Picture was great for about a year.

Side bar is gray which is annoying. Sound is not that great.

It was a great for the first year. 2nd year there was a line down the middle. 3rd year blue was off. Finally got it fixed by Teletron. Hitachi would have nothing to do with it. $500 to fix it, 2 months later only thing that works is the little red light that indicates it is on. Teletron warranty is 30 days labor so I am stuck again because that is most of the repair cost. Why put a thousand or more into something that cost a couple of thousand? Never again Hitachi or Teletron.

Great picture - while it lasts.

A design problem Hitachi will not acknowledge or try to correct. (Repair people certainly know about it)

Who would expect to pay $2100 for a set, when it is 2 years 8 months old pay another $400 for repairs and 7 months later have the SAME PROBLEM and Hitachi says there is no design problem BUT everyone who repairs sets knows about the design problem?? If you read all the reviews that are positive, the reviews were for sets all less than a year, most only had the sets 3 months! Hitachi will not even acknowledge the problem let alone try to help. What do you do now, pay every few months to repair a recurring problem or just throw away $2500 since Hitachi will not back their product? The frustrating part is to be told "We have the lowest failure rate across the industry" and that is their only offering as a solution to the problem. I had 36 people over on Easter for NCAA playoff games - all 36 have now seen the quality of Hitachi.

It was good while it lasted.

Hitachi's Customer service is the worst I have ever experienced.

Well I am glad that you all are enjoying your Hitachi as I was!!! Wait until the 3 yr mark hits and then you will soon find out. The conversion panel will need to be replaced @ $725.00!!! It is so common a problem that when the repair man called to order the part, the parts dept in TX said "oh you & everyone else." The part had been ordered so many times he knew the part # by memory. The repair man says that he is repairing 2 a week since June. The same problem. He told me that Hitachi would say they aren't aware of any problems like this with this model # and guess what, that's exactly what they said. I am furious that HITACHI can get away with this!!! But the big kicker is, WE get to replace this part @ $725.00 in 3 yrs because they have yet to fix the problem. My husband & I plan to purchase a new TV this week & it won't be Hitachi!!! I will do my best to see that everyone who reads or listens will know about Hitachi's CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!

It had a great picture and we liked the ability to pick four aspect ratios.

It was slow to change channels and worse than a crt on regular cable.

This set was very good for 11 months.The picture was great with DVDs.Then it went out of convergence never to return. The Sears on site repairmen have been here 5 times for over 14 hours and it still is unusable. I am frustrated and want a new set. I cannot recommend this set or Sears.

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I currently own two Toshiba 27s which have been great for 4 years.

Video picture with DVD and PS2. Ease of use.

Cable picture isn't all that great.

After about a month of searching and researching, I finally decided on the Hitachi 43" widescreen. It's picture compared to the other comparable brands and models always stood out to me. My advice to anyone who is going to spend upwards of $2000 on a t.v., is to make sure you spend the extra $100 or so and buy either component or S-video Monster cables for hookup. This will make all the difference in the world. I personally haven't found the Magic Focus feature very useful. The only way to get the picture perfect is to fiddle with it for a couple of days. Also regular cable picture isn't as good as on my panansonic 27". That is to be expected with a projection t.v. though. That's the price you pay for crystal clear picture for your dvd's and video gme consoles. In the end I would highly recommend this product.

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This is my first big screen

Picture.

Some glare on screen during daytime viewing.

I've been watching this site for a over a year. My entire set up is composed of highly rated products from this site. Each one has been a complete joy to own. I've seen this TV at local hifi stores for 1800 dollars or more. I got it refurbed for $1079! I don't think you can get a better TV for the money. I am just blown away with the picture. I thought it looked good in the stores, it's even better in my home. I use a non prog scan DVD player and I can't imagine the picture being better. Even on my sat TV signal it looks great. If you have any intrest in a wide screen TV go to UECWEB and get this set.

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I've never owned a TV like this.

still as below

same as below, except that there IS an easy way to manually converge the picture

update: This is an update to my previous posted review. I've had this baby since march and still love it. Zero problems, and I've discovered much more about the tv that I love. Mainly I wanted to point out that my comment about a lack of manual convergence is wrong. It's a remote keystroke pattern that takes you to an onscreen grid that not only lets you set convergence if the manual focus is off, but also lets you save your new settings in the tv's memory as the NEW "magic focus." thus, this will be the point your TV will try to return to everytime you push the button. So tweaker-beware, but it is possible, and not all that difficult. Other than that, beautiful picture, beautiful tv. oh yeah, and the previous reviewer....I'm guessing he got a lemon. it's possible with any set. generally people only post about lemons to demonstrate customer service and/or return issues in case someone else were to have the same problem...but he apparently just felt like b*tching.

The picture is fabulous. The sound is very basic. You will want to hook it into your reciever (but for DVDs, who doesnt anyway?)

