Which 51in. HDTV should I get the Hitachi or Sony (1 Viewer)

[Darren_Reed]

Lam - If you live near a circuit city, then you can get a 51S500 for a GREAT price.. less than what they are asking for the F500, a inferior set. Definitely go for the S500 series, I just got one myself (the 57") this week and love it, and yes the stretch modes are MUCH better, I don't even notice the warping now. And the picture is as incredible as always

Let me know if you want details..

 

[Darren_Reed]

Craig - the S series has the new, improved stretch mode. The F series has the same old mode.

 

[joey mr]

yes that is correct as far as i know for the new models the hit.500 has new stretch mode and also the new sonys have improved there stretch mode

 

[Gil D]

I thought that Hitachi 51" was looking pretty good in HD until I saw the Sony 51" KP51WS510. Set the Sony to Standard or Movie and turn down Picture and Sharpness down to 35-40% and the picture should look pretty good and eliminate the grain. Another thing about the Hitachi is that the NTSC tuner is agonizingly slow.

The mits 55" is a nice set with firewire but was also too big for my room. I also didn't think the Toshiba was that bad and pretty close to the Mits.

 

[Matt Hobbes]

I wouldn't get the Sony... I thought the picture quality was pretty bad. I had purchased one, but I returned it... my 32" analog set gives a cleaner picture... someone mentioned turning down the sharpness helps... it does... but you sacrifice detail on distant objects... ie: they become blurry. Lower quality dvds such as tv shows: ex. the Friends sets, look really bad. The 51" Sony I purchased might have been damaged to begin with, but it did leave a negative impression on me.

 

[joey mr]

to be honest the best sony rptv that i think is the sony wv600 better lenses and a nicer looking set

 

[Jason Charlton]

It's my understanding that the lenses on the 500 and 600 series Sony are the same, it's the 700 series that has different optics ("Microfocus Lenses"). Of course, I could be mistaken. Last night I calibrated my 57" Sony set with Avia and saw a marked improvement in the picture quality - the graininess of the image when watching cable was drastically reduced, and the colors are now spot on (there was a slight red push, but easily corrected).

Watching DVDs is an amazing experience. I popped in Lost in Space last night (I know, not a great film, but it has an EXCELLENT video transfer) and was blown away. I have yet to do a full manual convergence, and imagine things will get even sharper once I do that.

There don't seem to be many Sony proponents in this forum - maybe it's a result of the "Flicker" problem that plagued sets last year, but I'll just go on believing it's because we just can't pull ourselves away from our sets

-Jason

 

[Lam Nguyen]

I picked up the S500 yesterday at CC and is very happy with the set so far. The picture looks terrific and the stretch mode was fine also, I don't know what the stretch mode for the F500 looks like but Im definately happy with the S500.
The listed price at CC was $2,245 and I paid $1,975 before tax, I also went to Ultimate but their price wasn't better.

 

[Kevin-M]

As far as Sony is concerned, I think they lost a lot of customers in the late 80's early 90's. Back then, at least in my circle of friends and family, everything you bought from Sony seemed to break within a year. Combine that with their higher than average pricepoint that continues even today, and it's not hard to find other brands that give you far better bang for your buck.

They do make some nice product though. I think most agree that their 40" XBR direct-view tv is probably the best direct-view tv on the market today. On the other hanf, some of their mid to lo-range RPTV's don't exhibit the quality you can find elsewhere for cheaper. Laziness on Sony's part? Could be........

 

[Lam Nguyen]

I noticed yesterday that while watching DVD's using the component video output, I could not pull up my receiver (HK 510) on screen menu (OSD). When I use composite video cable this was possible. Anyone experience this?

 

[JohnnyG]

I have not seen artifacting at all in any HX83 televisions.

And I have not seen artifacting at all in any H83's either.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

My first "keeper" rptv was a 99 model Hitachi analog ultravision, loved it.

When I upgraded to HD-ready widescreen in fall of 01, I naturally bought another Hitachi, hated it.

Swapped for a Sony KP57HW40, loved it. Been going strong for almost 2 years, no flicker (it's an early production model with different crts than the later flicker-prone sets). this thing is on 4 hours a night on weeknights and maybe 12 hours a day on weekends. Never a glitch, gorgeous picture after a few minor easy service menu tweaks, and I have yet to feel any need for a manual convergence. The only thing that would make me give up this set is if HD-DVD comes out and won't play thru component inputs (not an issue with newer models that have DVI).

Now that the flicker problem seems to have gone away on recent production models, I would still take a Sony over anything else within $500 of the price.

 

[Kevin-M]

Hey JohnnyG, any chance you might start carrying Hitachi in the future? Your prices rock and the the cheap ISF and free delivery make me really want to buy from you, but I'm buying a Hitachi.

 

[JohnnyG]

Kevin, if I had the space, I definitely would add them. As for now, I'd have to dump my primary brand. With the way they've been treating me lately though...

 

[Whitney B.]

I am looking at both those sets and I saw a demo today with them both side by side. Neither were professionally calibrated only manually calibrated. The tosh had much truer colors and the hitachi pushed red noticably but that could probably be fixed by a professional calibration. The big diference I saw was the toshiba had a much higher level of detail. A slight amount of ghosting around the edges but considerably better than the soft image of the hitachi. I watched a loop of finding nemo and the starfish in the aquarium was almost solid pink on the hitachi but the toshiba showed pinks oranges reds and yellows. The color and detail would easily go to the toshiba on this one. This years toshiba models have been doing incredibly well as far as reviews. Everyone seems to be ranking them on the top of their lists. At Video Only it's only $1699.99 US. It's pretty darn good for the price. Now if only Tosh will bring out their lcos sets at some point.