Upgraded the TV

dave shepard

I have been looking to upgrade the TV and finally went with the Hitachi Ultravision 65S700. I looked at the DLP's but they were only 61" and 100's more. I got the set for $2998.95 including tax and delivery. I figure the DLP's are still too new and need to have some issues worked out before I would coincider one. While they did have a real nice picture when I asked the salesmen about the eyestrain and ill feeling after watching them for a long time his reply was he has heard of some people being affected. So that along with the biggest available being 61" (I really wanted a 65" or bigger) and the higher price I felt the Hitachi gave the best overall picture of the RPTV's and it has an hi-def tuner in it also for OTA viewing, the one without the tuner (65S500) was $100 less so I spent the extra $100 for the tuner. The picture quality is very clear, sharp and bright and has made a very good upgrade from the 54" Phillips (now in the dinning room).

Dave

amulford

Cool. It's worth the money to get the inegrated tuner IMO.

Enjoy it.

PolkThug

Welcome to the "Hitachi S Series Club"! If you need any help with your settings, let me know. First thing to do is crank the contrast down to about 50. Also notice that the tv keeps track of your choice of settings for each input (bonus!). At first my set looked really grainy during dvd playback, but then I figured out theat the tv was still in torch mode (contrast = 100).

Have fun,
PolkThug

fireshoes

Thug, you're still in torch mode! I had some friends over a while back to watch some high def and they were talking about how good the picture was. Then I told them I run my contrast at 28. Blew their effin minds.

Try it out, you'll be surprised how much better it looks. I've actually seen recomended settings for it with the contrast at 18.

dave shepard

Originally posted by PolkThug
Welcome to the "Hitachi S Series Club"! If you need any help with your settings, let me know. First thing to do is crank the contrast down to about 50. Also notice that the tv keeps track of your choice of settings for each input (bonus!). At first my set looked really grainy during dvd playback, but then I figured out theat the tv was still in torch mode (contrast = 100).

Have fun,
PolkThug

Thanks for the offer I may need some advice. hear is some coincerns.
The first set was dropped off the delivery truck and the bottom front corner (next to front grill) of the housing had a 1 inch chunk broken off. the set was returned and another one was brought out 4 days later (they had to get anotherone from another store) but before the exchange was made the store manager said to use the set until then. The first set had a faint sound that could be heard form the seat (Higher pitch like a sevo or electric fan runng) comming from the back of set. the replacement has the same sound (not as loud but still there) the set in the store is quiet (you have to put your ear against the back of set to hear anything) a serviceman is comming out today.
The first set had exactly the same picture you discribed, the whites were blinding and pic was alittle grainy (set calls it noise) each using the factory settings. The new set (factory settings) the whites are no way as near as blinding and the picture is no where near as grainy the overall picture seems as very good but the differance between the two (factory settings) makes me wonder if the first sets picture just needed the settings adjusted and the second set (the one I have now) has a problem.
We watched the movie Signs ( with the second set) and there is a scene where the camera pans a room with the walls painted red and there is sunlight reflecting on the wall and the blending of the highlighted color seemed blocky (digital blocking) the store manager said that the set is of such high quality that any low quality recording will be brought out and you will see it easier then a lower quality set, seem right?

Thanks
Dave

fireshoes

I haven't seen Signs yet so I'm not sure of the scene, but since you mention the walls were red, I suspect that you have begun to notice the dreaded chroma bug. The dvd player is usually the source of it. I'm checking to see if your player has it....

fireshoes

Hmmm, your player is listed as not having the chroma bug, so I'm not sure what it would be.

Ray

I also have just purchased a 65S700. I have not used it to receive HD yet, just SD and DVD. Using DVD's the picture is spectacular (much better than my 8 yr old 60" hitachi Ultravision).
But on SD the quality of the picture seems to range all over the place really depending on the quality of the incoming signal. The old hitachi seemed to give you a decent picture even with poorer signals, whereas the S700 delivers a picture which is nearly un-watchable with poor signals to excellent with good signals. I'm presently using brighthouse cable SA8000 box. Just wondering if others are getting the same results.
Ray

65S700
sony 1000es
RT-10
RT-7
cs245
psw 300
sony 795 dvd
sony mdp 333 laser
JVC vhs-s

Ron-P

Congrats on the upgrade Dave.

We watched the movie Signs ( with the second set) and there is a scene where the camera pans a room with the walls painted red and there is sunlight reflecting on the wall and the blending of the highlighted color seemed blocky (digital blocking) the store manager said that the set is of such high quality that any low quality recording will be brought out and you will see it easier then a lower quality set, seem right?

This is what is known as digital artifacting. It is an issue with the source itself, not your TV or DVD Player. I noticed it on my 46" RPTV and on my 80" FP. Signs has one of the worst displays of this I've ever seen. Too bad, as it's an enjoyable movie.

I HIGHLY suggest you go out an pick up a copy of AVIA. It can be had at Digitaleyes for a good price. You many spend a couple hours watching, learning and calibrating but your eyes will thank you.

Here's a good link for a few here on what the Chroma Bug is. HomeTheaterHiFi

A well calibrated HDTV will show off the best and the worst of your source.


Peace Out~:D

dave shepard

Thanks guys,

I do have the Avia disc and will calibrate the set when the repairman puts a new fan inside. He came this afternoon and looked at the set for my reported humm sound I was hearing and said the fan was the culprit which caused what he refered to as a harmonic humm and instead of greasing it he said he wanted to replace it. I have the DVD player hooked with componet cables direct to set and every thing else (cable, VCR, Direct tv) goes through the reciever which is connected with a gold plated connector RCA cable (for now). Also when I went to the store lastnight to look and listen to the set they had on display to compare what I was experiancing the store manager brought to my attention that they had a special the week before and to my suprise credited my account $220!! Geees now that is what I call good service I would never known and probably wouldn't have called him on it because he had origanaly priced matched CC with the 10% off offer they had. I so far have had good experiance with the REX stores and would recomend them to anybody who has one in there area.

Dave