Customer Reviews

Philips 32PFL3403D/27 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been through a few different televisions in the search for a satisfactory 32" HDTV, and after exchanging a Vizio or two, finally ended up sticking with this one. The television is attractive without drawing attention to it, and the only time any notification lights are active is when the television is turned on, when a very small white LED in the bottom-right corner of the unit glows. There is an abundance of ports for its size (including 3 HDMI), and it is pretty lightweight for transport - it can easily be moved by one person, and feels pretty solid.

The picture quality is good (what you'd expect from a 720p), and it's easy enough to set it up. It has a built-in digital tuner, so if you still are getting television from the air, all you'll need is an antenna and you're golden. The stand is easy enough to set up - just slide it in and screw it in with the four included bolts. The speakers are alright, but it's probably worth it in the long run to plug it into a set of external speakers.

The menus are a easy enough to navigate, but aren't anything particularly special. The ease of use is probably about a 3.5 out of 5 as far as that goes, and the remote doesn't help with that - it has far too many buttons for a television remote. However, it does use AAA batteries and is rather lightweight, which is nice.

All in all, I'd highly recommend this television to anyone searching for a 32" flatscreen HDTV. It's nice looking, puts out a nice picture, and is generally speaking a good TV.

I must say that I do like this tv very much for my bedroom.It looks classy and the picture and sound are very good.I do agree with the review about the sound changing with the factory picture presets.I wished they would have just left the sound the same for all presets.I do love using the personal picture settings option.With this setting I can get the picture I want plus the sound I want at the same time.As soon as you switch to one of the factory picture presets however,the sound is changed.Except for this one thing,I do love watching tv on this set.There is some light in dark scenes that seems to shine through the four corners of the screen but I was told that this was nothing to worry about.It's really not that noticable unless you are looking for it.Anyway, hurray for Philips.They are one of my top choices for LCD tv's.Philips 32PFL3403D/27 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

I bought this tv along with a PS3 and Philips 1000watt surround sound. When I was buying I was looking for a tv that handled movement well and this was the one that caught my eye. HD/BluRay looks amazing on it and it looks in my opionion much better then a friends LG, which he paid a few hundred more for.

The remote is plain and simple. As with most remotes I wish it had some back lighting.

The one problem I had with the tv was when I tried hooking up the surround, PS3, and tv together; the surround didn't want to play the ps3 sound. I was running all HDMI cables. The sound would play but cut out. I talked to Philips about this and they suggested a digital coaxial cable which fixed the problem.

Overall I'm extremely happy with this tv and Philips. Philips customer service has been great.

In all honesty I can't really complain as I got this as a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law. We took a ride out to a big box retailer since he had some gift cards he wanted to use towards the purchase. I already own a Panasonic 50" plasma which I love in the living room and this model is now in my bedroom.

I always preferred plasma over LCD's mainly because of the deeper blacks. The store we went to didnt have much of a selection which I'm guessing is because they sold most of their stock during the Holidays. We went on the 28th when there seemed to only be left overs in stock. Being that I had no idea how much he wanted to spend I kind of just followed him to see which model/price range he was looking at.

I personally would have preferred a cheap Vizio 42" plasma, but I was more than grateful for this LCD. We paid 550 but I see theres places online selling them for 500 which is great for a 32" LCD. My 24" computer monitor was 500 bucks just 8 months ago! On the same token I seen the 42" Vizio plasma for $700 but I didn't want to push my luck with my brother in law. :P

The TV itself has 3 HDMI inputs, an S-video input on the side, and I believe two component inputs. Right now I have it hooked up via component cables as the HDMI cable is in the mail and on its way. The stand is glossy and looks nice but its not adjustable at all. The sound is more on the tiny side and the built in surround sound mode didn't do much to add any oomph to the sound at all.

I never cared too much about sound as you can always buy a cheap 5.1 setup, and inputs never concerned me as you can always buy a cheap receiver to add tons of extra inputs. The bread and butter has to be the picture quality and I wasn't very impressed with this set. There is very noticeable pixalation and a good amount of ghosting in fast moving objects. SD channels don't look very good at all even when upconverted through my cable box. HD content looked good but not nearly as clear as my plasma. Color reproduction was decent when tweaked, and even using one of the preset color modes were OK.

The set offers Sports, Movie, Game, Custom, and Power Saver modes to quickly adjust color. Just be aware that they also effect audio levels! It's the first TV I noticed that when changing color modes the audio level also changed. One feature I always appreciated with Philips sets is the audio level feature that keeps commercials and other sources from blasting the audio volume up on its own. With this feature enabled all sources will be kept the same. Thats one feature I never realized how great it was until I didn't have it and some commercials would nearly blow my eardrums out!

The zoom features seem to work very well and they offer a few options (I believe 5 or 6 options) on how to stretch 4:3 images. I found the best option to be the super zoom option as it only cuts a very small piece off the bottom of the screen and doesn't stretch the image to make everyone look fat. They also have an Automatic mode which lets the TV pick the best option depending on the souce coming in. I noticed once I switched from using an S-video cable to component cables I no longer could pick between zoom modes on the TV. All the options were greyed out except for the wide-screen option. This was fine since my cable box also gives the option to leave HD content in its native widescreen and it stretches 4:3 content to fit the screen. It does a good job but SD content stretched makes everyone look short and stumpy. I really liked the TV's stretch options better so it's unfortunate you lose those options when using component or HDMI.

The remote control is very basic in feel and function. It's not very comfortable to hold and the buttons are awkwardly laid out. It also has 3 buttons on the top that are just labeled with colors which is hard to see at night. Luckily I was able to program my cable boxes remote to control the TV's basic functionality.

All in all I'm happy to have upgraded to a larger set for the bedroom, I just wish the picture was better at displaying SD content. The pixelation and ghosting is really amplified on SD channels. I also would have liked for the stand to at the least be able to be adjusted up and down. If it were up to me I would spend the extra $150 and get a nice 42" plasma but if money or size constraints is an issue this should do ya fine.

I bought a refurbished TV and from the first day it shows some diagonal strips in the picture. I have read on the google that the customer service from Philips is horrible. So guys stay away from this product. Spend some more bucks and get a nice TV.