Philips 40PFL9704 LED backlit TV

[admin_exported]

I may well possess the only sample of the Philips 40PFL9704 in the UK as at the moment, delivery to the UK seems to be on hold. However, for any one contemplating buying this model (despite the horrendous price of £1800) I give it 5 stars and if I could, 10 stars. It is without doubt the best TV on sale anywhere at this time. I look foward to the HFN review and I expect a glowing report.

The reasons I bought this TV were mainly due to the fact that it is LED backlit (Hence low energy consumption which I measured with a wattmeter at 110 Watts. This may not be as low as the specified 92 watts but it is still a very good result) and comes from the same stable as the highly respected 42PFL9664.

Straight out of the box I must admit that I was a little disappointed. The factory settings were as usual set for in store demonstration with overblown colour and contrast. I spent the next day playing with the comprehensive picture settings. As mentioned in most HFN reviews you need to set up this TV very carefully to get the best results. Using the excellent built in Freeview tuner I finally arrived at a stunning picture. Contrast is remarkable with the deepest blacks you have ever seen and the whites are Persil bright. The colour palette is as true to life as you will ever see. I list below the settings I arrived at but remember, this is my personal taste and other people may want slightly different settings.

Contrast: 95, Brightness: 57, Colour: 40, Sharpness: 0, Noise reduction: Off (Seems to make the sharpness worse if you have in on), Tint: Normal.(very important this setting), Perfect Pixel HD settings. Perfect Natural Motion: Maximum, 200Hz Clear LCD: On, Advanced sharpness: Off (seems to make no difference when On), Dynamic Contrast: Minimum, Dynamic Backlight: Best Picture (You can use Best Power setting if you want to lower energy consumption but the pictute is not as vibrant), MPEG artifact reduction: OFF, Colour Enhancement: OFF (This last setting gave me the most trouble. I set this to Minimum thinking it would enhance the colours. In fact, it does not enhance the colours but gives a very strange hue to all the colours. Red looks like maroon for example. Do NOT use this setting if you want true colours.)

Being a bit of a HiFi geek I always use Russ Andrews mains connectors and the best quality Scart and HDMI connectors. This without doubt gets the best out of any system and I can recommend their use.

Other features include Net TV with built in WiFi, some may find this useful. Personally after connecting it to my own router I found it very tedious navigating with the remote and prefer my laptop. The Ambilight is a very useful feature and setting it on one colour does relive eye strain when viewing at night.

I hope this personal review is useful for other purchasers of this and other Philips models. This price of this TV will eventually fall to a reasonable level and if you can wait a few months I advise you to buy one, you will not be disappointed.

 

[Anonymous]

Apologies for mentioning HFN reviews, I of course meant to write WHF (What HiFi and Video). Still the home entretaiment magazine best on the market.

 

[Ripsnorter]

Excellent post there, Harrowman, and I'm glad you're so happy with your new TV. This series of Philips flatscreens is excellent and they even passed the Woman Factor test with my partner! It's now a toss up between these or the Sony Z5800s. You are right about the price, it is very high, but for anyone who can afford it it's money well spent. I live in Germany where the Philips are plentiful so I hope the UK delivery problems are soon sorted and it's just a glitch and not a sign of something more ominous, as in Philips deciding the UK market cannot sustain these sets. Thanks also for sharing your calibration settings.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had this tv for a few days and i will be returning it. I think for such an expensive tv although the quality when watching high definition content is very good, when watching standard defintion content on this the tv the picture quality can be quite poor. I've noticed when watching standard defintion at times the picture looks quite pixelated and blurry and i have to change channel because it's not comfortable to watch. I don't recommend getting this tv if you are going to be watching a lot of standard defintion content but for HD content it's very good. I've seen cheaper tvs that can handle standard defintion content much better then this tv.

 

[Anonymous]

I am curious about this Philips TV set?

As it's LED back lit, is it then capable of localised dimming if the screen?? As neither the Sharp or Sumsungs can.

If not, then I could not go for an LED from any persuasions - as without that ability the Philips model is just a more efficent LCD TV.The Blacks are still as good as a other LCD can be.

The high price of this model also reflects the poor pound to Euro exchange rates. I would go for the Philips 7xxxx series.I don't mean to be harsh on this great TV but I find the picture a bit 'unreal' and gimmicry.

I beginning to think there are too many techno gimmicks in the Philips top range of TVs -when the settings are either recommended to be set to Off or Min. As for the Amblight effect, until they introduce that at the local cinemas I am not going to petition Sony for it in their next upgrades.

3D TV is coming soon and that will make alot of sets redundant very soon.

PS:I am curious how many of these sets Philips have sold compared with other similar ranges??

