Newbie Questions Regarding the Hitachi 55PD8800TA!

[Southie Adam]

Saw a 55PD8800 today in Bing Lee (Pitt St Mall, Sydney) today for $4799 sticker price. The 8800/8900s still have the most natural colours of any plasma I've seen.

I am unsure of this plasma. It always seems to be a little bit washed out. Not as vibrant a picture as other plasma's. I think it has to do with the 1:1000 contrast ratio.

If you are looking at this, just have a look at the 60 inch LG. They are at a similar price and has been recently made. The Hitachi have been around since 2005.

[Joecool]

I agree with you coxie. Colours are very washed out, and apparently greens are waaaaay off.

Look at the picture compared to a Pioneer. You'll soon see how soft the picture is on the hitachi in comparison.

Why do you think it is such a cheaper price for a 55" Plasma, besides the fact they are discontinued!!?

[ewok666]

I am unsure of this plasma. It always seems to be a little bit washed out. Not as vibrant a picture as other plasma's. I think it has to do with the 1:1000 contrast ratio.

Vibrant and Natural/realistic are not always the same thing......You can always put in on Dynamic mode and the colours will be nice and vibrant...if you like that ;-)

[aztec]

This is why TVs have adjustable controls!!! Trust me, you can turn up the colour very bright. You can also change every colour through the settings.

[jimmmy]

This is a general query to those who own this particular tv.

Does anyone notice any issues with any sort of movement being displayed on this set? In particular images sort of banding/blurring together? I have watched some dvds and there is huge amount of banding/blurring and some darker scenes you get halos or ghosting?

Maybe I am just being overly critical and maybe this is normal for plasma tvs??? It just seems strange and is quite distracting and detracts from the movie watching experience.

I have an Oppo upscaler and it is the same on all scaled settings via dvi - hdmi.

Is it worth getting a calibrator/tech out to have a look or is this just a common thing?

Anyone else here own one in the nth sydney area?

cheers

James

[bac]

I have an Oppo upscaler and it is the same on all scaled settings via dvi - hdmi.

Which Oppo do you have? If it's the DV971H, you may be running into the dreaded macroblocking issue when upscaling for display on your Hitachi.

The test would be to watch a problem DVD with the Oppo's DVI output reset to 576p and see if the problem goes away. You could even take this one step further and output 576i from the Oppo via component.

I had similar issues with the Oppo DV971H hooked up to my Panasonic plasma. After testing with both upscaled and non-upscaled output, I reluctantly decided that the picture was more pleasing overall with the Oppo outputting 576p and letting the Panasonic do the upscaling.

Cheers,

BAC

[jimmmy]

Which Oppo do you have? If it's the DV971H, you may be running into the dreaded macroblocking issue when upscaling for display on your Hitachi.

The test would be to watch a problem DVD with the Oppo's DVI output reset to 576p and see if the problem goes away. You could even take this one step further and output 576i from the Oppo via component.

I had similar issues with the Oppo DV971H hooked up to my Panasonic plasma. After testing with both upscaled and non-upscaled output, I reluctantly decided that the picture was more pleasing overall with the Oppo outputting 576p and letting the Panasonic do the upscaling.

Cheers,

BAC

I will give that a go and see how it works. I don't think it will get rid of the blurring/blending during fast moving scenes as this is common to TV aswell as DVD.

cheers

James

[aztec]

I will give that a go and see how it works. I don't think it will get rid of the blurring/blending during fast moving scenes as this is common to TV aswell as DVD.

Fast scenes are meant to be blurred, turn your head quickly whilst looking around and see how much detail you can see.

[jimmmy]

Fast scenes are meant to be blurred, turn your head quickly whilst looking around and see how much detail you can see.

hmmm maybe i should have worded that better.

Any movement on screen results in blanding or the picture. most notable are faces.

cheers

James

[aztec]

hmmm maybe i should have worded that better.

Any movement on screen results in blanding or the picture. most notable are faces.

cheers

James

Hmm, that doesn't sound right. How long have you had the TV and what are your settings?

[jimmmy]

Hmm, that doesn't sound right. How long have you had the TV and what are your settings?

Since November last year.

seetings are:

contrast: + 7

brightness: -2

colour: - 10

others: 0

colour temp: normal

contrast mode: auto

everrything else off or low

Is it worth getting a calibrator out? I am not sure exactly what they can do???

cheers

James

[jimmmy]

Hmmm

another interesting thing I have notices. Pictures on the edges of the screen become massively stretched and then thin again when they move towards the centre of the screen......

this just a design fault?

cheers

James

[aztec]

Hmmm

another interesting thing I have notices. Pictures on the edges of the screen become massively stretched and then thin again when they move towards the centre of the screen......

this just a design fault?

cheers

James

It sounds like you have the zoom set to Panoramic, there is a button on the bottom row of your remote, second or third in from the left. This could possibly cause some of the issues you have. Adjust this to the "Full" setting and see how you go.

[aztec]

Since November last year.

seetings are:

contrast: + 7 -4

brightness: -2 0

colour: - 10

others: 0

colour temp: normal Cool (normal seems to add a tinge to all the colours and white doesn't come out as white)

contrast mode: auto Normal (although I have never seen a difference between this and auto)

everrything else off or low Everything else set to default settings

Is it worth getting a calibrator out? I am not sure exactly what they can do???

cheers

James

I've put my settings next to yours.

[jimmmy]

I've put my settings next to yours.

az

thanx for the info.

I have changed the setting and I will see how I go with it.

I can't seem to change the zoom function. It just says full and wont change, maybe have to try different sources.

cheers

James

[aztec]

az

thanx for the info.

I have changed the setting and I will see how I go with it.

