Philips 42PFL8404H/12 just out!!

majorblink

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Hi folks, just ordered and paid for one of the new Philips 8000 series LCD TV's, the 42PFL8404H/12.

Just been looking at the full spec for it on the Philips website and it sounds fantastic.

A 100hz panel with a 3ms response time, plus DLNA and MPEG-4(H264) playback from both USB and Ethernet!!

Maybe this series could give the 9000's a run for the money. (I hope)

Having it delivered a week on Monday (1st June 2009) so once I've got it setup, i'll post some pics here.:D
 
I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, Phillips have produced some stonking sets, allbeit a little unreliable at times, hopefully they would have improved on that though
 
Hi!

Congrats! The new Philips really do look very enticing indeed and had I not bought a Pioneer, they would have very seriously been on my list as I love the designs - especially the thin bezels! Really look forward to hearing all about your experience with the set - keep us well and truly informed!


Suave!
 
I'm badly trying to get hold of one of these for myself!

If anyone knows anywhere that have these either in stock, or can get hold of them within the next week (or at most, two), then please do PM me!

Most places are telling me they just can't get hold of them for love nor money.

In return, I promise a full review and photos of install :D
 
Got the tv installed now (came on the 1st as promised), and had 48 hours to play around with the settings for my own personal preference, and here are my thoughts:

Ambilight:

Pretty impressed with the feature so far, on watching SD content, HD film (from the 360) and gaming as well. Response time of colour changes is pretty accurate, as it features Ambilight Spectra 2, and with the set around 15cm (6 inches) from the wall, the light gives a good subtle colour spread without being too "in your face".

NetTV:

Had a bit of a play around with this new feature (present on the 8000 and 9000 series), and although services on there are limited at the moment (i'm in the UK), compared to the likes of Germany (region can be changed in the settings), it does have potential to be a worthy feature.

Youtube works brilliantly (I have an 18Mbps ADSL2+ connection), and the weather channel (run by Meteogroup) is set to the Netherlands as default, although you can search for weather by city (using the remote's keypad), the only limiting feature of the Internet browser is it's inability to show Flash and Javascript (Philips could add this at a later stage in a firmware upgrade).

The internet radio station channel, provided by tunin.fm works pretty well with genres sorted by category and a varied selection to choose from. Audio quality is good, although I have yet to connect the tv's audio out to my home cinema system to really examine this.

Picture quality:

SD:

With this being a full 1080p set, you would expect sources such as my Sky satellite reciever (connected via RGB SCART), to look really poor (as it did do with my old Sammy 32" LCD), but i've been pleasantly suprised. I've left the picture settings pretty much standard for the Sky box (settings are customised per connected device, if added via the Home menu), except for the light sensor which I have set to "off". The set does a really good job of smoothing out MPEG artifacts, although these are not completely irradicated with small text. Overall results from the Sky box are satisfactory for everday viewing (but will be improved once all five major channels switch to 24hr HD).

I have yet to test the tv's handling of DVB-T (Freeview to most people) as my old aerial is naff and I'm in the process of fitting a decent one (the set supports DVB-T2 / MPEG-4 for when/if Freeview goes HD).

HD:

This is where the tv comes into its own. Only one HD source connected at the moment, my Xbox 360. It was first connected via Component and set at 1080p although I did notice a little noise on certain edges and slight ghosting on some text, although this disappeared once I connected the 360 via HDMI, resolution to 1920 x 1080 and the reference levels to expanded. The 360's settings are set to 1080p and all the tv's extra picture processing has been turned off as follows:

Contrast: 75
Brightness: 46
Colour: 55
Sharpness: 5 (default)
Tint: Normal

Pixel Plus settings all set to off.

Here are some screenshots (may look slightly poor due to my camera being on my phone):

P020609_02.49.jpg

P020609_11.40.jpg

P020609_11.41.jpg

P040609_01.43.jpg

I also have Windows 7 Media Centre running on the 360 from my pc, with a DVB-S card installed, and able to watch BBCHD, Luxe TV HD and itvHD via the registry hack, the picture quality from all three channels looks superb.

Overall verdict:

Pretty impressed with the tv so far:smashin:, contemplating investing in a Blu-Ray player, possibly the Philips BDP7300 to complement the tv, then I can see how it handles true 24p.