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

Well we are selling everything in the 9 series that we can get our hands on right now.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry daz7781 I totally disagree. With the built in freeview tuner I get excellent results. In fact if the BBC is broacasting a programme in HD the freeview picture is almost HD itself. I also have a Humax freeview recorder which upscales SD to 720i with a HDMI connector. The SD picture here even better but not a lot.

I suggest you calibrate your TV using the settings outlined in my report. I also suggest you get a Russ Andrews mains connector, this can make a huge difference. This set can produce the best SD content I have seen and unless your model is faulty you should be able to get the same quality picture as I have.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes Ultraslim the LED Pro backlighting does use local dimming. That is why the quoted contrast figures are so high.

 

[Anonymous]

Harrowman:Yes Ultraslim the LED Pro backlighting does use local dimming. That is why the quoted contrast figures are so high.

I think a 6th star needs to be introduced in the WHF reviews in anticipation of this LED review. The 5 star club is getting crowded.How would it compare with the LCD backlit 9664 ???

Its going to be tricky evaluating this, very tricky.Can't see it anytime soon. I can't see anything less than a 6 star???

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Definetely sounds like a winner.

 

[Anonymous]

Harrowman:

Sorry daz7781 I totally disagree. With the built in freeview tuner I get excellent results. In fact if the BBC is broacasting a programme in HD the freeview picture is almost HD itself. I also have a Humax freeview recorder which upscales SD to 720i with a HDMI connector. The SD picture here even better but not a lot.

I suggest you calibrate your TV using the settings outlined in my report. I also suggest you get a Russ Andrews mains connector, this can make a huge difference. This set can produce the best SD content I have seen and unless your model is faulty you should be able to get the same quality picture as I have.

Sorry Harrowman but i disagree the standard defintion picture on the Philips tv is poor compared to other cheaper tvs. For such an expensive tv i was unimpressed. Actually i've read quite a few user reviews about this tv and a lot of people are saying the standard defintion picture is poor on this tv. When i contacted Richer Sounds and told them i wasn't impressed with the standard defintion picture on this tv i was told that Philips don't have particulary good SD picture compared to other tvs they are more calibrated for high defintion.

I returned my Philips 40PFL9704 and got a Samsung UE40B8000 and the Samsung has a much better SD picture it's clearer and sharper then the Philips. I'm a lot more happier with the Samsung then the Philips. The SD picture on the Philips was just too pixelated and blurry for my liking maybe you can live with that but i couldn't i was constantly changing channels because it was uncomfortable viewing on some channels with the Philips.

 

[Anonymous]

Even if this Philips LED set is poor with SD, its how it performs withn HD that defines its mettle.No doubt it will be as good as the LCD 9664, Curious that both LCD and LED are literally competiting against each other??

I do find the images are of the highend Philips sets to be over processed for the 7xxx or 9xxx series.

 

[Anonymous]

Like i said the Philips 40PFL9704 had a good HD picture but still the vast majority of channels are in SD even on sky so i wasn't perpared to spend that much on a tv that could display only HD content well but would have a pretty poor picture with the vast majority of channels.

I also saw another expensive Philips tv on display in Richer Sounds which also had a poor SD picture it seems Philips tvs just can't produce a good SD picture like the other main TV manufacturers can. That's probably why most high street stores don't stock Philips TVs. Even when i went to Totenham Court Road to try and see if i could find a 40PFL9704 on display most of shops there didn't stock Philips at all and i actually asked one shop owner why they didn't stock Philips and they said because they had the most problems with Philips tvs so they stopped stocking them.

 

[Anonymous]

daz7781:

Like i said the Philips 40PFL9704 had a good HD picture but still the vast majority of channels are in SD even on sky so i wasn't perpared to spend that much on a tv that could display only HD content well but would have a pretty poor picture with the vast majority of channels.

I also saw another expensive Philips tv on display in Richer Sounds which also had a poor SD picture it seems Philips tvs just can't produce a good SD picture like the other main TV manufacturers can. That's probably why most high street stores don't stock Philips TVs. Even when i went to Totenham Court Road to try and see if i could find a 40PFL9704 on display most of shops there didn't stock Philips at all and i actually asked one shop owner why they didn't stock Philips and they said because they had the most problems with Philips tvs so they stopped stocking them.

Samsung would be a better reasoned choice then.......but with no localised dimming...

£1800 for a Philips LED 40 inch set???? Sorry its too much. I would trade image for real estate and get a 46 inch lesser image model

 

[Anonymous]

I would have gone with a bigger screen if i had the room but i don't so the biggest i could squeeze in was a 40 inch. The samsung UE40B8000 has a dam good picture SD and HD.

 

[Anonymous]

Daz and Ultraslim.

