LCD - Philips or Sony

[steven_9709]

Looking at getting a new LCD TV for the bedroom and have been looking at the Philips 17PF9945.

However, popped into John Lewis today and say their range of Sony LCDs and must say they had by far the sharpest picture of the lot. So now looking at the Sony KLV17HR2S

So, a quick question

The Philips is going for around £600 and the Sony for around £720 - is it worth the extra money?

Anybody any experience of either of these models

I must admit I'm edging towards the Sony, but would like a few views if poss.

Thanks

edit - was also considering the new Dell W1700 but obviously can't go and demo this anywhere - any views on this one as well?

 

[Uzey]

Rule number 1 in my world ......
DON'T BUY PHILIPS PRODUCTS.
THEY ARE NOT GOOD!

Get the Sony, you know it makes sense!

(shop around on the internet first, you may well get that price down by at least 100 GBP).

 

[.Griff.]

There seems to be a anti Philips feeling on these forums which is concerning as I'm about to buy their 30" LCD TV. Are these "feelings" based on any reliable sources or is it exagerated gossip. I only ask as all the proffesional reviews I've seen of their 30" LCD have been extremely positive.

 

[Uzey]

A lot of people who have bought Philips here generally rate them as unreliable with poor after sales service.
I used to be in the 'electronics repair' game and believe me, Philips were regarded as utter s***e then, by me and all engineers I met.
Is it really worth the risk?

 

[hornydragon]

New JVC should be even better than either Philips or Sony as the 26" is excellent!!!
17" JVC wont be out for a few weeks, Philips 17" isnt that bad at all! Samsung i tihink do quite a nice one!

 

[Uzey]

It's one thing to review something and say 'Yeah, it's good!' but you also have to look at the long term.
You don't want this unit to go wrong two years down the line do you? It may have the best picture but how reliable is it?

 

[richard plumb]

If you are buying from JL, then you'll get a 5 year warranty, so don't worry about 'unreliable' manufacturers.

IMO, people post anti-manufacturer rhetoric when they've had a bad deal from them in the past. Its no more or less an accurate measure of their true quality than any other subjective comment.

I have the 30" philips LCD and love it. And yes, you should probably dismiss my comments too - if I've just spent £2k on something I'm going to defend it, aren't I?

 

[Uzey]

LOL

 

[.Griff.]

I intend to buy it from JL due to the free delivery and 5 year warranty so I can't see it's lifespan being a problem.

 

[Member 29974]

Steven,

I've had the 17PF9945 for a number of months, and have been very happy with it. I posted a review a while ago ( http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103232 )
I also looked at the Sony screen, but it was the VGA input and the Faroudja de-interlacing that convinced me to go for the Philips.

Can't speak for the consumer gear but I have always had good experience with Philips broadcast and professional kit.

Ross

 

[Orlando]

I to have noticed all the negative postings regarding Philips products, but I can honestly say I haven't experianced this.
I currently own a Philips 32" CRT, which I can honestly say has fantastic picture quality, the best I have seen on any CRT by far, hence my dilemer changing to a Plasma.
I digress, what I was saying is after about 2 years with this set the tube went wrong, before the hecklers start, the engineer told me this was common with all makes of large wide screen CRT's.
A new tube costs £600, so I sent Philips a letter telling them I was dissapointed and within a short time I received a letter back stating that they would supply a new tube free of charge.
Now I call that very good customer service.

 

[hornydragon]

Originally posted by Orlando

Now I call that very good customer service.

I call that very very lucky! certain manufacturers have been taken to court over just that issue, Phillips make some great gear their DECT phones are very good but they do seem to have certain issues with some technologies! LCD/plasma (early Phillips units were terrible and Pixel Plus didnt do them a lot of favours!

 

[tuberider]

I have just got the Philips 30" and at first was not happy, but I soon realised that this was because these beauts are not like your old CRT's... there are lots of different options to play with and it was frustrating until I got to spend some time playing around (as with most hi-tech units, the manual is not much help). I have seen Sony's latest 32" kdl32xbr950 and yes it did look great and the design is cool but the PQ did not seem better than what I have now so it can down to $$$ as the Sony is way more expensive than the Philips (not to mention my deal came with the Pronto RC thrown in, a very cool device!)
I too have seen lots of negative Philips comments here but so are there negative comments about a lot of other brands..and I'm sure there are some brands and models to steer clear of, but IMHO I don't need to justify my choice, the picture I see does that ....

 

[Scott_Mac]

I was in a similar situation, but after reading a review of the JVC ones coming out, i am going to plump for that...

You can buy it for £540, which is a lot less than the others and the reviews rate it very highly! It looks gorgeous too....

The Dell, i enquired about it on here too, it seems to stack up well and uses the same digital processing unit as the Philips, so may be ok, again though their aftersales is something to be desired (in the IT market anyway!)

http://www.digitaldirectuk.com/products_moreinfo3/index.asp?product_id=2583 The JVC one... slightly more now at £554, but still a bargain (relatively speaking!!!)

 

[Member 29974]

The dell does use the same processing as the philips screen but is clearly aimed at the US market as it doesn't have any scarts. For me this would rule the screen out as I mostly watch material off-air, and would require the auto widescreen switching afforded by the scart connection. If you're only using it for DVD etc this may not be so much of a problem.

There are many reviews of the dell screen over at avsforum.

 

[Scott_Mac]

Cool, cheers for that....

What are the uses/benefits of auto switching then?

Doesn't Sky just broadcast in one aspect ratio?

 

[Member 29974]

Alot of broadcasters are 4:3 only e.g. UK Gold or MTV. A few channels such as News 24 are permanently 16:9, but many others switch between the formats and use widescreen signaling to indicate which format the picture is in. Most set top boxes pick up this signaling and can send a voltage down the scart cable to tell the TV which aspect ratio to switch into . Whilst it is possible to send widescreen signaling over an s-video cable, very few TV's support it.

How benificial auto switching is depends upon whether you are fussed with either changing the aspect ratio manually when required (lived with doing this for two years with my old TV- never again) or watching things in the wrong aspect ratio e.g whilst channel hoping or watching adverts on Sky One (which are 16:9) during a 4:3 programme.

 

[Scott_Mac]

Righty-ho useful then.... time to buy a decent SCART aswell then!

Cheers

 

[GaryB]

Originally posted by hornydragon
New JVC should be even better than either Philips or Sony as the 26" is excellent!!!
17" JVC wont be out for a few weeks...

The 17" has just hit the shops in the last few days.

 

[Scott_Mac]

I'll post a report up (if you guys want) when mine arrives....