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No wonder consumers are confused as to whether Hitachi’s 50″ Full HD Plasma TV is 1080p or 1080i so are the reviewers at technology web site CNet who have been openly telling readers that the Hitachi screen is 1080p when it is clearly 1080i.
Throughout an entire first look at the Hitachi 50″ plasma TV Ty Pendlebury a CNet reviewer has referred to the screen as being 1080p. Now consumers who read the story and bought the plasma screen from Harvey Norman are demanding their money back.
Pendlebury writes in his story “Speak to Hitachi representatives and they’ll tell you that everybody is going crazy nuts bananas over 1080p. Sure it’s nice, but there is a definite lack of content at the present. Yet that hasn’t stopped Hitachi from building its first 50-inch plasma with full HD support”.
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He adds “Despite being pricier than some other plasmas of the same size, the Hitachi P50X01 comes in at a good amount for a full 1080p”
What CNet are now investigating is whether the information they got from Hitachi about the screen contained reference to the screen as being 1080p or 1080i.
Geoff Hannaford, General Manager. Marketing & Sales for Hitachi disputes any claims that the original press release for the Hitachi 50″ 1080i Plasma TV contained reference to the model being 1080p.
“This is not right. The press release was not wrong. we will investigate this”.
The public relations company for Hitachi at the time of the release could not be contacted when we posted this story.
Ironically, right next to the review is an advertisement for the Hitachi Full HD TVs, which is also misleading in that it shows a plasma TV and an LCD TV which are the same size and both are supposed to be Full HD. The only problem is that Hitachi do not have a Full HD plasma TV and LCD of the same size.
When asked how CNet had made such a glaring mistake Pendlebury said, “This is the information we had at the time. I will now have to look back through our information to see how this mistake was made”.
Brian Huckstepp of Sydney purchased an Hitachi P50X01 believing it to be 1080p. Now he wants his money back or compensation for the anguish he has faced after discovering via the SmartHouse web site that the Hitachi screen he had was not 1080p. “Even CNet is telling the world that the screen is 1080p and if they are confused how is a consumer going to cope”.
“We bought our Hitachi 50 inch HD TV 1080P at Harvey Norman in September 07. The salesman said the Hitachi was actually full HD TV and 1080p. Then three weeks ago we got a call from a John at Hitachi, who explained that this TV didn’t have the technical stuff that was written on the box it came in, and therefore was offering either $1000 to keep machine, or a complete refund”.
Not happy with the negotiations with Hitachi, John and his wife have lodged a complaint with the NSW department of Fair Trading. He said “We are very disappointed with both Harvey Norman and Hitachi, obviously the customer comes last – we have nothing in writing from Hitachi, when asked they refused. We now have to spend more weekends searching for a TV for our use, and fingers crossed we don’t get ripped off again. What we thought was a Ferrari turned out to be a Commodore”.
