Customer Reviews

Hitachi P50V701 50-Inch Full HD1080 Plasma HDTV with Power Swivel Stand

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After a week of looking in the local stores and then browsing on-line, I still wasn't sure what to buy. It was easy to pick the size, the exact features and specs was a tougher process. I settled on a 50 inch, 720p I saw in a store and set it as the base model. For a lower price, I picked this Hitachi model that gave me the higher 1080p resolution.

Setup was fairly easy with the help of my wife. We used the stand instead of wall mounting. A little tricky to install the stand because you have to have the TV off the ground for the base to clear. Used a couple of blankets and the packaging foam and it was easy. No problems getting it up on the table for the two of us. Lots of room for wires and the imput panel is easy to read. With HDMI cables, you can eliminate quite a few wires.

The picture looks really good, especially after being a tube TV viewer all my life. Once I added HD TV programming, it was just amazing. I actually will watch programming I'm usually not interetsed in because of the HD quality. Standard definition viewing is much better as well, but the TV shines when using its full HD capabilities.

Menus are clear to read and navigate. Lots of different settings available. The power swivel stand works very well and we've decided that we're not going to bother with wall mounting because we like it better. It does come with a built in TV Guide function, but with satellite service it doesn't work and it's not necessary either. So, I haven't tried to set it.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this TV. I think it's a great deal for the price. In the brick and mortar stores, I couldn't find any comparable size and resolution TVs that came close to the price.

Pros:
Very good picture.
Accurate colors.
Numerous advanced settings available in the menu.
Bright enough (on max picture power) to watch in a fairly sunlit room. Handles motion exceptionally well. Better than anything else I've seen at this size for less than $2K.

Default settings for standard def shows are perfect for my tastes. Hitachi's method of filling a 16:9 screen with a 4:3 source is, hands
down, the best I've ever seen. They manage to keep the center looking correct without making the outer portion of the picture look odd in comparison. If you look closely when text scrolls across the screen you can see that there is a slight difference in the expansion from left to center to right but it is slight and really unnoticeable with normal viewing. I don't know how they've done it so well, but they have.
On top of that, the improvement of well recorded standard def shows actually rivals some high def material. My wife and I have marveled many times at this and had to use the "info" button on the remote to verify we were indeed watching a 480i source.

Anti-reflective screen seems to work well. Speakers are adequate for anyone who doesn't have or need an external solution and well hidden for those of us who do. Power swivel is decadent, and I love it. The thing is absolutely gorgeous. This TV has a very nice WOW factor and the power swivel just carries that to a new level when showing it off to friends.

Cons: Misleading specs . Blacks are not great. Although I'm spoiled by my Panny.

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The UltraVision line of plasmas, including this model, uses a technology called ALiS (Alternate Lighting of Surfaces). This technology causes these TVs to perform more like a 1080i panel. Only alternate rows can be illuminated at the same time, so you never see the full progressive 1080-line signal on the screen. This will possibly result in a slightly less "crisp" picture but in practice is not perceivable from a 10 foot viewing distance.

Other Thoughts;

Someone elsewhere called this TV a Panasonic killer. That would be a bit of an overstatement. I own a 50" Panasonic business plasma and the pictures on both are very nice. Neither "kills" the other. However, the Panasonic definitely has the edge, though it is slight. I also paid approx. $500 more for the Panny.

This is a very nice looking TV and brings new elegance to my dedicated HT room. The bottom line here is that this is a very, very nice television. You will need to spend considerably more to get what amounts to not that much more.

After many of hours of gaming on this TV with many sources including one particular game which has caused me slight problems with burn-in on my Panasonic, the Hitachi shows absolutely no sign of burn-in at all.

For someone looking to combine many sources and formats for viewing on one monitor/TV, the Hitachi may just blow you away.

This TV debuted at more than twice what it's going for now, and that was less than a year ago. It is disappearing from some stores already. The newer model may have some slight improvements over this one but I doubt they will amount to much in actual viewing experience improvement and you will pay dearly for them.
At it's current price, this is an outrageous bargain.

I have had 3 repairs on the unit in the last 13 months and I have not seen anything on this model for almost 3 weeks as it is still in the shop. The one year warrantee was extended to cover this last repair after I complained bitterly to Hitachi. Over all I am satisfied with the unit when it is working. The speakers are typical low budget. Besides the poor reliability, Hitachi did a little slight of hand, to get people to think the unit is 1080p when it really is 1080i max. You read the product description and more than one professional review, and they think the unit does 1080p, so much for professional reviews.

Great plasma in daylight and nighttime. Power Swivel is more useful than I expected. Great black levels and auto bright adjustments. Only small gripe would be slight response lag during intense video gaming.

mediocre picture which is minimally adjustable.
great price and it is a 1080 p plasma. tends to pixelate w fast motions and sports. also, watching CSI shows on HDTV gives weird colors.
good entry level tv for those on a budget. for more serious minded tv aficionados, i recommend the sony lcd xbr w 120 hz, at twice the price for the same size, but wow.

Hitachi P50V701 50-Inch Full HD1080 Plasma HDTV with Power Swivel Stand

The picture is just fabulous. That is the first and lasting impression after turning on the set. I especially enjoy the ability to scale any video input to the full resolution capability of the P50V701. This is a full featured set with easy to follow menus for various settings and diagnostics. The audio is average with the internal speakers but there is provision for digital audio output to an external home theater system. I unpacked and installed the set myself and everything was straightforward. It is worth mentioning that the packaging was exceptional. The product was assembled in Mexico and the quality of the workmanship and finish is outstanding.. The P50V701 is plug and play after installing it to the power swivel base. Again straight forward and the power swivel base is a real asset for adjusting the positioning of the set for multiple viewers. I did fumble around a bit for the master on/off switch but other than that the installation was letter perfect.
We waited for over a year to make the plunge to a state of the art HDTV and the Hitachi P50V701 was worth the wait and the price was less than we had anticipated. I would recommend this product to anyone looking for a big screen, full featured, high definition plasma HDTV.