Philips 50PFL3807/F7 50-Inch LCD 60Hz Internet (Black) Reviews

Great Purchase i ever made, August 26, 2012

its really nice tv in this price, and also have wifi built in and works great, pict quality is really good, its really better deal in this price compare to samsung $1300 and sony $1400 its really half price tv with same features..love it , its almost six months no issue,,

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

Uverse does work. Great TV so far., July 27, 2012

Read numerous reviews on multiple sites about compatibility issues with this TV and Uverse. No problem on my end. Downloaded the software update when prompted, so maybe that fixed the problem. Netflix works great, TV sounds good, picture is good. Downloads are slow however. For the price and features, this seems to be a real solid deal. Only logged an hour on the unit so far…but the reason for the post was to dispell the Uverse myth.

UPDATE

Watching the Olympics now and my picture is exceptional. After reading some recent reviews, Uverse customers still having problems. I recently had this particular box changed out for a newer box, so maybe that is the issue. Guess its a roll of the dice if yours will work. The vast majority of reviewers are having problems with Uverse. Cant say I am. Even my brother-in-law, who has numeorus high dollar LCD tvs, says this Phillips is great, especially for the money. Weird???

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

A lot of tech for the money…, July 26, 2012

Appears to be the best bang for buck after a week of solid research before buying.

Pros. Easy to unpack, install, setup, everything is guided. Lightweight. Very low glare in bright sunny room.

Cons. I was really excited about the wifi media connect option. It simply does not work well. Very hit and miss is the best I can share. Spent hours to give up. Fallback was long Hdmi cable to laptop.

Side. Uverse works fine for me, using hdmi too.

Feel free to ask questions.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

Staggeringly good picture, April 8, 2012

By 

Michael Romo “mikeromo” (Los Angeles, CA USA) –

  

After six years, it was time to replace my aging 42″ Samsung plasma (during which a circuit board died, which ended up requiring an all new screen to be installed–thank goodness I had the extended warranty). At first, I went with the UN55D8000, which was a good looking set, granted, but just didn’t have the picture quality I wanted, so I ended up returning that less than a week after it arrived. Then I heard about the new Panasonic models coming out, and realized that the GT50 looked like a promising candidate.

I have had the TV for less than a week, and there is no way I am returning this incredible plasma television. I will share some initial thoughts (and have submitted photos as well), and will update my comments later as a kind of progress report.

If you care about picture quality and don’t feel like waiting for the VT, look no further. This set has one of the best pictures out of the box I have ever seen, with deep, silky blacks and vibrant (not never overly so) colors. My “go-to” test for black levels is the first scene of Episode 9 of the first season of “Game of Thrones,” which takes place entirely in the shadows. Quite frankly, I didn’t know blu-ray could look so good. The details in the bricks and the clothing, all illuminated by a flickering torch, were astounding. There was a real sense of depth and clarity, even with this very dark scene–incredible. I dialed in my own settings using the Spears and Munsil disc, but the settings included in the THX- Cinema mode worked really well and are a great starting point.

The color controls for this TV are very extensive, and I think a professional calibrator could really make this set sing. I will get a real calibration done in a month and let you know how it goes. Suffice to say, once I dialed in the proper brightness and contrast and turned pretty much everything else off (and making sure to turn the “panel brightness” to low)–the set was great.

I watched “Tron” in 3D using the Oppo BDP-93, and was very impressed with the 3D and the clarity of the picture. I don’t have a lot of 3D content, so I will make sure to add more comments once I see more films. The glasses, which are not cheap, are light and quite comfortable, though it’s annoying you are supposed to charge them via the TV–when the TV is on. It would be nice if they came with little carrying cases or bags, but no such luck.

I have DirecTV and the 1080i picture looks fantastic, as does the AppleTV’s 1080p. It is with Blu-ray, however, that this set really feels most at home. I cannot overstate how rich the contrast is; my wife continues to comment on how much she notices the better picture, which is a great sign!

I have this plugged into my sound system, so I haven’t even heard the speakers, really, so I can’t comment on the sound quality.

As I illustrate in the pictures, the HDMI ports are very close to the side of the cabinet, so if you have thicker HDMI cables, you really need to coax them, gently, down the side so they don’t poke out behind the set. I have a set of Bluejeans cables, which work just fine, but my Better Cables HDMI is definitely very close to the edge. Speaking of cables, while the set does come with a cable stay, there is only 1 (though there are four places to put it)–Panasonic really needs to included another.

The bezel is very thin and the set is not that much thicker than the Samsung LCD I had just a few weeks ago. I really like how it looks in the room. The screen swivels about 10° either direction, which is nice. It’s also much lighter than I thought it would be; I was able to put the stand on and lift it into place by myself (though, clearly, you should have someone help you–I was just excited).

This is a really great set. I haven’t seen the ST50, but I can’t help but feel that the extra 24,000 shades of grey really push this TV to a higher level of picture quality. I am extremely, extremely pleased so far, and I am looking forward to putting it through its paces–and will let you know how it goes!

Update (4/11/12):

I started playing with the Internet Apps last night and wanted to add a few notes:

1 – Every time I press “Viera Tools” or “Internet” I am kind of shocked how fast the interface comes up. This is, by far, the fastest interface I have ever used, thanks to the dual processor. It’s so fast that you start to get the feeling that you might actually USE the Internet on this thing!

