[jjt]

Originally Posted by jjt

It appears that there is no such thing as a specific UK model with this one. My unit's serial number label at the back has the Freeview HD logo (and as I mentioned earlier, came with a UK power cord, as well).
...

I have to correct my reply above, as I came across the explanation for Philips TV model number nomenclature (these are the 46PFL9706 models):
<snip>
•H/12 = MPEG-4 DVB-T/C cont. Europe (excl. UK & IRL)
•K/02 = MPEG-4 DVB-T/C/S2 (Satellite DACH)
•M/08 = MHP MPEG-4 DVB-T/C Italy
•T/12 = DVB-T2 UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway
</snip>

So there is a UK-specific model; it just happens to be the same model that is sold in northern Scandinavian countries.

Probably this is not news to old hands in this forum, but here's the link to the Philips support forum posting: Net TV models

[Issuj]

Originally Posted by jjt

Taken with a camera phone, so no professional quality here.

1. Starting with the product number/serial number plate; the S/N is slightly over 1000 - hopefully Philips got things right already in the beginning of the production run

Isn't that VN1A 1134.... referring to manufacturing week not actual quantity of units produced? Still, hope that Philips has no lemons this year.

[jjt]

Originally Posted by Issuj

Isn't that VN1A 1134.... referring to manufacturing week not actual quantity of units produced? Still, hope that Philips has no lemons this year.

It is, indeed. The serial number is 0010xx at the end; my TV is shy, ready to disclose Name and Rank, but not the full Serial Number Not that it really matters that much...

[GadgetObsessed]

I noticed this less than glowing report of a 9706 on a Philips forum:

Philips 46PFL9706H is this the best LCD TV ever made

[jjt]

Originally Posted by GadgetObsessed

I noticed this less than glowing report of a 9706 on a Philips forum:

Philips 46PFL9706H is this the best LCD TV ever made

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

I let my 9706T warm up for a bit, created a 1920x1080 all white JPG-file, copied that to a USB stick and took it to the TV. After the stick was recognised and the list of files was presented, I selected the FullHD_white.jpg file and hit pause on the remote to keep the picture on the display.

I let the white image stay there for a couple of minutes while taking some long, hard looks at it from distances of 10' (my normal viewing distance), 1' and 20'. The white image looks rock solid, with no "stripes, clouds" nor "colours" whatsoever. Of course one can see the LCD "stripes" when looking close enough, but definitely the owner is describing something else.

Hopefully time will tell what the full story here is, obviously the owner in that forum is justifiably unhappy - I would be if I was seeing that kind of "fireworks" when everything should be pure white.

[DocLivingstone]

Originally Posted by jjt

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

I let my 9706T warm up for a bit, created a 1920x1080 all white JPG-file, copied that to a USB stick and took it to the TV. After the stick was recognised and the list of files was presented, I selected the FullHD_white.jpg file and hit pause on the remote to keep the picture on the display.

I let the white image stay there for a couple of minutes while taking some long, hard looks at it from distances of 10' (my normal viewing distance), 1' and 20'. The white image looks rock solid, with no "stripes, clouds" nor "colours" whatsoever. Of course one can see the LCD "stripes" when looking close enough, but definitely the owner is describing something else.

Hopefully time will tell what the full story here is, obviously the owner in that forum is justifiably unhappy - I would be if I was seeing that kind of "fireworks" when everything should be pure white.

Hi

Have you seen this video? Maybe it's the same defect you are talking about

Philips 9706 banding problem - YouTube

Greetings

[mb1357]

Originally Posted by jjt

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

I let my 9706T warm up for a bit, created a 1920x1080 all white JPG-file, copied that to a USB stick and took it to the TV. After the stick was recognised and the list of files was presented, I selected the FullHD_white.jpg file and hit pause on the remote to keep the picture on the display.

I let the white image stay there for a couple of minutes while taking some long, hard looks at it from distances of 10' (my normal viewing distance), 1' and 20'. The white image looks rock solid, with no "stripes, clouds" nor "colours" whatsoever. Of course one can see the LCD "stripes" when looking close enough, but definitely the owner is describing something else.

