Hitachi 55HDT79 vs. Pioneer PDP 5070/1HD.....thoughts?

When I purchased my 5070 I also looked at the Hitachi, but found the picture to be "softer."

I saw the Hitachi last month and was very impressed. Even the HDS model looked great.

The pioneer has severe burn-in problems. it doesn't come with a pixel shift option or a screen wipe option. I visit retail stores all the time and i always see burn-in on the pioneer. I have never seen burn-in on a Hitachi. most retail stores have a loop in their video signal and eventually ends up burning-in on the pioneer

I have the Hitachi 55HDT79 and i am in love with it. i did lots of comparison before purchasing it. i still found Hitachi to be sharper. compare the sharpness of text on the screen between pioneer and Hitachi. when text comes up it is clearly noticeable that Hitachi is sharper.

Hitachi gives you 3 HDMI and 3 Component connections!! a total of 6 HD connections. no other plasma has that!!!!!

nice premium black brushed aluminum makes the Hitachi a high end piece!!

deffinetly Hitachi!!

The flickering is when there is a sudden change in shades of dark the panel tries to adjust the right black level and sometimes it's noticeable. depending on the video settings that you have it at as well. Out of the box pictures comes very dynamic and punchy and could cause that noticeable transition of black levels.
I adjusted my settings to my liking and it was hardly even noticeable. Now they have an update that can be done to upgrade the software on the TV and eliminate that issue, I just did the update myself and I have not seen the colour shifting since!! call 1-800- HITACHI for the uprade

I compared to a Pio Elite. The Elite had a slightly better picture, but it was 5" smaller and over $3k more expensive.

Check out the new advertised prices for the 55HDS69. Unreal.

Just because you've seen some seriously abused Pioneers in retail stores doesn't mean they have severe burn-in problems, because they have no such problem. I have yet to see a Pioneer in any store that has evidence of any burn-in, and i look at these things a lot. Any plasma can get burned-in in the harsh loveless environment of the retail stores, but it's how they perform in the home is what really counts. How many Pioneers in people's homes have you seen that have severe burn-in?


Funny, although i really like Hitachis, and seriously considered buying one, i still haven't seen one that displays an image as good as a Pioneer. They're nice and fancy and all, but they're not quite up there with the Pioneer. But then again this is in stores where the TVs may or may not be adjusted to their full potential. Bottom line is that you can't go by what you see or do not see in the stores because it doesn't reflect what you see in people's homes.

I dunno about all this burn-in stuff... but Pioneer is quite resistant from my own experience. I think all the good TVs are pretty much making that a non-issue.

Pio does have pixel orbiting, and that's what I noticed first and foremost jumping from LCD. I am sure Hitachi makes a great plasma, but from reviews, and my own views, the Hitachi can't match the Pioneers black level and contrast which is among the tops in the plasma class at the moment.

I've done extensive comparisons with the pio a panny 600u and a 42hdt79, after viewing with every source we could have used (hd cable, hd-dvd, blu-ray, digital cable, analog cable, oppo dvd player, vhs, LD) The store owner and I fell in love with the hitachi. They were all ISF calibrated and used the same sources on all 3 tvs. IMO for the price of the hitachi and the 600u, I don't think you can get much better, the pio is over priced and not any better than the other too. Though I know this is not the 55 hitachi but they were all 42's, the hitachi had the most consistent picture through out all sources and the black levels just got better with the new firmware as well as most people having the "flicker" it has seemed to fix this issue. Not that they were bad to begin with but the pio blacks are not far superior in any terms.

I have a PDP 4270 with burn in.

I work for a retail electronics store called Future Shop in Canada for 5 years and trust me all sales associates were scared of presenting the pioneer plasmas because all of our floor models had sever burn-in and no other manufacturer really had that issue. they were all about the same time on the floor with the same feed and the burn-in on the pioneer was very noticeable!!

Chris, could you also P/M me for the prices on those 2 units + 58PX60U as well.
Thanks in advance.