Customer Reviews

Philips 42PFL6704D/F7 42-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV

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

 

 

Compared this model to last years,both sitting side by side at big box store and about $100.00 difference. New model well worth the extra dough. Both have 120hz, but this model has 50,000 contrast ratio vs.20,000, speaker system was better but still not the best. 4 HDMI (3 in back one on side),nice remote but I linked to my dish one. The base will swivel about 30-40 degrees either way. The onscreen set up was very easy and designed for your own taste in picture and sound. My one gripe is that it only has 1 anolog and 1 composite audio out,no fiber optic to hook to my reciever. The composite sounds good, but a audiophile might notice a difference. Still. a great set for the money.

First off let me start by saying, I am VERY happy with this Philips LCD HDTV 42inch (6000 series). It was a definite upgade from my 32inch Sharp, with that said let me start my review.

Appearence: When i first saw the delivery men with my TV, I was in total AWW. Just the box alone was stunning, then when i finally started the unwrapping and got it mounted to the TV stand and on my dresser I took about 5 minutes just analyzing this beautiful TV. It has a nice glossy THIN border around the TV(which i found perfect)so I have more TV to watch lol. The TV stand is great it swivels left/right for optimal viewing angle. The Screen has a nice matte finish so there is hardly any glare if TV is facing a window, even with no picture the screen size is just simply overwhelming.

Ease of Use: Philps 42inch LCD HDTV is very user friendly. As soon as you turn on the TV it prompts you to start the TV setup with detailed and very easy on-screen instructions to help you find the right settings for your viewing pleasure. In the case you are having trouble you can always refer to the handy instruction booklet or call philips great customer service.

Picture Quality: The picture quality on this TV is extraordinary, one those factors being the 50000:1 contrast ratio. It makes the black look super rich and not faded as you would notice on other TV's, another feature on this TV is the 2ms response time.. let me warn you if you currently do not own a TV with a response time of 3ms or lower it will take some time getting used to this, because it makes the movies look like they are being played in fast forward. Don't get me wrong when you get used to the picture it looks AMAZING, it makes the image look almost 3D.. I literally watched 3 movies one after another because i couldn't keep my eyes off the damn thing lol. (Of course for the picture perfect quality you will need to have HD service from your local Cable/satellite provider and HDMI cables help out a lot)

Sound Quality: I have done my research and I always see other reviewers writing bad things about the sound quality of the philips TV's. Now, from personal viewing and listening I can respond by saying that it is absolutely not true.. I would assume that if you have furniture, that is going to be obstructing the left, top, and or right side of the TV you are going to have difficulties hearing unless you up the volume to about 80-85. Now, the notion that the TV has poor sound you can dismiss that BS.. I can watch my TV from about 9 feet away, have the volume on 20 and still hear perfect. Remember, I have my TV on the stand about 3 inches from the wall.

As you can see I have rated this product with 5 stars, and trust me it deserves more. This TV is outstanding and honestly it is a TV that will last a lifetime, I plan on never getting rid of this great product.. I am extremely happy with my purchase and I would recommend this TV to everyone in my family so that goes the same for my Amazon.com family!! "SENSE AND SIMPLICITY"

I've owned a number of Philips products over the years, my first was their flagship A/V 5.1 Receiver and a matching CD player, purchased through a friend whose dad worked for Philips, back in about 1991. I used those two pieces until 2001, and sold them on Ebay for a pretty good price for me and the buyer. I wish I still had them for a separate room, even if just used for music, and I bet they'd still be working quite well today. My point is that I gained a lot of trust in the Philips brand over that period of time. I'm a big Sony fan when it comes to video products. But I decided to give Philips a try again and in the two months I've owned this TV I've been quite pleased. No, it's not a Sony XBR, and Philips will likely never compare, but for what you get with the this Philips for the price, you won't be disappointed. I'm not using this for a top notch home theatre room. If you're building on that, then you're likely looking at the wrong TV here. This makes a great family room TV. It's easy to use for the whole family, and the quality of the picture is for sure good enough to stand up to the middle of the road Sony models that are at least $300 more.

