A Hitachi Bargain to Believe In

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Practically Picture-Perfect

Color reproduction was superb, with deep blacks and bright, vivid colors that place the Ultravision in the market's upper ranks. When I tuned into daytime television shows broadcast in HD, the skin tones of soap opera actors looked natural and clear, while every blemish and fake set was revealed for what it was.

I've generally found plasma TV makers do a better job than LCD makers at up-converting analog video to HD resolution, and the Ultravision was no exception. It offered pictures akin to standard DVD quality, with no noticeable artifacts introduced by the processing technology.

To test the set's full HD prowess, I cued up the opening scene of the Warner Bros. movie 300—a gritty, inky sequence that can showcase how well a TV handles black levels and the gradations of detail within the blacks. A scene with a wolf jumping out reproduced beautifully, with individual hairs showing clearly in the flashing light of the scene.

I also sat down for a few minutes of the Miramax Oscar-winning movie No Country for Old Men, watching it on a Blu-ray equipped PS3 in a room lit by afternoon sunshine. This is the scenario in which plasma sets tend to perform poorly, but Hitachi's anti-reflective, high-contrast screen worked pretty well. Standing up close, I did spot a slight graininess during scene transitions from dark to light. But when I sat farther away, the effect was negligible.

Hitachi has struggled to build its brand in the U.S. against manufacturing powerhouses such as Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, and Samsung. But anyone purchasing the Ultravision P50S601 will be pleased to give the set a place of pride in the home.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.