Customer Reviews

Philips 37PF7320A 37-Inch Widescreen LCD HDtv

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I'm a just-retired Broadcast Chief Engineer, and am very hard to please when it comes to video quality. After much deliberation, and after settling on the Sharp, I had occasion to see a Philips LCD in direct comparison with 8 other brands (not Sony). No contest, the Philips had the best image. Philips-LG has a tremendous LCD technology right now with their S-IPS LCD. The colors are deeper, blacks better, view angle and sharpness better. To my eyes, the lineup from best to worst is: Sony, Philips-LG, Hitachi, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, RCA, Syntax, Polaroid, ILO. To Sharp's favor, they have a very nice- smooth look. The surprize- Sanyo. Sony is in a class of it's own, with a price-tag to match. Even as a former Sony fan, I can't justify it.

So, onto the Philips 37PF7320A. This TV can produce stunning imagry. I am feeding it with the OPPO 971 DVD player- HDMI connection. I have Dish Net sat service. What you immediately learn is that most all of our current sources of video are sub-standard. This is revealed in 10 minutes with the Philips. Although it does better with MPG2 sat signals that most others, compression artifacts will become very evident on all of the lesser channels in the sat line-up. Realize that HBO pays for top quality MP2 coding rate on the sat services. It looks pretty darn good. Look at Worldlink or other bottom rate coding channels- and you'd better be 20 feet away from the set.

DVD's fed with HDMI or Component look GREAT. As long as you feed it 480P, It looks like the film it probably came from. The "Pixel Plus" feature on the Philips does what it says. I was able to see very small sweat beads on faces in close-up shots. You will need to adjust most of the video settings to get it "dialed-in". The menuing system is just average. I'll be sending several suggestions to the firmware guys at Philips for small tweaks. I've already updated the firmware on the TV via the USB flashdrive. Excellent feature.

If you want to see what the TV can do, play some 1360x800 pixel images off a Flashdrive. It's jaw-dropping. As soon as mainstream sat service is 720P, you'll probably have a 100% increase in couch-potato mode time with the Philips. It's light, has modern design, good internal audio, decent remote, fine PDF CD manual,

Plenty-o-inputs, triple TV tuners and Superb picture. To boot, Circuit City has it for $1499 delivered (with a free 15" chineese LCD TV thrown in). Right now, it's the 37" to buy.

Okay, so I buy this TV, right? I hook everything up, position it perfectly in the room, then I fire it up. I do the channel auto scan [a joke] and as I begin poking through the other settings I realize that I don't hear anything...ANYTHING! No sound at all. I call Philips, and their technical support was a joke. After transferring me a few times to the "area that can help me" I was referred to a authorized service center in my area. Huh? This TV is new?

Don't get me started on the 'proof' of warranty debacle.

Anyway...since I am somewhat savvy, I went to the Philips site and downloaded the latest firmware. I put it on a compact flash card/USB card reader combo, and plugged it into the side of the TV and powered the TV back on. The firmware loaded automatically, and I had sound after powering the TV off then on again. Whew!

You always learn about a company when you have to contact them for a problem. I love Philips' designs--very clean and elegant--but they lost a point here.

The screen is great but some cable and most OnDemand (Comcast) programming look awfully pixelated. I know that's not the TV's fault. Multiple picture settings (personal, multimedia, movies, etc.) are available to fine tune poorer quality signals. HDTV on air programming is flawless...just flawless.

Sound is impressive, with decent bass response. Multiple sound settings too (voice, movies, etc.)

A plethora of inputs...which I need. Two HDMI, but no DVI? Go figure.

Minus one star for the poor customer support.

Been watching the market for 6 months, following prices closely. When I saw this one in Costo for $1800, I bought it on the spot.

So far we are very happy with the purchase. Have not watched HD yet, but DVD progressive scan picture looks awesome, and SD looks much better than on our old SD TV. Have experienced no glitches or problems with menus, etc. TV has plenty of input connections, including two HDMI connections. The side input connections for USB and AV are very handy too.

I did find that monkeying with the brightness, contrast, and color settings made the picture much better. The factory settings were much too bright. Also, it's worth trying each of the screen formats when you start a new movie or show, to see which looks the best. With 7 settings for screen size, one of them is bound to match the input best.

Oh, for those of you complaining about no volume bar ... read the friggin' manual. You can set the menu preferences so the volume bar appears.

I bought the Phillips 37pf7320A/37. Installing it was a bit tricky. I bought a Sanus wall mount for sets up to 50". It would not fit the Philips because the mounting holes were too far apart. I had to return that and but a wall mount for a 60" TV for about $100 more. That worked.

But that was only the beginning. I mounted the set and everything seemed to work great. Great picture! However, had a great deal of difficulity getting the cable card to work on all channels. Had Cablevision in about 5 times to get it to work.

