Major mistake? bought mits 65" when Hitachi much better? (1 Viewer)

[John Royster]

Long time lurker, but need help badly.
I just purchased a mitsu platinumPlus 65" - WS65819 and awaiting delivery. I've heard a lot of folks bashing this line in terms of its line doubler and NTSC diplay.
I'm thinking now I should have bought the 2001 UWX or SWX series Hitachis. Hearing a lot of good things about them.
So, did I make a big mistake? I'm very tempted to cancel the order and run out and get the 53/61 SWX10B or UWX10B. I'm really bummed instead of excited - something wrong with that.
thanks in advance

 

[Bob D]

John,
I would rely on your own judgment. Have you looked at both sets? Which did YOU feel was better? Regardless of the set you choose, you will find those who love it and those who hate it. You are the one who will be watching it everyday - if it satisfies your viewing tastes, then go with it. The folks here are very knowledgeable and are much more critical than the average person. Keep in mind that for every bad review you see, there are many owners who are happy. You must realize that all sets have their own "issues" that must be dealt with. No one particular set is perfect in all respects. So, go with what you feel looks good and enjoy yourself. You'll go crazy trying to find the "perfect" TV! Good luck.

 

[John Royster]

Bob D,
great advice - I'm quite an audio enthusist and when people ask me "what speakers to get", well get the ones that sound good to YOU.
But I'm not too knowledgible when it comes to video. All this stuff about line doublers and convergence and features and what not have my head spinnin. It was tough for me to compare the mitsu and hitachi becase they are at two different dealers.
thanks again - I'm probably going to go look at the hitachi again with my favorite DVD. Man, dealer is not going to like me wanting a refund.

 

[Marc Alexander]

If you watch alot of cable and standard definition broadcast, then you might want to go with the Hitachi. The Hitachi does have a better internal line doubler. The progressive and HDTV picture may also be better out of box than the Mits.
However, Hitachis are the most difficult to tweak/calibrate. If you are interested in tweaking your set or getting it calibrated professionally, you are better off with a Mitsubishi. I don't think the out of box Hitachi picture can compete with a fully calibrated Mits at 480p or 1080i. I have a Mits 65807 and my father has the 61SWX10B. I am a tweaker but he would rather enjoy the set than fool with it tweaking (we are 2000 miles apart,). We are both very happy with our purchases.
Hope this helped

 

[Steve Schaffer]

The Hitachis seem to have a problem with the low end of the gray scale being greenish. I had a 53UWX10B for a couple of weeks and was very annoyed by this. The grayscale adjustment involves trimpots inside the set, and I couldn't get it corrected.
I exchanged for a Sony KP57HW40 and am quite happy with it. The DRC is much improved on these models-not blurry like the previous ones. Overall I much prefer Sony's doubling and stretch modes to Hitachis.
I live in one of those backwaters where ISF is not gonna happen for any realistic amount of money, so I had to get a set that would look consistently good with just my AVIA calibration. I am more than satisfied with my Sony.
If you're having second thoughts about the Mits, look at Sony and Toshiba, but maybe shy away from Hitachi due to it's tweaker unfriendliness.
That being said, there are a lot of happy Mits owners, so ya might want to stick to your first decision.
If you're a talented tweaker or have access to a good ISF guy, Mits are an excellent choice. Out of the Box, I'd go with Sony or Tosh.
------------------
Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.

 

[davepr]

Steve, Also posed this question in the HDTV area..
Steve, been seriously considering the Hitachi 43UWX10B. Do you believe the 'green problem'you experienced was specific to your purchase or endemic for the UWX Hitachi line? I did
not notice any problem when viewing the set in CC.
However, I am red/green color blind. My viewing opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.
Dave

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Dave,
The green tint at low brightness levels has been widely reported at the Hitachi forum over at Home Theater Spot, on UWX and SWX models. There's a new post over there that says it is adjustable via a service menu, and not only by the trimpots, but they don't say how.
Having had a 53UWX10B for a couple of weeks and now the Sony KP57HW40 for 5 days, I would still prefer the Sony for other reasons--It's DRC does a better job with ntsc sources than Hitachi's line doubler, it's stretch modes don't add nearly as much digital artifacting, and it's variable stretch mode is much better with much less "funhouse mirror" effect.
Hitachi also does not let you store different settings for all parameters for it's various video modes. Color and tint are universal, so you can't store a more intense color or different tint setting under "sports" vs "movie." The Hitachi is also quite slow to change channels, Sony isn't.
Hitachi and Toshiba upconvert 480i and 480p to 540p or 1080i, Sony lets you display 480p natively or converted to 960i, 480i as 480p or 960i. I think this is why Sony's doubling looks less "artifacty" than Hitachi's.
I've come to the conclusion that it's virtually impossible to do a really valid comparison looking at sets in stores unless a sales guy will let you hook up a dvd player to the sets and do a quick AVIA or VE calibration on them, and in-store ntsc feeds are almost universally horrible. I've had Hitachi and Sony both in my home using the same sources, and much prefer Sony. I don't feel I could give an honest or accurate opinion of Toshiba or Mits unless I also had them in my home using those same sources. I do know that Toshiba uses the same upconversion method as Hitachi, but don't know if it's implemented better in some way.
There are legions of happy Mitsubishi owners out there, and a couple of my coworkers own Mits and love them. They are reputed to be capable of gorgeous hd and dvd pictures, maybe need a bit of help with ntsc, and seem to be dead reliable.
Based on my own experience I would not go with Hitachi over Mitsubishi, and it should be remembered that there's a huge amount of tweaking information available on Mits, Toshiba, and Sony, and virtually none on Hitachi. If you're having second thoughts about the Mits, maybe check out Toshiba and Sony instead of Hitachi.
I am so happy with my current Sony that I'm not the least bit tempted to try anything else at this point, but Your Results May Vary.
------------------
Steve S.
I prefer not to push the subwoofers until they're properly run in.

 

[Chris White]

I've heard a lot of folks bashing this line in terms of its line doubler and NTSC diplay. I'm thinking now I should have bought the 2001 UWX or SWX series Hitachis. Hearing a lot of good things about them.
John, I'd be cautious about inferring too much from the number of posts pertaining to complaints/questions/problems with these sets. The number of complaints you hear is highly related to the number of sets sold. You tend to hear see more complaints/questions/problems pertaining to Mitsubishi and Toshiba because more of these sets are sold. You hear fewer complaints about Hitachi because fewer of them are sold.

 

[Richard Burzynski]

John:
I too recently bought a set (different model), but same brands were being considered. Top choices were Mits, Hitachi & Sony. I went with Mits for a few reasons:
* Multi-point manual convergence works better than Magic Focus. If the internal (service menu level) convergence is off and your set has Magic Focus, it re-converges to the same "off" spot(s). Yes this is user correctable, but not everyone (myself included) wants / likes to get into the service menu to perform this necessary correction. No thank you.
* Out of the box problems. My research from various boards (go check http://www.hometheaterspot.com
Rich B.

 

[John Royster]

Well thanks to everyone for their honest opinions. Just received my WS65819 today (gosh, didn't know it was THAT big). Holy DVD batman, watching phantom menace and 5th element. Wound up going back to the stores and looking at the hitachi and mits, and liked the mits better. yes that HD guarantee is nice.
First impressions? like what most say - NTSC looks decent (seen better). 480p sure does look accurate from DVDs.
must...tweak...must...not screw up new toy.