Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)After a good deal of online research and close looks at competing HDTV models, I concluded that the 42PFL7403D compares favorably to competing models costing 50-75% more and purchased one.
The Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 gets 5 stars because the picture is truly superb.When up-close and viewing Blu-ray content at 1080p/24, the picture on this 120Hz LCD is about as good as HDTV gets at any price range.
Furthermore, when viewing standard (480i/p) TV sources, this set's video processing engine does a respectable job of smoothly interpolating the standard 480 lines of source to fill the 1080 lines of HD picture screen (for those who don't realize it, this takes some serious mathematics and processing power to cleanly scale the viewing area of a video stream by 500% :-).Since most 1080p HDTVs do a respectable job of simply displaying a clean 1080i/p signal as seen in electronics stores, I view this capability as a key differentiator between high-end and low-end HDTVs (although perhaps of diminishing value as HD broadcasts are becoming the norm).In fact, the upsampled 480p picture on this set is comparable if not superior to the picture on my old trusty 32" Sony Trinitron XBR tube TV.
Other positives for me include the 42PFL7403's construction, styling, and audio.The clear Plexiglas around the perimeter directs rather substantial sound to the front to complement two rear-facing woofers. Thus, the 42PFL7403's 30W audio, when properly-adjusted, should be strong and clear enough to satisfy those who haven't decked out their viewing area with a home theater setup and positioned speakers all about the place...
In the US we don't often see Philips' better HDTVs next to the more expensive Sonys, Samsungs and Panasonics outside of Costco or Sam's Club.This "7000 series" model is Philips' top-of-the-line 42-inch TV sans their "Ambilight" feature (I couldn't find a 42PFL7603D in the US other than direct from Philips).
Summary: an excellent TV with top picture quality and styling at a surprisingly good price point.
The remainder of this review gets still more geeky and also lists some gripes about the 42PFL7403D/F7 for those who care...
First, this class of larger 1080p TVs make the quality - or lack of quality - of digital content very clear to the viewer.It's important to know whether you're judging the quality of the HDTV set or the content being viewed.I've read many user reviews of HDTVs that slam the subject HDTV for what amounts to poor-quality content - their "older conventional TV looked better".These claims aren't surprising, because their old sets didn't magnify content encoding flaws by spreading them over five times the original viewing area.The old adage of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) certainly applies to modern home entertainment.
I get DirecTV and have their HD DVR (HR22-700) plugged into the Philips 42PFL7403D via HDMI.Like all digital satellite and cable providers, DirecTV compresses the digital signals they deliver to conserve bandwidth.The results of their overly-aggressive compression are clearly visible up close, but the Philips' "digital noise reduction" function appears to do a pretty good job of compensating at all resolutions - things really look pretty good from a comfortable viewing distance.
I do have a few arguably minor gripes about the 42PFL7403...
Gripe one:I currently use only two HDMI inputs to the TV, but there is no way to remove the numerous unused inputs from the rotation of a remote control.So, my DirecTV remote has a "TV Input" button that normally selects the next TV input in a rotation.The first press of this button pops up the Philips TV's list of all 10 inputs, while subsequent presses selects the next input.Unfortunately, the TV takes time with each press to switch to the temporarily-selected input and conclude that there's no signal coming in...With the TV's own remote, one can use the up/down arrows before selecting the desired input.The DirecTV remote can control the TV pretty well, but it's a pain to switch it into full TV mode to change sources, then switch back to controlling the DVR...
Gripe two: The standard setting options like "Movie", "Sports" etc, combine BOTH picture and audio settings, so the relative volume and audio processing emphasis is quite different in each mode.The set maintains a single "personal" settings memory that one can switch back to, but only if there's been no attempt to modify the audio or video settings in "Sports" or "Movie" or whatever...Any such mode modification immediately becomes your new "Personal" settings config.That said, after growing bored with trying out these options, one can certainly adjust the audio to sound good and stay that way.Of course, those with a home theater receiver for audio control won't notice...
Overall, so-far-so good.I cheerfully recommend this TV to my friends.
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Product Description:
Philips 42PFL7403D 42-inch 1080p LCD HDTV with 4 HDMI inputs, combines a full HD display, a powerful Perfect Pixel HD engine, HD Natural Motion and incredible, invisible sound. With EasyLink, only one remote control is needed to operate main functionalities on this TV and connected devices. Experience briliant performance for years to come.
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