Hitachi 42PD8800TA

[JandG]

well guys, I am now a proud member of the Hitachi 8800 club! A mate of mine at harvey norman got me one at staff price, which worked out to $3170.....Im stoked!!!! Ive set it all up today and cant wait to get on xbox live with my xbox 360......ghost recon here i come!!!!

You are about to be impressed.

Got my xBox 360 hooked up to my Hitachi 8800 and WOW!!!

Great stuff you will see.

Enjoy

[betty boop]

You are about to be impressed.

Got my xBox 360 hooked up to my Hitachi 8800 and WOW!!!

Great stuff you will see.

Enjoy

it just works so well with the hitachi doesn't it. I'm absolutely wrapped with that combo as well !

[unomysteez]

Im really happy I ended up with the hitachi over the panasonic 500a or the new sharp aquos......the picture quality is outstanding on 1080i, and playing the new Morrowind with surround sound and the lights out is a thing of beuty....anyone considering the hitachi dont hesitate.......buy this unit without hesitation!!

Does anyone have any quality settings they'ed like to share for use with the 360? Just wondering if I could get it any better! Also what what your advice be for just playing the 360 on it straight away?what settings would you do to prevent burn in?

[simonactive]

well guys, I am now a proud member of the Hitachi 8800 club! A mate of mine at harvey norman got me one at staff price, which worked out to $3170.....Im stoked!!!! Ive set it all up today and cant wait to get on xbox live with my xbox 360......ghost recon here i come!!!!

Haven't bought my plasma yet, choice between Hitachi 8800 and Panasonic HiRes. I know Panasonic have a new model out within the next two months, has anyone heard if Hitachi will upgrade the 8800 in the near future or do they have any new Plasma models in the pipeline ?

[betty boop]

~, has anyone heard if Hitachi will upgrade the 8800 in the near future or do they have any new Plasma models in the pipeline ?

only this one thats announced in the UK.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=32967

[UncleWill]

Has anyone wall mounted this, and could maybe suggest a secure brand that can be locked down.

I am in the process of replacing my stolen Pana 500A which was fixed to the wall using Vogel's EFW2001.

Not suggesting that Vogel's is a bad brand, but the thieves had little trouble ripping the plasma off the wall last Tuesday.

Will place order for the 8800 once insurance has been sorted out.

[quietboy]

Hey unclewill why are you not replacing with the Panasonic, any particular reasons?

[UncleWill]

The better half now likes the Hitachi more than the Pana

[blizzard76]

Anyone planning on importing a HD-DVD player to pair with this monitor? It will be interesting to see how much of 'HD's goodness' it is capable of rendering. I'm pretty sure that it drops 56 lines when provided with a 1080 signal, so it resolves most of the vertical resolution. What I'm more curious about is the impact of scaling 1920 pixels to 1024 in the horizontal resolution (that's almost halving the resolution).

Will HD-DVD look *markedly* better than an upconverted SD-DVD on this particular set? (Obviously on a 1920x1080 set the answer is obvious, but it's a bit murkier here).

Unfortunately FTA HD is pretty shocking so that's not really a good indication of the sets true quality.

FWIW I'm a happy owner of this set already, but am just wondering if the benefits of HD will be apparent on it.

[simonactive]

Has anyone spoken to Hitachi or Store Sales Reps about any new 42" Plasma models coming to Australia

this year ? If so when are they coming and what features do they have ?

[Lao Yao]

Hi,

I just bought the 8800TA and am very happy. Does anyone know how Hitachi calculated to claim that 8800TA can display 68.6 Billions colours? It's spec states that it has only 1024 gray levels which can't equate to 68.6 billions colour.

[hitchpdpowner]

I've had my 8800 for about 3 weeks now, I only had it connected via s-vid to my Strong 5000 and was pretty happy with it. This week I purchased a Samsung HD-850 and a LGE LST-5100p and connected them via HDMI and DVI-HDMI respectively...BAD NEWS.

The PQ watching images from either of the devices was shocking, bad solarisation and speckling (green dots throughout the blacks)...to say the least it looked worse than running composite into the PDP which I later proved! When connected via HDMI I also noticed a series of red dotted horizontal lines permanently across the screen which is very noticeable on black and when the blanking screen is showing ie when changing channels on the STB! Seriously it didn't matter whether I was viewing 576i/p, 720p or 1080i - HD or SD channels they all looked crap!

