance, hopefully this will do (although right now I'm hoping to get the 37" display some time next month, vs the 32" initially planned...). I understand the argument around DVD transfer quality vs solarisation/banding/... effects, I guess I'll have to find a well made DVD for further testing (I hear the LOTR media is great in that respect).

4- It really looks like the ALiS glasses perform extremely well when connected to a PC, and you just confirmed it. I'm more than delighted with that, since a lot of my source material will be run from a PC (thru DVI probably, unless VGA proves better...).

5- Yeah, I DO want HDTV badly too!! :clap: Man I can't wait to run my <several :D > HD clips (Coral Reef, Step Into Liquid, some football :eek: , ...) on this screen, it's GOT to be superb...!

Thanks again, and sorry for the less-than-short post! :devil:
 
If you can, take a disc which has the THX setup available, at the very least this will let you set the brightness control correctly. At least then you know that if all you see is a field of black, thats how it's supposed to look. As I say, things really improved after tweaking.

I don't think there is a 37" Hitachi, so I suppose you will be looking at other brands, but I have to say that although 42" takes a bit of getting used to, after a short while it just seems normal, and all other TV's look too small! Also even in our room where the screen is (temporarily) in the corner on a stand, it still takes up less space than the old 32" set.
 
The 37" Hitachi's appear to exist but hard to find; the only place thus far I've found is here:
http://www.plasmavisie.nl/plasma/hitachi/3-HITACHI37PD5200.html

I've already emailed them and they say the 37" models will be available some time in March... we shall see. In the meantime I'll take note of your comment that 42" ain't that big after all !! :cool:

Thanks for the suggestion on THX setup disc, I wish I can find a shop where they'll allow me to fool around with their plasma display the way I want to... :rolleyes:
 
Sorry its taken this long to post back
Firstly DDLOOPING i have only had the xbox connected through component for dvd films this does work very well(no progresive scan though so could be better)
PEEZEE its the 42 " and is running widescreen at 1024*768 through dvi and blacks are good (XBOX for films)the picture is far better than s-video.Solaristion i do get but only on bad broadcasts on sky, some channels you get nothing but others you do get it on close ups.
Using as a pc monitor it shines i have tried rgd then dvi but there really is not much in it.HDTV (i have no idea what this is if you could explian)
THE_WIERD i have had a 2 megapixel camera attached through the pc even thats by todays standards this is not a good example it does look very good.
Finally after looking at lcd and plasma i think this is a good allrounder the price at RS cannot be beat and i have not seen a screen with as many inputs and same quaility picture/resolution as the pd5000 for even close to this price.
Hope this helps
 
Originally posted by Kaboom

PEEZEE its the 42 " and is running widescreen at 1024*768 through dvi and blacks are good (XBOX for films)the picture is far better than s-video.Solaristion i do get but only on bad broadcasts on sky, some channels you get nothing but others you do get it on close ups.
Using as a pc monitor it shines i have tried rgd then dvi but there really is not much in it.HDTV (i have no idea what this is if you could explian)
Hope this helps

Kaboom, thanks a lot for the report. I'm glad to read once again that this Hitachi series does a great job when tied to an HTPC.
HDTV means "High Definition TV", you must have heard of it, otherwise search the forum or the Net you'll LOTS of information around it. A good starting point could be:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm

Back to the PD5200: I have to report once again, after watching another set of two PD5200 screens today in a shop (32" and 42" models, the 4th and 5th I've seen so far!) that scenes with dark areas (shades, ...) are just that, a large dark spot with little to no detail. Looked really bad compared to virutally any other plasma next to it, which were able to display at least some level of details... :eek:

The only explanation I'd have is that there were connected thru Composite i/p ( :suicide: ) and the sets still had the factory settings. Well, I do hope this IS the explanation. I'll have to go back and spend time playing with the settings, which the shop owners said they had no problem with... we shall see!
 
Sorry I'm posting this below here too, but there's just too many threads around the new Hitachi's ;)
Kaboom, The_Wierd, et all, do you not also see this problem with dark green "noise" added to shades/dark areas?

TIA,

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Folks, I've spent quite some time yesterday fiddling with a 42PD5200 display setup, trying to get the best picture (for my eyes anyway ;-) out of it. I did this in a well-lit shop (too well?), with the plasma connected to a 668 DVD YUV interlaced playing Gladiator...

In the end, I could get a reasonably good looking picture (vs the rather awful default picture) BUT there's one nasty defect I just couldn't get rid of:

the shades and dark areas do exhibit a green bias, even e.g. on flesh tone... it's as if the picture was lightly sprayed with dark green paint in the dark areas... I paused the movie and tried hard to remove this effect to no avail. VERY annoying! I suppose this is what jprenaux referred to in his several posts. And it will probably stop me from buying this plasma - although I was really up to it!

Unless it could be that specific DVD movie...? <don't think so>
 
The_Wierd said:
Okay, I'll bite.
THE wierd I also have a hitachi 42 pd5200 but I can hear a buzz from mine 8 feet away when the sound is off or a quite part of a dvd / tele. Can you hear a buzzing noise from yours in your normal sitting position
regards
 

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