Further thoughts on the Pioneer 50 and the Hitachi 55 inch displays

[mindesign]

Hi again all

I am still undecided between the Pioneer 506 50 inch and the new Hitachi 55
inch - here are the reasons:

55 is bigger than 50 (dur!)

55 displays 68.6 BILLION colours as opposed to Pioneer's 16.7 million - more
subtle gradients must surely be the result, but I am yet to see them side by
side.

50 inch has a 5 yr warranty against Hitachi's 1 yr BUT reading the warranty,
it isn't what I'd call spectacular - just longer

Pioneer claims a higher contrast ratio - 4000:1 comp'd to 1000:1 but I am
uncertain what this really means when viewing as the Pioneer's blacks didn't
"seem" deeper than anything else I saw around it when last testing them.

The cabinet of the Pioneer is nicer piano black all over, but the Hitachi is
the same except for the speaker grilles which are grey - can fix that as
long as I can get the speakers out, which I believe is easily done from the
back.

power consumption (OUCH!!!) is the same

and of course, the Pioneer has that media box thing and the Hitachi is a TV,
not just a panel (twin analogue tuners - why they don't all have digital
tuners is beyond me....if I get foxtel again it will mean I have 6
components to feed into the TV)

I can get them both for the same price

So anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has bought the 55 and possibly had
a chance to test both side by side

Cheers

Steve

http://www.pioneer.com.au/home_entertainment/plasmadisplaypanel/pdp506hd/index.html

http://aus.hitachi.com.au/hitachi/content/template_products.asp?ID=1793

[Fraser Johnston]

"mindesign" <seriph_I_SAID_NO_BLOODY_SPAM@consultant.com> wrote in message
news:JGiuf.459$Xc7.12292@nasal.pacific.net.au...
> Hi again all
>
> I am still undecided between the Pioneer 506 50 inch and the new Hitachi
> 55 inch - here are the reasons:
>
> 55 is bigger than 50 (dur!)
>
> 55 displays 68.6 BILLION colours as opposed to Pioneer's 16.7 million -
> more subtle gradients must surely be the result, but I am yet to see them
> side by side.
>
> 50 inch has a 5 yr warranty against Hitachi's 1 yr BUT reading the
> warranty, it isn't what I'd call spectacular - just longer
>
> Pioneer claims a higher contrast ratio - 4000:1 comp'd to 1000:1 but I am
> uncertain what this really means when viewing as the Pioneer's blacks
> didn't "seem" deeper than anything else I saw around it when last testing
> them.
>
> The cabinet of the Pioneer is nicer piano black all over, but the Hitachi
> is the same except for the speaker grilles which are grey - can fix that
> as long as I can get the speakers out, which I believe is easily done from
> the back.
>
> power consumption (OUCH!!!) is the same
>
> and of course, the Pioneer has that media box thing and the Hitachi is a
> TV, not just a panel (twin analogue tuners - why they don't all have
> digital tuners is beyond me....if I get foxtel again it will mean I have 6
> components to feed into the TV)
>
> I can get them both for the same price
>
> So anyway, I was wondering if anyone here has bought the 55 and possibly
> had a chance to test both side by side
>
> Cheers

If you have a big enough room buy the Hitachi and spend a bit extra on an
extended warranty.

Fraser

[jrobbo]

On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 12:44:25 +0800, "Fraser Johnston"
<fraser@jcis.com.au> wrote:

>> 55 displays 68.6 BILLION colours as opposed to Pioneer's 16.7 million -
>> more subtle gradients must surely be the result, but I am yet to see them
>> side by side.

While it may be capable of displaying 68.6 billion colours, i'm not
sure how much use that would be in the real world. From memory (and I
could be wrong on this) the human eye can only perceive about 0.5
million colors. In any case, most digital content that I am aware of
(MPEG2, MPEG4 etc) is only encoded to 24 bit colour depth (16.7
million colours), so you wouldn't see any difference anyway.

I'm not saying take one over the other, I haven't seen either so
couldn't really say, I'm just suggesting that you eliminate this as
one of the criteria.

Regards

John

PS Steve, Just buy the damn thang! :-)

--------------
To reply via email, remove the spam block from my email address

[Fred At Home]

"jrobbo" <newsSPAMSUCKS@jrobbo.com> wrote in message
news:jt5kr1pkh9brsmjfmpn1om968m26mco9np@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 3 Jan 2006 12:44:25 +0800, "Fraser Johnston"
> <fraser@jcis.com.au> wrote:
>
>>> 55 displays 68.6 BILLION colours as opposed to Pioneer's 16.7 million -
>>> more subtle gradients must surely be the result, but I am yet to see
>>> them
>>> side by side.
>
> While it may be capable of displaying 68.6 billion colours, i'm not
> sure how much use that would be in the real world. From memory (and I
> could be wrong on this) the human eye can only perceive about 0.5
> million colors. In any case, most digital content that I am aware of
> (MPEG2, MPEG4 etc) is only encoded to 24 bit colour depth (16.7
> million colours), so you wouldn't see any difference anyway.
>
> I'm not saying take one over the other, I haven't seen either so
> couldn't really say, I'm just suggesting that you eliminate this as
> one of the criteria.
>
> Regards
>
> John
>
> PS Steve, Just buy the damn thang! :-)
>
> --------------
> To reply via email, remove the spam block from my email address

Google "colour gamut" or "color gamut" and you will realise just how wrong
you are.