Hi Jerry - daunting business picking a new telly, aint it!! My neighbour's just on the same game, as his old one's just gone pop! Worth spending time researching/auditioning as much as poss, I'd say, as a quick trawl around this forum has probably already told you!
I've looked at quite a few Philips 32PW9616s in shops, but I bought the 28in model (28PW9616). Not sure whether they use tube from same maker, but screen size apart, they're essentially the same set. I picked the 9616 over cheaper Philips sets for the REAL flat tube; 100Hz; FOUR rear scarts and Dolby Digital, plus the cordless rear speakers. (Thought the lack of rear wires might give me decent "surround sound" and also make it easier to sell the idea to 'er indoors!)
IMHO, if you've got a demanding "hi-fi" ear, the rear cordless speakers that come with the 9616 are really only "toy" speakers, and certainly NOT even approaching the low end of what I would call genuine hi-fi.
The convenience of no wires trailing around (across!) the lounge is a domestic harrmony 'plus', but you still need the 'master' rear speaker near to a 13A mains socket, plus a wire to connect from the 'active' master speaker (containing the power supply/amp) and the passive slave speaker. So they're not truly cordless. And you can get 'interuptions' in the rear channels if you've got people maving around in the lounge and temporarily blocking the radio frequency link to the rear pair (which can be a trifle annoying!)
We're not great movie buffs (don't even have a DVD player - yet!) but even so I reckon "decent", hard-wired 5.1 speakers is the way to go if you're after creating the true home cinema experience.
By all means pick a set with binding post connections for 5.1 speakers, or better still, pick one with 5.1 audio phono plug outputs, and then you can plumb the sound into a 'pukkah' AV amp/reciver and "decent" speakers at some later stage.
The 9616 more-or-less meets this bill (it has 4.1 phono outputs, I think!, L&R front; L&R rear, plus a sub-woofer, but NO phono for a center spkr, I think I'm right in saying, plus a coaxial digital phono input to pipe in audio direct from your DVD player.
Hope this answers whether the rear cordless speakers are up to the job. If you're after creating any sort of 'convincing' home cinema set-up, then I'd have to say the answer is "NO". Spend your time & money instead on the picture quality/decent "hi-fi"-quality speakers and the rest of the hook-up.
Whether you'll "appreciate" the Dolby digital side of things, is more difficult for anyone to say. Depends what your expectations/wallet size etc. are like. What I would say, is that given a decent audio/video source (be it DVD, satellite/cable digital or whatever) a decent film or whatever will definitely be a whole lot more enjoyable with a decent 'all-round' sound set-up. As I say, we're NOT great movie buffs, but even with the limitations of the 9616, a good Star Wars (or whatever your bag is) movie is significantly better with some 5.1 sound.
BTW, I run the audio L&R front outputs on the back my 9616 through a semi-decent amp, cables and some big front speakers (and she says, "when he says big, he means BIG"!), and leave the 9616 set to look after the center, sub-woofer and L&R rear sounds itself. So although I wouldn't dream of calling my set-up a pukkah 5.1 system, I am at least able to get some decent detail, bass extension and sound staging for the front pair. So I guess I'm cheating a bit and not really judging the 9616 purely on its own capabilities.
Incidentally, (as you probably already know!) the 32PW9616 lifted loads of plaudits from all the mags/won numerous "TV set of the year" awards etc. when it came out. But I have to say I'm slightly disappointed with the geometry and particularly convergence into the corners on my 28in version. Don't know whether the 28in and 32in use the same tube maker, but I would have thought good geometry and convergence would be easier to achieve on a smaller tube, woudn't you?
Don't get me wrong, it IS a good picture (as most casual viewers seem to agree), but there do seem to be a few digital artefact "issues" with the 100Hz picture, but my main criticism is that caption lettering is distinctly "fuzzier" the farther you get into the corners. Also if you can get a static single colour screen up (try selecting a switched off AV input, which gives you a nice blue screen), then you can see a distinctly more herring-bone/moire type pattern away from the central oval part of the screen. Maybe that's what you get if you don't buy a Sony!
None of the reviews/tests etc. I've read (on any set) seem to refer to this, so as many posts to this forum seem to advise : "don't place too much store by reviews in mags, and "listen" mainly to what your eyes are telling you". A lot depends on how "demanding" a viewer you are and what your expectations are. Maybe I'm just expecting a little more than the state-of-the-art can yet deliver!!
Sorry if this a bit lengthy and hope it helps a bit! And good luck in your quest for the "perfect" TV. Just remember what the guy in the shop where I eventually bought mine from said to me: "There's only one PERFECT picture in this store, and that's the one looking out of the window (at the high-street scene). And d'you know what? He's bloody well right!
Best regards,
Mark Pearce (Fleet, N.E. Hampshire)
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