I figured maybe the cables weren't up to scratch so I hooked up some top quality component cables...exactly the same issue as far as the poor image quality although the horizontal red dotted lines weren't apparent.

I could safely say a sub $2K PDP would seriously look better...I called Hitachi support today and they basically said they would need to send a tech around (from some authorised repair agent as Hitachi don't have a service centre in Brisbane) who may need to take away the PDP for repair, not good enough...My feelings are no tech is going to put a screw driver to this beast I want a replacement...after all it is only 3 weeks old!

I'm going to personally go into HN tomorrow and "Chat" to the sales guy I bought it from...I don't think asking for a replacement is too much considering how much these are worth!

Your thoughts...

[mick26]

Hi, just joined the hitachi 8800 club as well. Fantastic picture!!! Family love it!!!

Set up the Plasma with a DGTEC hd-905 (never heard of the 905 and can't find any info on it) today and connected them with a HDMI-HDMI cable (Crest brand) - perfect picture but no sound. Tried in HDMI 2 on the Plasma with a sound cable - still no sound.

Has anyone got/using this connection combo? If so is there something I am missing?

[drkrac]

I've had my 8800 for about 3 weeks now, I only had it connected via s-vid to my Strong 5000 and was pretty happy with it. This week I purchased a Samsung HD-850 and a LGE LST-5100p and connected them via HDMI and DVI-HDMI respectively...BAD NEWS.

The PQ watching images from either of the devices was shocking, bad solarisation and speckling (green dots throughout the blacks)...to say the least it looked worse than running composite into the PDP which I later proved! When connected via HDMI I also noticed a series of red dotted horizontal lines permanently across the screen which is very noticeable on black and when the blanking screen is showing ie when changing channels on the STB! Seriously it didn't matter whether I was viewing 576i/p, 720p or 1080i - HD or SD channels they all looked crap!

I figured maybe the cables weren't up to scratch so I hooked up some top quality component cables...exactly the same issue as far as the poor image quality although the horizontal red dotted lines weren't apparent.

I could safely say a sub $2K PDP would seriously look better...I called Hitachi support today and they basically said they would need to send a tech around (from some authorised repair agent as Hitachi don't have a service centre in Brisbane) who may need to take away the PDP for repair, not good enough...My feelings are no tech is going to put a screw driver to this beast I want a replacement...after all it is only 3 weeks old!

I'm going to personally go into HN tomorrow and "Chat" to the sales guy I bought it from...I don't think asking for a replacement is too much considering how much these are worth!

Your thoughts...

There has been another post about the red dots on the 8800 and I have experienced them myself using DVI-HDMI cable. If you turn the brightness down to anything less than 2 they will dissapear.

[Sonicman1503560428]

Hi, just joined the hitachi 8800 club as well. Fantastic picture!!! Family love it!!!

Set up the Plasma with a DGTEC hd-905 (never heard of the 905 and can't find any info on it) today and connected them with a HDMI-HDMI cable (Crest brand) - perfect picture but no sound. Tried in HDMI 2 on the Plasma with a sound cable - still no sound.

Has anyone got/using this connection combo? If so is there something I am missing?

Mick26 - Try getting the Crest cable swapped out, I had a prob with a couple of Crest SCART/Component Cable, and had to get it swapped twice before getting a workable one.

[freeferty]

I just ordered mine today. $3199 with 5 yr warrantee at Bing Lee supacenta moore park.

I got them to pricematch harvey norman who were offering free extended warranties. My girlfriend also picked up the Hitachi 32inch LCD at the same time $2499 I think also 5yrs warrantee.

By the way Harvey Norman are really talking these down and had just crappy FTA feed.

[simonactive]

I just ordered mine today. $3199 with 5 yr warrantee at Bing Lee supacenta moore park.

I got them to pricematch harvey norman who were offering free extended warranties. My girlfriend also picked up the Hitachi 32inch LCD at the same time $2499 I think also 5yrs warrantee.

By the way Harvey Norman are really talking these down and had just crappy FTA feed.

