Hitachi 49HGT69U
4K UHD TVs have now gone mainstream. What was once an indulgence for deep-pocketed AV (audio visual) enthusiasts now hardly commands a price premium at all. Large-screen televisions are migrating from 1980x1080 pixels to 3840x2160 pixels, whether you like it or not, and the Hitachi 49HGT69U is a case in point.
Design
Design wise, this 49 incher is perfectly civil. The screen has a thin black bezel, while the frame glints with a chrome trim. Two non-adjustable plastic feet keeps things upright, and are removable for wall mounting.
There are four HDMI inputs, all of which are HDCP 2.2 enabled. This is important as it means you can run 4K content sources into all four inputs, which in a year or so will seem a boon. There are also three USB 3.0, PC VGA, component and composite inputs, plus SCART via an adaptor. An optical digital audio output is available for a soundbar or AV system, plus phono subwoofer out, a CI slot and ethernet LAN. Integrated Wi-Fi is dual band, and so will connect to your (compatible) router on either 2.4- or 5GHz.
The user interface is clean and simple. The main menu is a vertical bar featuring Picture, Sound, Settings, Installation, Channel List and Media Browser tabs. The tuner is a Freeview HD. Unhelpfully, the programme guide blocks the picture image and mutes live audio, rather than putting what you’re watching in a small window in the corner like many TVs do.
The Hitachi has a network Media player, but it’s a tad ineffectual. While it sees connected media servers (Plex, Twonky), it doesn’t play MKV and AVI files. Things improve when browsing a USB stick. From a USB drive the Hitachi plays ball with all of the main audio and video codecs and wrappers, including MKV, MOV, MPEG, WMV, MP3, WMA and AAC.
The set’s connected SmarTVue platform is somewhat dated in appearance, but does support 4K streams from Netflix, which is a big win. There’s also BBC iPlayer YouTube, BBC News and Sports,
Image presets comprise Normal, Sports, Dynamic and Natural. They don’t perform exactly as you might expect though. Contrary to expectation, the Cinema mode is arguably the best saturated and dynamic of the lot (it’s usually the flattest). Dynamic is a surprisingly good watch too, if you ease back Dynamic Contrast. You won’t find any clever image smoothing processing onboard, but that’s fine, as it means there are no motion artefacts to contend with either. Motion handling is good, certainly better than we’ve seen on Hisense’s rival budget champ, the K321.