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By Philip Wong, CNET Asia
Jun 23, 2008

Thin is in and at the forefront of the rat race here in Asia are the Hitachi Ultra-thin HDTVs. It's as if we can hear these svelte, albeit anorexic, panels mocking their fattish counterparts, sashaying in multicolor hues. Aesthetics aside, the UTs are pretty well-endowed, too. For starters, they're based on a "Pro" iteration of the popular In-Plane Switching (IPS) LCD panel, motion-enhanced by a 100Hz frame rate-doubling engine. Furthermore, HD broadcast is covered via an onboard hi-def TV tuner, courtesy of a versatile external multimedia station.

Upside: To give you an idea of just how thin these Hitachi UTs are, let's have a quick and dirty shootout between the UT42-MX700, the LG Scarlet and JVC's Superslim. With the Hitachi 42-incher measuring flat out at 39mm, you can easily tuck two beside the 80.8mm Korean offering with room to spare. At a glance, the JVC does look like a worthy contender at 39mm thin, but even this can hardly hold a candle to the UT with its true 74mm maximum depth. That said, this is not exactly an apple-to-apple comparison, with the UT strictly a monitor without inbuilt TV tuners.

Another interesting proposition here is the series' underlying IPS-Pro LCD panel. It edges out the Super-IPS equivalent with better contrast and brightness, in addition to a wider viewing angle and color shift-free properties (same image vibrancy from an off-center seating position). While we'll recommend at least a 46-inch screen for full-HD, you do get a future-proofed 1080p display with the UT42-MX700. To minimize judder, Hitachi is throwing in its Clear Motion Picture engine, a proprietary implementation of a 100Hz frame rate-doubling system via unique interpolated images.

In order to trim down the panel, Hitachi has offloaded some electronics into a multimedia station. It has upgraded the external box's inbuilt TV tuner to the DVB-T format, coupled with an MPEG-4 decoder that enables HD broadcast reception and an electronic program guide. Connectivity-wise, we're looking at two HDMI 1.3 inputs and one corresponding output that interfaces with the panel. These will have film-centric 1080p24 signal compatibility and 36-bit Deep Color signal support for richer hues. Then there's a USB port for photo playback and digital audio output.

Downside: Do be prepared to pay a premium to earn yourself bragging rights for owning a UT. Though Hitachi has not set a firm pricing on this model, its smaller 37-inch sibling already retails for a high S$3,799 (US$2,670.09), which is about the average price for a standard 42-incher. A substantial amount of the bill is for its bundled multimedia station which is optional for S$800 (US$562.27) less. It could have been easier to cushion the asking price if the USB port was extended to cover both MP3 and DivX. A third HDMI would have been a nice gesture, too, since two is bordering onto stingy to go with consoles, Blu-ray players, etc.

Outlook: We love the Hitachi Ultra-thin sleek design and strong HD video/ broadcast playback capability. Taking everything into consideration, we believe pricing is probably going to be a key stumbling block for the UT42-MX700. Unless you're desperate to go slim in a hurry, it may be wiser to stay put and wait for other brands to enter the market. After all, it's something good to have, but non-critical when it comes to picture quality.

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