Sharp 42" HDTV Sale! $500 off @ DELL
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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 6 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Decent black-level performance for an LCD; full 720p resolution; good out-of-box color temperature; attractive styling; Ambilight looks cool.
The bad: Expensive; nondefeatable edge enhancement; no 2:3 pull-down; limited input flexibility; 720p sources don't fill the screen; Ambilight adversely affects onscreen color perception.
The bottom line: This expensive LCD has a head-turning backlight, but it also performs surprisingly well.
Specifications: Product type: LCD TV; Diagonal size: 32 in; Brightness (cd/m2): 500 cd/m2; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 03/31/2005
- Released on: 12/01/2004
It's official: clear Plexiglas is the new silver. In this case, it forms the base of the stand and surrounds the 32PF9996's frame. Moving in from the Plexiglas border, you'll find the artfully concealed speakers, then a silver plastic frame, then a black bezel, then the screen. Thanks to the panel's lack of 720p scaling, you get another black box around the picture when you watch 720p material (more about this later). Buttons for power, volume, and channel control; menu access; and input selection are on top of the panel.
Like its big brother, the 42PF9996, this 32-inch LCD boasts a pair of fluorescent lights on its backside. You can adjust the intensity and color of the light, choose to have the color reflect the onscreen content, or select from a few preset colors, including intense blue and red. You can even turn on the backlight while the TV itself is turned off. If you care about seeing accurate color, however, you'll probably want to leave the backlight off for serious viewing. Even on the Soft White setting, the light appeared too orange, which adversely affected how we perceived onscreen colors.
The pretty silver remote isn't backlit and doesn't have direct input access. Instead, switching inputs requires one of three actions: holding down the AV+ button for a couple of seconds, then pressing repeatedly to scroll through the inputs; using the channel rocker switch to select channels lower than 1; or pressing the Info button, then navigating through that menu. There's no reason changing sources should be this complicated.
The 32PF9996's native resolution of 1,366x768 is enough to display full 720p HDTV. Unlike most panels, this Philips displays 720p sources without any scaling at all. The upside is that it's a rock-solid, full-resolution picture. The downside is that black bars surround all sides of the picture. We appreciated the lack of scaling artifacts and the sharper picture, but most folks won't want to look at those bars. All other incoming signals are scaled to match the available pixels. The built-in NTSC tuner serves up regular TV, but if you want HDTV, you'll have to add an external ATSC tuner or an HD satellite or cable box.
Single tuner picture-in-picture and independent input memories top the list of convenience features. Philips also includes a slew of automatic picture adjustments. It's best to turn off Color Enhancement, DNR (which stands for Dynamic Noise Reduction), and Dynamic Contrast for high-quality sources, as they'll only cause garish colors, softness, and fluctuations in black and white levels, respectively. We preferred to set the Digital Processing option to Standard instead of Pixel Plus 2.
The numerous aspect-ratio selections include Automatic, which fills the screen with all sources except 720p; Super Zoom, which stretches the sides of 4:3 sources to fill the screen; 4:3, which displays 4:3 sources with black bars to either side; Movie Expand 14:9, which zooms 14:9 letterboxed content to fit screen height; Movie Expand 16:9, which zooms letterboxed content to fill the screen; 16:9 Subtitle, which shifts Movie Expand 16:9 upward so that subtitles are visible; and Wide-screen, which displays 16:9 sources properly. Unfortunately, you can't change aspects with HDTV sources, and only two options (4:3 and Wide-screen) are available for 480p sources--a real bummer if you want to fill the screen with a nonanamorphic letterboxed DVD.
Continue reading- See more CNET content tagged:
- Philips Electronics N.V.,
- Philips Consumer Electronics,
- LCD,
- color,
- HDTV
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