Philips 30PF9946 30-Inch WideScreen HDTV-Ready LCD Flat-Panel TV

by Philips

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 19.3 x 35.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 67 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00021Z8WC
• Item model number: 30PF9946
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,409 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Philips' 30-inch widescreen, high-definition-ready 30PF9946 offers a stunning blend of style, convenience, and quality. Its high brightness (450 cd/m3) and high contrast (400:1) ensure vivid, detailed images from any source, while integrated TV and FM radio tuners offer cable or broadcast reception of all your favorite programs. Hook the 30PF9946 up to an optional DTV receiver or progressive-scan DVD player and you'll enjoy vivid, detailed images from 1080i, 720p, and 480p sources, which render at up to 720p resolution on the set's native 1,024 x 768-pixel screen.

LCD technology allows screens to be thinner and televisions to be lighter and more energy-efficient than ever before. The result is television that not only fits on a wall, but fits in places conventional televisions cannot. The 30PF9946's comes outfitted with Digital Crystal Clear technology, a suite of picture innovations including Dynamic Contrast, a comb filter, and advanced, 10-bit processing.

A feature called Active Control Plus continually adjusts picture settings at over 60 times per second for all inputs, correcting both sharpness and noise reduction, even adjusting for changes in ambient viewing light.

Audio/video inputs include a direct-digital DVI input and a VGA computer input. Onboard Dolby Virtual Surround simulates enveloping surround sound from any 2 speakers.

What's in the Box
TV, stand, wall mount, remote control, remote batteries, and a user's manual.

Product Description

30" LCD TV, HDTV, wide screen, TV tuner, 1280x768, 400:1 Contrast, FM radio, HD and VGA inputs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Acceptable, January 29, 2005

By 

Monoxylon (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips 30PF9946 30-Inch WideScreen HDTV-Ready LCD Flat-Panel TV (Electronics)

Pros: Attractive unit, decent sound, great size screen, comes with stand and wall mount (most tvs don't come with wall mount).

Cons: Non-HD signals look pixellated. My Direct TV digital satellite feed looks very good, but there are image artifacts that result in occasional blurriness or distortion. It is a minor annoyance. My progressive scan DVD looks excellent, but still not perfect. (I do not have an HD signal as of yet, so I can't speak to how this looks). The manual is pathetic. The INPUTS/OUTPUTS are very weird. My 20" Sony Wega LCD has all that it should, but for some reason, Phillips was really on drugs when it made this unit. In order to get the progressive scan quality, I CANNOT simply connect using a Component cable; instead, I have to use Phillips supplied hybrid cable. In fact, when I first tried the component, I got no image whatsoever... just sound. And although it looks like they have a multitude of imputs, several "share" a slot. It is very weird. And I simply don't understand a TV being built without AUDIO OUT. Speaking of Audio, the unit sounds just fine, exhibiting good volume and separation. But as I try out the different equilizer modes (Theatre, Music, Personal, etc.), I can detect no difference whatsoever.

While I am happy with this TV, I feel that it is overpriced for what it offers; moroever, I feel it is advertised as having more than it really does. This unit would be a reasonable purchase for three to five hundred less (which I'm sure it will be next year). The Sony Wegas and Sharp Aquos are superior, but much more expensive.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not true 16x9: it's 15x9!!! Beware black bars, August 20, 2005

By 

Tiger Vijay (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips 30PF9946 30-Inch WideScreen HDTV-Ready LCD Flat-Panel TV (Electronics)

A true widescreen TV has an aspect ratio of 16:9. For most widescreen LCD TVs, this means a WXGA resolution that is 1366 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. But this Philips TV is NOT a true widescreen, despite the false claim in Philips specifications; its aspect ratio is 15:9 and its resolution is 1280 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. So what does this mean in practical terms? HDTV broadcasts (such as Law and Order on NBC and this year's Superbowl) are in 16:9 ratio; they fill the entire screen in a true widescreen 16:9 TV. But since the Philips is 15:9, the HDTV broadcast will appear with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (unless you choose to artificially stretch the picture to fill the screen, making it look distorted, with people in the picture too tall and too skinny)! Can you endure black bars at the top and bottom of your screen every time you watch an HDTV broadcast? Can you accept the fact that the true usable area of the screen when HDTV is employed is less than the claimed 30" diagonal--that there will always be wasted area at the top and bottom of your TV? Do not make the same mistake that I did. Do not be fooled by the false claim of 16:9 screen ratio. Buy another TV--even a more recent Philips model--even if it costs you a few hundred dollars more.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ok for the money, March 3, 2005

By 

bobcobber - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips 30PF9946 30-Inch WideScreen HDTV-Ready LCD Flat-Panel TV (Electronics)

The picture is very good with cable hd and dvd (both progressive scan and analog component hooked up to AV1). Only one digital input allowed. This is a problem if you have two devices, such as cable box and dvd. However, the digital input only accepts vga or hdmi, so all component feeds must be converted to vga with cable supplied by manufacturer. I think that one could get an analog switcher with video component input and outputs for not too much money. The picture quality degrades with analog signals, even over digital cable. On middle brightness settings, shading and details in dark areas are lost. Correction by increasing the brightness helps to a limited degree, however, you start to lose the deepness of the black and get graying/hazing. There are better LCD TV's out there with better pitcures and two digital inputs, however, they cost a lot more.