[The News Bot]

Reviewed by David Mackenzie
Users who have a preference towards Philips' user interface, styling, or those who require a good-sounding TV, are advised to check the 32PFL9604 out, but must keep the existence of slightly better-performing, cheaper alternatives in mind.
Read the full review...

[kezstone]

great review. i've been looking at this tv myself lately but am a little put off by reports on philips reliability (although i've had an old philips tube tv for years and never a problem).
the review ends by saying there are plenty of samsungs that perform as good if not better and are cheaper.
please, what are the cheaper and alternative samsungs?

[hibber]

Great review. Helps out a lot. Are you willing/able to share your settings ?

[kezstone]

i've actually had a chance to see this set now and the 7404 and 8404 in several stores and i must say they look great for style & design but the picture on display was absolutely rubbish in every store bar one, that had blu ray running.

even the level entry toshiba had a much better picture and compared to the samsung leb650 and equivalent panasonics the philips were just a joke.

i really wanted this set and did endless research on specs and reviews.

all the reviews i've seen say it's an outstanding set but from what i've seen, i think the reviewers are either being paid off or high on drugs!

i'm hanging fire now until i get the chance to mess with the settings in a store myself and until they inevitably get a hefty price reduction...which is already happening.

[isaacslash]

Good review!

Are you going to review the Philips 42pfl9664?

I leave a suggestion: you could share the calibrated settings that you use in the review so we can all share the same experience that you had. it would be good and easier for users to calibrate their tv.
Even if we used that settings from a starters point and just adjust a notch at will.

thanks

[aliflack]

Originally Posted by kezstone

i've actually had a chance to see this set now and the 7404 and 8404 in several stores and i must say they look great for style & design but the picture on display was absolutely rubbish in every store bar one, that had blu ray running.

all the reviews i've seen say it's an outstanding set but from what i've seen, i think the reviewers are either being paid off or high on drugs!

Agreed - made the effort to go to john lewis only to find the picture of the 9604 was soft and dull, no idea if it's a calibration issue or what, but all the other TVs looked far better (including a samsung and the sony v5500)...

So frustrating to be able to see one then not be able to trust your own eyes!!!

[Lugger]

Originally Posted by isaacslash

Good review!

Are you going to review the Philips 42pfl9664?

I leave a suggestion: you could share the calibrated settings that you use in the review so we can all share the same experience that you had. it would be good and easier for users to calibrate their tv.
Even if we used that settings from a starters point and just adjust a notch at will.

thanks

I have recently bought the Philips 42PFL9664 and am having some problems with it, read my post here:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/high-...es-nausea.html

Any calibration or other settings or advice would be welcomed, SD inputs seem to be better now I have adjusted the Brightness and Contrast, though I have not been able to watch it since Sunday due to this headache etc

I am SERIOUSLY considering taking it back and swapping it for something different, not sure whether to go smaller as well assuming that would help reduce the motion sickness I feel?

[jamct]

I love it but want the 42" version.

PLEASE review the 42PFL9664 urgently. I note that' What HiFi Sound & Vision' have just awarded the 42" as Best high-end 40"-42" LCD for 2009.

[skyform]

Originally Posted by kezstone

i've actually had a chance to see this set now and the 7404 and 8404 in several stores and i must say they look great for style & design but the picture on display was absolutely rubbish in every store bar one, that had blu ray running.

even the level entry toshiba had a much better picture and compared to the samsung leb650 and equivalent panasonics the philips were just a joke.

i really wanted this set and did endless research on specs and reviews.

all the reviews i've seen say it's an outstanding set but from what i've seen, i think the reviewers are either being paid off or high on drugs!

i'm hanging fire now until i get the chance to mess with the settings in a store myself and until they inevitably get a hefty price reduction...which is already happening.

Originally Posted by aliflack

Agreed - made the effort to go to john lewis only to find the picture of the 9604 was soft and dull, no idea if it's a calibration issue or what, but all the other TVs looked far better (including a samsung and the sony v5500)...

So frustrating to be able to see one then not be able to trust your own eyes!!!

Never juddge a Tv from a store, especially if you did not change any settings. Philips store settings are horrible, most Tv's have bad settings in stopre but Philips is really horrible with store settings. When you setup the Philips 9000 series right it's simply one of the best LCD Tv's of this year.