Hopefully time will tell what the full story here is, obviously the owner in that forum is justifiably unhappy - I would be if I was seeing that kind of "fireworks" when everything should be pure white.

Hi there how do you create a full white jpeg image; is there a link to one?

[jjt]

Originally Posted by DocLivingstone

Hi

Have you seen this video? Maybe it's the same defect you are talking about

(...)

Greetings

That definitely is a more interesting test and outcome than looking at a solid white image (which was all I managed to glean out of the 9706H owner's Philips forum post linked by GadgetObsessed above)!

Now I need to find some suitable source material to see if that effect can be easily reproduced on a 9706T unit. It makes a lot of sense to assume that the image processing algorithms are exactly the same across regional models, so H, T, K, whatever, shouldn't make any difference.

Hmm... white (or maybe the key is to have mostly white, like clouds) background, camera pans across it, strong diagonal interference pattern emerges. If I'd have to venture a guess, I'd say that the "Perfect Natural Motion" algorithm is making some quite wrong decisions. But indeed that would be pure guesswork.

[jjt]

Originally Posted by mb1357

Hi there how do you create a full white jpeg image; is there a link to one?

I did this on Windows 7 using the built-in Paint program, but any Linux or Mac box will have a suitable simple picture editor to do this (of course, the user interface details would vary).

- start (All Programs -> ) Accessories -> Paint
- it comes up with an empty drawing surface which is essentially, pure white (the size is the same as the last picture file you edited, or some default size)
- select Home -> Resize
- in the Resize group:
1. select By: Pixels
2. unselect Maintain aspect ratio
3. enter Horizontal and Vertical size (I used 1920 and 1080, respectively)
- click OK
- in the File menu, select Save As -> JPEG picture, name it as you wish and click OK

I hope I managed to come up with a reasonably clear set of steps.

[walmo]

I see Philips quality control seems to be as good as ever.

Wonder if Philips technical support are still trying their jedi mind trick approach "There is no problem, the tv is great, any other piece of kit you have connected is the problem. Unless it's Philips kit, in which case it is perfect and you are wrong".

[jjt]

Originally Posted by walmo

I see Philips quality control seems to be as good as ever.

Wonder if Philips technical support are still trying their jedi mind trick approach "There is no problem, the tv is great, any other piece of kit you have connected is the problem. Unless it's Philips kit, in which case it is perfect and you are wrong".

Always a "good" initial approach, as almost any AV setup has pieces from multiple manufacturers; that kind of response just has the nasty habit of coming back to bite you in the backside with a vengeance

Still looking for material and configuration parameters to reproduce the problem (hadn't the chance to spend time on it yesterday).

[walmo]

If it's anything like the 9705 then the banding can be solved by going into the service menu and disabling an option. I think it's the bit enhancement (or something to that effect) that needs to be turned off and the banding went. Not sure if it's the same for the 9706 but might be worth a try?

Any sign of DSE on your 9706? It's more slow sideways panning shots where the 9705 struggled.

[DocLivingstone]

Hi

more "good" news

Philips 46PFL9706K/02 - Weird flickering after power on - YouTube

What about the Moth Eye Filter? Are black level "ten times better than previous year models as Philips claims because of Moth Eye filter introduction?And shadow details? Have you seen blooming?

Thank you

[mister99]

That flickering reminds me of the film 'The Poltergeist'

[skyform]

Originally Posted by DocLivingstone

Hi

more "good" news

image

The guy who post this picture on the german HiFi forum said that this is not an example of 9706 but it's some other TV!

[danny_66]

Correct, it's not a picture of the 9706 !!!
Here's the thread
If you don't understand German than translate.google.com can help with:
ACHTUNG !!! Dies ist kein Bild des 9606/9706 !!! Achtung

[jjt]

Originally Posted by walmo

If it's anything like the 9705 then the banding can be solved by going into the service menu and disabling an option. I think it's the bit enhancement (or something to that effect) that needs to be turned off and the banding went. Not sure if it's the same for the 9706 but might be worth a try?

