Hitachi Ultravision 55HDS69 Reviews

Great Buy
by Hitachi 55 Inch Plasma , 2010-07-16

This is my best purchase. I bought this as soon as it came out in 7/2006. I only had one issue and it was when I moved out of state. I plugged it in when I got to my new home and it worked then after the movers left I went to set it up and it would not turn on. I called a tv repair man and at a high expense they would come out to check it out and fix it. They said it most likely was the power cord. I called Hitachi instead and turns out the repair person was wrong. Under the name HITACHI at the bottom of the tv there is a little compartment that opens and you can reset the tv. I did this and it turned right on. Make sure you check that before you go and have a service person come to your house as they will not tell you to do this. Great buy and great picture.

55" Hitachi Plasma TV Issue: 55HDS69
by Todd R. Calevro , 2009-09-09

I turned on my 55HDS69 a week ago and WAAH-BOOM, No more picture but the sound was fine. The resolution underway at a local repair shop is to replace the upper & lower buffers. The TV is 2 yrs and nine months old. I did not buy the extended warranty as I expected a $3000+ TV to last longer than 3 years especially since my house is like a climate controlled class 40 clean room and the TV is not over used. The parts are ~$225, The labor is ~$225. Hitachi would have sent the parts for free had I been within the 2-year window (1 yr regular warranty + 1 yr grace period). It was absolutely silly of me to think HITACHI would do the right thing and send me parts at 2 yrs and 9 months (sarcasm). I can tell you one thing......There is NFW I will ever buy a Hitachi product again and that includes anything even affiliated with Hitachi (inc. imbeded electronics). I will steer every person on the planet away from them in the future. My original plan was to ship the TV to the Hitachi CEO to make a point but the Hitachi folks don't deserve that kind of respect (Unless it blows out again) :(

Great Price- Even Greater TV
by John S. Moore , 2007-10-02

After reading a recommendation from Consumer Reports, I shopped this unit around and purchased it off the internet for $2,000 (freight incl.) and am very happy with the quality of the picture- although as with most high-tech electronics; my lack of understanding of all of the ways to connect to your cable box, DVD recorder, surround-sound, etc. made set-up a very confusing and time-consuming ordeal. If you are not an audio-video technophile, you may want to consider hiring a professional to come in and do it right.

You must buy this HDTV...NOW!!!!
by Kevin M. Ohara from Troy, MI USA, 2007-06-26

All I have to say is wow! Like some of the others have said, I too did a TON of research on this TV along with every other TV in its's class. Hitachi is a fantastic manufacturer and this is an incredible TV. Amazon's price of $1,999.99 is completely fair for a machine of this quality and their price is consistent with other retailers fortunate enough to have a couple of these TV's.

I watched my first Blu-Ray movie on this TV last night and I was blown away. Watching sports in High-Def is truly amazing. I just cant say enough.

Also, if you happen to own a PS3, this TV really brings out the quality picture in your games.

WORD OF ADVICE: Don't wait on this too much longer. These TV's are in limited supply and, as you can imagine, are selling out quickly. Also, be prepared to spend around $200 for either a stand or a wall mount kit.

Bigger is better
by Ztimster from Madison, WI United States, 2007-06-14

I did over 6 months of research and found this set to be the best bang for the buck. I was able to get it for $1729 at Tiger Direct and was lucky enough to be just out of state so no tax and I picked it up so no shipping. I put it on the wall with a Peerless Tilt mount rated to 200lbs and it was the easiest install I had ever done. The only word of caution: This is a huge set and it takes 2 big guys to lift and install.

Now I am into professional video and work closely with video reproduction on computer monitor and other screens so my eye is more critical than most and I have one thing to say. There are purchases that don't live up to your expectations, products that come out about what you expected and the few that far exceed your expectations. My experience was the latter. For the cost, this set blew me away. You can't get a better looking image from a set this size for this cost. I paired it with a Toshiba HD-2A HD DVD player and though the Toshiba is a little clunky, it has awesome image upconversion and features (an obvious early adopter box). The SD DVDs I have played on it look awesome. I will let you know how the HD DVDs look once I pick a few up. I plugged my XBOX 360 in and WOW, there is nothing like it (there were audible gasps from my friends)...even from 3 feet away!

This set is being phased out by Hitachi and replaced by a smaller 50" 1080i 401 series set now which I hear is also very good, but I was quite happy to save a grand and have 5 more inches on my wall.