[srs148]

I finally saw the Hitachi 50V500 at CC yesterday afternoon and was simply stunned by the PQ, especially compared to the Panny and Sammy... if price were no object, the Sammy would be a no-brainer for me, but since I have a budget to keep, the Hitachi perfectly fit the bill....


EXCEPT....I heard that the DVI connector does NOT accept input from a PC with a DVI-equipped videocard.


Can anyone confirm that PC users will not be able to connect to the Hitachi using the DVI connector?


I have to be able to connect my PC to my new RPTV for gaming, etc and don't want to have to pay over $1K more for a tube that can handle it (or settle for a lower-quality picture from the Panny). This is a MAJOR disappointment and downfall of this TV as it was a lock for me.


Finally, can the PQ using a VGA input even begin to compare to DVI?

 

[Bongo100]

Steve, where had you seen the Panny with a horrible picture? I've got one on order (60 day return policy so I'm not too worried), and was wondering about your view. I've seen the Hitachi and it does have a very good pic, but have you seen the Panny look that bad?


There is another thread here about gaming on the Panny. Someone posted a picture of one of their games on the screen. Seemed to look pretty good.


BTW, I went for the Panny for the same reason; PC input. I would have gotten the Hitachi but don't want a big hassle, or no chance, with hooking my PC up to the TV.

 

[srs148]

Bongo, I certainly wouldn't say that the Panny had a horrible picture at all. On the contrary, I think it represents a great value at its price point....but for a $300 MSRP price difference, I felt the OOTB PQ of the Hitachi was much sharper and brighter than the Panny....it appeared a much closer rival to the Sammy (which is still my favorite pick).


That being said, I did not tweak any of the settings on the Panny to see what it could do, so perhaps the PQ could come very close to the Hitachi.


It is imperative that I am able to connect my PC to my next TV, so I may just have to take a more in-depth look at the Panny and see what tweaks can be made to the PQ...unless, of course, anyone can confirm that a PC can be connected to the Hitachi...

 

[PoolShark]

Hello Guys,


I too had the dilema of the Panny or Hitachi. My Primary goal was the best possible picture for the money I was willing to spend. I have had my Hitachi for two weeks now and am learning how to tweak it better everyday.


While I would have liked all the Panny's inputs which IMHO are excellent especially for all the computer guys out there. I ultimately went for the best possible picture especially after I saw the Hitachi price start falling after it was introduced. Just like the Panny price battle that went on.


I think that in the bright picture settings (Toy Story) they both look very good. In the black picture settings AOTC you can really see a difference. Most black seens or DVD intro's you can see the Panny has a blue tint. I tried adjusting but it ended up affecting picture quality. Now the blacks on the Hitachi are great, to the point that I wouldn't think LCD's had problem reproducing black. If the normal settings aren't enough you can turn on the Black Enhancement feature for better black levels.


As with all things there is some give and take.


What do you want and what are you willing to live with.

 

[Hounsfield]

Quote:

Originally posted by haupfear I still have the huge dark spot in the corner but before I returned the set I decided to try out the DVI connection with my PC. It WORKED! The only problem I'm problem is that I need a monitor driver that will let me go higher than 848x480. Anyone know of such a driver?

The above quote is from the main 50V500 thread. Maybe Hitachi just didn't want the headache of having to officially support PC-DVI connectivity? Who knows, but it sounds like it works to some degree. Hopefully others will try this as well, and post additional details of their configurations.


I finally had the opportunity to compare the Hitachi with the Panasonic and also the 55" Philips Cineos. I saw the first two at a Santa Clara Circuit City, and the latter at the SC Good Guys. Although the Panny initially looked much worse than the Hitachi, which was sitting right next to it, I was able to make a few coarse adjustments that brought it up to a fairly comparable PQ. Ultimately, however, I felt the Hitachi had a superior contrast gradient to both the Panny and Philips. The Philips did have a noticeably smoother image, but I preferred the sharpness of the LCD-RPTV units over the LCoS. I also compared these sets with the Sammy DLPs, but I've more-or-less ruled DLP out based on the reports of their poor handling of SD; for the time being, most of my viewing will be SD.


The lack of an RGB input on the Hitachi was a big negative in my mind, and the reason I was leaning toward the Panny. If this PC-DVI connectivity turns out to be a viable option, however, I may go with the Hitachi. I don't have any other DVI devices and am not planning on upgrading to a DVI capable DVD player any time soon, so I have no heartache about filling that port with my PC. IMO, the difference in PQ was enough to justify the input deficiencies.

 

[Hounsfield]

CORRECTION: The quote that I just posted came from the Hitachi LCD Rear Projection Owners Thread .