As for my technical review here. I don't give it very high marks for appearance, not because the overall look isn't nice, because it's bezel and stand are completely black plastic and that static material attracts dust like no other. It's too bad TV manufacturers don't frame their displays in aluminum like Apple's 30 inch cinema display, but powder-coated black. Of course that would likely boost the price way out of this price point. The picture quality of this TV is wonderful! Like I said no complaints yet. I don't have a Blu-ray hooked into this, but my 1080p upscaling DVD player looks quite awesome, and HD programming via cable looks flawless. The World Series was awesome to watch on this TV, due to it's 120Hz Clear LCD, 2ms performance for superb motion sharpness. Also, the 50000:1 contrast ratio does produce very nice deep blacks. As for the sound on this TV, well the "invisible speakers with incredible surround" are pretty much worthless. This is now a trend to put the speakers on the back of flat panel TVs so that the bezel can be thinner all the way around the screen. Nice idea, but this means ideal TV placement is necessary. In fact, I would guess just setting the TV on a stand with it about 6" from a wall with no other cabinet walls or obstructions would be best. Placing it inside an entertainment center reduces the sound clarity to an unacceptable low! So, I'd recommend also buying a soundbar or some form of 5.1± speaker system. Lastly, the swivel stand is a huge bonus that I don't believe any other brand offers!

Ok. Keep in mind that all reviews are "relative", so I admit the same TV can be perceived very different depending on the customer. My perspective is this. I was trying to replace a Sony LCD TV that I had purchased about 5 years ago. The main reason I purchased this TV is two things - it was cheap, and the reviews were relatively positive on Amazon. Turns out the reviews were overly generous.

First the build quality is pretty crappy. Very plasticky...
Second, the video is really unimpressive. All 1080ps are not equal, and this TV demonstrates that. Color were saturated and looked awkward in many situations, and believe me I tried every setting and customization available on the TV. Images just looks flat.. relative to other TVs.
Lastly, the audio. I mean, you can't expect much sound from a device that has the speaker on the BACK, but the sound was pretty awful, even for a TV. The thing that really turned me off was how inconsistent the audio was depending on the source. Speech was clear for some program, while hard to discern for others.

For a first-time buyer of an HDTV, this set is fine. And the price is pretty darn good.
But anyone who is looking to replace their sets? Look at the TV at the retail stores first.

I returned mine. Paid $100 more for a 46-inch Sony set. The difference was shocking.

I got this TV on sale at a competitor owned by a man named Sam - a "club" if you will - for less than $700. For the price it's phenomenal. The picture quality is on par with any TV out there - I'm looking at you, Sony. The speakers are in the back of the TV, but I prefer that because I have my audio running through my stereo, and so should you.

I turned off the motion enhancement/trumotion/whatever it's called, because it is distracting.

Amazon has to take this TV down!!! It is a TV that WILL I repeat WILL Malfunction after a year!!! How ironic since the warranty ends in a year. I refused to write a review until I spoke with the people at Phillips and heard it from their mouths. NO REFUND (even though there are several complaints) I read the reviews (which of course were not so abundant over a year ago when I bought the TV ) and they are true. Anyone who has this TV and does not have the power supply problem is one LUCKY MF! I wasted money, HARD EARNED money on this TV that I will not get back. But I will do my best to prevent other people from doing the same!!! Good Luck Everyone. It is a good deal at first but a sad story in the end!!!!!

I have had this television for about a year and a half and the picture quality is shocking if adjusted properly. There are settings that do saturate the image but it is just because the LCD panel is so incredibly bright. The fast 120Hz refresh rate makes it perfect for console gaming. The different preset display modes help for what they are labeled Sports for example ups the refresh rate, contrast, and brightness. In movie mode it darkens and slows the refresh rate slightly to avoid making the movie look "fake". I have had no problems with it and am very satisfied with my purchase.

