42IN WS LCD HDTV 1080P 1920X1080 BLK 3HDMI SVID SPKR TUNER

Pros: Great picture quality. Blu-rays look stunning from a PS3. Standard DVDs from a PS3 look fantastic too -- almost as good as Blu-rays from my sitting distance. Easy and simple set-up. Physically very attractive unit with a sturdy swivel stand.

Cons: I wish it had an optical digital output instead of coax. No PC VGA input.

Summary: I bought the 47 inch from Sam's Club yesterday and so far am extremely happy with my purchase! I took a chance because of the lukewarm CNET review but everytime I'm at Sam's Club, I always thought the picture looked as good on the Philips 47PFL6704D as on the higher priced Samsungs and Sonys sitting next to it. I also noticed that most users rated it highly as opposed to professional reviewers.

I like the physical design of the unit with the slim bezel. The unit is very attractive and compact. The box for the 47 inch unit is about the same size as boxes for 37 to 42 inch units from other manufacturers. As a consequence, this was the biggest size TV I could carry in my Honda Fit. I was able to carry it home and set it up by myself (but I would recommend having 2 persons to help for set-up). Set-up was simple and easy.

Picture quality from my PS3 is stunning for Blu-rays and fantastic for standard def DVDs. I was surprised at how good standard DVDs looked on it. From my sitting distance it looked almost as good as Blu-rays. I was a bit worried about Blu-ray playback because I did not see 5-5 pull-down among the specs of the Philips PFL6704D. But as the CNET review noted, with DNN turned off, the Philips seemed to playback 24p Blu-ray material with proper film cadence. As a result, I'm 100% happy with Blu-ray and standard DVD playback quality. Color and contrast looked vibrant (with "pop") and accurate to me (a casual user).

I haven't had time to try out games on my PS3 yet but am looking forward to doing so in the near future.

Speakers sounded great for TV speakers. Since they are in the rear, I heard they might not sound great in a confined area but in my set-up, they sounded great. As I rewire my home theater setup, I will use a home theater receiver for my sound so the quality of the built-in speakers wasn't that important to me. One thing to note is that this TV comes with digital coax out. With my home theater receiver, it would have been more convenient if it had come with an optical digital out instead.

I like the simplified menu system but can understand why some people would have liked more advance options available to tweak the picture to their liking.

I think the majority of users would think this is an outstanding TV with picture quality that makes you go "Wow!". Black levels looked fine to me and I think they would look fine to most other people. It's only when you get nit picky about stuff where you would have to do A/B comparisons to another more expensive TV sitting right next to it where you might find "faults" with it's picture quality. But for me, I haven't really seen any faults with the picture quality. It just looks so good to me.

Updated on Sep 16, 2009

Just wanted to add an update: I have verified that the Philips 47PFL6704D has the ability to pass-through Dolby Digital 5.1 audio from its HDMI input to its SPDIF coax output. This means you can connect your PS3 to the TV's HDMI input and connect the TV's SPDIF coax output to your receiver and the receiver will be able to play back the original Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack from a DVD or Blu-ray.