Need quick feedback on PHILIPS 42PFL9703

addagalla

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I stumbled upon a PHILIPS 42PFL9703 today and I must say it looked gorgeous even when it was next to a Sony KLV-40W550A. It was playing some HD content and, colors, while they were definitely "different", looked much better and natural. I couldn't check SD playback since they had a pathetic cable connected to too many TVs.

They have the last piece on display for sale and they offered it for 79,990. (The discounted price was 89,990 and 10K addl discount since it's a display piece). How good a deal is this? In particular, any idea on quality of SD playback? I watch TS 80% of the time and occassionally DVDs. Don't need fancy features like USB movie, etc.

I know that Philips service is bad, but the store guys said they will take care of any type of problems. But I took that with a pinch of salt. What is people's experience with Philips service? Is it really really pathetic or is it something that you can deal with?

I'm trying to get some info on the net, meanwhile your inputs will be highly useful. I need to decide before the last piece is taken (the model doesn't seem to be available elsewhere, it's made in Europe apparently).

Thanks
 
well i had seen this philips 9703 ,its a 08 model, nothing special for such a high price.for one it has poor black levels.
although SD is good,to me the images were just tad to sharp.i would like the image to a be a bit soft in the long run,when u watch for hours together,although in a showroom u may feel wow.
lastly this show room piece is as good as buying second hand.for the price they are asking definetly not worth it.

about the lag nothing to worry about,the input lag is acceptable.
 
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42PFL9703 is very good TV , definitely far better than similarly priced sony and Samsung in terms of almost everything.The build quality is excellent, one of the best in color reproduction, can display details which many tv's available here cant even dream of displaying, Blacks are very good for a ccfl back lighting LCD , SD viewing is better than almost all the other LCD's ive seen here in India and it has DNM, 17 bit color processing.The tv will not perform to its best out of the box as it has so many settings so if one has little bit of knowledge with setting up TV can easily make this one shine.


Having said all this the price is high for a showroom piece, although brand new it retails for approx 90k it is better many TV's retailing for 1.5 lakhs.

if you feel you can bring the price down a bit and if the TV is in excellent condition then i would say go for it, cause it is one among those excellent TV's which will satisfy you for a very long time.
 
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Just got 5609 which is very good,I saw 7series which was showing wide range of colour with better look.
 
Thanks adder & rajapraveen80 for your opinions.

Visited show room again and took an hour long demo. The sales guy was mistaken that it was the last piece. They do have a sealed one, so I said I will come back in a day or two with my decision. Below are my findings.

1) SD (Tata Sky) quality is decent, comparable to Samsung B550. Sony W is better here. Philips looked a bit sharp and there is a bit of pixelation.

2) DVD & HD was simply amazing. Found it better than Sony W. The level of detail is awesome. I liked the colors here, though I spotted a tinge of green in general. May be this can be adjusted.

3) The menu is awful. It looked quite dated and in some menu options, the menu would take the entire screen!! This is the worst part and the menu itself didn't look like "HD". Pretty old menu software. And it seemed to have just minimal options (for example, no treble/bass controls for sound even though there is equilizer and not many picture settings too).

4) Though the specs mention ambi-light & ethernet port, the sales guy says those features don't exist on this 9703. I'm a little confused here. The unit we demoed is made in Europe.

5) Sound quality is pretty good, better than Sony again.

Questions:

1) Since most of my watching would be Tata Sky, am I better off buying a HD-ready Plasma? That should have a much better performance? Could you suggest the "best" plasmas in 42 or 50? I have read through some forums and looks like Samsung B450 is good. Haven't seen it though. What's the best Panny in HD ready category?

2)

"The tv will not perform to its best out of the box as it has so many settings so if one has little bit of knowledge with setting up TV can easily make this one shine."

Is this true for SD performance as well? Is there anyway to get rid of the sharpness & pixelation in this Philips model?

3) Any idea on the ambi light & ethernet port and why they could be missing?

4) The offer is for 79,900 (sealed unit). Has any found any better prices?

Thanks
 
Just got 5609 which is very good,I saw 7series which was showing wide range of colour with better look.

Can you tell me the price and SD performance? Did you also check 9 series before buying?

The Philips india web site lists only 3/5/7 series though. Don't know how 9 series is made available in India in some of the showrooms.
 
though I spotted a tinge of green in general. May be this can be adjusted.

YES it can be.



4) Though the specs mention ambi-light & ethernet port, the sales guy says those features don't exist on this 9703. I'm a little confused here. The unit we demoed is made in Europe.

Only the European and certain Asian version has the ambilight. it was dropped for India since it added additional cost.



1) Since most of my watching would be Tata Sky, am I better off buying a HD-ready Plasma? That should have a much better performance?


That is an excellent option as well.

2)

"The tv will not perform to its best out of the box as it has so many settings so if one has little bit of knowledge with setting up TV can easily make this one shine."

Is this true for SD performance as well? Is there anyway to get rid of the sharpness & pixelation in this Philips model?


