News Releases

10/21/2003

Hitachi's Home-1 Theater Projector Brings the Big Screen to the Living Room with Outstanding Image Quality Backed by Hitachi's Industry Leading TV Technology

-- New Home-1 Multimedia Projector Provides Superior Performance and Functionality for Home Theater Users --

BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 2003--www.hitachi.us

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan (NYSE:HIT), today announced the availability of Home-1, Hitachi's first multimedia projector for the home theater market. As the latest addition to Hitachi's comprehensive line of multimedia projectors, Home-1 offers advanced features to impress even the savviest videophiles.

At seven pounds, the Home-1 projector includes multiple connectivity inputs for a variety of home theater related devices, including DVD at its theoretically best resolution, and also supports high-definition signals such as 720p and 1080i. Employed with conventional surround sound systems and other home theater equipment, Home-1 creates a theater-quality environment delivering high-quality, vivid, crisp images backed by Hitachi's leading TV technology at a native 16:9 aspect ratio.

"The Home-1 projector delivers the advanced image quality and product features that the industry has come to expect from Hitachi," said Pete Denes, director of sales for Hitachi America, Ltd., Digital Media Division. "Home theater enthusiasts will be hard-pressed to find another projector that delivers this level of quality and price performance with a feature set that affords flexibility for a range of room environments."

The Home-1 projector is Hitachi's first native 16:9 panel unit specifically designed for home-theater users. Because the projector is intended for home use, it has a high contrast ratio of 800:1, a 2X zoom lens and vertical and horizontal lens shift that gives users installation flexibilities no matter the room environment. It comes in a seven pound footprint that is packed with feature-rich, top quality video processing technologies, including Hitachi's proprietary Motion Adoptive Progressive Scan, 3-2 pull down system and 3D Y/C Separation System for added image clarity. The Motion Adaptive Progressive Scan is a highly advanced version of progressive scan technology that can reproduce a fast moving object in an image with significantly reduced fuzziness. The weakness in today's widely available conventional progressive scan technology is that it can only improve image details for relatively slow changing images. The Home-1 projector also includes Hitachi's Whisper Mode, allowing users to reduce noise to near-whisper levels (25 dB) with a minimal reduction in brightness, a critical factor in home applications.

The Home-1 projector features vertical and horizontal lens shift. This capability provides users with the flexibility to install the projector anywhere without decreasing the resolution caused by digital keystone correction, a technology typically used by conventional projectors to condense images resulting from the effect of trapezoid distortion. The Home-1 projector also includes a full array of connectivity options on its rear panel, such as component, composite, S-Video and two RGB inputs for added versatility in the home theater.

Hitachi America, Ltd., Digital Media Division, supplies high-performance multimedia products to OEMs, value-added resellers, system integrators and distributors. The division's products include LCD/LCOS projectors and color laser beam printers.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, and consumer electronics, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit http://www.hitachi.us.

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 340,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2002 (ended March 31, 2003) consolidated sales totaled 8,191.7 billion yen ($68.3 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com.

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