Another 9986 fan!

[virtualinsanity]

hi guys - new poster - have been researching heavily for last few days (using this site mainly! thanks!) and have finally made decision for my £1200 budget - a Philips 32PF9986!

"What!?" I hear you cry - a 9986 for £1200???? Well, ok, not exactly, but I just cannot find the one I am 100% happy with for £1,200 - so I've commited the cardinal sin and stretched by budget by 50% to accommodate the purchase I really want - how I'm gonna keep this from Mrs Virtual I do not know

Quick question though - the TV has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 - does anyone know if this remains the same if i plug in a windows media center pc using DVI connection? I have heard stories of some TV's dropping their resolution when using this connectivity

Also - mentioned on another thread now as well - Empire Direct and Electrical World in the last 24 hours have upped their price from under £1900 to over £2100!!!

Somethings going on

Anyway - all i have to research now is who best to buy from!

 

[imh]

It doesn't, which is the only reason I'm not buying one, that and the poor conectivity.
And the speakers that double the size of the set.

Anyway, the thread you want to read about 1:1 PC use is here

 

[Dogboats]

I'm not sure if this is what you're after but when I plugged my laptop into my 32pf9986 (via a standard vga cable plugged into the DVI socket using the vga-to-DVI adapter that came with the set) I got a good picture. It only works at 1024 x 768 resolution and this leaves vertical black borders at either side of the image - presumably due to the greater resolution of the TV (1336 x 768). I think this is 1:1 tho'.

I played the Microsoft WMHD movies (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/HDVideo.aspx) and they looked great but they were letterbox on the laptop and so had black borders all the way around the movies on the TV. I guess what would be handy is a PC graphics card with a 720p or 1080i output?

HTH!

 

[Dogboats]

The 32pf9986 is a beauty BTW! I never would have thought that the ambilight thing would make such a difference. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to an ambilightless TV!

 

[Rob1698]

It only works at 1024 x 768 resolution and this leaves vertical black borders at either side of the image - presumably due to the greater resolution of the TV (1336 x 768). I think this is 1:1 tho'.

This is the problem. What the set is missing is a 1366x768 resolution XVGA mode.

I guess what would be handy is a PC graphics card with a 720p or 1080i output?

The PC graphics card is not the problem. All graphics cards can do this.
The operating system and its drivers are the limitation here.

I am using Linux and 720p or 1080i is not a problem on a standard VGA card.
However, this is only part of the solution because at 720p you still have borders all around (a lot smaller than what you have now) and at 1080i it is not 1:1

 

[virtualinsanity]

I cannot tell you how gutted I am - this is THE flatscreen for under £2K surely - the ambilight, the styling, everything about this TV is just awesome - and had my heart set on it - now i discover that the media centre pc i am also buying in parallel to it will look krap cos it wont even play fullscreen

if this is correct, i need to start research all over again...

 

[jimsan]

This is a brilliant television, Virtual. Technology is leaping ahead so quickly that I have a certain amount of sympathy with the manufacturers who are trying to get all the connections and all the resolutions etc etc. Admittedly Philips have dropped the ball over connectivity (no component is rediculous).

If watching input from your media centre on full screen at 1:1 is more important to you than everything else you obviously love about this TV then you will have to turn your back on it. Remember it will scale 1080i brilliantly to full screen...

Jimmy

 

[virtualinsanity]

Remember it will scale 1080i brilliantly to full screen...

Jimmy

sorry for being mr thicky, but what does this mean?

 

[virtualinsanity]

i think i should explain now i've calmed down a bit

i have purchased a windows media center pc, on the basis that i can sell my current dvd recorder (which hasn't got progressive scan in any case) and use my PC to:
1. record [copy] from Sky+ Planner and/or general Sky channels;
2. also play these recordings back from my hard drive to watch through TV;
3. use it to play/watch general DVD's.

This covers about 90% of what I use my TV for, and is about 90% of the reason for going for this new set-up - can someone please tell me I can get fullscreen and a decent resolution on a 9986 whilst performing the 3 tasks above????

 

[Philips32pf9986]

Hello,

I have a HP Media centre connected VIA the DVI on the LCD to DVI on the HP.
At first I didn't know how to get the picture to centralise on the LCD but after persistence found that you can centre the picture by simply using the remote.

I get an excellent picture on wide screen format as through DVI connection you only have the choice of 4:3 and wide screen.

It leaves a 1" border on each side of the screen but aside this it’s brilliant.

The display adaptor is a NVEDIA GeForce FX 5200 set at 1024 X 768

I played a DVD through the HP and the DVDR 80 I have and apart from the 1" borders on the sides, there was a slightly better picture through the HP.

Hope this helps to convince you to get the 9986 as I now think this is the best TV £2000 or even £3000 will ever get you.

By the way mine is a V2.1

 

[ahin4114]

I'm sorry but I think this would convince me not to buy it. If I was going to have one inch borders down the edge of everything I watched through my PC (including DVD playback), HD-WMV, games . That effectively makes this screen unusable for what virtualinsanity wants.

Sorry mate, looks like you may have to start from scratch

 

[virtualinsanity]

It leaves a 1" border on each side of the screen but aside this it’s brilliant.

thanks for the info, but yeh, i tend to agree with ahin - this is a major negative for me - i want to run everything through my MCE and having black lines down the edges is definitely not what i want

it wouldn't be so bad if it just reduced the resolution / PQ and remained fullscreen - i might be tempted in this case seeing as the tv is perfect in every other way - but black lines? nfw

 

[jimg]

You can get a 37" Sharp for £2200 and that will do the job perfectly

 

[virtualinsanity]

You can get a 37" Sharp for £2200 and that will do the job perfectly

err, where from?