Customer Reviews

Philips 34PW8402/37 34" HD-Ready TV with RealFlat Screen

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

 

 

I'm exceedingly happy with this product after having owned it for around 3 months now. I tried and returned two other 34inch widescreen models prior to settling on this phillips 34pw8402. The standard def picture quality is really good on this set, noticeably better than most HDTV sets. Often times HDTV sets do a poor job with regular def signals, after having experienced this on my first two tries, I was thrilled when I saw what this set could do with a regular signal. Regular TV just looks great, the colors especially...I believe this set's strength with regular signals comes from its "active control2" capabilities, and some enhanced digital video processing features incorporated into this set. Now for HDTV signals and progressive scan DVD, this set gives a positively spectacular image!! Don't be fooled by the age and size of CRT technology. Trust me, it does exceedingly well with HDTV signals, and rivals, (and in my opinion) mostly surpasses the image you get from $3000-5000 Plasma and LCDs. My 34pw8402 HDTV signal is visibly better than my brother's $5000 Panasonic plasma. Anyways, back to the set, the HDTV image is just wonderful, and often times eerily realistic. Nature shows are mind boggling, and sports, particularly Football, is just jaw dropping gorgeous. Finally, for DVD's you will be more than impressed as well, I have this set hooked up to a computer and I "upscale" DVD's to 1920x1080i resolution, and the end effect is incredible. It really has a 3d effect, and you can see tremendous depth and detail to any well filmed movie. With this TV, you will re-experience your favorite movies all over again, and you will find yourself watching more DVD's than you ever thought you would. I really don't have any complaints with this set, from the inputs, to sound, to form factor, ect..Everything is perfect, or very nearly so. One more thing, this set has the new HDMI digital standard hookup, and I wasn't too concerned with this going in, but as it turns out, when I did buy an hdmi cable...and switched my DirecTV HDTV hookup from RGB component to hdmi...there was some real significant image quality improvement. I wasn't expecting much, but I'd say it gave a 25% improvement to an HDTV image that I thought could not get any better. So, if you can, get an HDTV that has the new hdmi. This would be prudent anyways, since this is the new standard, and all new HDTV's, plasmas ect, are incorporating it. In summary, this Phillips is a 5 STAR SET, both for HDTV, and regular content. It's also a fantastic buy in comparison to the competition, particularly the Sony and Toshiba 34" models, which are considerably more. I like both of those sets, but if price was no issue, I would have gotten this Phillips again, I'm that pleased with it.

I recently purchased this set at Sams Club for $990.00. At this price, this is the best bargain in the mini wide screen category.

I will send you to other reviews for the 30" and 34" for all the details, but I couldn't praise this one more.

My only complaint(2)is in the remote. (1) Cheap plastic, and the back light only lights a small portion of the remote. (2) Need to have a seperate button for each input.Surfing through multiple devices is rather time consuming.

I give it a 4 star because of the enormous weight. I will point out that it is not a true HD tv, it is HD-Ready. Which means that it is capable of decoding the HD signal and displaying it. However, it does NOT display it at HD resolution. On to my main complaint, the thing weighs in at what seems to be about 800 lbs, though actually much less. It is a bear to move mainly due to the fact that there are no real good ways to get a grip on it and the heavy weight. If you are a renter who doesn't stay in one place for more than a year at a time I would suggest a lighter model.

Phillips has one of the worst and unreliable and unfriendly customer service and i would not buy their products unless money saving is paramount and a rude and inefficient customer service is not a bother!!!