Any sign of DSE on your 9706? It's more slow sideways panning shots where the 9705 struggled.

It's hard to find something that just doesn't seem to exist. One of the sources I looked at was BBC Planet Earth series (BD, 1st edition) , disc 1, "From Pole to Pole"; wide expanses of snow, pans across snowy mountains, fast moving clouds, pale (almost white) sandstorms.

There are no unwanted visual artefacts. None at all. It would be impossible to miss what can be seen in that Youtube video, but there isn't the slightest hint of that.

DSE - could you expand that? I can come up with a few meanigns for DSE, but none of them seem to fit in this context.

My pet monkey happened to type in the Service Alignment Mode key sequence on the remote (so I hope Philips will understand that I didn't really void my warranty there ). There seemed to be very little that looked like obviously having a direct effect on the picture (well, Alignments, yes). I would rather let a qualified service technician do his magic there, unless I knew exactly what I was doing.

[jjt]

Originally Posted by DocLivingstone

Hi

...

What about the Moth Eye Filter? Are black level "ten times better than previous year models as Philips claims because of Moth Eye filter introduction?And shadow details? Have you seen blooming?

Thank you

Well, if that's a Philips marketing phrase (not found in the product brochure, nor on the Philips UK web site), it seems that somebody has come up with another slightly meaningless bit of hype.

How would one define that black level is "ten times better"? On a scale that would reflect the performance of the human eye?

Anyway, I can only offer my subjective opinion that I'm thoroughly and positively impressed by the black level response of the TV, but I can't do a side-by-side comparison to any other LCD/LED TV. Philips' this year models are not in retail stores (in fact, I could never find 46PFL9705 retail, either), so I can't even do any comparisons that way.

I just watched the beginning of How to Train Your Dragon. Plenty of dark areas in the first night scene; rock formations on the coast, village buildings, the wooden door behind which Hiccup is hiding, etc. Lots of details there and it looks absolutely beautiful.

I haven't noticed any blooming at all in the material I have viewed so far, but I haven't really searched for pathological cases yet.

[littlejohn]

Originally Posted by jjc

Well, if that's a Philips marketing phrase (not found in the product brochure, nor on the Philips UK web site), it seems that somebody has come up with another slightly meaningless bit of hype.

How would one define that back level is "ten times better"? On a scale that would reflect the performance of the human eye?

Anyway, I can only offer my subjective opinion that I'm thoroughly and positively impressed by the black level response of the TV, but I can't do a side-by-side comparison to any other LCD/LED TV. Philips' this year models are not in retail stores (in fact, I could never find 46PFL9705 retail, either), so I can't even do any comparisons that way.

I just watched the beginning of How to Train Your Dragon. Plenty of dark areas in the first night scene; rock formations on the coast, village buildings, the wooden door behind which Hiccup is hiding, etc. Lots of details there and it looks absolutely beautiful.

I haven't noticed any blooming at all in the material I have viewed so far, but I haven't really searched for pathological cases yet.

Thanks for your feedback jjt on the 46/9706, it certainly sounds promising.

I look forward to the further feedback from other owners and the opportunity to see the sets in the shops.

Hopefully at last there is a tv worthy of spending my hard earned cash on.

[jjt]

Originally Posted by littlejohn

...

Hopefully at last there is a tv worthy of spending my hard earned cash on.

So far things are looking quite good. I firmly believe there's no such thing as "the perfect TV", and probably never will be, as manufacturers are busily implementing new features and not getting all of them right the first time. E.g. 2D -> 3D conversion seems absolutely pointless, as we are probably many years, if not decades, away from having processor capability in a TV for real-time image understanding to enable reasonably accurate 2D -> 3D conversion.

No doubt annoyances and real problems will come to surface as more units will find their way to the consumer markets. Hopefully the issues will not affect too many users too badly, or will be fixable with future firmware updates. We'll see.

