Hitachi's new 42HDS69 42-inch plasma

HD Beat has the scoop on an upcoming 42-inch plasma display from Hitachi that delivers a lot of features for its $2,500 price tag. The 42HDS69 accomplishes a native resolution of 1,080i through a rather strange pixel configuration of 1,024 x 1,080, sports such viewing enhancements as an anti-reflective screen and ALiS pixel barrier minimization technology, and features three each of component and HDMI inputs along with an optical audio out and CableCard support. No definitive release date has been announced, but the 'Beat reports that we can expect to see this model in stores "soon."

[Via HD Beat]

[DJ @ May 1st 2006 5:12PM]

Impressive specs, especially the 3 HDMI connections and 75 lb weight. Price seems a little high now that Dell and others are all in the $2100-$2300 range for their 42 inchers.

[Kaibutsu @ May 1st 2006 5:24PM]

Erm.. how do you build a widescreen with a 1024*1080 resolution?
Are the pixels stretched or what? It just blows my mind.. How? Why? WTF?

[ron guancione @ May 1st 2006 5:50PM]

Either its a typo by engadget, hitachi is retarded or hitachi made the typo. There is no 1024 x 1080 thats not even 4:3 thats practically 1:1

[slyecho @ May 1st 2006 6:20PM]

Plasma screens usually don't have square pixels.

If you don't believe me, just look at the picture: it's not 4:3 or even 1:1. Just look at it, it can't be anything other than 16:9.

[Bernardo @ May 1st 2006 6:48PM]

I'm sure it will just resample any incoming signal to fit it's strange pixel ratio.

[sdwells @ May 1st 2006 6:51PM]

it doesn't matter if they are rectangle pixels or not... its a gross loss of hd information....

considering 1080 native resolution is 1920 x 1080...

who cares if they managed to make the rectangles so wide and thin that they could make a 16:9 ratio, doing so out of such an awkward resolution as 1024 x 1080 is absurd

[Matt S @ May 1st 2006 7:17PM]

I agree, making it 1080 vertically does not qualify it as an HD ready set. I'm in the market for an HD set at the moment and im sick of seeing TVs with the "HD Ready" sticker on it, only to find that its 1024x1024 or some other resolution that isn't 1280x720 or 1920x1080. It baffles me why the only devices available in the UK that are native 1280x720 are front projectors. In my book if it isnt NATIVE 720p or 1080i then its not HD ready and you're getting ripped off.

[Robotron @ May 2nd 2006 1:01AM]

Actually it is HD.
Here is a good thread on it:
http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=22358

[Matt S @ May 2nd 2006 6:07AM]

I know that technically it is HD, however I don't consider it HD unless there is no up/downscaling necessary.

[Perrey Z. @ May 2nd 2006 8:05AM]

3-HDMI and 3-Component sounds good, however for thouse who depend on digital cable the TV no longer have a CableCARD slot, the only option is to rent the card AND the set-top box from their local providers and on top of that the motorized swivel stand is gone. These things are going cheaper and crapier every year not to mention the overrall design looks crappy. This thing will NEVER beat my Hitachi 42HDX62 Ultravision Director's Series.

[Puwaha @ May 2nd 2006 12:16PM]

Matt S said:

"I know that technically it is HD, however I don't consider it HD unless there is no up/downscaling necessary."

Sorry to burst your bubble, but *All* HDTV's have to scale at some point in time. Even the 1280x720p-native DLP projectors must scale down 1920x1080i to fit the native 720p resolution.

And the same goes for the reverse with 1080i (and 1080p) sets... they must upsample 480i, 480p, and 720p resolutions to fit the native 1080i (or 1080p) resolution.

Most "720p" LCD-tvs are actually 1366x768. The picture quality is going to be dependant on the quality of the scaler in your TV or outboard equipment. From what I've seen... the 1024x1024 ALiS plasma screens (Hitachi, Fuji and Sony) have exellent picture quality compared to the other plasma and even LCD technology out there in the same price and size range (typically the 42").

[twangbang @ Sep 17th 2006 9:56PM]

I hated the Hitachi 42HDS69, and I returned it after a day and a half of watching football and exchanged it for a Panasonic TH-42PX60U, which I just set up two hours ago and I already love.

Yes, the Hitachi has a LOT of good features, and I ultimately chose it because I liked the design, which I did prefer to the Panasonic’s more “boxy”, extremely silver look. Then I tried to get the color right. I bought the Hitachi the day before the CNET editor’s review came out, and I partly based my decision on the glowing user opinions. Just today, after returning the display, I read the new editor’s opinion, which states, “its color of green is about as far off as we've seen”, and “green primary color…is offensively inaccurate”. And yet this set gets a 7.3 rating? I think a plasma screen can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but if you can’t get a football field not to look like a neon sci-fi movie set, what good do they do?

The yellows and the reds are another matter. The yellows are otherworldly. Goal posts and first down lines glow strangely, and have a greenish tint. I adjusted the color saturation way down, and the red of the Houston Texan’s socks still popped out distractingly, and they had a strange, bluish, nearing Pepto-Bismol pink hue. There is no way to get the orange “C” on the Chicago Bears’ helmets to not be a red of some sort.

These color discrepancies persisted even when the skin tones and blues were perfect. I could get an acceptable picture on some HD movie channels, but the colors would be “off” again on other channels. The non-HD channels had little crispness.

Please note that I spent many hours tweaking the Hitachi, trying every permutation of the numerous settings, and I have a degree in TV production, so I’m not just saying that it looked bad out of the box. I wanted this screen to work for me.

Maybe the other reviewers don’t care about the unnatural look of this plasma screen, but it drove me crazy.

[bj @ Oct 2nd 2007 12:22AM]

I don't have a CableCARD :(