Hitachi 42PMA400 42 in. TV

I was looking for a CHEAP USED 'large' screen LCD or plasma. Luckily I found the Hitachi 42PMA400E Plasma Screen (Its a monitor rather than a T.V. - more on that later) going for a good price. I read some reviews on this particular screen and found that although it was, by now, 3 or 4 years old - At the time of release this was a Top of the range screen costing around £3000! (MRRP £4500!).

Every review I could find for this screen stated that the picture quality (AT THE TIME OF RELEASE) was second to none, and overall this was a highly recommended addition to any home cinema setup.

After reading all of the praise heaped upon this 'monitor' and realising how much it cost when new, I figured that £205 would be a bargain replacement/upgrade for my 32" Toshiba CRT.

So I snapped up the one that was on sale locally, through eBay....And I'm glad I did.

I'll start of with the FEW bad points this machine has...
First noticeable annoyance was the volume of the cooling fan/s. They are quite loud and on my particular screen they click sometimes due to worn bearings or dust, although this particular model screen is well known for being louder than most (especially compared to its modern day counterparts).
Overall the fan 'noise' is slightly louder than an xbox 360 or about the same as an average PC. Its not noticeable when there is any sort of volume coming from your speakers/earphones.

The second SLIGHT problem is mainly due to this models age, rather than a problem with the models design/build etc. It just seems that the past 3 or 4 years have slightly 'dulled' this screens output due to wear and tear and general use. BUT this would apply to any screen of any model of this age - its to be expected. The Result is a picture that's not quite as vivid as it once was. Colours SOMETIMES seem SLIGHTLY powdery, but this can usually be compensated for with some quick adjustments to contrast/colour/gamma settings etc. Having said all that, the picture produced from a good source such as an xbox 360 on this screen is just as good if not better than a lot of the current plasmas and LCD's available in the £500-£700 range!!!

Bottom line is that this screen still looks amazing!
Colours are, for the most-part, bright and vivid but not overly saturated. The Clarity in games on the Xbox is outstanding even though this screen wont do 1080p; BUT 1080i through component connections still looks so crisp and sharp.

Another slight problem is the lack of any HDMI ports, which hasn't bothered me personally as the quality produced from component output is more than enough for me.

This screen even looks great when used as a PC monitor through one of its 2 VGA/RGB ports. I've had my laptop linked up to it and the text looks crisp at pretty much any resolution. Plus its good for playing movies from the PC too. The resolution may not be as high as when using component inputs/sources but the colours are great and the screen actually does a decent job of upscaling the picture so that even low res (high compression) divx files look more than watchable.

All in all this screen is HIGHLY recommended for anyone wanting to upgrade to a large screen TV without wanting to spend £500 upwards.

Oh..and this is not a TV because... there's no TV Tuner (digital or analogue)... but hook up some freeview/freesat/cable/sky etc and away you go. Not a real problem.

All things considered (mainly product AGE and PRICE), I'd give the 42PMA400/E a score of 9/10 (would pay up to ~£350 on eBay

Although this has no speakers, it does in fact contain an amp and have stereo speaker terminals on the back, so it could run as a tuner-less TV.

1024x1024 is a strange resolution but old magazine reviews and my experience both say it looks fine, with the unit converting signal resolutions very cleanly.

No HDMI or DVI but does accept component inputs of up to 720p or 1080i.

Not sure how many of these are about, but well worth considering as a bargain used buy compared to all the 1024x768 or 1366x768 plasmas.