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Philips Plasma TV Review

Model: Philips 42FD9932 Plasma Television

Description: 42-inch EDTV Plasma Display, Widescreen 16:9 Format

Resolution: 854 x 480 (WVGA)

Includes: Built-in speakers (13W total output) and remote

Color: Charcoal bezel with black ribbon around plasma screen

Reviewer: Robert Wiley

Date: 12-08-01


INTRODUCTION

Plasma Display devices have improved so incredibly over the past year that I do not hesitate to recommend them now to the consumer. In my opinion they generally surpass even the best CRT tubes for my viewing pleasure dollar. Figures for longevity are said to be 30,000 hours (before phosphor burnout) by the manufacturers I have spoken with. This equates to 9 or 10 years of use by the average household in the U.S. Philips, like Fujitsu, has been there from the start with plasma display monitors. The Philips advertisement "You got to admit its getting better" pretty much sums up this plasma over the earlier offering from Philips. Indeed, the advertisements Philips has run with the plasma TV displayed all over the young couples' house (including the ceiling) has done more to bring plasma TV's to consumers' eyes than anything thus far. People associate flat TV with Philips because of these ads. And it's a domestic audience that Philips targets with these devices. However, when people actually start to shop for the item they may find many other attractive brand choices

The Philips offering is a odd unit in many ways. It's a fun unit. There is a must have "optional" tuner box which facilitates all sorts of picture function including picture-in-picture options, multiple viewing modes, and 3:2 pull down progressive scanning digital picture enhancements from TV and video signals. The 42FD9932 has built in speakers and amplifiers which I will refer to later in the review. It comes with the necessary mounting bracket and it will support SVGA and XGA signals from your PC.

Philips has made some major improvements to their previous efforts with the 42FD9932 (name it the 9932 after this) plasma offering. They choose a very unique plug and play approach with it comes to the audio portion of flat screen TV use. The features of this unit are aimed primarily at the domestic user even though it does have a VGA output to link it to another unit if necessary. Indeed, I enjoyed my experience with this plasma monitor very much considering the powerful built in speakers, the bright video image quality, and the optional tuner "e-box" which facilitates ease of use tuning, split screen convergence, and a progressive picture converter.

THE PICTURE - 86

Additional images

• Philips optional e-box
• Picture of the Philips plasma inputs

We tested the Philips plasma with 480p and 480I input signals using DVD players as our primary input source. Interestingly, this Philips plasma TV does not accept progressive scan 480p input signals from a DVD player through the R, Cr, Cb, component video inputs. Instead, we used a special component to VGA cable to get the 480p signal. Another option is to use an outboard decoder video line doubler such as Silicon Images DVDO iScan Pro

Colors on the Philips Plasma were rich, vibrant, and stimulating as they can be with most recent plasma display offerings. Even a simple 480 lines interlaced signal from a Sony DVPS 570 DVD player yielded a color rich, bright picture environment. The colors were so fun and enjoyable when watching the IMAX DVD reproduction of The Greatest Places that I found myself glued to the display room couch - entranced with ever changing artwork. This Flat Screen TV is at its best when the viewing material is bright and colorful

We found it necessary to adjust the color temperature settings depending upon whether I used component video input or s-video input. These settings are important on this plasma display as they can take you from an oddly out of color set to a great picture. The CT settings are in the menu listed as either 55,000K, 65,000K, or 10,000K and are easily changed by the remote control arrow left and right keys. When using the s-video input I found the 10,000K setting necessary, however component video required the 65,000K setting for optimal viewing

The major drawback of this Flat TV is the black level output which only approaches a very dark gray. This is a tough issue with the 9932 as it hurts the contrast ratio when compared to some other units like the Panasonic and NEC plasma offerings. Thankfully, the dark levels are helped out tremendously by either an outboard line doubler or the optional Philips e-box tuning and scanning device. The line doubler also assists to eliminate flicker and pixelation visual noise. When watching the widecreen version of Blade Runner-where the entire movie is set in darkness- I had to adjust the brightness and contrast levels to achieve the best possible picture.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS - 90

The four built in 13W speakers in the Philips Plasma yielded all the audio output I required to fully appreciate the DVD's played! The bass is surprisingly strong and the unit gives the desired virtual surround sound simulation. The convenience of not needing a surround sound receiver and speakers is an attractive feature to many consumers who are replacing existing TVs.

The executive commander (Philips term) remote control is not impressive looking but is well laid out for ease of use. The arrow keys left and right are utilized to control the four important aspect ratio settings from 4:3, 16:9, 16:9WS (widescreen), and an interesting and unusual 14X9 setting. The built in scalar/ converter was "eyeball" perfect when using changing from one setting to the next. The 9932 uses green rather than black or gray bands when cropping a 4:3 or matted 16:9 picture signal. Though I prefer black bands I liked the green better than the faded gray of the Sony 42B1U Plasma display. There is a nice little mute key on the remote as well as four AV input buttons to choose the input selection being applied.

Fan noise has been cut down dramatically and was barely audible with the sound off from 12 feet away.

Connections: Cables run out the bottom back of the Philips Plasma display back panel cavity with plenty of room. There is a good selection of inputs as with most plasma offerings including VGA in and out, two sets of left/right audio inputs for the VGA settings and the S-video/ component video/ and composite video inputs.

This plasma is chunky compared to its cousins due to the built in speakers in the charcoal gray bezel chassis. It weighs a hefty 94 pounds. It is attractive but not as sleek as other plasma offerings. The wall mount bracket adds just over an inch to the overall depth when the unit is wall mounted.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Built in virtual surround sound speakers (13W amplifiers)
• Wall Mount Bracket and Cable Track included
• "Optional" E-Box tuner/line doubler/ processor
• Anti-reflective coating
• Brightness Level/ Color Vibrancy
• Price for features considerations

WEAKNESSES

• Size and weight. A bit bulky
• Black Levels/ Contrast
• Some "flicker" and pixelation (esp. Without outboard box.)

VALUE RATING - 88


Considering recent price drops which bring the unit to around $6300 (without Tuner box) this unit is an excellent buy for the master bedroom TV. It does not have the best picture of the plasma monitors but with built in speakers and amplifiers, plenty of inputs, the useful and necessary e-box converter, and a beautiful colorful picture the unit is an attractive value proposition. It is the most complete plasma offering in terms of plug and play TV in the market

OVERALL RATING - 89.4

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