[kezstone]

Originally Posted by skyform

Never juddge a Tv from a store, especially if you did not change any settings. Philips store settings are horrible, most Tv's have bad settings in stopre but Philips is really horrible with store settings. When you setup the Philips 9000 series right it's simply one of the best LCD Tv's of this year.

well if philips want to sell their tv's then they need to rectify this. if virtually ever tv picture i saw towered in quality compared to the philips, why on earth would i buy one just on the word of a few die hard fans!

it's an awful lot of money to spend on something which may just be an over hyped lemon!

[skyform]

Originally Posted by kezstone

well if philips want to sell their tv's then they need to rectify this. if virtually ever tv picture i saw towered in quality compared to the philips, why on earth would i buy one just on the word of a few die hard fans!

it's an awful lot of money to spend on something which may just be an over hyped lemon!

If you think it's overhyped then why don't you just buy another TV.

I prefer Philips picture over the best Sony's and Samsungs and im not a Philips fan, the only thing that Sony and Smasung seem to do better are blacks but that's it and even blacks on both 9604 and 9664 are great, but if you want really deep blacks you can still go for 9704.

It's true that Philips Tv's are the most expensive but you get what you pay for.

[Lugger]

I have the 42" version and after carrying out some calibration using the THX tool on The Phantom Menace (use any THX DVD from year 2000 onwards) the results are much improved.

In particular, the standard def picture is superb and I know that some screens struggle and are sometimes only reviewed against an HD input.

[Scruffy Dub]

Got mine last week (32PFL9604H12). It is a superb TV and I would recommend it but as with all new LCDs which have a plethora of fancy sounding picture enhancements they all, from my experience have side effects and the best all-round stable picture is got by turning them off or to the minimum.
(I had to do the same with my Samsung by turning off its DNIe engine and 100 hz).
I turned the contrast up to 100% today and on HD it did lift the picture like the 'DYNAMIC CONTRAST' but without the annoying brightness darker to brighter / brighter to darker delay in backlight adjustment..
The Sound is unbelievably good and the picture is way better than any other 32 inch I have seen (even with all the enhancements turned off).

[sabbath180]

Why are hardly any retailers selling this TV?

Where can you actually buy the thing?

[YellowSphere]

Not sure if you'll be able to remember by now, David, but do you know if the "personal" setting is per input, or copied across all?

Further, is it just PC mode that reduces input lag, or does the "game" smart setting have a similar effect?

[shaun14]

Just seen this tv today in john lewis at gribbs causeway-bristol, only place that seems to sell philips tvs by me, had to travel all the way from swindon i agree, that this tv requires some setting up, after the salesman let me have a play it was brilliant, but already having a 3 year old set, i did now the menu system even better thasn the salesman, but it your prepared to setit up at the begining this set is worth it.

[Haze]

Can you share the exact calibrated setting you ended up with? Particularly the greyscale settings.

[FiShBuRn]

Originally Posted by Haze

Can you share the exact calibrated setting you ended up with? Particularly the greyscale settings.

I agree! Can u post the calibrated settings?

Regards

[thesaint]

I have now had two of these tv's and both show the same fault exactly. I wonder if anyone can confirm they are getting the same problems.
1. The back key is supposed to work as a quickswitch and switch between the last two selected channels, but it doesnt on all channels especially bbc1,bbc2 itv,four. It does work on a few others and as I say this is the second set with the same symptoms and I did the latest firmware update hoping it would cure it but it didnt.
Philips have an open case on this and another fault which is dropping the media server after approx 30 mins and doesnt see them again unless the tv is switched off and back on again and it plays videos for 30 mins or so then stops and goes back to the menu screen and says empty.
My streaming from the same media servers works fine via my ps3 which sits next to it so its not router problems etc, by the way this is done wirelessly and not by cable. Thanks
Phil

[FabPell]

Originally Posted by FiShBuRn

I agree! Can u post the calibrated settings?

Regards

I agree too!!!!

[shaun14]

What can I say tv picture is great and built in speakers are brilliant for a tv.
Menu system is easy to use and setup but one big problem plating media through USB and streaming is very poor, will not regonise all formats is saids it should and also lip sync out on USB and stuttering all the time, really let's tv down as picture and sound would be 5 out of 5, overall 3.5 out of 5. Unless Phillips can sort it out with a firmware upgrade. Picture does need setting up and people in john lewis never bothered setting up, have to be careful not to over do it as this set has so many settings you can really over process picture.