Philips 37PF9731 LCD TV

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itey

387 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 26

Topic # 14372 30-Jun-2007 16:30

Hey,

Does anyone have a Philips 37PF9731/69 LCD TV, or, know anything about it? Good/bad things about it, Anything is appreciated :)

My dads thinking of getting one, and we wanted to hear your guys' feedback.

Check this page for the specs.

The tv would be connected to my media pc. I would plug my media pc into the tv through DVI. The media pc has sky connected to it (currently through composite, but will upgrade to svideo with the new tv).

Cheers

thrifty

31 posts

Geek

Reply # 76386 30-Jun-2007 17:11

Consumer has rated Philips the worst for reliability.

Spyware

2063 posts

Uber Geek
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Lifetime subscriber

Reply # 76395 30-Jun-2007 19:19

Harvey Norman don't carry Philips TV stock due to unreliability. I have a two month old 32PF9531. I have a Topfield satellite STB connected via component and was very impressed by TV3 widescreen from the Freeview transponders. HOWEVER the TV has issues with some content via component, specifically any scene containing high frequency components, e.g., the edges of white credit text. It either blue screens (no option to diasable) or displays a pink and white pattern. Same fault from Sony DVD player via different component inputs.

N.B. Although the 37PF9731 is a 1920 x 1080p panel it doesn't appear to support 1080p input, only 720p or 1080i.

Ross

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richms

21528 posts

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Reply # 76433 1-Jul-2007 01:49

All the philips I have seen have had really bad motion, almost drunk looking with things having trails behind them and in some cases looking like its got the chroma from one frame mixed with the luma from the next/previous (hard to tell) - anyway, all those issues have a name, its called pixel plus. Turning it off made it watchable but still inferior to the panasonic and sony that were alongside it.

Never tried it on VGA or HDMI from a PC to see how that goes. Ive basically given up trying to find a cheap small high res LCD that I can use as a monitor too.

Oh, and philips solution for crap contrast is to simply strap some lights to the tv to try and hide it. Good one....

Richard rich.ms

graham1

1 post

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 76436 1-Jul-2007 02:08

As a electronics tech, Dont do it.

They use a chinese made panel with inferior backlights which often short out causing the power supply to fail or the back lamps not to light. The solder is a cheap lead free type which is very prone to cracking under heat causing a whole host of weird problems as any digital tv (lcd or plasma) runs warm. The components are cheap chinese parts which are also not very reliable. only parts not made in china are the main decoder ICs which are made in Japan.

If you want a good lcd that is reliable and value for money, put your money into a samsung or panasonic as these are made from quality components with proven reliability. I know as I dont see many of these as a tech. I see plent of the philips rubbish.

Good hunting.

Graham.

GeekBoy1970

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 76440 1-Jul-2007 07:42

Their Plasma's are fabulous though.

deliveryguy

42 posts

Geek

Reply # 76457 1-Jul-2007 11:41

HOWEVER the TV has issues with some content via component, specifically any scene containing high frequency components, e.g., the edges of white credit text. It either blue screens (no option to diasable) or displays a pink and white pattern. Same fault from Sony DVD player via different component inputs.

This problem can be fixed - goto http://tinyurl.com/2r8ksl Philips support and download the update -
unzip it onto a flash drive and plug the flash drive into the usb port on the TV - The link also provides instruction on how it install the update

Spyware

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Reply # 76463 1-Jul-2007 12:22

Firmware updated to 0.93.0.0 (32pf9531 version rather than 37pf9731 though). Blue screen appears to have been disabled so I can now watch it lose sync on certain content (certain STB menu pages cause problems).

Ross

Spark FibreMAX using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+

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