THE FRONT LINE — MAY 30, 2006
Hitachi 2006 HDTV Line Show
Hitachi had a few surprises ready at their 2006 East Coast HDTV Line Show, not the least of which wasn’t shown — a full line of rear-projection TVs.
Hitachi’s east coast line show took place Thursday, May 25th at the Millennium Hotel in New York City. Unlike past shows, this one was dominated by flat-panel technology, with only a handful of CRT and LCD rear-projection TVs to be seen.
Contrast that with four new LCD HDTVs and seven new plasma HDTVs, and you can see where the company is headed — away from rear-projection technology. According to a Hitachi executive, they feel the rear-projection market has peaked and consumer demand for flat panel TVs is only increasing. (Don’t expect to see any RPTVs in the Hitachi line next year!)
Of particular interest: Hitachi’s Director’s Series plasma HDTVs are available in 42-inch (42HDX99, $3,499 SRP) and 55-inch (55HDX99, $5,299 SRP) sizes. Both models have a new Deep Black Natural Color Filter that is supposed to reduce glare and improve contrast and color reproduction.
They also incorporate a PictureMaster HDIII video processor, along with user access to grayscale color temperature and custom color settings. The design is gloss black with a motorized rotating base. IEEE1394 interfaces are included for control and recording of HDTV programs, and three HDMI interfaces are standard. ATSC, NTSC, and QAM tuners with CableCARD and TV Guide On Screen round out the picture.
Figure 1. Hitachi’s 55-inch 55HDS69 plasma HDTV will only set you back about four grand,
and it’s got a cool silver finish.
Figure 2. Hitachi’s 42-inch plasma HDTVs have full 1080-pixel vertical resolution, but scaling
1920 horizontal pixels down to 1024 creates some unwanted image artifacts.
UltraVision CineForm plasma HDTVs are also available in 42-inch (42HDT79) and 55-inch (55HDT79) versions for $2,999 and $4,999, respectively. These models have a black finish (not gloss) and lack the PictureMaster HDIII processor, but retain NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuning and TV Guide Onscreen. You can adjust the color decoder in the 79- and 99-series sets. as well as white balance and color temperature. A USB input is provided for viewing photos.
The 55-inch models have a native screen resolution of 1366x768 pixels, while the 42-inch offerings have an unusual pixel count of 1024 horizontal pixels by 1080 vertical pixels. This is an outgrowth of Hitachi’s original AliS panel designs (1024x1024) and was expended to show all 1080 lines in a 1080i HD signal.
There’s also a value line of plasma HDTVs. The 42HDS69 is priced at $2,499 and has a silver finish all around, as does the 55HDS69 ($4,299). These models retain the new anti-glare, improved color filter, 3 HDMI inputs, and CableCARD connectivity. A 36-watt three-way speaker system is also common to all plasma HDTVs.
Figure 3. This demo showed the effectiveness of Hitachi’s black frame insertion
technology coupled with fast LC refresh rates.
Figure 4. There are only three new LCD rear-projection sets in the 2006 line,
and the 55VS69 is one of them.
Over on the LCD side, there are four fast-refresh (120 Hz) LCD HDTVs. The fast refresh rate and black frame insertion work to clean up the motion blur that plagues all LCD TVs. This solution is similar to using a four-bladed shutter in a motion picture projector and flashing each frame twice – the image is brighter and flicker is reduced.
The UltraVision HLT79 series TVs include 32-inch (32HLT79, $2,199) and 37-inch (37HLT39, $2,699) models. The finish is deep black with a dark gray lower speaker panel and matching swivel stand. CableCARD connectivity is standard as are three each HDMI and component inputs and TV Guide On Screen EPG.
Stepping up, we find the Director’s Series 32HLX99 ($2,499) and 37HLX99 ($2,999). These add a gloss black finish, fine-tuning of white balance and color temperature, adjustable color decoder, and Digital Color Management III processing.
All of Hitachi’s LCD HDTVs employ the exclusive IPS-Alpha pixel structure, an enhancement to the original In Plane Switching LC alignment that Hitachi pioneered. It is claimed to provide higher contrast and wider viewing angles, something that more and more LCD HDTV manufacturers are paying attention to these days.
Figure 5. Hitachi’s prototype 1080p plasma had plenty of image detail to spare.
Hitachi also had a concept 1920x1080 55-inch plasma on display, which frankly looked better than the 42-inch 1024x1080 sets. Viewing some HD video clips on the latter, I saw lots of horizontal pixel “twitter”. This is a natural consequence of trying to stuff 1920 horizontal pixels into 1024 and was quite noticeable during a sequence of Smart Travels with Rudy Maxa as the camera panned across the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and a shelf of fine crystal and glass in a wine store.
The effect was less evident on the LCD TVs, which have lower resolution (1366x768) but are receiving a down-converted 1080i image scaled in a linear fashion. For all the benefits of the AliS technology (lower power, high pixel density), it has never quite looked as sharp to me with HD signals as have 768p and even 480p plasma displays.
In addition to 62-inch (62VS69), 55-inch (55VS69), and 50-inch (50VS69) LCD rear-projection TVs (1366x768), Hitachi retains the PJTX100 and HDPJ52 front LCD projectors in their line. Both offer 1280x720 resolution. The HDPJ52 offers an HDMI input instead of DVI, auto iris, and 1200 lumens light output.
By my thinking, Hitachi’s future line strategy makes a lot of sense. They make both plasma and LCD panels and have four popular flat panel sizes covered with no interest in playing below 32 inches (let’s face it, 26-inch LCD TVs are a dime a dozen), and can expand the LCD and plasma lines to larger sizes if market demand warrants.
One potential problem for Hitachi is the low prices of Chinese-made 768p and 1080p LCD HDTVs. Even though two more plasma lines have been added to the FHP factory to crank out 42-inch plasma TVs, the Taiwan “tigers” seem to be getting costs down faster on 37-inch and 42-inch 1080p LCD glass.
That means those tigers will be very competitive at retail. Case in point: Westinghouse Digital’s 40-inch LVT-40W1 is priced below all of Hitachi’s 42-inch models and makes some really nice pictures with 1080i content, even if all it offers is 1366x768 pixel resolution.
While Hitachi’s answer for now is the 1024x1080 42-inch product (which does have pixel mapping issues), they ultimately will have to answer with full 1920x1080 resolution in either a 42-inch plasma or LCD HDTV. My bet’s on LCD technology in the long term.