I bought this TV from Walmart after seeing reviews

Here are the + points

1. Good brand name (1 star)

2. Good price (@ Walmart) for the features it provides (1 star)

3. Swivel stand (I really like this feature)

- points

1. I am not happy with the picture no matter what changes are made to the picture settings. HD shows are ok/good but non HD shows and my DVD and BlueRay (connected through HDMI) are very bad with this TV

2. Sound is not up to the mark

3. Not good rating from CNet ( I knew it but just wanted to tryout)

So I returned it and bouth TCL 40" from Amazon and I really like this TCL TV's Picture quality even though there are few issues with that TV as well (discussed in my review)

My perception about this TV is that we buy TVs to watch shows. If that part is not satisfactory I don't care about the other extra things however nice they are.

So I don't recommend this. Sorry Philips

I bought this tv because I believed it was the "best quality" for the money on a 42" LCD screen. One of the thing I forgot to do when looking was to read the other reviews, after I had already bought the item and it had already shipped when I remembered that the reviews reveal all. When I checked them I got worried at how many bad reviews there were just based on the "weird picture". This I believe is because the reviewers only shop online and haven't actually been to a store to look at other actual tv's because there is a huge difference in refresh rate in tv's. I'm guessing what they're used to is about 30-60Hz screens which are different altogether vs the 120 Hz this LCD has. Since these people were not used to this refresh rate they immediately panicked and tried to return it. I was also not used to this but knew that it was supposed to be there. All it takes is getting used to. The first few weeks with the tv was a little strange but I got used to it and now the tv looks normal.

For the other reviewers complaining about the sound are either really deaf or just had some bad speakers because at most I keep the volume at most 65 if I want to hear something.

So after the long explanation here are my pro's and con's
Pro's:
42" LCD screen size
120 Hz refresh rate (takes getting used to but still not a con)
Small besle (edges)
Amount of inputs
Very visible in high light
Great for video games
1080p quality

Con's:
The plastic base gathers a little dust (but what electronic doesn't)
The screen can get smudges easily

Other thoughts:
It can create a bit of heat, whish is great during the winter, not soo much in the summer.

Wife and I decided to get our first LCD TV to clear up some space in the living room and better enjoy our new Netflix subscription (I am too cheap for cable and therefore didn't see the point of getting a HDTV, but changed my mind after we got NFLX!). Near Black Friday 2010 I checked the ads and was tempted to go for one of the 120hz offbrand models ("Element," "Proscan") that could be had for as low as $475 for a 42 inch 1080p, but with such little information and reviews available, I decided to go with the Philips, which was still at a very reasonable $600 and had lots of good reviews. As the Philips was not available in stores, I had to take a little bit of a chance on it and purchase it without viewing ahead of time. I was hoping for good 1080 picture with better sound than the usual LCD TV and I believe I got that. And I have a hard time judging how well a picture looks inside the department stores and with so many of them in one spot. So I figured it would be OK.

Overall/picture quality: 4.5

Originally I wrote this review saying the black levels were a little disappointing and distracting during dark scenes. The shadows would be washed out and everything on the screen become a sort of offwhite blob, even with the contrast near 100 and brightness down around 35. However, after tinkering with settings forever and driving my wife crazy in the process during movies, I think I have found the secret to getting good contrast on this TV. There is a setting called ACTIVE CONTROL or something like that, that is supposed to adjust the backlight depending on how bright or dark the screen is. I think it's more of a power saving feature, but this TOTALLY FIXES MY CONTRAST ISSUES. If you set it to "on with light sensor," the contrast is 100% better and very impressive. There is a very slight adjustment if a scene switches from pitch black, but it is not very noticeable and definitely worth keeping on. I was initially disappointed to view SONY sets of friends that had much better contrast and black levels, even if they cost a few hundred more. However, I am now pleased to have saved some money and get a picture in the same ballpark. My wife claims ours looks better, but I can tell it's not quite "top of the line."

