Hitachi UltraVision 32HDL51 – 32 inch LCD HDTV

For many months now, I’ve wanted to get an HDTV. My last TV had one S-Video input and it was a CRT. It lasted me several years of good use until the fly back coil started to vibrate and make really annoying noises.

Last weekend I finally did it. I bought a HDTV. I was planning on purchasing a Sharp Aquos LC-32G4U LCD HDTV. However, when it was released on the consumer market it cost about $4500. That’s just a little too rich for me. I kept waiting and waiting for the price to drop. I waited so long that they stopped making it.

The reason that I wanted the LC-32G4U is because it had a separate video controller box. This meant that the overall size of the LCD screen could be smaller because it didn’t have to house the audio and video electronics. It also meant that only two wires would have to run to the screen; power and video. That makes it look clean, easy, and sleek if I were to wall mount it.

Last weekend I began making some calls to local electronics’ stores to see if anyone had one in back stock. Nope. What I discovered though, was the local Circuit City had a HDTV with the same size screen and the AVC (audio and video controller) box. I asked about the price and model. Then I looked up the model information on line and compared it to the Sharp LCD HDTV.

As it turns out, the local Circuit City had the Hitachi 32HDL51 HDTV for hundreds if not thousands less than other retailers. Not only was the Hitachi cheaper than the Sharp but it has a HD tuner built in; which the Sharp LCD HDTV did not have. I put one of the two Hitachi 32HDL51 on hold. I quickly drove across town to buy it. It took a total of 5 minutes to spend $2493.16.

Everything was moving smoothly until it was discovered that the packaging box was much larger than the cargo room in my Prius. So, since I didn’t want to wait a day or two for delivery of risk it getting damaged I decided to remove the TV from the box in the parking lot of Circuit City. A Circuit City employee, Jeremy, was nice enough to help me move the TV out of the box and into the back seat of my car. We carefully wrapped it in bubble wrap and buckled it up. It was VERY secure. However, I had to drive with my seat all the way forward and there were a few moments on the drive home were it took a little more effort to move my foot to the brake pedal.

I got the TV home and hooked it up. What a beauty! This TV is sleek and sexy. The base of the TV is known as a “power swivel.??? This means that I can adjust the viewing angle by 26 degrees with the remote. I hooked up my girlfriends Sony DVD player to see how movies look on it. The DVD player has component outputs but the picture looked like crap. Then I hooked up the Xbox with the “HiDef??? pack. Wow. Talk about smooth looking graphics and color that it very pure! The only device you really need to connect to the HDTV is the Xbox!

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