Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

Review by D. K. Fonseca for Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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I had done a considerable amount of research before I purchased the Phillips 42 and I have to say I am quite pleased with my choice. I have owned the TV for about a month now and here are some of my findings. Hope this helps.

After reading a few conflicting spec reports, the Phillips 42 does in fact have a 5ms seek time. Some sites you will see have it listed at 8ms but this is incorrect. The 5ms is amazing when watching sports or playing games. There are roughly no ‘trails’ or inconsistent images.

The trim around the TV does not glow or light up as some earlier reports suggested (before the release)

Software like the 3D engine and HD Natural Motion is very stable and looks great when watching HD content. Infact it takes a bit to get used to it, being that image panning is very very smooth.

Software like Dynamic Contrast and Active Control were kind of useless to me because when these features are active you can actually see the screen adjusting. It seemed annoying to me and at first and I thought there was something wrong with the set. However they are easily defeated (turned off) and it worked fine after the adjustment was made.

The software also gives you a setup assistant feature which quickly walks through the setting up of the color. It shows you different split screens and asks your opinion on which looks better. After a few of these are answered the TV automatically adjusts itself according to your choices. I think this is a nice feature for those who do not like to ‘tweak settings’ over and over again. The picture was close to perfect in my opinion after running the setup assistant.

If you are not planning on mounting the set to a wall the stand is very cool. It allows you to ‘swivel’ the TV up to about 30º in either direction. My TV is located in the middle of the room however my couch is off to the right side. So having the ability to rotate the TV so that I am looking at it in direct line of site is very handy especially when playing games! 🙂

Fit and finish of the Phillips is superb and as the marketing swill says, it really does look great in any room. My wife was concerned that it was too big for our space however once it was set up she really enjoyed the sleek and subtle design features.

The Remote is pretty basic and cannot be programmed for other devices. I also found that off axis operation (when not pointing directly at the TV) causes inconsistent results. My sense is the remote does not send out a high enough powered IR signal because the issue goes away when I use my logitech universal remote.

As far as power consumption goes, all I can attest to is the fact that it does not get very hot which leads me to believe the power levels are clean however it is hard to tell without proper test equipment. There is a ‘powersaver’ mode which drastically ramps down the contrast and is only really good in a very dark room. I rarely use this as I prefer my color settings. Even the lower contrast one I created for ‘movie mode’ still performs better then the preset powersave mode.

Overall quality of the sound is pretty good and in my opinion completely adequate for most situations and/or users. I used the TV for over 2 weeks before setting up my surround sound system and never felt I was missing out. The speakers are not terribly loud so if you are someone who is looking for that full movie experience with explosions so real the cops are called, well, then you will definitely want to invest in a 5.1 or 7.1 surround system. The built-in subwoofers are rear firing so you may want to be careful about judging the resonance in the next room if the rooms share a wall or if you share a wall with a neighbor. The subs don’t have too much power so in most cases it should be fine but should be considered.

Amount of Inputs are great. It has 3 HDMI, 2 component and 2 composite. It even has a USB port so you can plug in portable media and display photos and things however I have not used this feature. The only thing I wish is if it had a Digital or Optical sound in but I am sure Phillips felt if you needed that kind of quality you would use it with a Surround System.

Overall a great TV and solid buy for the money. Hope this helped. Good luck!

Review by R. Anderson for Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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This tv is amazing, it picked up my HD channels right away and the picture quality is very impressive! We’ve been watching so many movies and it’s been such a treat. The sound on the TV isn’t all that bad either, it was a big improvement compared to our older CRT tv… but for movies we have sound coming from a receiver/theater speakers.

I connected my killowatt meter to measure the consumption in power saving mode and sure enough, it consumes between 65watts to 75watts. I looked at CNET’s charts that compared power consumption and this beat all other LCD’s and Plasma’s by a HUGE margin in power consumption (even screens that are much smaller than this). I didn’t notice the picture quality go down w/ the power saving mode, it just got slightly dimmer.

The video processing features are nice too, though I disabled the natural motion option (it made movies have a weird appearance to me, kind of like a reality show… hard to describe).

I definitely would recommend this 42PFL5603D LCD TV.