Another Linux computer in my home (OPPO BD players also run Linux)! It appears that 46PFL9706 is running Linux kernel 2.6.28.9 on a MIPS (?) CPU

[jjt]

Originally Posted by DocLivingstone

...

[Philips 46PFL9706K/02 - Weird flickering after power on] YouTube video.
...

One thing that can completely explain that sort of flickering is HDMI handshake with the currently selected source device - albeit it seems to be particularly bad in that video.

Not every pair of devices connected via HDMI manages to work smoothly when it comes to establishing the HDMI connection and there are a lot of combinations out there - makes it hard for manufacturers from compatibility testing point of view.

Plenty of examples on the net on HDMI handshake problems but can't really be sure what is causing the flickering in that video. The red "stand-by" indicator light goes off almost immediately after I turn my 9706T on and it seems that in the video the light is still on. I would suspect that HDMI handshake with the current source device takes place quite a bit further in the boot-up sequence.

[mb1357]

No longer any 32in 9 series on the Philips UK website

[littlejohn]

Originally Posted by mb1357

No longer any 32in 9 series on the Philips UK website

Sorry I cannot see any 9000 Series in the U.K. Philips Website and have not for the last few days.

Is there any sightings of the 46/9706 in any U.K. shops yet.

Even this Forum has almost dried up.

My 36in CRT, which I have been threatening to replace over the last three years (for a 9704, then a 9705 and now a 9706) is starting to give me supercilious looks as if to say "see you still can't replace me, ...can you ! ", .......or is that just my paranoia playing up again.

[danny_66]

Here's the first real review of the 46pfl9706 in French
With the help of Google translate in English
They find it as one of the best LCDs available today

[walmo]

Originally Posted by littlejohn

Is there any sightings of the 46/9706 in any U.K. shops yet.

The only shop I ever saw the 9705 in was John Lewis, and that was about 2 months after it was available at online stores.

AVLand is the only place on the web I can see it available so far (I'm talking about the UK only here), although if you asked your local tv dealer like RicherSounds they would order one in for you as that's what I did last year.

[muinagh]

Multizoneav (dot) com have it advertised for£2,400 with next day delivery.

[mb1357]

Originally Posted by littlejohn

Sorry I cannot see any 9000 Series in the U.K. Philips Website and have not for the last few days.

Is there any sightings of the 46/9706 in any U.K. shops yet.

Even this Forum has almost dried up.

My 36in CRT, which I have been threatening to replace over the last three years (for a 9704, then a 9705 and now a 9706) is starting to give me supercilious looks as if to say "see you still can't replace me, ...can you ! ", .......or is that just my paranoia playing up again.

You are looking at the Philips online shop not site where the 46/52in models are listed

I reckon these are the only ones destined for UK market; Philips is probably more intent on concentrating on continental Europe where their TV's have a larger dealer network and marketplace presence

[JoeDoc]

Hi All!
Thx for all teh good info. Appreciated. Sent thsi to Philips in a forlorn hope....becasue I'm getting pretty fed up now :

Hi,
I have been waiting with baited breath for a long time for the 46inch PFL9706T (moth-eye) to come out in UK shops.
Having checked several user web forums, including this one, PHILIPS 2011 - 9000 Series Smart LED TV, it appears it is still not there. I have checked some including John Lewis, all in vain.
Can you plese help me, and put me out of my misery.....can you let me know when it wil be out in our shops please ?
I don't want to buy the Sony or Samsung near equivalents, but may be forced to.
I know it's available in one online shop so you don't have to mention that.

Looking forward to a positive reply.

Many thanks for your time

Joe

[mb1357]

Originally Posted by JoeDoc

Hi All!
Thx for all teh good info. Appreciated. Sent thsi to Philips in a forlorn hope....becasue I'm getting pretty fed up now :

Cant AVland not get you one? or it is available for pre-order at exceptional-av.co.uk; if I were you I would wait cant be too long now!!

[danny_66]

Here's the English version of the review.
I think this is going to be my next TV