According to your experience I must have got the only Philips TV that has a fantastic SD picture on ALL channels (even Sky Sports News which is notoriously poor). I am either very lucky or most likely you have not adjusted your TV correctly. Yes, the calibration can be tricky but it is worthwhile. Some may regard this feature of Philips TV's as a weakness, since most buyers do not bother to adjust the picture. Philips should address this by either calibrating the TV in the factory or giving a guide to buyers on the settings for best picture.

As I explained in my piece, out of the box the SD picture is average, but careful setting up yields a perfect picture. In store demonstrations are never a guide to what can be achieved in the home. My SD picture is so good that it gives a different dimension to viewing. The 200Hz Natural Motion facility gives the picture a quality that I did not see with other TV's demonstrated at John Lewis (although Samsung was pretty close). Yes, the £1800 price tag will put off many potential buyers but like all new technology this price will soon fall and in a year it will be probably fall to £1200 (my guess)

By the way I have just bought a Blue Ray player and as you say the HD picture is perfect with absolutely no motion smearing and a realistic colour palette.

With my background as an electronic design engineer I am very critical about any piece of equipment I buy. I go into the tech specs very thoroughly and always demand a demo of any potential purchase. I took over a year to choose the Philips, it was not an impulse buy. After 2 weeks viewing with the Philips I am sure I have chosen a "state of the art" model and I expect it to last for many years.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree this Philips LED is the one to own and worth passing on the 9664 LCD model. The mega contrast and local dimming forfills LED promises not so far met till now. Let see a review to crystalise this as the ultimate LED TV.

You lucky man to own this LED set

 

[Anonymous]

i have to agree with daz, on phillips SD picture. when the 664 came out it was ment to be the best thing since sliced bread. so off i popped down to richer sounds with a wod of cash in my back pocket. got to say when i got there they had it on showing the london marathon live, and out of all the screens that was showing it the phillips i thought was the worse.

 

[Anonymous]

just read these posts and had to join in.I've got 2 philips sets 1 an older pfl9632 42" and a newer pfl37 9604 which i must say has an awsome sd and hd picture.these sets i belive have one of the best sd pics available.i watch sky thru 2 hd box's and are outputed at 1080i.anyone thinking of buying one of these high end philips set should look no futher.i'm one happy customer.last thing bluray and hd perfomance still surprises me even now.should be getting gladiator on bluray at xmas cant wait.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

bunceheating:just read these posts and had to join in.I've got 2 philips sets 1 an older pfl9632 42" and a newer pfl37 9604 which i must say has an awsome sd and hd picture.these sets i belive have one of the best sd pics available.i watch sky thru 2 hd box's and are outputed at 1080i.anyone thinking of buying one of these high end philips set should look no futher.i'm one happy customer.last thing bluray and hd perfomance still surprises me even now.should be getting gladiator on bluray at xmas cant wait.

Great post bunceheating

Also as a proud philips high end owner myself I have to say gladiator blu ray looks great as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Daz

I've just got back from Tottenham Court Road and I was told in one shop they don't stock Philips anymore as they've had too much hassle with them.

I walked directly across the road to another shop and there was a 42 inch 9664 probably in the best position of all the TV's in the shop right next to a 40 inch Samsung 8000 and the guy said the Philips knocked the spots off the Sammy and went on to crucify the Sammy as being cheaply made, won't last 5 minutes etc. and that everytime he gets any of the 9664's they are sold virtually overnight. He thought they were the best thing since sliced bread

Just goes to show how different people's opinions are!!!

The Philips looked to have more natural colours to me but he said that both sets were set out of the box and were showing HD content. I asked if he could show SD content and he said "No"

 

[Anonymous]

He said no because like the manager in richer sounds told me, Philips don't have a very good SD picture, so the salesman probably didn't want to put customers off by showing off the dodgy SD picture. I went round so many shops in Tottenham Court and there were hardly any that stocked Philips TVs. There were maybe a couple that did but there were far more that didn't stock them. I thought it was strange that pretty much every shop stocked the well known manufacturers like: Sony, Samsung, Panasonic etc but hardly any stocked Philips.

I don't understand how some people are saying the Philips 40PFL9704 has a good SD picture because the one i had definitely did not. It had a poor SD picture especially when compared with other TVs in a similar price range. The SD picture was so bad on some channels i just couldn't watch them it was uncomfortable viewing. I was told by a richer sounds sales person that the Philips 40PFL9704 was designed to handle HD well but it's SD handling wasn't very good and i could definitely see that with the TV i owned. Other people might think the SD picture is good on that Philips TV but i definitely did not. Everyone's opinion is different and the 40PFL9704 just wasn't for me.

 

[ear]

the tuner is good. but scart or video coonections are bad.I also heard from salesman that Samsung's tv's power source( I think its called like that) breaks down a lot.that certainly puts someone off . not sure it is the reallity