The propaganda
Spearheading Hitachi's assault on the 32" LCD market, the 32LD9700 comes with a premium price tag but an equally weighty set of features. One key difference between this and previous Hitachi LCDs is that it uses a new type of LCD panel called IPS-Alpha. This is designed to tackle some of LCDs traditional weaknesses: motion response, contrast and viewing angle. On top of that, Hitachi's Picture Master video processing system has been re-engineered to work better with these same IPS-Alpha panels.
Connectivity is suitable for a top end HDTV: you get two HDMI slots, three SCARTS and a PC-input, plus a USB socket for digital cameras and the like, and an SD card slot. Nice. You also get a strobe mode for frame by frame playback, picture in picture viewing and, best of all, remote controlled screen swivelling. />
The good
An improved LCD matrix coupled with an enhanced picture processing engine had us expecting great things and lo, great things we were given. Needless to say colour vibrancy, tonal detail and black levels were all suitably admirable, but then you'd expect that from a top-of-the-range LCD anyway. What really stood out was the sharpness of the picture, which is also one of the best ways to see clearly the difference that HD really makes.
And rather pleasingly, these crisp images weren't limited to HD sources either. Standard definition pictures offered fantastic levels of clarity and without losing coherence in a mess of digital noise of ugly side effects. IPS-Alpha appears to do a very good job of reducing motion smearing - a major concern for LCD and mainly apparent when watching sports. This has been greatly reduced, if perhaps not eliminated completely, but it stands up very well against its competitors.
One further pleasing effect of IPS-Alpha is that it is supposed to offer a wider viewing angle than ever before. We were surprised to discover that Hitachi still only claims a pretty average 176 degrees. Happily this turns out to be a rather conservative opinion as in reality we found you could see the image very clearly from even more extreme angles than that.
The bad
A caveat for less technically minded users: the 32LD9700 has some of the most intimidating set up options we've ever seen on an HDTV. Even if you consider yourself to be a bit of an aficionado when comes to these sorts of things, you could still find yourself daunted by the amount of menu options and if in doubt, it's probably safer to leave well alone.
Acoustically this Hitachi set is a bit of a disappoint offering a weak bass and a narrow range of treble. It isn't a problem if you're relying on an external system to handle your sound, but it feels as though the underwhelming sound offsets badly against the decent picture quality.
Geek Sheet
Resolution: 1366 x 768, 1080i/720p capable
Contrast ratio: 850:1
Brightness: 500cd/m2
Sound system: Nicam stereo with SRS TruS
Tuner: Digital and analogue
Inputs: 2 x HDMI, Component Video, 3 x SCART (2 x RGB), S-Video, PC VGA,
USB port and SD Card slot
Quoted viewing angle: 176 degrees
Overview
Hitachi's 32LD9700 is a top end TV with top end features, top end performance and a top end price tag to match (which varies from £650 to £1,200 depending on options). The performance of the IPS-Alpha coupled with the excellent Picture Master processing did yield some incredibly pleasing results that fortunately far outweighed the price tag and made up for the weak audio performance. A very solid all-round performer.
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Given that 180 degree visibility is the theoretical maximum, how much more than 176 degrees are you suggesting the viewing angle was?
@ Tom
hah, good point - what I mean to draw attention to is to how visible the picture still is at such angles. There are rival sets that claim 178 degrees, but the picture at such angles is nowhere near as good.