Customer Reviews

Philips 50PF7320A 50-Inch Widescreen Plasma HDTV

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have had my Philips 50PF7320A for three weeks now and find it to be outstanding. The color and picture are great and the way it process the non-HD DVD, Cable or over the air is hard to believe, everything looks like HD to me. I did a lot of research on HD TV's before I made this purchase and it payed off big time, $$$ cost is low for what you received. I love this tv so much I a going to have it mounted into my great room wall, its like going to the movie theater, and of course the pop core is free here at home. Everyone that has seen it love it, I would recommend it to anyone look for a good outstanding HD TV. I am not a technician, so this is a end users review.

When reading this review you should be aware that I'm a bit of a geek....ok a hardcore geek. I don't know how the average person would handle some of the hookup/setup issues which I found simple and easy.

Have had the tv for all of 10 days but am quite pleased with it. No technical problems at all. Installation was easy; cabling was simple; remote operation is straight-forward. The manual, like most, is pretty paltry, so you have to do a bit of exploring and experimenting to see what all the settings and options are.
I've seen reviews where people have complained about the picture quality for "regular" tv channels. It won't..and can't...make a lousy signal into HD. On the flip side, this is so good that I can tell how good the data density is on the dvd's. Yippee!

Only things I might change are: 1) adding a black border instead of the all-silver and 2) giving the option to unstretch some of the digital channels into 14:9 or 4:3. But those are whines and not complaints.

BTW: I got it for $3.0k, including shipping, from Amazon. Hope you can do as well!

There has been a lot of noise on various forums (AVS Forum specifically) about the picture quality of this set compared to other comparable sets. Either I lucked out or simply the negative assessments of the set are overblown. The HD signal as well as the upconverted DVD (thru HDMI) looks outstanding (OTA works just fine)including deep blacks! Star WarsI,II,III look spectacular, as they are shot digitally. As expected the SD looks average, even poor, but thats a function of a high resolution TV. The downsides are the speakers, they are kind of redundant and somewhat ineffective. Second its heavy (138lbs) and the non intuitive way to put together the stand (it frankly looks cheap)doesnt help things. The set does tend to heat up after 3 hrs of use, probably slightly more than other plasmas. Finally the digital out is coax not optical, a huge bummer for me. That said, plenty of HDMI, and IR connections. So far everyone of them work. The set has several built in (and helpful) modes of looking at widescreen TVs, which is also quite helpful. Overall great TV.

Bought 4 units, cant beat a deal like this for 42.11. Thanks Amazon buyer for such a great deal.

Shortly after purchasing this model from Philips directly, we began experiencing drop-out of the picture for 10-15 second intervals. These continued and finally, the TV stopped turning on (or took several minutes to turn on). Red blinking lights on the front panel. Philips service was not hard to deal with, but when we got to the authorized service center, they could not even estimate when a part would be available. Philips was completely non-responsive, refusing to even discuss alternatives. We now have a dead set and no recourse. In fairness, when the set worked, it had excellent picture quality, but it is now a large, shiny object on the wall. If you buy a Philips product, follow some of the other advice and purchase it from a dealer with a no-hassle return policy; otherwise you may be very sorry!

I purchased the 50PF7320A/37 50" plasma tv from philips online store in Aug 2006. Eight days after i received it the tv wouldn't power on and there was a flashing red LED on the front panel. I called philips to request a warranty repair. I was able to arrange repair with a local TV repair shop that services Philips warranty repairs. They came an picked it up. The problem was with one of the circuit boards in it. They were able to quickly indentify the problem and order a replacement part. The first part order took 2 weeks to even be delivered and then when the tv repair shop received it, it was DOA. The tv shop requested a replacement and then the part was on and is still to this day on back order with no ETA. The repair shop said it could possibly be months before the part was shipped in. So then i am furious i called philips to try to complain but they wouldn't even open a consumer complaint until the part was on back order for at least 1 month. So now i am having to wait over a month even after just having the tv for a week before i can even try to get my money back or a replacement tv. Then just as the 6 weeks had passed since it broke, the tv repair shop was able to use a part out of an existing working set just to get it back to me. Since i had been waiting so long. Now 3 days after receiving it back, the TV is acting up again, the same things it was doing, relays clicking on/off while set is off, before it stopped working altogether, are happening again. Found out that the part is still on back order. Appearently there is defective part that has not been fixed in these unit. Buyer beware, as if you purchase this set, it might work for a short time, and you will have it in the shop for more time then you can probably stand. Philips customer service is a joke, technical service is joke. This unit comes with a 1year warranty, and the additonal 2yr ext warranty costs over $700. if you want to puchase this with a ext. just expect to pay the additional cost with the TV. In thinking back, if i would have know this was going to be such an ordeal. I would purchased a much better set from a better company and possilby even with a retail store such as best buy or someone who you can work directly with rather than going through philips directly. Just wanted to share my experience with this unit. One good note though. while its actually working, i am satisfied with the quality for the original sale price (not including ext warranty). But if its going to break, then whats the point.

I purchased this Plasma 13 months ago, and while I didn't love it to begin with, it worked fine.
Now, ONE MONTH out of warranty, there is "red snow" all over the television, especially in dark spots (shadows, black clothing, etc).
In addition, HDMI 1 has died. DIED.

BUYER BEWARE.

We bought this 50" philips plasma tv as a factory refurbished model. I think whatever issues philips had with this model, they fixed in the more recent new (or refurbished) model.

I must have lucked out because, so far, it has been flawless. Hd programming comes in absolutely gorgeous. We saw POLAR EXPRESS in HDTV the other night, and oh my gosh! Sharp, stunning, eye-popping picture and digital 5.1 sound! FREE OVER THE AIR!!!! Also Pro sports ( like NBA or NFL games) are so cool! You can't believe how detailed the picture is! DVDs (after we figured out the correct connections and settings) are equally stunning. Especially cool are to watch some of those dvd's of old big screen epics, like NORTH BY NORTHWEST and BEN HUR and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. The detail and color are amazing!

The only major complaint is that I can't strike a happy medium between the hdtv channels and the regular channels. If I get the HDTV adjusted just right, then the regular tv channels look too dark. So, I have been tweaking the settings trying to balance it. I am close.. but I can't seem to get it just right.

A minor complaint is that this TV has a mind of its own! Most everything is automatic... but that isn't so great if you don't want to use the automatic settings. I know what looks right to me and I have turned off the automatic stuff, but then when I come back the next day (or turn the tv off then back on), the tv resets some of the settings back!

The other buyer beware post pretty much describes my story perfect so I won't reiterate. Suffice to say I have a big open spot on my wall where my NEW Phillips plasma is supposed to be. But instead it is in the shop with a one month eta for return due to a backorder part. The shop says that they get about 10 of these TVs in a month. Don't buy it unless you want to tell people about your horrible story. Phillips customer service is a joke as they just keep saying "there's nothing we can do".

I bought mine in January 2006. I was quite pleased with the set initially. In September 2007 the set started flickering; then it only the top half of the screen will show and then revert to a full screen after about 30 minutes.

Philips customer service cannot/will not help. A $3000 plus TV set ought to last for a little more than 18 months.

Please look at other brands and STAY AWAY FROM THIS PRODUCT. And, please Google Philips plasma tv sets and see what others are experiencing with Philips' products.