Hitachi 32UDX10S 32" HDTV-Ready TV
My First HDTV - I'm Pretty Impressed!
...I strongly recommend a download of the article from \\"Perfect Vision\\" as the review of the unit is comprehensive. What few shortcomings this set has are discussed fairly and accurately, and it's many strengths highlighted.<br />After a short and easy initial setup, I hooked up my standard 480I DVD player using component cabling. I popped my all-time favorite DVD (Blade Runner - The Directors Cut) into the tray, and took the set on a shakedown cruise.<br />Viewing 'Blade Runner' on a standard NTSC set has always been a mixed bag. This flick is revered as one of the most spectacularly photographed movies in cinema history. Frankly, viewing it on my old 27\\" Sony was a bit painful. So much definition, sharpness and color palette was lost, compared to movie house viewing. Viewing it low-def was a always a compromise, just an approximation of what the film actually looked like in the theatre.<br />I'm very pleased to report that viewing 'Blade Runner' on this set is a fully satisfactory experience! My perception is that seeing it on the 32UDX10S is not simply an improvement over viewing it on an NTSC set, but the film actually compares favorably with viewing it in a theatre. IMO, this is due to the fact that on a television set you are viewing the film by transmitted light, while in a movie house, you are seeing it by reflected light. The human eye tends to favor transmitted light viewing to reflected.<br />The image displayed by this set has incredible sharpness, color saturation and a very pleasing contrast range. My wife is more or less insensitive to the quality level of media presentations of all sorts. However, even she noticed the vast improvement in image quality without prompting.<br />You might ask the question of why I haven't given this set the full 5 stars, if I'm so impressed. The reason is this. When playing back 480i programming, an automatic conversion to 480p takes place. This set displays a mildly annoying level of noise, aliasing and moire artifactsaround moving objects with strong vertical or horizontal lines. While noticable, to me this doesn't present a grave issue. <br />My understanding is that this is due to a weakness in the upconversion processor itself. I've been told that these artifacts will disappear if a native progressive scan DVD player is used. <br />If the upconverted image is this pretty (with the exception above noted) I just can't wait to get my hands on a progressive DVD player.