Hitachi 42PD7800TA

Brilliant screen – Absolutely love the picture... my mate tony was right when he raved about it. Have to thank my friend Tony for making me an offer I found hard to refuse (it was second hand). The only down side to this TV is the power draw at 380 W which is double that of today's TV's. It must be about 10 years old now (dated 2006?) but shows no signs of aging.

It has the optional swivel base which apparently used to cost an arm and a leg (highly desirable feature).

It originally came from a doctors surgery where it was presumably on all the time? ...but shows no signs of wearing out.

If it stops working one day we'll be sorry to see it go... as the new TV is unlikely to last as long?

We've got it hooked up to a set top box and it runs faultlessly. Prior to that we had a desktop tuner which worked perfectly. Bluray player works just fine with it. There's not much it can't do when hooked into the right device.

Only one HDMI connector on the back...which limits how many devices can be connected via HDMI at the same time... but this isn't a huge problem. Plenty of other connectors.

The 20W speakers are great... definitely much better than the run of the mill TV speaker.

Remote control works faultlessly and is relatively easy to use.

This is a high end quality item as demonstrated by its long trouble free life.

A USB plug on the TV would be handy... but we rarely want to plug in a USB drive.. so it's not really necessary?.

An ethernet connection might be useful... but the STB has one... so not a problem?

Definitely worth picking one of these up second hand if you have someone who offers you one at the right price.

:-)

Excellent – Still despite my whining, hands down, the best TV I ever bought and beats every TV I have seen so far. I have seen brand new 50inch flat LCD/Plasmas go for half of what I paid for mine, but I wouldn't trade up if I was paid the difference. To me it's like comparing a classic muscle car to it's modern day imitation. I will never go cheap and buy an LCD. Plasma all the way. Hitachi has my business. Oh, special tip to those out there planning to ship any Plasma TV: Make sure you let the TV rest for at least 48hrs before you plan to have it packed up. I have no scientific basis for this; just that I made sure my TV was off/disconnected of everything for at least two days before I boxed it up. Also, watch it getting crated up. Make sure the movers put the TV Box right side up. After 4 years still beats any LCD or Plasma I have seen offered today in quality and features. (Every type of video hook up, HDMI, USB, SD Card) The stock speakers make it so I hardly bother with my external surround sound system and the motorized rotation is still the envy of anyone who comes over to my house to watch a movie. I have moved overseas from the states and europe twice with it and zero problems. (Even though the movers ignored the "This end up sign" and transported it lying sideways all the way from Germany to TX) Older it gets the more you need to take heat radiation into consideration on where you put it; burn-in starts becoming an issue (Sleep timer, screen refresher, adjust picture settings); depreciation value (Bought it for $3000.00 - price after store in $1000.00 rebate; not wall mountable (motor mount) and it's heavy as hell.

Excellent – Possibly the best tv ever made. I strongly reccomend this to any person looking for a sturdy, high-quality tv. Also, you can rest assured that it is good because it is not a model made in the United States, but in Japan, which makes the best of everything. The only problem with mine is that after 3 years of living in Japan (where i bought it) i had to move, and the idiots mishandled it. Now it has a two-pixel-wide line al the way down the left side of the screen that is constantly a red colour (although it does change to green and even black based on what the background colour of the screen is). Despite this minor, albeit annoying, issue, it is still a very good TV that is perfect for some serious HD gaming, like with a PS3. PAL, SECAM, and NTSC makes it the perfect TV for ANY region; 1080i makes it the best universal-HDTV anywhere; amazing picture quality because it is plasma, moving can present a challenge because it cannot be tipped or tilted