YES it is true it needs to adjusted well to get the best out of it and showroom settings wont bring the best out of it.

3) Any idea on the ambi light & Ethernet port and why they could be missing?

like i said its not present in the Indian version.

4) The offer is for 79,900 (sealed unit). Has any found any better prices?

Nope that seems to be a very good price.

here is a review of the 9603 which should give u an indea of the 9703's performance.

Philips Cineos 42PFL9603D/10 42in LCD TV Review - TV Reviews - TrustedReviews


Philips Cineos 42PFL9703 Review - Other reviews - Reviews at Urdu Poetry/Shayari Forum
 
The Philips india web site lists only 3/5/7 series though. Don't know how 9 series is made available in India in some of the showrooms.

Earlier the 9 series was present in Philips India website.

Philips is dropping its plan to bring European manufactured models to india from now that is why you only see the Chinese and Indian made 3/5/7 series.

These 9 series tv's are just left out old stock which is being cleared hence the low price. when it got introduced here the 9703 was selling for 1.3 lakhs.
 
You can't go wrong with a Philips product & since its a flat tv I won't hesitate one bit. I don't understand why service is an issue. Its no comparison but my Philips 14" failed a couple of weeks ago & Philips Authorised fixed it for for just Rs. 600. They could have charged me more or said the tv has failed completely but they solved the problem.
 
Earlier the 9 series was present in Philips India website.

Philips is dropping its plan to bring European manufactured models to india from now that is why you only see the Chinese and Indian made 3/5/7 series.

These 9 series tv's are just left out old stock which is being cleared hence the low price. when it got introduced here the 9703 was selling for 1.3 lakhs.

I see. And thanks for the detailed responses. Do you know how 3/5/7 series TVs fare in comparison to 9703? If you know of any particular models that have equally or comparable performance as that of 9703, please let me know. Just to have more options on my plate before I decide.

Also, could you suggest a few models that I should audition in HD Ready Plasmas? And your opinion on what's the best of this lot in 40/42 size? I commonly hear about Panny C10, Sammy G450 and LG PQ 30/60/70. Which one has the best picture quality in terms of detail, contrast & SD upscaling? I won't bother about features like USB movie, bluetooth, crystal design, etc.

Thanks
 
I see. And thanks for the detailed responses. Do you know how 3/5/7 series TVs fare in comparison to 9703?

they are good, but not a match to the 9703.


If you know of any particular models that have equally or comparable performance as that of 9703, please let me know. Just to have more options on my plate before I decide.

Ive not seen an LCD tv here in India which has comparable performance to a fully calibrated 9703.Maybe the new LED back light LCD's from other brands can have better contrast but they loose out big time on details. when i first saw the 9703 in ezone I found the samsung 7 series was close to this, but in comparison even the sony x series failed at that time cause it missed a lot of details, did not display good colors and was poor in SD performance which the Philips displayed.

i know that Philips does not enjoy a premium image here in india unlike europe and a few other countries but, if you are stuck with brand image you can never enjoy good quality products.


Also, could you suggest a few models that I should audition in HD Ready Plasmas? And your opinion on what's the best of this lot in 40/42 size? I commonly hear about Panny C10, Sammy G450 and LG PQ 30/60/70. Which one has the best picture quality in terms of detail, contrast & SD upscaling? I won't bother about features like USB movie, bluetooth, crystal design, etc.

Thanks

Panasonic c10 or the samsung g450 are good options.Panasonic has good contrast and black, samsung has good over all colors and every other aspect are almost the same. its your personal choice really , have a look at them and then decide.

this is another excellent choice if you want to buy a full HD plasma:

Samsung Plasma Review - PN50B550 at Plasma TV Buying Guide

decide on the LCD tv after u checkout the plasma cause you should not miss out on what plasma has to offer.
 
You can't go wrong with a Philips product & since its a flat tv I won't hesitate one bit. I don't understand why service is an issue. Its no comparison but my Philips 14" failed a couple of weeks ago & Philips Authorised fixed it for for just Rs. 600. They could have charged me more or said the tv has failed completely but they solved the problem.

I am a huge Philips fan except for the service. Philips 14" is a common product and they will have spares etc readily available. When you buy a series 9 which is sold in limited numbers the availability of spared will be nighmare and they have to import it from UK everytime.

For a simple HTiB I had to wait for 4 months for an IC, bcos it was made in UK and only few models where sold in India.

The service for regular philips product is good, but for high-end is pathetic.
 