I decided to buy a new TV 2 months ago, and Brandsmart had about 100 types to choose from, all varying by about $80 from one model to the next, starting with a 27 inch tv for $350 to a 50 inch projection HDTV for $2000. So it was a tough decision to say the least. They had a closeout on Sony analog flat screen CRT 36inch tvs for $900, so I bit on it. The tv was high enough quality to reveal all of the problems with an analog signal that you blow up to 36". (You can see the lines and all of the problems w/ a resolution that low). Also I was astounded at how small the "2:35 to 1" DVDs looked on the screen, taking up only 57% of the screen (43% of the screen was black bars). Anyway it finally dawned on me- if I can spend another $500 and get a digital widescreen tv, why not? This tv will be state of the art for 15 years. So that is what I did. DVDs look awesome (use the 1080i setting ). They are 75% larger than on the Sony 4:3 36" tv. Regular TV looks about 5 times better than on the Sony. The Hitachi DSP creates more resolution for simulated HD viewing from a normal analog source (use the 480P setting).

Excellent picture quality, even with standard cable; stunning with DVD and component inputs. Ideal size/weight for small room. Great feature set. Easy to use.

Viewing angle and Hitachi pre-sales support (personal issue -- see main review).

Initially, I started shopping strictly for a standard console TV (36") due to limitations in the available area for placing the set. After looking at the cost/benefit of the console TVs, I decided that I could get significantly more TV for the money by going projection. Initially, I was eyeing the Sony 43HT20, but I decided to go to a 16:9 aspect for DVDs, and Sony had nothing in that range. I looked at a few manufacturers (Toshiba, Panasonic, Samsung, Hitachi). When I first saw the Hitachi, I was astounded by how good the picture quality was in comparison to any of the comparable models. I purchased this set due to it's ideal size for my specific location, as well as the impressive feature set. When the set arrived, it fit perfectly into my area, which was the primary concern. The picture quality was amazing, even with my standard cable, but was stunning once I started a DVD with component signals. Sound was also very good; better than any console TV I looked at, but it's basic compared to some other (larger) projection models. The picture was significantly better standing in the room versus sitting. This is a result of the vertical viewing angle for the set, which in my case works out to be outside of the "recommended" range. This was unfortunate, although I don't blame the set at all since any projection TV would have this problem. Hitachi customer support give me bad information. Prior to purchase, they had informed me that the optimal viewing angle was within 20 degrees from the center of the screen. Sitting, I am almost exactly at that angle, but they neglected to add the fact that the angle is taken from a minimum viewing distance of 5 feet from the screen. Therefore, my viewing angle is off about 10 degrees from their "optimal". It is still tolerable, especially at night. The controls were well-designed and relatively easy to learn. Unlike some, I like the way PiP is incorporated on this set. The MagicFocus feature worked great to deal with any convergence that resulted from the delivery and installation. We've only had the set a short time, so I can't speak to long-term reliability. Overall, I can't complain a bit about the unit itself, only about the inaccurate pre-sales info from Hitachi.

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None - First projection TV (previous TV was 27" console).

look, video quality, simplicity (if desired), and pretty much anything else you can think of

no manual convergence without opening it up, and the remote, albeit a "genius remote," is programmed to control only the basics (sony, jvc, etc). meaning if you''re an audiophile and have nice componentry from say H/K, Marantz, Onkyo, etc, you won''t be able to control it. buy a high end learning remote.

I read every one of the reviews on this site for this tv before purchasing it, and decided that most of the complaints were probably easily fixed. I got the tv from hitachi''s refurb site for about 900 off retail, avoided chicago''s 8.75% sales tax, and bought a warranty right from the site so I don''t have to worry about getting a crappy refurb. I read a lot of complaints about the blacks on the tv coming off as a dark greenish, but have not noticed it on mine. The tv may have been reconfigured by hitachi before they shipped it as a refurb. point being the problem is probably easily solved for those of you who encounter it. The convergence is 4.5/5 using the "magic focus," and you only see problems occasionally and when you''re REALLY looking for it. The system itself is very nice, and the benefits have been long since explained through reviews, so I''ll avoid those. I''ll just say that it''s very user friendly, and lets you either care for the system yourself, or makes it idiot proof through toggle switched like magic focus, perfect picture, and perfect sound. Excellent for either a first time buyer or something more than interested in tinkering with the componentry (like me). The tv itself is beautiful, and the hitachi light silver and ultra silver look very nice with any other black or silver componentry you may have. I have the optional 43spW stand, with the tinted glass windows. It has an adjustable shelf, so I put my thicker reciever on the bottom, and put my thinner dvd player and vcr side by side on the top shelf (tight fit though, might not always work that way). Word from a friend of mine that designs for hitachi is that a new glass stand is coming out this summer, with a slightly different design. But either way you should get the stand, since it would look strange on anything else. Excellent product overall. I have a digital cable feed and it looks excellent, but as we all know that varies from source to source. The component inputs make anything video look unbelievable with outstanding color control. My only suggestion if you buy this is to INSTANTLY turn down the brightness and contrast on all four of the preset video modes (movies, music, news, sports). Mine was shipped at 100 for both of those, meaning you could burn in a static image (say espnnews'' ticker) in about 30 min if you''re not careful.

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1978 Datsun 280Z. (paid about the same price :)