HDTV Reviews

The 55-inch Hitachi 55HDX62 UltraVision CineForm Director’s Series Plasma HDTV ($6,999.99 list) offers a stylish design and plenty of quality touches, but this premium television failed to deliver a premium picture. The 55HDX62 allowed common image artifacts to taint standard-definition video, and its performance as a high-definition plasma display was comparable with that of a good panel from a year and a half ago. Hitachi televisions are among the best in the world, and the 55HDX62’s showing suggests a modernized successor is overdue.

It’s difficult to recommend a plasma display that costs as much as the 55HDX62 when it offers little improvement over older panels. The 55HDX62 also lacks three things that any premium plasma TV should provide: an effective video processor, world-class black levels, and at least one input that allows access to the panel’s native resolution. I can forgive the 55HDX62’s dated-looking menu system, even though its controls lack fine granularity, because it produced decent results. And Hitachi’s Director’s Series TVs also offer superb styling with impressive optional features such as a motorized swivel base. When the lights are out, however, the only thing that matters is image quality, and by today’s standards, the 55HDX62’s picture quality is dated.
Source: http://shop.pcmag.com/