2 – Panasonic does have a web browser (App Store:LifeStyle) but it’s a pain to download (you have to enter in your credit card information even though the application is free); I just wish it was included. I am going to fill out my credentials on the vieracast website because it’s kind of annoying to enter in the data using the remote.

3 – The YouTube interface is actually pretty nice. The text is displayed larger than…

Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (84)

Amazing picture and Great value for your money, April 19, 2012

I bought this TV to replace my previous Panasonic TV which lasted for 7 long years and 4 moves without a scratch or a problem.
The GT50 produces stunning pictures, some of the best I have seen. I looked at a number of different TVs and brands from edge lit LEDs, back lit LEDs to Plasmas. This TV has one of the best picture quality in my price range. It also offers a comprehensive list of practical features ( no gimmicks like gesture response etc). The on board dual core processor offers smooth performance while browsing, watching online movies etc. No question about this offering the best value for your money in terms of both features and functionality. I also like the look of the TV. I am not a big fan of the edge less design offered by brands such as Samsung or LG. The GT50 has a thin glass like edge which actually makes the picture stand out better against the background.

The only negatives I have is, I wish it came with 3D glasses. The glasses themselves cost 50$ a piece and for a family of 4 I am looking at another 200$.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

Finally, a plasma that looks good with the lights on., June 12, 2012

I bought this tv to replace a LCD that had bad off angle views and weak shadow details. The room is bright during the day and I often watch tv with a light on unless we’re watching a movie. The THX Bright Room mode is nearly perfect out of the box. I lowered contrast and brightness a bit and turned up color a few ticks. Watching shows like Game of Thrones was breath taking and bright movies like The Fall with all that light and vibrant colors was mesmerizing. And what amazed me even more is the way the image got even better after about 2 days and again after about 2 weeks.

For those who are agonizing over whether to buy the ST50 or GT50, here is my advice- if you have a light controlled room, will most likely only use one mode and will you’re willing to have it calibrated to attain the best possible picture – then buy the ST50. If you want a dark room mode, a bright room mode and you’re not so sure that you want to spend money on professional calibration, then buy the GT50 and never wonder if you made the right choice. The GT50 offers 2 THX modes that are awesome right out of the box and the Custom mode has professional color settings that can be adjusted easily and will offer a reference picture if professionally calibrated.

When the GT50 is fed a very good signal such as HD or blu-ray the image is natural, bright, has great color and contrast and the shadow details are the best I have ever seen. I was watching a notably dark movie and could see the detail in the corduroy of a man’s black jacket. Wow! Hair has never looked so good on tv. As with any other display, GIGO- bad signals look bad. If you never owned a big screen tv then you should know that it makes all the bad stuff much more obvious and offensive. You should also know that just because a station is HD it doesn’t mean that the old stuff is upgraded and will look like blu-ray or even HD for that matter. I think it’s a shame that some of HBO and AMC can still be so bad even with newer programming. Shame on them. If you think any of this is the TVs fault then pop in a blu-ray and see what your tv can really do with a good signal and then you’ll know who the true offender is. If you are using a set top box from your cable provider or satellite service be sure that you have the newest HD model available and that the settings are right for HD.

This tv offers a dual core processor which improves app response and may help with future apps too. I’ll take a dual core over single core any day, considering that tablets now have quad core, why would anyone interested in using apps or the internet even consider a single core processor? BTW, wireless was very easy to setup and updating happens without a hitch.

There’s not a tv out there that is perfect and certainly this tv has a few flaws too. However, my rating is based on what’s available, not dreams. The GT50 does have dithering (inherent to plasma tech), DSE (dirty screen effect), does not offer the same tools (isf) for picture adjustment that some manufacturers do and the web browser does not support Flash Player- only HTML 5. IMO, the dithering isn’t too bad and is often subtle when it does show up, but can be bad with lower quality signals. If you have a lot of dithering (or sparkles) try lowering your brightness setting. I’ve only seen DSE once during a subway shooting scene that was dark and is improved when using a less bright mode.

I only hear buzzing if my ear is 2″ or less from the white part of the screen. Plasmas shouldn’t buzz very much more than this. The tv does not have brightness pops or floating blacks either.

This tv is well worth the investment. If you’re coming from LCD and really want to love a plasma check this one out in THX Bright Room. 😉

Update: I exchanged this tv for the 55VT50 a week ago and I am returning the VT50 to get the 60GT50 back again. IMO, the VT is only very slightly better at handling reflections, blacks are slightly better but not much, shadow detail out of the box was not as good as the GT and the VT will definitely need professional calibration to achieve what might be a significant improvement over the lower models and none of the flaws associated with the ST & GT are any better on the VT- it is not better at motion handling. So my opinion it that the improvements with the VT are not significant enough to justify the price difference, especially not when comparing sets of equal size. I love the picture so much on the GT50 that I don’t feel compelled to get it calibrated and that is just not true about the VT50. Also, the 5″ size difference was enough to change the experience I had, while watching John Carter I couldn’t help but clearly understand what was missing. The 60GT50 is coming home to stay and I can’t wait until it gets here. 8D

BTW, thank you Amazon for the price match. ”’

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (10)