60" LCD-RP: Hitachi Ultravision or Sony XS955?

These are both great sets, and you probably will not go wrong with either one. They are two of the three sets I am considering.


In my case I am probably leaning towards the Hitachi 60VS810 mainly on aesthetics of the set vis a vis my room. If I can find the right stand, I thing the Hitachi will have more "class" than the metallic / silver look of the Sony 60XS955.


But this is just my opinion. And given that you will get many opinions here (that mostly differ) I would suggest you have to go see both sets and make your own opinion. But, LOL, this is only my opinion.


Charlie


P.S. My only concern here on the Hitachi is reading the various issues with the sets. But pick your set and you will see a never ending stream of threads with issues.

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The third set was / is the Mits WD-62725. I've been looking at DLP for a long time, and liked this set best of today's choices. But then I saw the Sony and Hitachi LCDs and was quite impressed.


I told my wife about the rainbow issue for some people, and read her the thread with the dog discussion (do dogs see rainbows?). Given that we have four dogs who do watch the TV on occasion, she is now somewhat concerned and wants to spend time in a store taking a much closer look than she has in the past.


However, unfortunately for me (us) how the TV and stand fit into the room is as much as important as the technical aspects of the set. We only have one possible room where the set can go, and given that it will be there a while and will dominate the room in terms of focus of attention.


Towards this aesthetics end of the equation, the Mits bigger lower end of the set (i.e. the speaker area) is a turn-off for her, and the Sony while stylish probably does not fit well with the room decor, which leads to the Hitachi that if on the right stand may very well do the trick.


Hope this provides some insight into my selection process.


Charlie


P.S. I guess I forgot to clarify that performance of the set DOES matter to me, and to that end I think any of these three would be a good choice. While I know there are issues with all three, I personally will forget about the issues and enjoy the new set.

Hitachi -


I did the same research on the Sony vs Hitachi. I don't know how true this is but I was told that Sony uses Hitachi optics.

The color sharpness, features, and my favorite - Day/Night viewing are one of many things I like about Hitachi along with their great optics used to project the images.


The Sony is a great TV- I'm not going to say it's not. But in my research, I personally think the Hitachi's are the best.



My TV is a CRT projection but the same holds true with the LCD's


I own a Hitachi 65S700 Rear Projection TV that I happened to find for only $1700 bucks (I was initially looking at the Hitachi 57" RPTVs or the Sony 57") and I am still amazed at the picture quality it produces from my Home Theater PC.


I'm sure you will be happy either way with your decision...

Just don't be fooled by showrooms when researching your TV. Make sure you find out what kind of source is being used to display the image. Make sure the TV can be seen in both light and dark rooms, and most importantly- mess with the color settings since most displays are bumped up to make them look better when they are actually over-saturated.

Also, make sure to find out the native resolution of the TV as if you were buying a computer monitor.


(Sorry, going off on a tangent here- you probably already know this info!)

I know there are quite a few people in this forum who like their Hitachis. Not trying to offend anyone, I would like to say that I also compared both brands - the difference in PQ IMO is significant. It seems to me Hitachi has subpar scaler. Comparing two similarly sized LCD RPs (hitachi and Sony) is like comparing older analog intelaced TV set vs digital HDTV compatible one. The scan lines (or something resembling them) are so apparent on Hitachi RPs that I found the PQ quite unwatchable (comparing the same HD or DVD material in the same store in the same lighting conditions). I have the same consistent impression in various stores, so it is not a setup issue. The only thing about Hitachis that I really like more than Sony is the case design. Very stylish, especially the black ones. If only I could take Sony's guts and put them into Hitachi's case ... I firmly believe that among various LCD RPTVs currently available, Sonys are the best.

Having said that, upon a very tiresome and lengthy research of the RPTVs I have decided to postpone the purchase. Most current non-CRT RPTVs are good to great with HDTV signals but are so-so to horrible with SD material which is still prevalent in broadcasting.

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True, but there's a slight hitch with the Hitachi inputs. The Hitachi HDMI and component video inputs are "shared", meaning for "Input 1", there's one HDMI input and one component video input (same goes for "Input 2"). The implications of this arrangement is that the two sources (one HDMI, one component) connected to "Input 1" (or "Input 2") share the same video settings, whereas on the Sony XS955s the 2 HMDI and 2 component video inputs are separate and can be calibrated individually by the TV.

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You might want to take a close look at the source(s) for the football games. I watched 5-6 HD football games last month, and none of them showed any motion artifacts. In comparison to DLP RPTVs, I usually see the motion artifacts on DLPs much more often than on LCDs.


Michael

 http://www.hitachi.us/tv/browse/lcd/lcd/60VX915.shtml


Good choice of TV...The remote on this thing is really cool with the roll & click.


The non-reflective screen looks great in a showroom but it doesn't make much of a difference. I've seen both side by side (Sony/ Hitachi)


With the units turned off, the Hitachi is reflective and you can see yourself like a black mirror. The Sony, you can't.


Turn on both units and I could not see a difference. I suppose if you had your TV in a room with windows direct light would pose a problem.



Apart from the subject above- NO DIRECT RELATIONSHIP TO SONY/HITACHI SCREENS....


Many people are turned off by LCD screens with reflective surfaces. My laptop's LCD has a VERY reflective screen (LCD build by Samsung) on it compared to other laptops without the reflective screens. Color looks much better compared to the non-reflective screens- dark colors and black are very deep and rich due to the type of dark reflective screen. A reflective screen is actually bouncing exterior light away from the LCD screen.


All a matter of personal preference. Sorry to jump off the topic here.