 

[fourizonly]

Quote:

Originally posted by PoolShark Hello Guys, I too had the dilema of the Panny or Hitachi. My Primary goal was the best possible picture for the money I was willing to spend. I have had my Hitachi for two weeks now and am learning how to tweak it better everyday. While I would have liked all the Panny's inputs which IMHO are excellent especially for all the computer guys out there. I ultimately went for the best possible picture especially after I saw the Hitachi price start falling after it was introduced. Just like the Panny price battle that went on. I think that in the bright picture settings (Toy Story) they both look very good. In the black picture settings AOTC you can really see a difference. Most black seens or DVD intro's you can see the Panny has a blue tint. I tried adjusting but it ended up affecting picture quality. Now the blacks on the Hitachi are great, to the point that I wouldn't think LCD's had problem reproducing black. If the normal settings aren't enough you can turn on the Black Enhancement feature for better black levels. As with all things there is some give and take. What do you want and what are you willing to live with.

Poolshark,


Can you post your video settings? I've tweaked with Avia and want to see if our settings are similar.

 

[bebopdeluxe]

Given the fact that I was one of the lucky ones who got the Panasonic for less than $2300, the difference between the Panasonic and the Hitachi is not $300 - more like $600 to $700...which is not inconsequential to me. In addition to the inputs issue, there was also a discussion about conversion ratios for the Hitachi - I will be the first to admit, most of this stuff went over my head - but the Hitachi does not provide some of the native resolutions that the Panasonic LCD and the Samsung DLP provide...again, this might not be a HUGE issue (with some of the conversion tools that it has), but it still leaves me scratching my head...why DOESN'T Hitachi provided these?


For me, the biggest relative difference in the blacks between the two sets seems to take place when the screen IS black....there seems to be a bit of a slightly bluish tinge on the Panasonic between scenes that the Hitachi does not have...but since my bigger concern about black levels is when there IS content on the screen - and since to my (untrained) eye, the Panasonic does just FINE with blacks in content, I decided to take the $600, the better inputs and the native 480/720 ratios that the Panasonic gives me over the Hitachi.


Frankly - BOTH options are solid ones. Which ever one floats YOUR boat....

 

[PoolShark]

Quote:

Originally posted by fourizonly Poolshark, Can you post your video settings? I've tweaked with Avia and want to see if our settings are similar.

Pool Championships start tonight but if all goes well then I can be home in time to right down all the settings.


I would also like to see your Avia settings. I read on another thread that some times ISF or Avia settings are to harsh/technical and that you lose the warmth of the picture. For that reason I want to use those as a starting point but also go for the natural "Window Look".


I am also trying to run my tv as much as possible for the first 30 days to see if any failures can be induced. I almost went DLP and the set I had been watching has already failed at UE after 3 weeks. The Mirror chip looks like they are flipping in slow motion.


Here's to better luck with our sets!

 

[ttriplett]

Quote:

Originally posted by srs148 I finally saw the Hitachi 50V500 at CC yesterday afternoon and was simply stunned by the PQ, especially compared to the Panny and Sammy... if price were no object, the Sammy would be a no-brainer for me, but since I have a budget to keep, the Hitachi perfectly fit the bill.... EXCEPT....I heard that the DVI connector does NOT accept input from a PC with a DVI-equipped videocard. Can anyone confirm that PC users will not be able to connect to the Hitachi using the DVI connector? I have to be able to connect my PC to my new RPTV for gaming, etc and don't want to have to pay over $1K more for a tube that can handle it (or settle for a lower-quality picture from the Panny). This is a MAJOR disappointment and downfall of this TV as it was a lock for me. Finally, can the PQ using a VGA input even begin to compare to DVI?

I really don't see how the Hitachi would know the difference between a PC DVI connection or some other DVI device. If DVI is a standard then all DVI connectors should have the same voltages, protocols, etc.


However, the compatability issue may have to do with overscan/underscan. The Sammy DLP has a PC display mode with a slight underscan so that none of the PC desktop is cut off around the edges. In the normal TV mode there is a slight overscan so that the video completely fills the display area. Does anyone know if the Hitachi has an underscan display mode? If not, then part of the windows taskbar, desktop, etc would be at least partially cut off and this could be why Hitachi claims that this set does not support connection to a PC DVI video card.

 

[orijonl]

Quote:

However, the compatability issue may have to do with overscan/underscan. The Sammy DLP has a PC display mode with a slight underscan so that none of the PC desktop is cut off around the edges. In the normal TV mode there is a slight overscan so that the video completely fills the display area. Does anyone know if the Hitachi has an underscan display mode? If not, then part of the windows taskbar, desktop, etc would be at least partially cut off and this could be why Hitachi claims that this set does not support connection to a PC DVI video card.

If you use the software program Powerstrip you can control the overscan/underscan in the signal being fed to the display, so that the monitor does not need a "PC mode" to operate correctly.


-Jon