I'll post some more feedback in about a weeks time.:D
 
(the set supports DVB-T2 / MPEG-4 for when/if Freeview goes HD).
I highly doubt that, because if it did then it'd be the first DVB-T2 hardware to make market, and I think there'd be a little more song and dance about that, don't you? ;)

It supports receiving MPEG-4 transmissions via DVB-T. This has been a common feature for a while now, but irrelevant to us here in the UK.
 
Majorblink,

Where did you order it from, and how much was it?

I ordered mine from Brighthouse (local store) and paid £1196 for it (cash).

Amazon (UK) do have it listed at £1105, but availabilty is 1 to 2 months, and I wanted mine now!!

So far, its been worth every penny!:D
 
Had the set for nearly a week now, and showcased the tv's features to various friends and family. All of them have commented on how good the picture quality from an SD is.

Purchased a motorised satellite system yesterday (105cm dish and a Technomate TM5400 CI+ Super) and hope to have it delivered on tuesday. The receiver has both RGB scart and component (even though it's SD) so should be interesting to see how well the tv shows SD off from component (hopefully 576p, depending on the broadcast).

So watch this space.:D
 
Brighthouse... they're the dodgy 'can't get credit? come to us! we'll repossess your house if you default!' company right?

Will give those a miss :\

Still struggling to get my hands on one of these. Have tried everywhere but nobody has them/can get hold of them.

:\
 
Brighthouse... they're the dodgy 'can't get credit? come to us! we'll repossess your house if you default!' company right?

Will give those a miss :\

Still struggling to get my hands on one of these. Have tried everywhere but nobody has them/can get hold of them.

:\

If you read one of my previous posts, you will see that I mentioned that I paid CASH for it, not on credit.

Richer Sounds are doing the 42" 7404 for £999.95 in-store, or if you really want the 8404, you can buy from philips online store for £1199
 
And, did you install your radar yet? :D waiting the pictures ...

Could you elaborate on the following - missed it in the posts above:
- playback formats from USB/DLNA? And, the most important, the quality of the playback? I mean, on Samsung I noticed: if i play DVD from the DVD player, it looks fine (Samsung-fine), but if I play the same VOB files from USB it's noticeable worse :/
- can you browse to any page with NetTV? Or is it limited to gadgets?
 
Not got the sat system installed yet, as I'm still waiting for it to be delivered:(

As for the playback formats, taken directly from the manual they are:

MP3
Still pictures: JPEG
MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4
MPEG program stream PAL
AVI (divx and xvid tested ok)
H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
WMAv2 upto 9.2
WMV9

You can browse any website from the NetTV portal, but sites that use Javascript or Flashplayer will show a placeholder for the content or "Please install latest Flash player". Most image and text based sites work ok.

Although, if you're particularly fussy over web support, you can always connect a pc/laptop via one of the 4 HDMI sockets or the VGA connection.
 
Hi there!
Hey majorblink glad your happy your with set! I'm interested in buying a 32"/37" 8 series.

- What about input lag and blacks are they up to date?I guess is doesnt have a game mode right?

- majorblink on the x360 trough hdmi the ghosting dissapeared?Did it looked bad on component?

I will be using it majorly on games(x360, component or vga), movies and SD tv

cheers
 
Had the set for nearly a week now, and showcased the tv's features to various friends and family. All of them have commented on how good the picture quality from an SD is.

Purchased a motorised satellite system yesterday (105cm dish and a Technomate TM5400 CI+ Super) and hope to have it delivered on tuesday. The receiver has both RGB scart and component (even though it's SD) so should be interesting to see how well the tv shows SD off from component (hopefully 576p, depending on the broadcast).

So watch this space.:D

SD quality??? My 1st aspect is SD quality... please, please make some detalied report about all SD pictures. .good and bad sides.. ths!
 
SD quality??? My 1st aspect is SD quality... please, please make some detalied report about all SD pictures. .good and bad sides.. ths!

Hi!

And the black levels, especially in a darkened room!

Suave!
 
Hi there!
Hey majorblink glad your happy your with set! I'm interested in buying a 32"/37" 8 series.

- What about input lag and blacks are they up to date?I guess is doesnt have a game mode right?

- majorblink on the x360 trough hdmi the ghosting dissapeared?Did it looked bad on component?

I will be using it majorly on games(x360, component or vga), movies and SD tv

cheers

The tv does have a gaming mode, but the brightness, contrast and colour are overdone for my liking. The setup I listed in my first detailed review, has given the best results so far.

