Picture, Sound, Appearance

PIP options

This TV has an excellent picture and audio. But I also have the gray band down the middle. I read these reviews before getting this set and hoped that it would not have the pblm since it was a "BA" model. If I use the AI it is not noticeable. I got this model to replace a defective Hitachi 60SX12B that they could not fix under my extended warranty. After almost a year of fighting with REX I finally got it replaced with this one. Should I pursue this band thing? I probably will notify them of it. I did calibrate it with Video Essentials and it made a big difference. Its also where I first noticed the band although I can see otherwise. I kind of feel like I should have went with the Sony. Also this set only has PIP in split mode or strobe. I don't like this.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi 60SX12B

Progressive scan line doubler is the best I have seen compared to the new Mitsubishi and Toshibas

Input package woefully lacking. Only one HD input and even a little light on S-video inputs.

Still to this day I have not found a digital television that does such an outstanding job of scan line doubling NTSC signals from digitial satellite or DVD. Scan lines are invisible from beyond 6-8 feet. There is no dot-crawl, no funky color artifacts, no blocky pixellation (beyond what digital satellite and DVD create). The tuner looks pretty good - it picks up signals much farther than my older Sony and has a good picture. The one button magic focus works quite well. After running the television for 12-15 hours, convergence was off by 1-2 cm at the edges, and the 3 minute convergence button cleared it up perfectly. Out of the box, the brightness and contrast were way off, of course, but 20 minutes with Video Essentials produces a fantastic picture.

Now the down sides: Unfortunately, there are not separate color & tint memories for the different inputs, so I had to find a happy medium between satellite and DVD, which differed about 3 "ticks". I have noticed that on black images with small very bright objects, there will be a green glow on the blackest of the blacks. I do not know whether this is a problem with my set or a design flaw. The remote is pretty good overall, but it does lack direct input selection buttons - you must scroll through the various inputs to select the one you want. This makes macro programming on my learning remote impossible to select the exact input I want. The on-screen setup menus are a bit large and gaudy, so some video adjustments are a pain to work around the OSD graphics. My only serious gripe is the slim choice of inputs. Only one HD component inputs, one S-video when the Comp. is used (or 2S-v if not), no RGB input for the new RCA HD DirecTV recievers or use as a computer monitor. What this means is that I will have to use one of the more expensive component output HD-DirecTV recievers from Mitsubishi, Toshiba, etc. (which are not available yet), use S-video for the DVD player, and composite video for the VCR - ptooey. There is another front-panel S-Video input, but that is useless to me - time to get out the hatchett and soldering iron and move the front panel input to the rear of the case for the VCR. It also means that using both HD satellite and future HD DVD's will be impossible, so this set definately has a life span of only about five years.

Overall: The picture quality is outstanding, the line doubler top-notch, the input package is weak.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba TW65X81, Mitsubishi Platinums

PICTURE, PICTURE, PICTURE,

THAT LACK OF COMPONENT INPUTS, CRUMMY REMOTE

I HAVE LOOKED AT THEM ALL..AUDITIONED THEM AT HOME,,AND YES THE SONY HAS NICE OD DISPLAY, DSS AND CABLE LOOKED LIKE CRAP, UNABLE TO CALIBRATE WITH AVIA AND VE, DOT CRAWL ALL OVER THE PLACE,,,,ALL THIS FOR 4000$ ,,,,THE MITSU,,WELL LET'S JUST SAY THEY MAKE A WONDERFUL AUTOMOBILE, FOR THE MONEY,,,AND I PAID 2850$ AT A LOCAL SEARS,,YES SEARS, THE QUALITY IS TERRIFIC ON DVD'S,,I HAVE NOT SEEN ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE FOR THE MONEY. CABLE AND DISH NETWORK LOOK GREAT, THE REMOTE SUCKS,,BUT I HAVE A SL-9000, YES THE OSD IS CUMBERSOME, AND YES ONLY ONE SET OF COMPONENT INPUTS, BUT HELL,,AWESOME PICTURE,,JUST AWESOME...NO ONE EVEN COMES CLOE AT THIS PRICE RANGE. I DEFY ANYONE TO WATCH SONY'S XBR SERIES AND TELL ME THE DVD PICTURE IS BETTER, AND I KNOW DSS IS HEADS ANS TAILS ABOVE THEM ALL,,,BUY THIS ONE FOLKS,,

Similar Products Used:

XBR300
WS805,TW56X81

Appearance!,Line Doubler! and price.

Gray verticle line appearance!!!!!!!! grrrrrrrrr, oh and Need I say a remote the size of a bloated banana with about the same functionalities :)

For the price I would say this set will allow a theatre buff the "buffer" time ie: 3 to 5 years , for technology and industry standards to meet on a common ground!......
This is not the TV for those who expect the old standard of holding on to their sets for 10 years but a'las maybe by year 2005 there will be more HDTV stations and a true industry standard in place! "ONE THUMB UP!, ONE THUMB DOWN!"

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba Theatre wide HDTV.(Blast the cabinet was just sooooo ugly lol ).

bright, well defimed blacks, good audio

too red "out of box", may take some time to get rite

over all a great tv, once you have put some time into it. i have had mine for a while now, and i am pleased with the tv. i had an ISF tech come to the house and give it a onjce over to make sure i waqs getting everthing i could out of it. you may want to do the same. over all dvd and dss look mych better than tv,vcr,cable,or tivo, but most of the time i watch dvd. the ability of the tv to display 16x9 is also a plus. once i get a hd decoder i will up date the review.

Similar Products Used:

sony kp 53xbr300

Picture

Grey veticle line during bright scenes

I let the salesman talk me into the Hitachi 53SDX89BA over th Sony 53HS10. Side-by-side comparison at the store was close with the Hitachi showing more color but with the crappy signal that's split 30x it's hard to compare. After reading the posts on the Hitachi I saw the Grey verticle line present on the left side of the screen only during very bright scenes ie. Baseball news highlights. I only saw the line during the news telecast and not again all night watching movies..but it is there. Hitachi claims to know nothing about it but offered warranty service from a local reair shop. The saleman gave me a few days to try the Hitachi and offered a exchange for the Sony if I'm not satisfied. The only reason now I may switch is to go with the bigger Sony 61HS10..it's the same price. I was initially leary of the picture quality at 12' viewing but the quality is so good I think you can get away with a Digital 61"

Similar Products Used:

Sony