Hitachi finally makes it!

Robert P. Jones · 02-27-2004, 01:46 PM

My primary gripe about Hitachi has always been that it does not allow a calibrator - or a DIYer - to fine tune the convergence using material sent in to the set, like the AVIA circlehatch grid, or even more important for final pass, the AVIA resolution pattern. We have always been limited to using their internal grid, which op still leaves a lot to be desired.

I just did one of the newest of the new, and dang me, they did it! They've made an accomodation for doing just that: fine tuning the convergence using native material - or a pattern - sent in from the outside.

Forgive me if I have missed this before, and I can tellya for sure this was not in the last service manual I looked at - but once in the convergence menu, you can now scroll MENU button and it will eventually deliver you to where the cursor is the only thing visible from the service menu, with the actual picture you are sending in, in the background! You can now fine tune the picture ITSELF, with the cursor, which is instrumental in delivering the finest picture possible, in ANY RPTV.

For the first time, I was able to COMPLETELY dial in a Hitachi! And after a few passes to memorize the data and initialize the Touch Focus, it finally came back as an extremely coherent picture, way up there in the top range category of crispness, up there with Mit and Panny and Pioneer. It still does not have the invisible points like Mit and Pioneer do, which allow for extreme coherence at the edges - but it delivers, just like the Toshiba does, which also does not have the invisible points, either.

And with their exquisite color decoder parameter registers, the decoder of course was able to be dialed in completely - we've known about this for quite awhile. Allowing for the blue isolation test to be completely trustable, with no color push or diminish of any kind. And the RGB0 register allows for color isolation, which is not available on the Tosh's or the Pannys, nor in the critical areas of the Mits's of today - not since the x5 series, where in the following year, in the Mit x7 series and all after that, they were permanently deleted from the xx57 sm.

So I now consider Hitachi one of the best RPTVs out there - top flight, top rung.

Go Hitachi!!!

Mr Bob

Royce H · 02-27-2004, 08:14 PM

Mr. Bob,

Glad I could finally read this post, as on the other Spot!, it wouldn't come up ("page not found"). I've been a fan of the Hitachi sets for a long while, ever since our 4:3 40" RPTV from the late 80's, and I'm glad to see they finally allow convergence using external patterns. BTW, our current 46807 Mits does allow gun isolation in the xx59 menu--you just can't make any adjustments that way. But I'm sure you knew that already...

Robert P. Jones · 02-28-2004, 03:34 AM

Right. Only the corrections for color and tint are in the xx57 menu. Such as blue isolation. And so used to be the color decoder alignment registers. Not very handy to have to exit the xx57 menu and go over to the xx59 menu to do a blue color isolation every time you want to do a color correction, then go back to the xx57 menu and make whatever changes were indicated for color or tint, then go back to the xx59 menu to test it again with blue isolation... And then do it all again. And again. And again...

And in the xx59 convergence menu - where yes you can do color isolation - if you want to do any find tuning on your colorations, you better have all your User bargraphs centered, because if you have fine-tuned your color and tint to specific non-centered values and then go into the xx59 menu, the convergence sm comes up using the changes you had set in there while in User. Which can have a very strong effect on how the blue isolation testing for color and tint comes out...

Mr Bob

Shane Martin · 02-28-2004, 10:17 AM

Mr Bob,
Which model did you calibrate?

I was looking at the Toshiba line and the Hitachi is appealing as well.

Robert P. Jones · 02-28-2004, 10:58 AM

57S700.

And if you are looking between the 2, I would now give Hitachi the edge. Just the repair history alone would steer me away from ever owning a Toshiba RPTV, unless and until they come up with features far and away superior to anything they've ever had. Like maybe going to 9" guns on their 65" RPTVs.

But only Mit is doing that this year, perhaps along with Philips, who has had this feature all along.

Unfortunately the Philips - including Marantz - has a convergence system inferior to how Hitachi used to be! It's not a bad RPTV - its convergence system can be worked with - but is not the best, either.

For 9" guns on a 65"er, Mit is the leader in that category, with a convergence system second to none as far as RPTVs go.

Mr Bob

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Gregg Loewen · 02-28-2004, 11:05 AM

Hi Bob!

This feature has been useable for the 20b series and now the 500/700 series.

As a side note, dont try to do focus work while using the TV generated convergence grids, as the electronic focus is defocused while in the convergence menus.

Another side, (dont know if your doing this way or not?) I use the filters for the color decoder work in the Mits, then when close (almost always 12 14 8 6 ) then do the color gun thing to isolate the gun. Another way of doing this is simply covering the unused guns with cardboard via the rear access panel.

Hitachi has come a very long ways over the past 3 years, thanks guys!

Robert P. Jones · 02-28-2004, 11:29 AM

Good advice. I use filters to get things close also. Hadn't thought of using the back panel for color isolation, tho. Much easier than continually removing the front screenframe!

>>As a side note, dont try to do focus work while using the TV generated convergence grids, as the electronic focus is defocused while in the convergence menus.

Yeah, I have found your advice here to be a universal truth, and not just because of the defocusing you are mentioning here.

Whenever it is time for the electrostatic focusing at the trimpots of the focus block, I stay in regular User viewing mode and ALWAYS use a grid sent in from the outside, at medium intensity, like the AVIA 50 IRE Circlehatch grid. In this case the Widescreen Enhanced one, of course. (Always turn on your AVIA Repeat feature whenever you use AVIA patterns, found in the lower left corner of the video test patterns section. It stops the automatic progression to the next pattern on you, every few minutes.)

If you try to use built-in grids on any RPTV, they are usually characteristically different from anything sent in, and the electrostatic focus has to be totally set for the AVERAGE light intensity you are going to be watching on your screen. I have seen older Mits RPTVs and Sony DVs which did not have the best power regulation, and they had completely different settings for the focus block trimpot(s), depending on where the overall light content is set!

For the optical/mechanical focus, I usually spread the 480 scanlines apart, also, via increasing the height immensely. This lets you see the individual scanlines REALLY good. Then I use the Cantilever Technique on the bugger...

It's best to mechanically focus on the scanlines of 480 rather than 1080 or 720, as individual scanlines are a lot easier to see on the 480. Which makes the HD scanrates far superior for actual content viewing, but not as good as 480 for focusing.

This stuff is standard operating procedure for all RPTVs, of course, not just Hitachis.

Mr Bob

JohnnyG · 02-28-2004, 04:05 PM

The problem with all this is that convergence changes with the APL. You can nail it at one APL, and it'll be off at another. The APL is pretty low with the standand black-background convergence screen though.

Robert P. Jones · 02-28-2004, 05:02 PM

True, but much more so on the older ones than the present ones. The warmup time is the main thing you have to allow for on today's units, as far as convergence goes. But back in the day, the Mits's would go horribly skewed when the APL changed. The worst example I can think of was On Golder Pond, whenever the lake was showing, which was a terrifically high APL. I would see the convergence go to as much as 1/4" separation between red and green on vertical edges, 3/8" on bigger units!

EVERYTHING in a calibration should be set at average, viewed-at APL. Grayscale skews with APL also. It should also be set while at exactly where you'll be watching your viewed material at.

Another thing. During calibration, User color and tint should be set ONLY at their midpositions, except for certain brands, where it won't matter. On some brands, if you set your internal color and tint settings while your User ones are not at midpoint, it won't be correct.

No truer words were ever spoken, John!

Mr Bob