What We Think

Its blacks could be blacker, but this beautiful plasma still delivers the high-def goods.

With the possible exception of the iPod Nano and the Motorola Razr V3 cellphone, there's no piece of electronics more stylish than a plasma TV. Even the cheapest examples of the breed exude a sexiness that escapes bulky projection TVs and small LCD panels, while many high-end models are downright gorgeous. I'm still convinced that, despite all the talk about picture quality and space-savings, the main draw of a big-screen plasma is the image it presents while turned off.

I'm no fashion plate, and I own neither an iPod nor a Razr, but even I can tell that Hitachi's 42HDT52 makes most plasmas look like Sarah, Plain and Tall. It's entirely black, but unlike many all-black televisions, it looks classy rather than generic. A single pane of glass extends beyond the edge of the picture straight out to the narrow black speakers on either side and to thin strips of burnished black metal along the top and bottom. The speakers curve back to give the panel a friendlier, rounded-off look. And the subtly rounded glossy black stand, which matches the panel perfectly, also offers a remarkable feature: a motorized swivel that let me turn the TV up to 30° in either direction using buttons on the remote control. Very cool.

I really liked Hitachi's remote. The oversized, glossy black clicker is fully illuminated and has just the right number of buttons. In another notable feature, a pair of scroll wheels take the place of keys for volume control and channel selection. I quickly got used to swinging the volume down low during commercials and zooming through channels with off-air and cable sources.

Hitachi’s thoughtful design extends to the menu system as well. Moving between items and making selections was completely intuitive, and the picture controls slid obediently to the bottom of the screen instead of obscuring the image. Despite its many features and options, I found the TV extremely easy to set up and use.

SETUP When it came time to connect my gear I discovered plenty of available inputs, including a pair of HDMI ports and two IEEE 1394 with DTVLink ports for digital video sources. The side of the plasma also includes a USB port — I plugged in a standard thumb drive containing digital photos and was able to view them. My only real complaint is the lack of a computer input.

The Hitachi includes both an off-air digital tuner and a CableCARD slot to receive digital TV and HDTV from antenna and cable sources. If you choose to ditch your cable box and go CableCARD, the free TV Guide On Screen program grid (now widely used by TV makers) helps make up for the loss of your cable provider’s guide.

When it came time to adjust the image quality I really appreciated Hitachi’s Day and Night modes. Each is fully adjustable and fully independent for each input, which allowed me to customize brightness, contrast, color, etc. for two different lighting situations with each source I had connected. You'll also find four color-temperature presets, one more than normal; the fourth is optimized for black-and-white material.

The Short Form

$3,400 ($4,400 LIST) / 44.625 x 28.75 x 14.125 IN, 93 LBS WITH STAND / HITACHI.US/TV / 800-448-2244

Plus

•Stunning design. •Sharp, detailed 1080i image. •Backlit thumbwheel remote. •Cool motorized swivel stand.

Minus

•Relatively light blacks. •Some flicker in still images.

Key Features

•1,024 x 1,024-pixel resolution •2 HDMI, 2 DTVLink (IEEE 1394), 2 component-video inputs •Digital cable-ready with CableCARD slot and TV Guide On Screen •2 customizable picture modes per input •Price $3,400 ($4,400 list)

Test Bench

The Hitachi 42HDT52 exhibited excellent grayscale characteristics on the test bench, with only mild variations before calibration in the Night/Standard setting and even better results afterward. It maintained a consistent level of black regardless of picture content. Multiburst resolution patterns revealed typical results for horizontal resolution, but flicker intruded on still vertical-resolution patterns from all sources — likely a result of ALiS (Alternate Lighting of Surfaces) technology and largely invisible in moving images. Color decoding underemphasized green significantly and red slightly for standard-def sources via component video, while high-def appeared more accurate, with only the green slightly undersaturated. Geometry and uniformity were excellent, as expected for a plasma, and no edge enhancement was visible with sharpness set to zero.

PICTURE QUALITY After connecting all of my gear and calibrating the picture for critical viewing in S&V's darkened lab, I settled down to a healthy dose of dark cinema: the Batman Begins DVD. Although I'm a fan of Michael Keaton's Batman character from the first Batman film, Batman Begins is easily my favorite of the series, and the widescreen transfer looks superb.

The film is filled with dimly lit scenes, which I’ll get to in a moment, but its brighter scenes really brought out the Hitachi's strengths. Bruce Wayne's training montage, which alternated between Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) describing the tenets of Ninjitsu to Wayne (Christian Bale) and Ducard sparring with Batman on a frozen pond, served up a visual feast. The bluish-white ice floes looked natural and neutral instead of overly blue (as some TVs will make them), and fine details were visible everywhere, from the intricate carvings on Ducard’s armored forearm to the woodgrain on the dojo floor.