You bought this in Sydney yeah ? Thats an awesome price with 5 year warranty ! I am in Melbourne and i have not heard of Harvey Norman offering free extended warranties. For the money the Hitachi 8800 is the best going around i am just waiting for the best deal in Melbourne.

[helldiver]

URL to the "red dots" issue:

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=30557&hl=

[UncleWill]

Simon,

Moore Park is in Sydney

I've heard unofficially that the Hitachi 8800 range is being replaced this July. Which seems rather odd because they've only been out since November last year.

I was at JB HiFi in Westfield Bondi today (Sun) and finally saw the new Pana vs. the Hitachi. And i'm still not sure what to tell the insurance assessor about my replacement preference. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Happy May everyone... where did the last four months go?

[freeferty]

I was trying to hold out to see the Pana 60a next to the 8800 as well, but this offer was too good to pass on. I'm glad you think it a tough choice between the two!

Quickly set to the 32 inch yesterday and played with it for about 10 mins. We only plugged in the analogue signal but it still looked great! Cant wait to get a decent signal into it.

[Peter D]

Hi,

I just bought the 8800TA and am very happy. Does anyone know how Hitachi calculated to claim that 8800TA can display 68.6 Billions colours? It's spec states that it has only 1024 gray levels which can't equate to 68.6 billions colour.

68.6 billion = 2 the power of 36

which is 12 bits (or 4096 shades) for each of Red, Green and Blue.

I would have thought they would be claiming 4096 gray levels, not 1024.

[Darryn]

Hi, just joined the hitachi 8800 club as well. Fantastic picture!!! Family love it!!!

Set up the Plasma with a DGTEC hd-905 (never heard of the 905 and can't find any info on it) today and connected them with a HDMI-HDMI cable (Crest brand) - perfect picture but no sound. Tried in HDMI 2 on the Plasma with a sound cable - still no sound.

Has anyone got/using this connection combo? If so is there something I am missing?

I've got the same combo (bought just this week). Initially had trouble getting picture from the HDMI/ HDMI but called DGTEC and the technician told me to Leave the TV on and switch the STB off at the power button on the rear of the 905. This apparently synchronised the signals and works fine now, however every now and then the picture dissappears when switching back to HDMI input. Just reset the power and all's good again. BTW I'm using a KORDZ HDMI-HDMI cable.

Super Happy with the Hitachi.

Just checked for myself- NO sound from HDMI. I've been running Audio to an amp via coaxial digital so did not notice the no sound issue. I just tried unplugging the coax digital and resetting the STB but still no sound with HDMI. May be worth giving DGTEC a call

[mick26]

Just checked for myself- NO sound from HDMI. I've been running Audio to an amp via coaxial digital so did not notice the no sound issue. I just tried unplugging the coax digital and resetting the STB but still no sound with HDMI. May be worth giving DGTEC a call

Thanks Sonicman & Dig. Tried turning off but no change, still could not get sound. I have not had any problems with the picture dropping out (it has been excellent). Its time to call DGTEC. I will let you know what info I get. I am trying to put off exchanging the hdmi cable as I live 3 hrs away from where I bought it!

[mick26]

Just rang DG-Tec and the Tech informed me (from his list of non-compatible Plasma Displays)that the only Hitachi Plasma that is not compatible with the Dg-Tec HD-905 is the Hitachi 42PD8800TA. He said due to the different types of HDMI signals (?) the 42PD8800TA will not get sound.

Time to start researching what HD STB is compatible with the 42 inch 8800ta and uses HDMI. It is pretty sad to see they cannot even get what appears to be a simple connection cable standardised.

[Guest LINO28]

Just rang DG-Tec and the Tech informed me (from his list of non-compatible Plasma Displays)that the only Hitachi Plasma that is not compatible with the Dg-Tec HD-905 is the Hitachi 42PD8800TA. He said due to the different types of HDMI signals (?) the 42PD8800TA will not get sound.

Time to start researching what HD STB is compatible with the 42 inch 8800ta and uses HDMI. It is pretty sad to see they cannot even get what appears to be a simple connection cable standardised.

I have the Toshiba c26 and it works great using HDMI

Thanks

Tye