Built to last
HITACHI'S NEW LONG-LIFE PLASMA PANEL IS HERE. WILL IT AGE
GRACEFULLY? JOHN ARCHER (WHO ALREADY HAS) FINDS OUT
With the plasma marketplace really heating up these days,
Hitachi's boast that its new 42in CMP4121HDE could function up to 50 per cent
longer than most rival panels might prove a real money-spinner. Provided, that
is, that the picture quality is any good. After all, it would be more than a
little ironic if the picture we were watching for 50 per cent longer turned out
to be a right dog's dinner...
You certainly won't mind looking at the CMP4121 while it's
switched off, at any rate. It's a very slick customer indeed, with an unusually
slender, exceptionally glossy screen frame that manages to be sexy and
understated at the same time.
Before we go any further, we need to put the CMP4121 in
context within the Hitachi plasma range as a whole. It's not their first or
only 42in screen, but it is the first we've seen to be shipped without a
television tuner. So instead of the single video-input on the panel taking a
single feed from a socket-heavy tuner box, here we're presented with a whole
set of AV inputs located on the panel itself.
These jacks comprise component video inputs, two types of
RGB input (a DSub and five BNC plugs), composite video input, S-video input,
two pairs of stereo audio input, RS232 input, and a composite video output.
There are also two pairs of springclip terminals for attaching the stereo
speakers provided.
The user interface is disappointingly low-rent: a cheesy
little plastic remote, combined with low-res onscreen menus more suited to a
toy than a high-falutin' slice of cutting-edge technology. Still, while they
might be ugly, the remote and menus do get their jobs done with a minimum of
fuss.
The screen carries a few interesting features. The most
crucial of these is ALIS: Alternate Lighting of Surfaces. As simply as
possible, ALIS lights odd and even picture lines every 1/50sec, which means the
Hitachi CMP4121 can achieve the same brightness levels as ordinary plasma
panels using less power - hence the increased lifespan. The system also means
that the image should have more resolution, since more lines are brought into
play at once. More controversial, as we shall discover later, is a Video
Enhancer mode, which radically sharpens the image content.
There's also colour temperature adjustment, a 3D comb
filter, noise reduction, a screen saver (always handy, since plasma displays
are susceptible to screen burn) and a few little tricks to assist in using the
panel as a PC monitor.
YEARS OF PLEASURE
With no further ado, let's cut straight to the chase and
find out whether you really will want to be watching the CMP4121's pictures for
50 per cent longer that similar screens.
The short answer is... maybe! The Fujitsu-sourced panel gets
most things right. The contrast level, for instance, certainly does a decent
job, delivering blacks that actually look black, and even a modicum of detail
in dark areas. Oddly, I felt that the contrast on this 42in screen surpassed
that of Hitachi's CL42PD2100 domestic 42in screen, and the specs seemed to back
this up, although in reality they're exactly the same.
Anyway, there's more good news in store. The two common
plasma nasties, solarisation (colour banding) and grey dot-crawl noise, are
barely noticeable.
As usual, where there's a decent contrast level, there are
also some nice rich colours, with natural-looking tones and rich
saturations.
Detail levels are immense, suggesting that ALIS does her job
very nicely indeed, thank you. However... the detail levels only really come
into play when you activate the Video Enhancer option. But this has a
unpleasant side effect of creating noise in the form of both dot-crawl and
vertical line structure, particularly over flesh tones.
And here we get to the one key problem. Without Video
Enhancement on, the picture is smooth but rather soft. With it activated, the
picture is sharper and more involving, but significantly more noisy. I
regularly found myself wishing for a happy medium that just wasn't there.
We've appreciated the audio talents of Hitachi's plasmas
before, and so it's not a big surprise to find the CMP4121 bringing the house
down as well. The bolt-on speakers deliver pleasing detail, unexpected body,
and even a good sense of soundstage width. You would never guess they were no
deeper than the panel itself.
The CMP4121 is another eminently acceptable plasma offering
from Hitachi. Unexpectedly - mostly due to the extra contrast - I actually
preferred it to the supposedly more home cinema-oriented CL42PD2100; especially
since it's much less expensive. The way the screen display leaves you caught
between a rock and a hard place prevents it getting an unqualified Best Buy,
but it certainly deserves an audition, particularly given that promise of
longer service. |
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LAB RESULTS
Colour separation: Minimal bleed, with edges sharp and
noiseless - very good
Geometry: Perfect
Frequency response: Detail through to 5.8MHz -
excellent |
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FEATURES
Screen size: 42in
Connections: RGB DSub in; RGB V, H, B, G, R in; audio
in; RS232C in; two stereo audio inputs; composite video in; composite video
out; S-video in; component video in; springclip speaker terminals
Features: Colour warmth adjust; normal/super picture
modes; gamma correction; video enhance mode; 3D comb filter on/off; screen
saver; line interpolation on & off; auto frequency on/off; 1-bit amp;
stereo sound onboard; ALIS processing; sleep timer; 700:1 contrast
Dimensions: 1,030(w) x 636(h) x 89(d)mm
Weight: 34kg |
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08457 581 455
