Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

Review by JB for Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV
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After my previous 13 inch Sharp LCD TV died recently, I was in the market for a new small LCD TV for the kitchen. After shopping around I purchased the Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19 inch LCD HDTV from a B&M Target store; this is the same TV available here either from Amazon itself or sold through Amazon by target.com/ITC. IMHO this set competes with other 19 inch sets such as the Toshiba 19AV600U 19-Inch 720p Portable LCD HDTV, Black and Samsung LN19B360 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV, Black, which cost $45 to $80 more than the price I paid for the Philips. (Due to reliability / customer service concerns I did not consider any of the numerous no-name or store brand TVs available.)

First things first, at present the Philips requires a firmware upgrade (available at the Philips website) to eliminate an annoying high-pitched hum that occurs when the TV is powered off. If you have a computer and a USB flash drive this is an easy fix. Hopefully this will not be required on future shipment of the TV.

Setup of the Philips was very straightforward, and includes a guided setup which displays several test images and has the user select their brightness / sharpness / color preferences. This appears to be a faster way to get a decent picture than having to manually guess what backlight / sharpness / brightness / color / tint settings are needed. Of course these manual adjustments are available if needed. After 20 minutes to initially scan analog / digital channels, the TV was ready to go. The QAM tuner was able to pick up all of the digital cable channels (SD and HD) present; due to the distance from broadcast towers I could not check OTA performance. Unwanted channels can be “skipped” via the Setup menu.

The HD picture was excellent, with a bright picture, saturated colors, and good contrast. The SD picture was obviously a step down, but analog and digital SD channels were reasonably good. There are several options to present SD content stretched to fill the screen, but I preferred to stay in Normal mode and leave black bars on the side for SD content. The sound of the unit is fine, even though I was surprised to see that the speakers are located on the bottom of the TV (the pictures on Amazon make it look like these are front facing speakers). I had no issue getting adequate volume out of the speakers, and the sound quality is good considering the small size of this TV.

The Philips tilts forward a bit and tilts backwards a bit more, which is useful if viewing the TV from above or slightly below. The horizontal viewing angles are very good, no real degradation of the image when standing to the left or right of the TV. Viewing from above is OK up to about 45 degrees. Viewing from way below can become a problem, so if mounting this TV high up (say on a wall mount) make sure you can tilt it down towards the viewer. (Note: most TVs I looked at locally exhibit the same issue when viewing from below – some at a much smaller angle than the Philips.)

The Philips includes 2 HDMI inputs, component input, S-video / composite input, and VGA input. There is both a digital audio jack (coax) and headphone jack. Other standard features include sleep timer, parental controls, and sound equalizer. The two features I wish this TV had was a channel label feature (particularly useful to label the myriad digital channels this TV now picks up) and some type of Favorites feature to quickly tune to certain channels; the Toshiba mentioned above has these features at a higher price. I also have some concern over the long term reliability of this TV, as older 19 inch Philips models have some reliability complaints on here. I’ll update this review if needed (hopefully not).

In summary, after using this set for a while I would say that this is a fine TV for the price, particularly if you are able to get the unit on sale. It is missing a few features from higher priced Toshiba and Samsung offerings, but has fine picture and sound at a price competitive with the no-name brands.

Review by Ryan J. Schaefer for Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV
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Being a college student I am always searching for great deals on electronics, recently I have been looking for a small TV for my bedroom and I came across this philips 19′ refurb for $134. I was a bit skeptical and read the reviews, most reviews were negative especially on the refurbished models. I went and purchased the TV anyway since I have had success with refurbished electronics in the past. Well this was my first bad experience, the reviews were true to their word. The power for the TV stopped working and i was no longer able to turn the TV on or off with the remote and this was the third day i had it, the only way i could get it to come on was to unplug the TV from the wall for a while. I called philips and they offered me the same model refurbished i said no thanks, I returned it and purchased a samsung 19′ for $170, this TV had the best ratings and the fewest problems it is a little more expensive and the TV must be sitting at eye level to see the best picture, but i would rather have a TV with a little bit of an obscure viewing angle then a TV that doesn’t turn on.

Review by Thomas J Reagan for Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV
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I bought this TV for my mother’s kitchen for Christmas. Just 92 days later it died. Don’t buy it.

I read the reviews before I bought it, including one from a reviewer that had the same problem. I had hoped he just bought a lemon. I tried the fixes but with no luck. It won’t work.

I don’t have much experience with the Philips company so I will suggest you stay away from this model. I don’t think I will be gambling on any more Philips though.

BTW – The store warranty expired 90 days after purchase. This is too big for a paperweight.

Review by Alan Zoellner for Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV
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I was looking fo a small, quality TV for my workshop. I also wanted one that would double as a computer monitor. This TV does both just fine. In my area, rabbit ears do not do very well, so I am using an outside antenna and I get a very good picture. The built in speakers are just that, speakers.