Is the Hitachi 32ld9700 LCD TV Possibly the Best Flat Screen TV Available?

Who would have thought from viewing those early images of shadowy wriggling fingers broadcast in 1925 in the earliest TV sets that television would eventually become the multi-dimensional, full colour systems that Liquid Crystal Display (LCD TV) provide today. The television has now become one of the ?must haves? in almost every household, certainly within the developed world.

So having established where and when television arrived in our daily lives, just what exactly is TV and how does it achieve the things that it does do if that is not too technical a description (joke)? The term television can actually be quite confusing because it can quite easily be used to refer specifically to a television set, programming or television transmission.

Like most forays into a technical arena nowadays it is very easy to get confused by the wide range of technical phrases and terminology in use within the industry today.

Now would be a good idea to concentrate purely on the digital aspect of television, its latest developments formats and bandwidth issues in use and exactly what all this technical jargon and terminology actually mean.

So then the question is what is Digital TV? Digital Television very much came to the fore in the late 1990s and is a technology that appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries as representing opportunities for increased financial development whilst at the same time providing a much cleaner and faster product and service for the end user.

So what do all of the terms surrounding Digital TV mean? Let us look at this whilst analysing one of the newer LCD TV?s available.

The LCD TV that we shall use for our illustrative purposes here is the Hitachi 32LD9700 LCD TV.

When considering a new Digital TV it would help if you were familiar with the following items of information.

The first item we need to consider is the Screen Resolution of the TV Here we refer to the exact number of pixels that can be displayed in each dimension.

Next up is whether the TV is Hi-Definition Ready and what does this mean? Hi Definition TV essentially makes a TV picture in a quality format that is at least four times better than conventionally available at present.

The next item that we would need to look at is what types of connectors are used between the peripherals used alongside the main Digital TV?

We are referring here to the exact nature and number of the Scarts Sockets and Plugs in use. Here the definition of SCART refers to ?Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d?Appareils Radio et Television (SCART).

The final item we would look at would be what is the nature and number of the High-Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) being used. Here High Definition Multimedia Interfaces (HDMI) refers to the audio/video connector interface that transmits the uncompressed digital streams of information between two or more digital components such as a HD DVD Disc player, a Blu-ray Disc player, a Personal Computer or Video Console.

The 32LD9700 is a 32in LCD TV and the prices for these are around 1000 pounds sterling or 2000 US dollars. The resolution of the screen is 1366 X 768 and with regards to being HD Ready the answer is yes. The Hitachi has 3 (2 RGB) scarts and the type and number of Multimedia interfaces the 32LD9700 uses is HDMI and 2. The type of Tuner for this TV is Analogue and Digital and the Hitachi is available from a wide variety of outlets.

All these points being taken into consideration, how would we view the Hitachi 32LD9700?

The most obvious place to start with as far as TV's are concerned would be the picture quality and our score here would be 10, and closely tied in to the picture quality is the sound quality and our score for this would be 10. Taking a look at the number of relevant connections and their availability, our score would be 8. As far as overall features are concerned we would give it 10 and for ease of use and overall value for money we would give it, 10 and 10 respectively.

The overall verdict would be WOW what can you say but that this is one of those TV's that excel in almost every thing it is supposed to do. Described as a "Superb All-rounder", there is not much that this TV does not achieve. If you can get your hands on one of these then go for it.

Please bear in mind the prices that are quoted in this article and take note that they are there purely for illustration and though valid at the time of the writing of the article may vary from time to time and also depending on the time of year when you make your purchase.