Any Opinions on the Philips 60PP9352 (1 Viewer)

[MickBurke]

I'm looking at gettign a new monitor for my new home, and this one looks like a good option... Any opinions? Anything else I should consider at the same size/price point? Thanks Much.

Mick

 

[Ludwig Crumb]

I played around with the 55.
It has a very annoying "feature", because it locks to widescreen when you supply a progressive scan input. This is a feature that is shared with many other TV's btw. The picture only had a very minor pin-cushion distortion that could probably be easily corrected in the service menu. The pluge test looked very good. I could simply change the brightness and contrast to optimal. I don't know if the set remembers separate setting for its inputs.
Convergence looked excellent, it doesn't seem to make a difference for different inputs. I looked at a few short segments of T2 and Matrix and I can honestly say that this is one of the better widescreens that I have seen. the blacks are black, no blooming and the colors look good to me. Having it professionally calibrated would be great, or if you are up to it, buy a real test DVD so you can do a better job yourself.

 

[Angelo.M]

Mick:

I'm seriously looking at this set. We currently have an analog Phillips 60-inch set which is, in my humble opinion, a fabulous analog RPTV--nice aesthetics, solidly constructed, and has a picture for DVD to die for (OK, I like the TV).

We love the look of the HDTV-ready Philips RPTVs; silver is very cool, and we've been comparing them to others in the price range. The 60PP9352 seems to hold its own, picture wise, against other showroom models; of course, this isn't very indicative of what the thing will be like at home. However, playing around with the menus and such has yielded a gorgeous picture in the showroom, when viewing a DVD source (we annoyed everyone at Sears last night for about an hour, playing with picture settings). The HDTV image (Discovery) was breathtaking. When these are back in stock, we're going to pick one up.

I've heard bad things about Philips convergence, but to my eye the convergence on the showroom model seemed excellent.

--AM

 

[Vin]

We currently have an analog Phillips 60-inch set which is, in my humble opinion, a fabulous analog RPTV--nice aesthetics, solidly constructed, and has a picture for DVD to die for (OK, I like the TV).

Angelo, you can be sure you're in the minority when it comes to the Philips brand......and I'm right there with you. I've had my Philips Magnavox 60" analog RPTV for a little over 4 years now and I'm still amazed by this set. The funny thing about it is when I shopped around I never even considered this brand but when I realized the picture was as good as any, and better than a lot of other analog RPTVs (based on less than ideal in store demoing, of course), while costing at least a couple of hundred dollars less in most cases, I decided to take a chance and I'm glad that I did. When I'm ready to upgrade to HDTV I'll definitely consider Philips again.
Vin

 

[Angelo.M]

Vin:

Thanks for your post. Actually, when we bought our analog RPTV a few years ago, we purchased an RCA 52-inch set. We had nothing but trouble with it, and when we went to return it, it was out-of-stock. The salesman replaced it with the 60-inch Philips, which we were happy about because we really like the look of it (with the 'pedestal' type base). We've never had it calibrated, although we certainly could, and I've adjusted it myself several times using AVIA and the multi-point convergence, and we've always been stunned by the picture, especially with DVD, either through S-video or component connection. We're now considering an HDTV-ready unit, and I'm impressed with the 60-inch widescreen Philips HDTV--great picture and great aesthetics. I really like the silver cabinet.

The only things I don't like about our Philips 60-inch analog set are the remote (clunky, ugly) and the on-screen graphics (teal--why?).

Have you played around in the service menu? Any good tweaks?

--AM

 

[Vin]

Have you played around in the service menu? Any good tweaks?

Nope, just did Video Essentials on it and that's it. My set is obviously a little older than yours (1998)....mine doesn't have the pedestal type base, no component video (just composite and S-video) and only has single point convergence which I check periodically only to find that it doesn't need any adjustment.
I have mine set up in the basement so I'll probably not upgrade to HDTV until it dies (at which point I'll probably take a sawz-all to it to get it out) or unless we decide to sell the house, the set stays and I get a new one!
I look forward to hearing what you have to say about the Philips HDTV if you decide to get one.
Good luck,
Vin

 

[Joel Peskoff]

I'm also looking for a large projection HDTV. It seems that this year the prices have dropped radically and they have better features, such as PIP and DVI inputs.

I'm considering the Philips 60PP9352 ($2,199 US at J&R Music World, NY) or the Sony 65WV600 ($2,699 at J&R) or the Sony 57WV700 ($2,799). I set a mental limit of $3,000 on this purchase.

These are the issues/questions:
-Which is better, the Philips or the Sony?
-If the answer is Sony, is the 700 so much better that it is worth sacrificing the 65" size and getting the 57"?

Are all of these sets true HDTV or are they only HDTV compatible and thus require an additional box?