I dont have any personal experience w/ the model which you are asking for.
Philips 9 series is their most expensive models and so the quality. All the extra features like ambilight, higher end scalers etc comes in this series. When I purchased my 47PF9541/98 FullHD panel in 2007 i had to spend ~1.75Lakh as festival offer w/ an upscaling DVDP 5986 free (original price was 2lakh). Later i couldnt follow their numbering strategy, i could find some models in 7 series with extra features, may be because of the technology update. But i was really convinced about the PQ difference it makes (especially in SD), compared to the Sony,Samsung and LG. All were having some default tint which cannot be removed, not sure about the possibility in their service menu. In their latest models, not all, doesnt have this issue (cannot be considered as an issue, for eg. sony is having a red tint which makes the colors more vibrant so that people get attracted very easily, but this become more apparent (or become an issue) when a white surface is being displayed, it will have a red tint. I like the neutral\natural color tone, colors should be reproduced exactly, otherwise the artificiality will be noticed. This thing i came to notice when i compared this panel with their latest model at that time (PFL7422), but w/ lesser pricing around 1.1lakh w/ dvdp free, to me it was far inferior to this and it was also having that red tone. Another thing i could vouch is the ability to render the natural motion (sample test was with a waving flag clip and some fast moving scenes, sports channels (esp. football or cricket), also one clip with slow motion displayed simultaneously in this and a CRT tv). Only Sony was having the same performance, others were having a little bit of artificiality in that. Another plus is the ability to show the details in black. Anyways, since the model which you are looking for is from 9 series, i think it will never let you down. Believe your eyes and do a thorough side-by-side comparison w/ other models. Happy hunting.., yes i really mean it, its a real fun, it took me around 3 weeks to finalise, started much before the festival.

Added : Another thing (to me its only a myth, w/ normal viewing conditions or settings) the people are after is the higher contrast ratio. Practically, this will be apparent when you compare 2 panels in a full dark room. The difference will be neglected even if you have a small candle lit next\back side of the tv. This is a simple example from where the concept of Philips Ambilight developed. The latest panels are having very high contrast ratio at the cost of details in the picture.
 
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I dont have any personal experience w/ the model which you are asking for.
Philips 9 series is their most expensive models and so the quality. All the extra features like ambilight, higher end scalers etc comes in this series. When I purchased my 47PF9541/98 FullHD panel in 2007 i had to spend ~1.75Lakh as festival offer w/ an upscaling DVDP 5986 free (original price was 2lakh). Later i couldnt follow their numbering strategy, i could find some models in 7 series with extra features, may be because of the technology update. But i was really convinced about the PQ difference it makes (especially in SD), compared to the Sony,Samsung and LG. All were having some default tint which cannot be removed, not sure about the possibility in their service menu. In their latest models, not all, doesnt have this issue (cannot be considered as an issue, for eg. sony is having a red tint which makes the colors more vibrant so that people get attracted very easily, but this become more apparent (or become an issue) when a white surface is being displayed, it will have a red tint. I like the neutral\natural color tone, colors should be reproduced exactly, otherwise the artificiality will be noticed. This thing i came to notice when i compared this panel with their latest model at that time (PFL7422), but w/ lesser pricing around 1.1lakh w/ dvdp free, to me it was far inferior to this and it was also having that red tone. Another thing i could vouch is the ability to render the natural motion (sample test was with a waving flag clip and some fast moving scenes, also one clip with slow motion displayed simultaneously in this and a CRT tv). Only Sony was having the same performance, others were having a little bit of artificiality in that. Another plus is the ability to show the details in black. Anyways, since the model which you are looking for is from 9 series, i think it will never let you down. Believe your eyes and do a thorough side-by-side comparison w/ other models. Happy hunting.., yes i really mean it, its a real fun, it took me around 3 weeks to finalise, started much before the festival.

Added : Another thing (to me its only a myth, w/ normal viewing conditions or settings) the people are after is the higher contrast ratio. Practically, this will be apparent when you compare 2 panels in a full dark room. The difference will be neglected even if you have a small candle lit next\back side of the tv. This is a simple example from where the concept of Philips Ambilight developed. The latest panels are having very high contrast ratio at the cost of details in the picture.

Very useful first hand report. Thanks.

The store where I auditioned this had around 50 TVs connected to the same Tata Sky cable. Would this kind of make the signal "weak"? Could I expect a slightly better SD picture at home? I'm trying to audition the same model elsewhere, but it's not available.

I'll take a look at panny/sammy plasmas before deciding. I was also impressed by a Panny 50PX75U at a friend's place. I guess the reason was that it was BIG, apart from producing good overall picture quality with deep blacks and good contrast levels.
 
Very useful first hand report. Thanks.

The store where I auditioned this had around 50 TVs connected to the same Tata Sky cable. Would this kind of make the signal "weak"? Could I expect a slightly better SD picture at home? I'm trying to audition the same model elsewhere, but it's not available..

Definitely yes, the picture will improve in home condition bcos of better signal and controlled lighting
 
check this post http://www.hifivision.com/television/6507-buying-klv-40z450a-wise-deicision.html#post81019

I came to know Philips (thru Philips Arena dealer) will be soon launching their New LCD lineup...it will be interesting to see the New top end Philips models in India.

If they include PFL9704H series for India which has been lauded in Europe and Singapore then it will be tough fight between Sony and Philips.

I noted this earlier too, but I guess the pricing (of units comparable to 9 series) will definitely be way beyond the deal I am getting now.
 
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