Unlike practically ever other brand, Hitachi didn't take the wraps off of its 2009 HDTV line at CES. Instead, it waited until summer officially began, and we can't really argue with the tactic. At any rate, the company is following JVC, LG and Sony with their respective HD news by announcing new members in the long-standing UltraVision line (shown left) as well as the Alpha series (shown right). In the former, we'll soon see the 55-inch L55S603 ($1,799), 46-inch L46S603 ($1,299) and 42-inch L42S503 ($999) hit the streets (in September, August and June, respectively), while the Alpha crew contains the 42-inch L42A403 ($849) and the 32-inch L32A403 ($499), both of which ship this month. The UltraVision sets all boast 1080p panels, 120Hz dejudder technology, up to five HDMI sockets and built-in ATSC / QAM / NTSC TV tuners. As for the Alphas, you'll find a total of seven HD inputs (four HDMI), a 1080p panel on the fat kit and a 720p display on the little guy.

Remember those too good to be true priced to move 32- and 37-inch Hitachi 1080p LCDs we told you about? Turns out they were just that, while the image processor inside the panels is 1080p, the screens themselves are 1366x768 (720p) native. The guys at TG Daily spoke with Hitachi and confirmed this, looking at the original press release it is easy to see how the mistake was made. It doesn't mention the actual resolution of the screens anywhere, despite highlighting the aforementioned processing, refresh rate model #s and price. The Hitachi rep is quick to tell us that for typical viewing distances for that screen size 720p will be just fine which may be true for most, but we'd prefer less processing instead of more, even if it is 1080p. Worse, such terminology makes the 1080p debate just that much more confused.

However if you really need a sub-$3,000 1080p TV LCD the Westinghouse 37-inch LVM-37w3 is available for much less than $2k and supports 1080p input, while the just announced LVM-47w1 47-inch model will also retail for less than $3,000. As an additional bonus, they have a very clear list of specifications on their website. We'll be watching to see if that Hitachi Ultravision 32HLT79 and 37HLT79 hit our local electronics store with big 1080p stickers on them.

1080p is all the rage these days. People want the high resolution in everything they can and just don't care if you really cannot tell the difference between 1080p and 720p at a small size. Well you know what. Hitachi is willing to oblige. They have plans to produce low cost 1080p "Ultravision" LCDs. Low cost and 1080p usually do not go well together but when a 1080p display is only $2200, they go together like peanut butter and jelly. Hitachi has plans to have four models available starting at $2200 and going to the low $3000. The HLT79 series will see a 32-inch for $2200 and a 37-inch for $2700 while the higher end HLX99 Director's series will offer a 32-inch for $2500 and a 37-inch for $3000. The Director's series have the ability to be calibrated to a higher quality image by way of custom color temps. and an adjustable color decoder. These sets have a release date of November.

Update: Unfortunately these LCDs are not 1080p, but are in fact 720p, check here more information.