Customer Reviews

Philips 42PF9831D 42-Inch LCD HDTV with Ambilight

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With all the hoopla about whether or not the ambilight is a good thing, I have to rate it top-notch. I do not find it distracting as some have written and I think it is a big addition to the overall viewing experience. This is a beautiful TV which looks like a piece of artwork on the wall. Floating with the ambilight background around it reflecting off of the surrounding white pallette, this TV looks almost surreal. For an LCD TV<the color and blacks are amazing, the options with Picture and Ambilight control are numerous and the sound is great. For the price, I am astonished at what a great set this is. My experience with Philips has been very positive including follow up with customer service when problems arise. I highly recommend this TV to anyone who prefers something stylish and unique.

I purchased this through Amazon/TigerDirect. Great price, less than half of what Best Buy calls for.

The TV is enormous. Much larger than the 42" description would imply. At first, I didn't think it would fit.

The picture with Ambilight is amazing. Much better than the two other HD sets I own. The tuner on this TV caught much more than the Sony tuners on the other HD sets, probably a hundred more channels. It found over 400 channels including analog on my Comcast cable.

The remote needs to be aimed directly at the TV to work. The interface connectors on the bottom of the set would have been better with a diagram of them on the back. The side buttons aren't labeled too well either.

It did accept all of the media I used, including USB thumb drives and such. The manual is a trip and a thick one too. I'm still not sure what everything does.

I like it.

With out dwelling too much about its sharp and vivid image reproduction, I am enjoying every bit of its ambilight features. I can adjust it base on what type of movie I am watching or the mood that we are in. Compared against my other 2 HDTV TV's (32 and 55), this is the best so far. It's just so sad that the demo systems of these TV series are done on a fully lighted showroom. If you see one in a darker show room, you will likely agree with my comments.

Let me start by saying this TV completely spoiled regular tv that we are all used to. As my buddies and I watched our first HD movie with the ambilight full surround, within 10 minutes we all agreed watching tv without ambilight will never be the same again! The ambilight brought the tv to life, it's a whole new world. Picture quality is great, and I love the picture auto-format option. One cool feature is the demos you can view on live television. The philips tv sort of splits the screen and shows you what your picture looks like with and without Clear LCD and Pixel Plus 3. The difference is extremely noticable.

Sound is good, its loud, clear, and nice base.

Although the screen is 42 inches diagonal, the tv is approximately 50 inches wide. This is due to the black border of the tv and the white background that was added to reflect the ambilight. It's a brilliant looking tv, very luxurious.

One thing I was dissappointed about was the memorycard/media option. I like to edit and create videos and convert them to DivX, Avi, MPEG files. I thought I would be able to play those types of media files right off my of SD card. Turns out you cant. Just pictures, music, and .alb files.

The remote is very nice looking, and the back of the tv has multiple inputs.

Overall, your tv/viewing experience will never be the same once you get used to ambilight. It really makes a world of difference and you will love it... especially with the different modes of ambilight. You will fall in love with the tv, bottom line.

Philips have come up trumps with this set. Big and beautiful, this is one fine piece of equipment. The picture quality is just amazing - admittedly there are many tweaks and settings to get it looking absolutely perfect - but don't let that put you off.

My very first plasma had the original Pixel Plus processing system - for the time that was very impressive, but this model has the finest detail of any TV I've looked at.

It took an age to finally decide on this as my purchase, and I looked at Sony, Pioneer and other high-end manufacturers - none of them compared to this one. Once calibrated, black levels are excellent. Skin tones are natural and colours just right, without being too vivid.

The sound is rich and full of bass, with no evidence of clipping even when cranked up on MTV. As for Ambilight, you'll either love it or hate it. I tend to turn it off during the day and when just watching television. For movies though it's well worth it. I watched 'Jaws' for the first time in years just last week - it looked beautiful, casting blues and greens onto the wall. As a gimmick, you can even have the screen completely off and just have the frame glowing ambiently.

Future-proofing anything these days is impossible, but with twin HDMI sockets, media card reader and Ethernet connectivity you'll not want for much.

Philips will always seems to have more than its fair share of detractors, but I would argue that some of the reviews elsewhere on the web expect things to work right out-of-the-box, without taking the time to tweak and perfect.

Technology like this doesn't work like that. In my own opinion you will not be disappointed with this beauty.

I had been in the market for a new t.v. for quite sometime. I had wanted to by a HD LCD, but my budget could only handle so much. When I saw the price on this t.v. I immediately purchased it. For this price your not going to do better. The ambilight feature is incredible when you watch in the dark. It really helps your eyes adjust to the changing picture environment very well. I was very particular in getting a set that had a high contrast ratio, and this set has a decent dynamic contrast ratio, not the best, but again...your not going to do better for the money. The other, image processing, features are incredible and offer a ridiculous range of picture adjustment. Oh, btw, this is no small tv...it measures 50" wide, but it is worth it. It is very sleek and modern looking. One last thing, the options to hook up compenents seem endless. The SD drive is awesome, no more looking at pictures on a 3.5" camera lcd. For gamers this is an awesome set: 1)unlike plasma the lcd doesnt burn, 2)wide options for hooking up game systems, 3)the PIP allows you to watch tv and game on two equal sized screens, so you arent missing anything (ie...football!!). Do your self a favor and buy this tv!

The TV is amazing!!! Have the Ambilight on in a dark room while watching a movie and then turn it off. It feels like your TV just drastically shrank.

First, this is indeed a "cool" tv. Looks great turned off, and very cool with the full ambilight. Also, decent speaker, easy hookup and good stand.

That being said, the remote is kind of low-grade - does the job, but not great; and the picture is only good. whatever you do, DO NOT go look at the new Elite plasmas or you won't buy this - cost aside.

Overall, a happy purchase for the price - but not the best HDTV quality - not even by a longshot...

A lot of problems with Philips Plasma TV's, Customer service is even worse.

I would stay away from this company and it's products....