If you have a 360, then I suggest you connect the console via HDMI (assuming you have a fairly newish model), as this IMHO gives the best results. Component is not to be sniffed at, but the digital-analog-digital conversion does result in a slight loss of picture quality, although this may be down to running at 1080p.

No lag present through HD sources, although I did get a slight picture delay from the sky box when the audio was connected directly from the sky box to my HT system. This would be down to the TV running its own image processing, although the problem is solved if you listen to the tv's own speakers or connect the sound from the tv directly to the HT system, either via RCA (phono L&R) or SPDIF (coaxial).

As far as black levels are concerned, even in low light, they are some of the best I have seen on an LCD set, and as mentioned previously optimum results can be achieved if you use the settings I listed in a previous post as a guide.

It is also recommended that you watch the set in low-light with the Ambilight turned on, preferably set to active with the dynamic level between 10 and 20 (20 being the maximum), this is to combat eye-strain and does work remarkably well.
 
Could you please post a couple of more pictures:
- SD content (DVD playing, a TV channel, ..)
- how does a google calender page looks like ( i was planning to use the TV as agenda :))
- how the PC connected looks at native 1920x1080 resolution (i.e. is there any blur etc, like on Sonys, or is it 1:1 pixel mapping)
- how fast is USB when you just want to use the TV as picture frame for slideshows (again, known problem of Sony)
:hiya:
 
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Could you please post a couple of more pictures:
- SD content (DVD playing, a TV channel, ..)
- how does a google calender page looks like ( i was planning to use the TV as agenda :))
- how the PC connected looks at native 1920x1080 resolution (i.e. is there any blur etc, like on Sonys, or is it 1:1 pixel mapping)
- how fast is USB when you just want to use the TV as picture frame for slideshows (again, known problem of Sony)
:hiya:

In answer to all four questions:

1: SD content: The pictures on here aren't all that great, plus I can only take pictures with my LG Viewty so forgive me if they don't look that good. If you want to see the pictures in more detail have a look at my flickr profile: Flickr: major.blink's Photostream

2: I don't use Google apps:nono:

3: PC: I have tested my PC connected to the TV via VGA. My graphics card is a 7600GT and won't output 1920x1080 (its not listed in the resolution settings), but I have used it 1360x768 and it looks fine (set the tv to widescreen picture format) and is as good as any decent make LCD TFT monitor (bearing in mind, i'm using the 42" model). If your graphics card will output 1920x1080 then set the tv to "unscaled mode" and it will do 1:1 pixel mapping. Again picture settings are as previously mentioned (in another post) albeit with the colour and brightness turned down a few notches.

4: USB: Transfer speed is sufficient for my liking, and the latest tv firmware speeds this up slightly. It also depends on the USB device connected. I have plugged my LG Viewty into the tv via the phone's data cable, and been able to access all content on the memory card installed with no problem. If you use a USB pen, then read speeds should be quick, but if like me, use a memory card reader (mine is SDHC) then it depends on the class of the card used (mine is a class 6).

On a side note, with the LG Viewty being able to record in DivX (upto 640x384 widescreen), I played back some recorded footage I took last year on various rides at Alton Towers (UK based theme park), and the playback quality through to tv (going from 640x384 to 1920x1080) was excellent to say it came from a mobile, and IHMO is better than some of the camcorders about.
 
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im on the look out for a new tv

what is the ps3 and xbox 360 like on the Philips set ?
 
HI,
What wireless capability does it have, I will be putting it beyond cable length of my router?
thanks
 
HI,
What wireless capability does it have, I will be putting it beyond cable length of my router?
thanks


Google: Netgear XAVB101
That can probably help you. It uses your house electric wiring as a network.
 
As for the playback formats, taken directly from the manual they are:

MP3
Still pictures: JPEG
MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4
MPEG program stream PAL
AVI (divx and xvid tested ok)
H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC)
WMAv2 upto 9.2
WMV9

Anyone else have trubble playing avi movies trough a USB memory or via the networkcable?
The movies I play are MPEG-4 (bouth divx and xvid) but I got lag in the picture (sound is ok).
It lag so mutch that I cant watch the movies.
A few works ok but not perfect.
I have not upgrade the firmware yet to the latest (will do soon), but it does not say anything in the update text for the firmware that they have done anything about it.
The USB memory I use reads 32MB/s so it should be ok, but dont think its the memory failing as I got same problem with networkcable.
 
i have a few problems with the 8404 when connecting my PC thru hdmi cables..

other then that i love the picture and the HD quality is just perfect.
 

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