Here’s the average power consumption details that I tested for each TV mode (mine is usually set to Power Save):

Power Saving Mode = 72 watts

Sports = 227 watts

Standard = 140 watts

Movie = 140 watts

Game = 210 watts

Review by S. Manoa for Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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Pros: Stelthy sleek styling, Vivid picture quality, 4 1.3 HDMI ports, Low power consumption.

Cons: Speakers can use some help, Remote control is very basic

I ‘m very happy with my purchase of this Eco HDTV. It has some great features & uses less power than any HDTV in its class today. The images look crystal clear while watching DVD’s & TV. Playing games on the Xbox 360 is a blast! Can’t wait to see what the PS3 looks like! This 42″ runs extremely cool too! It doesn’t create heat like most others do it its class.

Review by Jason H. Cantarella for Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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We did a bunch of research before buying this TV, and to be honest, the eco-tv power-saving features were the factor that closed the deal for us. I figured that we’d trade a little picture quality for the savings in power, but that it would be worth it in the end.

I was wrong! The picture quality is terrific, even with the power-saving mode turned on. The main difference is that without the power-saving mode on, the set is extremely bright. With the power-saving mode on, the set has a normal brightness level. As far as I can tell, the power-saving picture is at least as good as the regular picture on any similarly priced LCD that I was able to see.

I use the set for gaming (xbox 360), and have been very pleased with the performance so far. I haven’t used the speakers, so I can’t comment on them.

The pricing seemed very reasonable to me, and the TV works great. Save money, great picture, help the planet– why not? I’d buy it again in an instant.

Review by pointerDixie214 for Philips 42PFL5603D/27 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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After reading just about every online review of this television I could find, I decided to pull the trigger on it. I was a little hesitant as I found a couple reviews claiming that this television had a couple weaknesses. One being that it couldn’t produce a good black (common with cheaper LCD TVs) and two was that the sound wasn’t very good (most use surround with a flat screen anyways). Well, upon receipt from Amazon and shipped with CEVA, the television looked amazing. Great shipping, got here fast and free, and in great shape. I got it all set up and calibrated and started watching some HD!!!

First impressions… WOW!!!!!! 42″ feels a lot bigger for some reason than the 40″ LCD I am used to, feels like a lot more than a 2″ difference. I am not sure how much more black the blacks could get without going plasma. I haven’t ever seen an LCD produce blacks like this. Granted, not quite as good as Plasma, but that is expected. Still WAY better than on my friend’s 40″ 1080p of a VERY popular brand that shall remain nameless. (Rhymes with Bamsung 😉 ) Colors are very true, contrast is great, wide angle of view and great crisp, sharp image. We watched “National Treasure 2” on HD and it felt like everything was in the living room. Absolutely incredible.

The “Powersave” mode is cool in that it doesn’t use much power, but I leave mine on Personal and it still sucks way less juice than the 40″ at my buddy’s house. If you are Eco minded, this is the TV for you. We were willing to sacrifice a little image quality to go this route. Now not only are we saving energy and using a TV with no harmful metals and some recycled plastics, but we feel like we got a better image than the other TVs we looked at. All the other modes are very applicable to what you are watching. “Sports” is great for sports, “Movies” is great for movies, etc… You can go into the menu and the set will even show you how much power the TV is using with the selected options!

As for the sound, I know most people use surround for their HDTV. But I am using the TVs speaker system and it really is impressive. The best “On board” TV speakers I have ever owned for sure. And the user interface is very intuitive. Press “Menu” and navigate to the section you wish to make changes to. The “Setup Assistant” was very cool too. This helps you calibrate your image to your taste. It feels like an eye exam because they split the screen and ask you which image looks better. Highlight that side and press “Select” on several pictures and it adjusts itself for you!!!

I would highly recommend this TV to anyone looking for a 1080p LCD TV period. It has the best image quality of all the comparable models we looked at bar-none, great sound, is relatively attractive (for being a TV), and is very easy to use. If you are an Environmentalist, or just trying to conserve, then that should seal the deal. It was also a great experience buying through Amazon with the free shipping as the TV arrived three days before “Estimated Delivery.” CEVA called to set up a delivery appointment and the driver unloaded it right on time. All-in-all an excellent buying experience and I would do it again with the same TV, vendor, and shipper in a heart beat!!!!