Hitachi 42HDF39 Plasma TV Review

Basically, when it comes to widescreen TVs, there are really two major choices: LCD and Plasma. And among those two, plasma offers a much better picture quality. The Hitachi 42HDF39 offers a decent 1024 X 1024 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. In addition to these impressive specs, the set’s picture gets a boost from Hitachi’s technology known as ALiS (Alternate Lighting of Surfaces). ALiS helps to reduce the barriers between the pixels to give the picture a more film-like appearance. The ALiS feature allows the TV to deliver more than a million pixels and can reproduce more visual information than any TV in its class.

When you get the Hitachi 42HDF39 out of the box the set is ready to go with both built-in HDTV and NTSC tuners. The TV can pick up HDTV broadcasts from the airwaves with the built-in ATSC antenna. Additionally, standard UHF and VHF programs can be seen via the analog NTSC tuner. In addition, the viewer can choose multiple aspect ratios in order to get the best picture from either analog or digital sources.

The 42HDF39 also makes use of a 4 MB, 10-bit digital Y/C filter to separate the brightness and color signals better in the 3D domain. This eliminates annoyances such as: dot crawl distortion and vertically hanging dots and makes for a razor sharp picture. The picture is also enhanced with multiple temperature controls, which ensure that colors are accurate and blend smoothly together.

Expansion capability is important if you want to keep using such an expensive piece of hardware like this for years to come, so the Hitachi 42HDF39 includes a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) that’s designed to keep it compatible with current, as well as, upcoming digital sources of high definition content like DVD players.

When it comes to sound the 42HDF39 holds its own against other plasma TVs in the same class. It uses a 20-watt integrated speaker system with MTS Stereo/SAP with dbx. The placement of the speakers is at the bottom of the set, which reduces the width of the TV giving it a more streamlined appearance. The Hitachi 42HDF39 includes the following input/output options:

• HDMI 1

• Wideband Component Video Input 1

• S-Video Input (Rear) 1

• AV Input (Rear) 1

• Antenna Inputs 2

• RGB D-Sub is Analog Input w/Audio 1

• AV Output 1

Other features that come standard with the Hitachi 42HDF39 are: Tabletop stand, 3 on-screen language displays, V-Chip parental controls, closed caption decoder, multiple screen savers, remote control (with batteries) and a sleep timer.

One problem that plagues many plasma display televisions is screen burn and Hitachi didn’t resolve this in the 42HDF39. Screen burn occurs when a static image remains on the screen for too long. A ghost image gets burned into the display thus ruining it. This problem mainly happens with video games and shouldn’t be too much of a concern during normal TV viewing, but be mindful of your viewing habits and about leaving the TV on when you’re not watching.

Conclusion

Best DVD Recorder Reviews Rating

8/10

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Hitachi 42HDF39 Plasma TV Review
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