FINALLY purchased an HDTV - Hitachi 42" Plasma

[SagaLore]

This 42HDS69 is getting clearanced off by Sears right now shy of $1500. Best Buy only has it on sale for $1700. The next best is Circuit City at $1600 on sale - the regular price is about $2k.

Behold the beautiful specs:

- 1024 x 1080i Display Resolution
- 16-Bit/281 Trillion Color
- 10-Bit 4MB 3D Y/C Comb Filter
- Natural Color Anti-Reflective Glass Screen
- 3 HDMI interfaces
- Full HDTV ATSC/QAM tuner
- Split screen / PIP
- CableCard ready
- 36-Watt 3-Way Speaker System
- Full 1 year parts & labor warranty with in-home service

Hopefully this will make it to my local Sears by this weekend. 🙂

CNET Review

Amazon customer reviews

 

[bubbadu]

I have seen it $1500 - coupons before, hopefully its cheaper than that...

 

[RagingBITCH]

Did you buy it mainly for the tuner (atsc/qam/cablecard) capabilities?

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Did you buy it mainly for the tuner (atsc/qam/cablecard) capabilities?

I bought it mainly because it presented the best picture quality to my eyes. It didn't quite have the dark blacks that the Panasonics can do, but it gave vibrant colors and was still much better than that persistent blue glow that most LCDs give.

But yes I was making sure it had an hdtv tuner with qam.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Did you buy it mainly for the tuner (atsc/qam/cablecard) capabilities?

I bought it mainly because it presented the best picture quality to my eyes. It didn't quite have the dark blacks that the Panasonics can do, but it gave vibrant colors and was still much better than that persistent blue glow that most LCDs give.

But yes I was making sure it had an hdtv tuner with qam.

Gotcha. That's the one thing I regret not getting with my TV was a QAM tuner. The NTSC/ATSC tuner works great though...24 never looked better in 1080i 🙂

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Gotcha. That's the one thing I regret not getting with my TV was a QAM tuner. The NTSC/ATSC tuner works great though...24 never looked better in 1080i 🙂

Yea I noticed many of the LCD and Plasma displays were hit or miss with the QAM feature. Even though I don't have cable, I'm sure in the future I will get it and want to get the unscrambled digital channels. 🙂

 

[isekii]

how much at sears ?

 

[slurmsmackenzie]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Did you buy it mainly for the tuner (atsc/qam/cablecard) capabilities?

I bought it mainly because it presented the best picture quality to my eyes. It didn't quite have the dark blacks that the Panasonics can do, but it gave vibrant colors and was still much better than that persistent blue glow that most LCDs give.

But yes I was making sure it had an hdtv tuner with qam.

never looked better in 1080i 🙂

i don't know what that is, but i totally want it.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: slurmsmackenzie

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: SagaLore

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Did you buy it mainly for the tuner (atsc/qam/cablecard) capabilities?

I bought it mainly because it presented the best picture quality to my eyes. It didn't quite have the dark blacks that the Panasonics can do, but it gave vibrant colors and was still much better than that persistent blue glow that most LCDs give.

But yes I was making sure it had an hdtv tuner with qam.

never looked better in 1080i 🙂

i don't know what that is, but i totally want it.

rofl. took me a second to get that.

(I'm not really Jessica Simpson) 🙁

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: isekii
how much at sears ?

Oops sorry - $1500. Updated post with price.

 

[mitaiwan82]

no 1080p goodness?

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: mitaiwan82
no 1080p goodness?

Sorry, don't have $5000 to spend on something I might watch maybe once a week. 😛

 

[mercanucaribe]

What does "1024 x 1080i " mean? Even 720p is 1280x720.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
What does "1024 x 1080i " mean? Even 720p is 1280x720.

A 42" Plasma supporting 720p has 1024 x 768 pixels.

A 50" Plasma supporting 1080p has 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The Hitachi compromised and provided 1080 horizontal lines so if you do get a 1080i signal, it will show up smoother than on 720 panels - but it won't be as good as a true 1080p display.