Mark, I have Hitachi 50v500 and i could not be happier with my purchase. I dont know why your friend would say they use inferrior materials. i was in the same position you are in now about 3 months ago and after long talks with my brother (a CC manager) about the 3 lcd's, I decided on the hitachi. Ultravisison is a top of the line set. That said i did have to return one for having a few bad pixels. (thank you CC) All i can say is try it and see what you think. hope this helps. Oh yea for your poll, chalk me up for yes.
Generally, Hitachi is regarded as one of the best quality tv's in the large screen segment. Most videophiles name the Hitachi S series as the best CRT based RPTV for under $3000.
With that said, the 50V500 is Hitachi's first meandering into the new LCD RPTV area. Given that fact and the fact that LCD RPTV is still relatively new technology, it is likely to have some quality problems that their CRT line does not have.
I've looked at the 50V500 and was impressed with a lot of the features the product has. So, I guess it comes down to whether you want to be an early adopter of new technology. Hitachi appears to be as good as or better than the other RPTV LCD's that are available at this point.