When the scenes were darker, the Hitachi had a more difficult time. The black bars above and below the picture, and other black areas, appeared lighter than on many other plasmas I’ve seen. I also noticed a bit more video noise, which appeared in one instance as faintly discolored specks in the jacket worn by Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) as he walks into his office, as well as in the surrounding doorframe and moldings. The noise became less noticeable if I reduced brightness, but as the best compromise I decided to stay at about 40% and live with a bit more noise to preserve shadow detail.

Despite the relatively light blacks, the Hitachi did a fine job rendering details in shadowy forms like the folds in Gordon’s jacket as well as the stitches in Wayne’s leather gloves and the subtly lit shapes of his fingers as he holds a stapler to Gordon’s head. Also in the Hitachi’s favor, I noticed only the slightest false contouring, which appears in many plasma TVs as visible bands of gradation between lighter and darker areas of the image. Instead, even the most difficult transitions between dark and darker appeared generally smooth and even.

Having had my fill of dark, I moved on to something brighter in high-def. HDNet’s presentation of a NASCAR race in 1080i provided an excellent, er, vehicle to show off the Hitachi’s sharp HD image. The thin girders in a distant grandstand were clearly discernible, and the picture appeared so crisp that it became glaringly obvious when the camera dropped even slightly out of focus.

This sharpness with 1080i sources is one of the Hitachi’s major strengths, one it likely owes to its exceptional vertical resolution. Hitachi uses a technology it calls ALiS (Alternate Lighting of Surfaces) to achieve a native resolution of 1,024 x 1,024 pixels. This is significantly higher on the vertical axis than most high-definition 42-inch plasmas, which have 1,024 x 768 pixels. And, indeed, the image seemed sharper with 1080i sources than other 42-inch panels I’ve tested.

On the other hand, I also noticed somewhat more instability in paused or still-photo images than I usually see on a typical plasma TV. When I used my DVR controls to pause the race, for example, I saw the tiniest flicker throughout the image, mostly noticeable along horizontal edges of objects. None of this was visible when I restarted the program, however, and it wasn’t an issue in normal viewing.

BOTTOM LINEFew plasma TVs on the market can compete with the Hitachi 42HDT52 on looks when turned off, and although it falls short of some plasmas on dark scenes, its loaded feature set and sharp high-def picture help tip the scales in its favor. Yes, it does cost more than many similar-size models. But in a world of no-name knockoffs and cutthroat profit margins, this much class can’t come cheap.

TEST BENCH FOR WEB
by David Katzmaier

Unless indicated otherwise, all tests were conducted with 1080i-format signals via the TV's HDMI input.
Color temperature (Standard color temperature, Night mode before/after calibration)
Low window (20-IRE): 6,398/6,505 K
High window (80-IRE): 6,906/6,511 K
Brightness (100-IRE window before/after calibration): 61.9/39 ftL

The Hitachi 42HDT52 performed well on the test bench. Its out-of-the-box color temperature came reasonably close to the standard of 6,500 K, measuring slightly red in the darkest areas near black, but overall was somewhat bluer than the ideal. Its grayscale tracking was quite linear, however, and after calibration the results were excellent: it came within a few kelvins of 6,500 K at most brightness levels and varied by an average of only 62 K from brightest to darkest. (Calibration needs to be performed by a qualified technician, so discuss it with your dealer before purchase, or contact the Imaging Science Foundation at imagingscience.com or 561-997-9073.)

Compared with many other plasmas, the Hitachi's peak brightness wasn't blinding, although it's capable of producing a bright enough image for any normal viewing situation. It maintained a consistent level of black with varying picture brightness and didn't "crush" or obscure details in dark areas as other areas of the image became brighter - a problem with some plasmas.

Multiburst resolution patterns revealed typical results for a panel of this horizontal resolution, but noticeable flicker intruded on still vertical resolution patterns with all sources via all inputs - likely a result of ALiS's interlaced scanning method and largely invisible on moving material. The 1080i sources appeared sharpest, and component-video sources were, as expected, slightly softer than HDMI, although the two inputs gave closer results than with many plasmas. Color decoding for standard-def sources via component video showed significant de-accentuation of green and minor de-accentuation of red, while high-def appeared more accurate, with only the green still under-saturated. No edge enhancement was visible via any input when sharpness was reduced to zero. Overscan was less than usual, measuring an average of 2.5%. Geometry and overall uniformity, as expected with any plasma, were superb.

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