Then, I found that when you turn the set off with the remote, ocassionally you cannot turn the set back on without unplugging it from the wall for a few seconds. Then the set clicks and after about 15 seconds, it starts normally with the remote on the switch on the set. However, this causes the cable card to reininitilize which takes about a minute or two. This problem happens once or twice a day. I called Philips but they have no answer. I return the set to the store and enchanged it for a new one. To my disbelief, the new one did the same thing. Now I think there is a design error in the set and I will probably return it for a different brand.

It is a shame that such a great TV with a beautiful picture has this problem.

One final note. Don't buy this set if you are putting it in a bedroom and expect to use the sleep switch. Unlike many sets which have a sleep switch button on the remote that you can tap a few times to set your desired time, this set requires you to plow through multiple layers of menus until you finally reach the timer. It is especially hard to do in the dark in a bedroom since the remote is not lighted. Finally, after going through all this, should you still be awake when the time has expired, the set gives you no warning it is going to shut off. Most other sets I had display a one or two minute warning and a means to cancel if you want. If you link this problem with the power problem I outlined above, I have had to get up and unplug the set a few times after the sleep switch shut it off. Then I was so awake I needed to set the dam thing again.

It is ashame that Philips did not do much in the way of consumer testing to see what consumers would want in an expensive set like this.

I bought this Lcd HDTV 37PF720A/37 about a month ago after around 2 wks research online by comparing all possible factors, including technologies (DLP, LCD projection, plasma, LCD flat panel), size, brands and prices. Finally I narrowed my choices down to the sony 42in. grand WEGA LCD projection TV, and this one, I finally got this one because it was on sale in COSTCO for $1700.

I really wanted to get a DLP TV for bigger size and lower price, but after compared the picture quality side by side with lcd tvs, and noticed the light bulb burned out issue since there are quite a few consumer complaints out there on the internet, so I got this one finally.

My experience with this TV:

Pros

1. Picture qulity (at least I have no complaint so far, I don't have cable or satellite right now, but Over the Air HD channels are crisp clear, and neither have I used it to watch DVD yet)

2. Setup was easy, just follow the instructions on screen (after flipping the remote a couple times , you will be able to get most of the features out, there are explanations along with the options, so it is easy.)

3. Great value (I am satisfied with what I get for the price paid, coz you don't expect a top to the line product for a low price)

4. You can download and use a usb drive to update your TV to the latest patch, I think that is pretty cool

Cons:

1. Turn on time and channel swithing time. It takes 13sec. to turn on the TV (I counted it several times between after I press the power button and before I see any picture)

2. No VGA pc input, to synchronize the TV with your pc, you may use a DVI to HDMI cable to connect if your computer's graphic card has that output (my pny Gefore5700LE has DVI and S-video TV out funciton, but who wants to have a S-video qulity on a HDTV?) For most laptops without those ports, you have to use the a transcoder/decoder to convert the signals, so it is ok for me, since my desktop is the media center, the laptop is just for work. (A graphic card and a decoder cost about the same)

3. USB1.1, I don't know what yr is it now, just can't figure out why philips puts a usb1.1 connection here, anyway when I plug my USB drive in, it recognizes it and can play jpeg and mp3 files, but really slow

4. Now I do think philips can do something more on the remote, more functions can be made to a one-touch button on the remote, since it is a bigoremote. For example, when you are viewing your jpeg files, you have to go back to the list to select the next picture you want to see then enlarge, it would be nice to have a "NEXT" button on it.

After using for about a month, I noticed the TV is clicking sometimes and the screen blacked out twice in one day, but now it seems the TV works fine. I will keep the firmware up to date to see if that would do anything

Since I just had it for a short time, more need to be experienced on this TV, and I will keep updating it.

I bought the tv when it first came out, about 5 months ago, so I paid full price. I did a lot of research and finally decided on this one. We bought an Omnimount tilt mount so we could hang it on the wall in our living room (U3TILTMOUNT). It looks great. I wanted to go with the LCD because of the glare. Our living room has a lot of light coming in, and is open with lighting everywhere, otherwise, I would've went with a Panasonic Plasma. The image quality is good, but make sure you have about 8 feet of distance in front of you. When we hung it on our wall, it made all the difference. I don't have digital cable yet, just have basic cable and the image quality is great. I don't have any problems with not being able to turn the tv on. I do have some gripes about the tv. Like the last guy, I don't like that there is no volume bar displayed when you change the volume. The speakers are just ok. Wish there were another set of component ports on the back instead of on the side. Now that we mounted it, you can see the cables coming down from the side for our PS2. Not sure why they didn't go with USB 2.0 port instead of 1.1. I have it hooked up to my Yamaha receiver and whenever I turn the volume up on the receiver, my receiver turns off. I haven't been able to figure that out yet, but it only happens with the TV.