Features/Ease of use: 3

The extra features don't really add much. Too many different settings and features make it hard to find a good picture. The "Dynamic Contrast" setting seems good at first, but it becomes distracting when it gets lighter and darker during scenes with major lighting changes. It's too annoying for me to leave on, and with the contrast set to near 100, you are getting basically the same effect. the "ACTIVE CONTROL" does this much better and solves all my contrast issues.

The "Digital Natural Motion" is motion interpolation, which really just makes your content look like a videogame, with that unnaturally high frame-rate appearance. Some people like this, and it is impressive at first and usually what you see when you go into the department stores and you're like OMG I NEED THIS TV.

However, for actual film and live-action movies, which are filmed with real cameras and real people, it looks too unrealistic and can produce weird "artifacts" that don't belong. The technology is sort of predicting what the in-between frames should look like. But then you have Marlon Brando in nearly double-vision popping ahead of the screen! I use the "minimum" setting sometimes during Netflix streams if the picture is a little choppy. It can work well in this instance. I have noticed on friends' Sony Bravia TVs that their Motionflow is more believable and less distracting than the Philips version. But it does a pretty good job of what is intended. Just leave it off.

One user-friendly issue bothers about this unit. For picture settings, it has about 5 presets and one "Personal" one you can edit. You can't edit the other 5 presets, so its version of "sports" or "movie" are stuck forever, apparently, and if you adjust it, it automatically changes this to be your Personal setting.

The "power saver" model works pretty well for normal TV watching if you don't want it so bright and giving you a headache, but it's still annoying that you can't adjust the presets. What's further annoying about the presets is that they also change the AUDIO SETTINGS, so the EQ is also preset along with the picture, and also can't be edited permanently. This makes no sense to me. I may be watching football, but that doesn't mean i want the 1KHZ band turned way up. Just strange. So I wish you could edit the presets at the very least, and even better would be for the audio to not change with the picture presets.

These sorts of issues are why I think it will be nice in the future to have an Internet-adapted TV set, upgrading the firmware and fixing little bugs or just improving on it in general. This is what's nice about my Wifi blu-ray player. It's already gotten better since we purchased it.

It's tough with TVs because they go obsolete so fast, but I think it's a pretty good time to purchase a 120hz, 1080 set and not need to replace it for a while. At the same time, I wouldn't want to spend $1000 for something high end right now and then see something better for the same price a few months later.

Sound: 3

One of the main reasons I picked this TV was because I assumed the sound would be better than the offbrand models. Many people now want a whole full-blown 5.1 (or 7.1!!!) surround system and therefore the actual TV speakers do not matter. Well, for me, I wanted decent sound from the speakers and AS FEW CABLES as possible, so a full 5.1 system with separate receiver and subwoofer was out of the question. One of my main reasons to get the HDTV in the first place was to mount it attractively on the wall and clear up space in the living room, get rid of the big furniture housing the old TV, etc. This meant no extra cables or speakers throughout the living room.

That said, the Philips delivers pretty well in this regard, considering the speakers are hidden behind the unit facing the wall. I am pretty discerning with audio, and this doesn't compare to my other two sound systems, but it will do until I find a sound bar (with wireless sub) I like. It's all I could expect from the built in speakers.

The equalizer is a little strange with unusual frequencies to adjust. I had to turn the bass (120 hz is the lowest??) down significantly, but once I got it all to my liking, I was satisfied. However, the "invisible surround" is pretty useless in my opinion, because it almost completely drowns out the dialog during movies and music. In older or dialog-heavy movies this is a dealbreaker. For newer action movies it really does sound like the effects are coming from other directions, and it fills up the room a bit better, but it is mostly distracting and it makes the EQ settings even harder to set, with the bass and mids all over the place. Music vocals really get drowned out.