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50 Inches and Up<br />
Regretfully, the 1080p revolution has yet to reach the largest sets—where<br />
it’s most needed. Half the televisions in our test still sport 720 horizontal lines.<br />
On the plus side, big screens have never been cheaper. —C.C.<br />
0 7 6<br />
Televisions<br />
Hitachi P50T501<br />
$2,300 • hitachi.com<br />
Though a huge sticker claims “HD 1080,” Hitachi boosted only the vertical<br />
resolution to 1080 specs, giving this 50-inch pla<strong>sm</strong>a a weird 1,280 x 1,080<br />
native resolution. The resulting picture is noticeably clearer than 720p but<br />
not as sharp as full 1,920-pixel horizontal resolution. Its image was also overly<br />
dark, requiring us to add brightness and lower contrast to find the sweet spot.<br />
WIRED Black case has gravitas. Nice menus. Easy channel programming.<br />
Priced like a 720p set, but with 360 bonus lines of vertical resolution.<br />
TIRED We thought our test set was DOA. Turns out that the adult-proof<br />
master power switch is hidden underneath—and completely unlabeled.<br />
WIRED TEST<br />
EDITORS’<br />
PICK<br />
LG 60PY3D<br />
$5,400 • lge.com<br />
You could buy a decent used car for<br />
less than LG’s 60-incher—granted,<br />
few craigslist clunkers will deliver this<br />
level of sophistication. The face of its<br />
sleek case is devoid of buttons, but<br />
power it on and touch-sensitive controls<br />
light up the shiny black surface<br />
(yes, exactly like Star Trek). An LCD in<br />
the base provides channel and adjustment<br />
info. The set displays accurate<br />
color, too, and a soft yet contrasty<br />
picture that breathed much-needed<br />
life into our Blu-ray test flick.<br />
WIRED It’s freakin’ huge, man! Unless<br />
you’re buds with Mark Cuban, you’ll own<br />
bragging rights. 1080p was born to live<br />
in sets like this. Menus and icons look<br />
like you paid big bucks ... which you did.<br />
TIRED Can’t sync up some HD sources.<br />
Jaggies and moiré on some test video.<br />
HP PL5072N<br />
$1,500 • hp.com<br />
HP’s bargain 50-inch pla<strong>sm</strong>a delivers a lot of bang—and size—for under<br />
two grand. Colors are soft and accurate, though the picture is a bit dark. Our<br />
biggest gripes: We couldn’t detect any noise reduction, and we saw moiré<br />
patterns way too often. But our Blu-ray test movie looked pretty good,<br />
especially when we realized we take home the movie, the player, and the<br />
HP for the price of most of our other 50-inch-plus test subjects.<br />
WIRED Cheap. Good with difficult interlaced sources, such as old movies.<br />
TIRED 720p. Chunky black case would be more at home in an airport<br />
waiting area than in a living room.
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