Hitachi Ultravision UT37V702

Hitachi is incorporated in the vanguard of this trend with its much-publicized 1.5-inch-thick series of Lcd HDTVs, that exist today. Now, is a supermodel-thin set ideal, or is an "obese" 4-incher the answer? Hitachi sent us a 37-inch UT37V702 to discover out…

There's no obtaining away from it – the UT37V02 is a beautiful flat-panel set. With its anthracite pearl crystal frame, curvy stand, and thin screen, it definitely looks like it belongs in an costly loft setting, or inside a Hollywood flick featuring folks with martini glasses in hand chatting with European accents. It just reeks of money. (Now if only the economy would rebound so people could buy those fancy apartments and HDTVs, items would be wonderful!).

The secret to Hitachi's good looks is some engineering legerdemain. That interesting 1.5-inch thin screen is truly a monitor, which means all the crucial – and bulky – electronics are inside a separate box. This really is like taking a ride in the wayback machine, because the legendary Sony Profeel monitors from the early ‘80s did the same – except back then a 37-inch Lcd display screen was nearly as fantastic an idea as some of Dr. Walter Bishop's ravings in Fringe. In fact, we owned a "huge" 25-inch CRT-based Profeel and utilized a separate Proton MTS tuner to receive about a dozen analog over-the-air channels making use of rabbit ears. Quaint, no? Given that this really is 2009, the Hitachi is really a 1080p display having a 120Hz frame rate, placing it in the upper efficiency ranks of Liquid crystal display models. In fact, it is among the extremely couple of 1080p 120Hz 37-inch models. And, needless to say, there are zillions of digital channels to watch onscreen—without rabbit ears.

The monitor portion from the Ultravision is really nicely styled, with its gray frame and unobtrusive, non-lit logos on the bottom. There's a cool blue accent light when you energy up, along with a chrome accent bar. The surprisingly good integrated speakers are located in a row around the lower bezel. The display unit measures 36.87 x 23.87 x 1.56 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 32.1 pounds. It's slightly more than the touted "1.5" thickness, but pretty darn close. If you're not hanging this around the wall, you'll need shelf space for at least a foot to handle the built-in stand. One of several actually interesting things about this screen is the fact additionally, it may be mounted on an optional floor stand, so it may be real architectural statement befitting that $1 million loft.

Given that this can be a two-piece unit, the majority of the jacks found on thicker flat panels are on the separate electronics box called the Audio Video Center (AVC08U). You can find only a few about the display screen itself, such as a single HDMI, analog RGB and RS232C, and also a 3.5mm stereo input for computers. Given that everybody has much more components than this, you'll have to connect the AV Middle, that is attached by a supplied HDMI cable if you do buy a "kit." This box measures 11.75 x two x 8.five (WHD, in inches) and has a sophisticated look that matches the screen. There's only a energy on/off button around the front, along with a silver accent, whilst the rear features a typical assortment of inputs/outputs (3 HDMI plus a single for the link for the display screen, a couple of component, digital audio out and a pair of analog inputs). The AV Middle includes a built-in digital tuner so you can get local HD channels in case you connect an antenna.

The UT37V702 comes while using basics combined with display, stand and AV Center whenever you purchase the two-piece package. You will get an OK multi-language manual, remote with batteries, energy cord, HMDI cable plus numerous screws and cable cushions and straps.