Other than that, the tv is great. I would buy it again, but if you're low on funds, look at the Soho Dymond brand. I bought my parents a 32 inch LCD for Xmas and so far it is a gem which is fraction of the cost. 37 inch appears to be even better in this brand. I bought it from PC Connection.

Good Luck.

Got this TV a few days ago. Currently just using cheap, very old rabbit ear antennas to pick up OTA HDTV while waiting for digital cable install and the picture is excellent with just a rabbit ear antenna!

Overall, the picture quality is excellent for OTA HDTV and also for DVDs over componant video cables on my 480p DVD palyer. I have not experienced the same powering on/off problems as other reviewers, but I have only had it for three days.

The only minor gripes I have are user preference things. The on screen display in the simple mode doesn't show the volume bar when you change volume. I didn't think I would care about this but it is annoyingly different from what I am used to. In the full display mode, the entire left half of the screen is filled up with a non-transparent box display with lots of useless information that blocks half the picture. Changing from HD channels to SD channels, the volume is very different (SD is much louder). I don't know if this is a general problem with all HDTVs or just this one.

Flipping through the cycle of channels, when you get to the "top" it then cycles through all of the av inputs, hdmi inputs, side inputs before getting to the bottom channels (e.g. channel 98, 99, AV1, AV2, AV3, HDMI1, HDMI2, Side, 2, 3, 4...). Won't matter once I get my digital cable box, but it might bother some people.

The menu system is easy to navigate and the remote is very simple but has everything I need on it. It also has 4 blank colored "soft keys" at the top that have different functions in the menu system (i.e., in the menus if you are doing setup, it says hit the green button to start, red button to stop etc.) I think this is pretty useful as it reduces the need for a lot of different buttons on the remote that only do one thing.

Overall, excellent picture and sound for the price and no major problems. Only minor dislikes in the user interface.

I have had this TV for a couple months and all I can say is WOW! First of all I bought the TV on a Sunday night and it shipped the next day. I received it within a few days and it was in perfect condition. I was only missing a couple of mounting bolts for the stand.

I set this TV up in my bedroom and it was easy to setup and took very little calibration to get a great picture. I am so impressed with this TVs picture with my standard def DIRECTV that I am not even worried about getting HD. I am getting nearly as good a picture with this as I do with a HDMI DVD player. This TV does an excellent job of cleaning up the standard def signal and only looks bad if I am very close to the TV. DVD is excellent from any distance or angle.

I have had absolutely zero problems and can honestly say I have never seen a TV with a better picture, period. My big screen is being neglected in the living room since I got this TV. There is absolutely no better buy out there, thank you Philips for your many remanufactured TVS.

I have been waiting for the right opportunity to buy a HDTV. Price has been the main factor since my current TV (36" Sony Grand WEGA SDTV) has been serving me for 6 years now. While I eventually intend to get something in the 50" range for my home theater, I was looking upgrade our TV in family room. My plan was to see if I could get something between 20" and 32" for around $750. Then I stumbled on to this TV on Overstock.com. My I paid less than $950 (refurbished) and it shipped for $1. Since it blows my 36" Sony away, it's in the theater for now.

Picture quality is fantastic. I bought an $80 DVD Player with HDMI at Wal-Mart and watched plenty of DVD's in the last few days. Immediately I noticed how true the blacks were and how well the TV handled the processing of a upconverted 1080p signal. With this TV you realize how important signal source is... I watched a few concert DVD's and then a few movies. Then I popped in SW3 and I was blown away!

What's not to like? Same issues that have already been presented. I did not find the menu system difficult, but it's not going to win any awards. The biggest issue is the lack of onscreen volume notification. This is such a simple thing to fix and I am surprised it was overlooked.

I am very pleased with this TV and I can't believe the price I paid!

I have had this television since February 2006 and it has been a total disaster. When I brought it home I hooked everything up immediately. I wanted to have my cable box, DVD player, Xbox 360, PS2, and Sega Dreamcast all hooked up before I powered the set on...bad idea. After an hour of dealing with tangled wires I hit the power button on the TV...and nothing happens. The set was dead on arrival. The retailer refused to take it back and I was forced to deal with the "authorized service centers."

To make a long story short, it is nine months later, the set still does not work properly (but at least after a total replacement of the power supply it will turn on), and Philips refuses to take the set back because only one of my four trips to the authorized service center was considered a "major repair." The following are the problems I have had with this set:

1. No power

2. Loose connection of HDMI wires (internal, not the plug on the outside)

3. Blown out speaker

4. Mysteriously loses signal and goes into "sleep mode"

The worst part about it is the authorized servicers in the New York City area are totally unreliable. It takes weeks for them to get parts, they don't answer their phones, one servicer made an appointment (which I took a day off of work for) and never showed up, and servicers will frequently respond to complaints by saying "We will call you back" (they never do).

This set is a complete mess. I will never buy another Philips product again. Stay away from this set and everything else that this manufacturer makes.