Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42-Inch 1920 x 1080p LCD HDTV (Black) Reviews

Review by J. Hollis for Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42-Inch 1920 x 1080p LCD HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Excellent TV. Very nice HD images. I’ve viewed HD DVD on this TV via X-Box 360 and it is stunning. I found no need to turn the Natural Motion on for this as the image was so very nice.

As for gaming: this TV is excellent. Presents a wonderful image that appears clean and free of artifacts (this using an earlier model X-Box 360 operating at 1080i output [later models can handle a true 1080p, and then of course there is the PS3 which is 1080p all the time]).

Do you need 1080p? Most people don’t as most people do not have a Blu-Ray player or a Play Station 3 (which are currently the only things that output a 1080p signal). If you plan to use your TV as a computer monitor, then 1080p is what you want as all newer computers can output at 1080p. Keep in mind that cable and over the air broadcasts at 720p or 1080i maximum because they compress a signal to save bandwidth. So you’re not going to get a 1080p signal from just anywhere (at least not right now). A 1080p image on a TV of this size is probably not going to make much of a difference anyway (unless you’re running your computer on this, and even then it’s more so going to be a matter of scaling the image cleanly). It’s not really until you get into the 50″ and above area that 1080p becomes truly appreciable. In any event, this is a 1080p TV and it is a nice one that boasts an incredible refresh rate of 2ms. Anything under 6ms refresh is considered good. 4ms is very good. 2ms is incredible.

The Natural Motion does indeed give films shown on television the appearance of video, so it is something to either get used to or simply turn off (turning it off works just fine). I prefer the movie look myself, but the power of the Natural Motion is quite impressive in its ability to dejudder a moving image so quickly. There’s a fast set of innards in this TV!

There are a number of contrast and color temp settings to play with to get images to your liking. There are several forums around the Internet that can suggest some settings for this TV. So if you’re at a loss as to what to go with, do some surfing and see what others recommend.

You can easily update firmware on this TV via the USB port with a simple jump drive. This is a nice feature in the event there are manufacturer feature updates or if you encounter any buggy behavior (as some of the first batches of 2008 [which I believe were actually the model: PFL7403D-27] encountered things like the TV turning itself off or on, or picture auto-resizing). I’ve encountered no problems after a few days of near non-stop use, but will eventually check to see that the firmware is up to date for the heck of it.

You really cannot beat this TV for price and I’d dare say the quality as well. This is a 120hz television and is the top of the line for Philips and I think stands up well against the competition. They did a great job on this TV. It is tragic that we are seeing less of a Philips presence in stores here in the US. The Samsung’s and the Sony’s of the world are nice, but they do tend to cost more. Picture-wise, I’m very impressed with the Philips and am not sorry I did not go with a slightly smaller 40″ bigger named brand.

While I did not purchase my 7403 from Amazon, I have found that Amazon has a better price on this set than most others (though there really aren’t very many places selling this in the US). Costco gives an automatic 2 year extended manufacturer’s warranty which is free and the return policy is amazing if you happen to have a Costco in your neck of the woods. That’s hard to pass up, especially when dealing with electronics of this size that are not returnable in most online instances. A brick and mortar store is always nice to have for returns if you need it. That being said, you’ll probably only find two other places online that can beat the Amazon price, and those are membership only big box places (Sam’s Club and Costco).

I’ve seen some grumblings on some other TV purchases when they were serviced by an Amazon third party seller. I have, however, heard great things about Amazon’s White Glove service. Amazon really can’t be beat in the free shipping service they offer and I’ve usually chosen to purchase directly from Amazon even if it did cost a few dollars over an Amazon seller. I have long trusted Amazon to give a great price and will continue to look to them for incredible deals like this one.

