Hitachi 42PD5000

Author's product rating:   

How is the Picture Quality?	Excellent
How is the Sound Quality?	Good
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	Sharp picture, excellent quality, lots of input choices
Disadvantages:	Heavy, produces lots of heat, not compatible with PS2 !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you are thinking about purchasing a Plasma TV in the next few months for home.STOP! I need to tell you about what I think is one of the best TVs around for the money.

Thats right. Anycharger has once again popped back to ciao to share his thoughts on one of his prize possessions. His TV.

TV plays a big part in our lives at home. Sad really when you think about it. However, it is essential to make one of your biggest pastimes as enjoyable as possible and it does not come much better than 42 inches of Plasma screen. I had not really thought about one of these silly GIANT tellys before. A waste of money I exclaimed, pointing out the lifespan of the screen (about 60,000 hours max) and the rediculously huge price tag.
That was until I visited a friends house. He too has a small house so space is at a premium. I was therefore shocked at how much bigger his lounge looked with his new 37 inch Plasma TV on the wall. Thats right. On the Wall.
So there was my first selling point. Space saving. Gone would be your TV stand and all the extras that go with it. It could fit directly on the wall.
Turn it on and i was pleasantly suprised. Pictures were much sharper than I first imagined. After all it is a massive picture to magnify some of the poor quality Digital TV we recieve.
And looks? Fantastic! I was sold. I ventured off to Richer Sounds as they seem to be the cheapest for Massive Plasma TVs.

Interested? go to www.richersounds.co.uk. My TV is on there.
Price tag for my TV? Lets get the sore point out of the way first. £1,299.95!!! So 5p change out of 1300 quid. Sounds a lot but a normal decent widescreen 32 inch standard telly is £800 and you are getting an extra 10 inches. Most women would pay the extra for 10 inches so im told........

So once I explained to the guys in the shop I wanted a 42 inch TV, It must be Silver (wife's request) and it must sit on the wall, I was pointed towards the Hitachi 42PD.
With a flick of the switch, we were in business. A beautifully sharp and crisp picture greeted me which was a pleasant suprise. After all it was 5 inches bigger than my friends TV and I think the picture is even better. His is a Panasonic screen which is supposedly the best for its money but im not sold after seeing mine.
After a brief discussion about the connections, I was again quite happy it would suit our needs. It does however only have one scart input so if you need more, you will need a switcher box (about £30)
While on the subject of connections, perhaps I should explain some of the other options you have. There are 2 sets of Component RGB connections to use. This is used for a better quality picture on some devices such as Games Consoles and DVD players. There are also 2 sets of Composite connections which I use to connect my Playstation 2 to the TV. This has turned out to be my only choice of connection as the Component RGB connections dont work correctly with the PS2 as the picture just rolls. Composite is not as clear as the Component connection which is why I want to use it!
You can also connect to it via a normal Analogue aerial. God knows why you would want to but you can.
The other options are S-Video so you can connect your Video Recorder or Laptop to the screen or SVGA connection which is basically the same as hooking up your TV to be your computer monitor! Fantastic picture!

OK, so lets talk about installation.
What these places dont tell you when you are looking at the TV's is that you will need a special bracket to mount it on the wall and you DO NEED this special bracket. there is no hoooking it up with some screws and nails! The brackets vary in price from £100 to £300 and mine cost £100 and does the job. You will also need a good sturdy wall to attach it to. No Plasterboard Wall plugs guys! These things are HEAVY!
For those of you that want to take the chance, it is supplied with a table stand. If you have Children, there are also retaining eyes supplied so you can cable it to a wall on steel supporting wires to prevent it being pushed over. However, the table stand defeats the object of space saving so we put ours on the wall.

TV Remote?

Read the instruction manual for this! It is quite complicated and there are lots of functions to get your head around. It took about 30 mins to work out the basics from the Manual which is very indepth and useful. In fact, it comes in a few languages so you can near enough cope wherever you are from!
The remote opens you up to a world of extra features. You can control other devices using the remote too. Simply press a combination of buttons to get it to control certain brand makes of DVD and Surround Sound. Its quite a bulky remote though but does come with 2 AA batteries to power it.

Extra features?
One of my favourites on the TV is Picture in Picture. Now I can play the Playsatation on one side of the screen and the wife can watch Emmerdale on her side at the same time! only down side is that only one of you gets sound and this only works if you are connecting your devices through different connections. So you could not watch 2 Sky Channels at the same time or anything like that! It has Fast text for those of you that rely on Teletext for finding out the goings on in the world. Its quick and has a good memory store so going back to your page is easy.
you can also set the TV to turn itself off with the timer function as well as Panel Life saving settings so you can get more life out of your plasma!

Speakers?
Yes it does have them but NO i dont have them fitted. I think the TV looks better without them as it looks more like a pure panel that way. They clip on the side and are supplied with the TV but we chose not to have them on and rely on the Surround sound instead. We have tried them out though and they do sound great. 10 out of 10 for traditional TV sound.

Downsides?
Other than the Price, it does generate a hell of a lot of heat. Far too much for my liking. This makes our little lounge very hot sometimes! The fact that MY PS2 does not work correctly with the Component RGB connections is also a pain. However, I am checkign out some forums to find an answer for this.
It is also very heavy so make sure you are making a strong connection to the wall if you are choosing to wall mount.

Upsides?
Shear picture size, quality and reproduction. It simply cannot be beaten for its money. I like the fact there are so many choice of connection (which are all built in) and you do not have to pay extra for a Video board. Its also very aestetically pleasing.

Overall?
I would definitely recommend this TV to anyone who is thinking about buying one. Im going to upload some pictures so you can see the finished article as soon as I get chance.

Thanks for reading. Check out my review of my surround sound that I use this with in my profile!