well i know that future shop doesn't carry the S500. but that doesn't help you much. My advice, get the F500 or F510 and spend the extra on better speakers, reciever or go and buy more movies. BTW, what is the diffenence between the F500 and F510. is it worth the extra $200 just to get the newer tv?
B&M in Lasalle have both units and are pretty much beside each other.
As far as the price....Hmmm at Lasalle they have a sticker price of $2699.00 and I managed to bring him down to $2453.00 36 months no interest financing.
Well I am still on the fence. S500 seems the way to go but I am curious what this year's equivalent of the S500 is? Anyone know if their V seris is any good? Any ultravisions this year, most stores don't seem to have any.
The manager of the store where I intended to buy the F510 told me to hold on for a bit. He thinks that Hitachi will come out with more new models like a G510. I know that the V510 is already out.
Is it true that the G500 is better than the F500 and that a G510 should be better than a F510 ???
Yes that is correct. The X500 series is last years top of the line model which is the best of all Hitachi. This TV set is available in US only and exclusive to specialty stores only which makes this TV hard to find.
Since the new F510 is a 4 element lense, you could say the S500 in a way is better because has the new 5 -element, however the F is using newer technology.
There is no set which is close to being equivalent to the X500 since it is the director series since it's using Wideneck II CRTs and the Deep Black Sheild. The possible closest to it was the year before X500 is the the TWX/XWX and was using Wide Neck I CRTs and also the Deep Black Sheild as well. I do have the TWX 57" myself.
Since I've never took a look at S500 vs. the new F510, I can't say much about it unless it's being compared to the S715 then I can.
An alternative you can look into is finding a way to import a US TV model since it can be done.
From my research, if you want the best picture quality available in Canada, I would suggest you look for one of: - 51S500 - 51T500 (the same as S except for 40W sound and AVNet) - 51S700/51T700 if available in Canada and you need FireWire inputs and CableCARD (but there have been complaints of fan noise related to the built-in HD tuner)
These sets are going for close-out prices now because they won't be selling them anymore.
StereoPlus in Kanata just ordered me a 57T500 from Hitachi which is supposed to arrive today or Monday (please let it be today!). Hitachi had several of them left, so they might also have the 51T500. (They were also selling the T for the same price as S.)