I can't seem to change the zoom function. It just says full and wont change, maybe have to try different sources.

cheers

James

Something not right there, perhaps double check that your source device is set to output 16:9. Are you using HDMI or component?

[jimmmy]

Something not right there, perhaps double check that your source device is set to output 16:9. Are you using HDMI or component?

ok source is already set to 16:9 and I have played with the zoom. It was on full and that filled the screen and was a little stretched. I changed it to 4:3 for tv dvds like x files and it has gone to the grey bars on the side and the picture looks a little tall. IE stretched vertically now.

My input is dvi to hdmi. The only component I use is for the PS2.

I should add that for some reason VGA input looks awful on this TV. I checked on my dads 40" LCD and the picture via laptop looked as good as my laptop screen. On mine it looks fuzzy and ditorted and colours too bright.

so problems I have are:

moving images of any sort bland and blur

big motion artifacts on most normal dvds (really annoying)

images on screen get stretced badly when they move to the far edges (bad power supply???)

cheers

James

Edited October 17, 2007 by jimmmy

[aztec]

ok source is already set to 16:9 and I have played with the zoom. It was on full and that filled the screen and was a little stretched. I changed it to 4:3 for tv dvds like x files and it has gone to the grey bars on the side and the picture looks a little tall. IE stretched vertically now.

My input is dvi to hdmi. The only component I use is for the PS2.

I should add that for some reason VGA input looks awful on this TV. I checked on my dads 40" LCD and the picture via laptop looked as good as my laptop screen. On mine it looks fuzzy and ditorted and colours too bright.

so problems I have are:

moving images of any sort bland and blur

big motion artifacts on most normal dvds (really annoying)

images on screen get stretced badly when they move to the far edges (bad power supply???)

cheers

James

Did you see it in the store before you bought it? If so, did the one in the store exhibit the same behaviours? How long have you had it? did you get it brand new? Have you fiddled with any other settings (perhaps you could do a factory reset to see what happens).

Perhaps check your cables and cabling.

I have watched high-motion programmes like football, action movies, car racing, etc and find it to be very good, the way Hitachi handles fast motion was one of the reasons I chose this TV.

There is no reason any of the above should be happening. The zoom setting should be on "Full".

[jimmmy]

Did you see it in the store before you bought it? If so, did the one in the store exhibit the same behaviours? How long have you had it? did you get it brand new? Have you fiddled with any other settings (perhaps you could do a factory reset to see what happens).

Perhaps check your cables and cabling.

I have watched high-motion programmes like football, action movies, car racing, etc and find it to be very good, the way Hitachi handles fast motion was one of the reasons I chose this TV.

There is no reason any of the above should be happening. The zoom setting should be on "Full".

yeah sat at bing lee and HN for ages looking at the hitachi against a few others. Only thing better at the time was the fuji and that was about 1 1/2 times the price for 5" less.

Had the tv for about 12 months now I guess.

Yep, got her brand spanking new.

The only other thing I did with this TV was to turn the flickering black thing off which seems a common thing to do with this tv.

Cables checked, all hdmi except for the ps2 via component. Power supply is via a belkin pure av

I must admit. I was at my GFs place last night watching tv and she has a 50" fuji (year old when they were the best) and tv viewing was worse than mine. Lots of banding/blurring on fast moving images.

I also watched some dvds today. The office and Mission impossible one and noticed a couple of things. Faces blurred as usual during movement but the other thing was a sort of ghosting or halo around ALL images when they shifted or moved on screen.

I don't notice this as much with 'hi def' tv and am wondering if maybe an upgade to HD DVD/BR would help to negate this issue. Dvd player is currently doing 576p i think...........

you are in the hills right???? Maybe you could look a mine or vice versa to see whether I am just being overly sensative or whether there is actually an issue with the tv????????

I might take my dvd player round to my missus to see if there is an issue there.......

running out of ideas and getting a little frustrated.

cheers

James

[jimmmy]

yeah sat at bing lee and HN for ages looking at the hitachi against a few others. Only thing better at the time was the fuji and that was about 1 1/2 times the price for 5" less.

Had the tv for about 12 months now I guess.

Yep, got her brand spanking new.

The only other thing I did with this TV was to turn the flickering black thing off which seems a common thing to do with this tv.

Cables checked, all hdmi except for the ps2 via component. Power supply is via a belkin pure av

I must admit. I was at my GFs place last night watching tv and she has a 50" fuji (year old when they were the best) and tv viewing was worse than mine. Lots of banding/blurring on fast moving images.

I also watched some dvds today. The office and Mission impossible one and noticed a couple of things. Faces blurred as usual during movement but the other thing was a sort of ghosting or halo around ALL images when they shifted or moved on screen.

I don't notice this as much with 'hi def' tv and am wondering if maybe an upgade to HD DVD/BR would help to negate this issue. Dvd player is currently doing 576p i think...........

you are in the hills right???? Maybe you could look a mine or vice versa to see whether I am just being overly sensative or whether there is actually an issue with the tv????????

I might take my dvd player round to my missus to see if there is an issue there.......

running out of ideas and getting a little frustrated.

cheers

James

Have a feeling it might be a combination of source (dvd player as well as the dvds themselves) plus the display. I am tempted to just jump into HD DVD and see how it looks on this tv. Blue ray looks bloody awesome in store at JB.

cheers

James

[aztec]

you are in the hills right???? Maybe you could look a mine or vice versa to see whether I am just being overly sensative or whether there is actually an issue with the tv????????

Hi James,

Just read this, sorry. If you are still having problems and you are also in the Hills I could possibly come around some time. Are you still having the problem. I read also that you've had the set for a year, has the problem only just started. If so, then yes, could be a problem with the set.

PM me if you want to discuss further.