Best advice: If you’re shopping for a TV, then do some research. There isn’t much out there on the Philips 7403 as Philips has been lessening its presence in the US because it’s such a tough market to compete in and the fact that Philips also manufactures the cheaper rebranded names specifically for the Best Buy’s and Circuit City’s out there (essentially the big box stores didn’t want Philips pulling people away from their store brands [Insignia, Dynex, etc…], so it seems they wound up putting the squeeze on Philips which was one of the better quality televisions that were actually also affordable). Philips is still pretty much king of the television world in Europe. If you’re comparing TV’s, there are a number of choices on the level of this 42″ 7403. Vizio is supposed to have an affordable new 120Hz 42″ that is also supposed to be good. There are of course the 40″ Samsungs and Sony’s as well. Toshiba and Sharp and LG offer some 42″ models that are supposed to be quite nice. Best thing to do is to see what others say about the TV as well as the professional reviewers out there. Look closely at the nuanced differences between model numbers from a manufacturer. Often times a company will have two models that appear to be the same, but may have slightly different components or some different feature that may appeal to you (and often times one of the models may simply be an older model, but with no discernable differences). Seeing the TV in a store in person is recommended, but don’t believe everything you see. In most cases a store will have several TV’s running on the same signal. When it is split so many ways, the image will often lose integrity. I’ve seen some places with a standard DVD player hooked up to an HDTV. The image is never going to look as good as when you have a single dedicated HD source for each TV. So, ask them to hook up Blu-Ray players for each of the TV’s you’re looking at so you can see what the TV’s are truly capable of handling. Also play with the remote and the TV’s settings. Many places like to put a showroom TV’s Dynamic Settings on because it makes the image brighter or more vibrant. Sometimes these automatic settings are not properly corrected for color saturation or contrast and you could be missing what the image is supposed to look like (or what it would look like if you were driving it). You’ll get a better sense of the image and the bells and whistles when you can get control over the HD image. Also keep in mind that a 42″ TV can look pretty small in a warehouse sized store compared to your home!

While the prices of TV’s are coming down, they’re still pretty much a big ticket purchase (especially at the bigger screened size). So get as much TV as you can for your dollar!

Review by P. D. Kousoubris for Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42-Inch 1920 x 1080p LCD HDTV (Black)
Rating:
IF you value your productivity, do not purchase the Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42 in LCD with an aPpleTV- the combination is like ‘crack’ for videophiles and will keep you glued to the set without recourse!

I bought this lovely Philips through tigerdirect.com, the EXACT company who you will buy this through via Amazon. I have dealt with them for years and their product values are solid. The Yellow truck shipping was $99, the nice manager (rare in urban areas) called to set up a delivery time convenient to me, and the nice driver (even better) helped me move the unit and unpack it properly.

OPEN YOUR BOX IMMEDIATELY upon receiving it before signing the slip. The driver noted a few big screen LCD’s with gashes on the screen that could only be noted upon careful inspection. Pluggin the unit in isn’t as important as you can deal with the company later (tigerdirect’s phone support has been mediocre-average in my past experience).

The Philips 42 LCD with 120Hz refresh, HD at 1080p, and a 2mS (very fast) response time with 3 adjustable picture settings (color, contrast for dark vs. light blacktones, and sharpness) ROCKS. Very sharp, colors are warm without bleeding. Dynamic range is very good.

My upconverting toshiba xde dvd player produced wonderfully rendered imax movies (ie, galapagos) which made me sigh “aaaah” like the first time i turned on my larger LG 50 plasma.

Unlike the philips MRI units and computers i have worked with, The remote IS intuitive, color coded buttons appear on the screen matching the remote ‘function key like’ and my mom might even be able to operate this!

The sound is fine – the ‘surround’ option sort of works, and importantly does not distort sound like other surround receivers if there is not a 5:1 or 6:1 speaker arrangement. don’t expect subwoofer lows, or wall shattering power output.

AppleTV has recently been upgrade with 720p HD content, the movie rentals last 30 days for $3, and the content is amazing between itunes / podcasts/ tv episodes (notably the movie selection remains subpar for purchase titles).

AppleTV did produce a few odd loud “clicks” on the LCD when the hdmi input was selected from another…can’t figure out why, but only happened 2-3 times. Oh, and you would be crazy to not use HDMI – just buy cheap cables on amazon.

Review by Brian Kenney for Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42-Inch 1920 x 1080p LCD HDTV (Black)
Rating:
Excellent colors and picture quality, great design overall a great product for the money and better than the competition. Compared against Sony Bravia and others and this Philips offers a much better product for the money. Highly recommended.

Review by Marcos M. Sastre for Philips 42PFL7403D/F7 42-Inch 1920 x 1080p LCD HDTV (Black)
Rating:
I got this about a month ago and couldn’t be happier. You really can’t beat the free shipping offer from Amazon. Mine got here within 5 days and delivered right to my living room, unpacked, and inspected. This was really a good buy. None of the LCD cons’ against plasmas seem to hold for this one:

1. The blacks are as dark as the screen when powered off

2. There is no blur… seriously NONE

3. Factory color settings are superb

4. Half the power consumption of comparable plasma screen

5. 120 Hz refresh and 2ms pixel response not available in any other model for this price

6. Really good sound from internal speakers

Bottom line: This is the best under $1.5K 42-inch LCD you can get.

Recommendations: Disable the “Digital Natural Motion” when watching 1080p (bluray) as it makes high-contrast lines flicker. This is a non-issue with DVDs, and probably not really needed for bluray.