Which TV to pick? Size vs. Quality

rck010

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Hello lads, i have been lurking for a while here and decided to finally make an account today because i would like some opinions on the following:

I am in the market for a new 3D-LED TV and got my eyes on the "new" Philips series, particularly the 6000 and 7000 series. Philips because the mistress would love to get Ambilight and we both like their design. Still, i am not sure which one to pick.

Within our budget of ~ £1000, we have two options really:

- Philips 47PFL7008K, which is 47 inch, 700Hz, Perfect 3D Natural Motion and 3-sided Ambilight XL.
- Philips 55PFL6008K, which is 55 inch, 500Hz and 2 sided Ambilight XL.

So its either the smaller one with superior quality and better ambilight, or the bigger one with inferior quality and ambilight.

I love watching HD content, Bluray and pre-ordered a PS4 that's going to be hooked up to this TV, while my girlfriend likes watching some regular SD/HD tv shows. Our viewing distance is about 8ft.

I know most people tell to pick the biggest one possible but does it weight up to the inferior quality and Ambilight? What are your opinions on this?

Thanks!
 
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You can get lighting for any set, so Id not restrict yourself for that.

Thanks for your reply Scooby, its true i can get lightning for any set but its the design/color in combination with the ambilight that made us leaning towards these TV's.

Usually i'd pick the biggest option possible but also at the cost of quality? Pushing our budget is something i don't really want to do, the difference between the 47 and the 55 inch (sadly there is no 50 inch) is about £425, which i think is a tad much and not sure it's worth it.
 
You're a wise man sir! Given the budget bigger isn't always better.
I'm not a Philips fan and prefer plasma anyway so will leave you in the hands of others.;)
 
You're a wise man sir! Given the budget bigger isn't always better.
I'm not a Philips fan and prefer plasma anyway so will leave you in the hands of others.;)

Fair enough :smashin:
What makes you dislike Philips TV's if i may ask? Just curious.

Perhaps anyone around with a recent Philips TV, or someone else with their opinion?
 
Its all about picture quality for me and they seem to have slipped like Sharp, just my opinion though.

Ok clear, obviously picture quality is a big thing for a TV. Also the biggest thing for myself really but my other half has a say in it also. Putting a big black, boring square at a cost of £1000 on our white wall isn't going to please her.

Read some reviews around the net, the higher Philips series (7000/8000) do deliver great picture quality and have a nice design too, something that fits both me and my girlfriends expectation of a new TV.

:smashin:
 
I have been reading reviews a lot last couple days and i'm really starting to consider a Panasonic plasma TV. I am afraid i will regret going for the Philips 47 inch because i have a feeling i will get used to the size real fast and regret not taking a bigger one. The 55 inch Philips TV at a cost of £1400 which is above my budget.

For £1000 i can get a Panasonic TX-P55ST60 with superior quality but at a cost of design and ambilight. For me, its not a problem because i take outstanding PQ over design/ambilight (eventhough, the Panasonic design does look a little outdated and boring) but i still have to convince my girlfriend, which isn't always the easiest thing to do when it comes to tech stuff ;)


I think i'll visit our local TV store one of these days and go take a look at the Panasonic plasma's.
 
A very very good set;) you can get lighting systems for the back that can give great results.
looks wise its not ultra sleek but its not bad and really quite thin.
55" will blow you away too, nice size.
 
A very very good set;) you can get lighting systems for the back that can give great results.
looks wise its not ultra sleek but its not bad and really quite thin.
55" will blow you away too, nice size.

Been reading great things about the ST60. I would love the 55 inch but I'm not 100% sure if I have the room to place it. Therefore I'm also looking at its smaller brother, the 50 inch. Just afraid I will regret taking a 50 inch instead of a 55 inch. But if it doesn't fit, it doesn't I guess :D

Never owned a plasma really, looking forward to have a good look at it. I'll head to the store tomorrow and spend some time looking it up.
 
Measure and if it fits go 55", I went 42 twice then 46 and now at 51 I want bigger lol.
60" is my ideal 65" just dominates too much, 55" is still mahoosive but doesn't take an average room over. 50 is the new 42 it seems now.

Mind you my 51 is big enough if I sit closer, at 7ft its great for 3D and gaming, 8ft for movies and 8-9 for SD....the joys of a laminate floor lol was thinking of putting my sofa on rails:cool::laugh:
 
Measure and if it fits go 55", I went 42 twice then 46 and now at 51 I want bigger lol.
60" is my ideal 65" just dominates too much, 55" is still mahoosive but doesn't take an average room over. 50 is the new 42 it seems now.

Mind you my 51 is big enough if I sit closer, at 7ft its great for 3D and gaming, 8ft for movies and 8-9 for SD....the joys of a laminate floor lol was thinking of putting my sofa on rails:cool::laugh:

:laugh:

I'll do some measuring one of these days and see if i can fit a 55", if not then i'm going for the 50". But first of all, i'm going to visit the store tomorrow and take a good look at it to see what to think of plasma and the ST60 specifically. Hopefully they have both the 50 and the 55" in stock, so i can compare the two.
 
Check how the sets are setup, take some familiar demo material and if you can go to a store with a demo room. At the very least ask for the remote lol Currys etc dont leave them out but will go get if you ask.
 
I've just signed up in order to reply as I've also been lurking for a few weeks.

Like you, I was looking at Philips TV's as the ambilight seemed rather appealing. I was all set on buying a 42/46 PFL6008S before I came across the PFL6188 series. Having read up on what the 6188 is exactly, it's the same as the 6008 with a slight boost to the Perfect Natural Motion and speaker power but is only sold through independent retailers.

So, John Lewis sell the 42PFL6008S with 500Hz PNM for £899.95 whereas Euronics sell the 42PFL6188S with 700Hz PNM for £749.99. The same goes for the 47PFL6008S for £1099.00 and the 47PFL6188S for £849.99 as well as the 55PFL6008S for £1399.99 and the 55PFL6188S for £1149.99.

I ended up in Richer Sounds and JL over the weekend and nearly bought a Panasonic 42" GT60 plasma with a free Panasonic blu-ray player but ended up purchasing a Philips 40PFL8007 for £799, one of last years top of the range TV's with ambilight on 3 sides.
Coming from a 4/5 year old Samsung, the difference is night and day with the picture quality being immense. It looked as good as a Sony W9 - to my eyes anyway. The ambilight is pretty good as well.
 
We went to a couple stores today and had the chance to take a good look at some TV's, the Panasonic GT60/ST60, both the Philips 6008/7008 and the Samsung 6640 and 7000 series.

First of all, we decided to go for a 55", that's the biggest size I can fit into our room. At this moment we are using a 32" but we are moving to another home soon. Going from a 32" to a 55" should be a reasonable upgrade.

Now when it comes to picking the right brand/model, the Panasonic plasma's, specifically the GT60/ST60 had incredible picture quality, inky blacks and very natural colors, impressive! But... My girlfriend noticed plasma flickering right away and she's prone to headaches, also in 3 different stores they told/warned us about IR and burn-in issues, since my small cousin comes over quite often, watching his cartoons etc.. I'm a little nervous about it. Also input lag seemed to be an issue with FPS games. Since we are getting a PS4 next month, this is something to keep in mind also.

With these things in mind, I'm thinking of dropping the Panasonic of the list and looking for LED TV's.

We have been standing in front of the Philips 55PFL7008K, a 55 inch, 700hz and 3-sided ambilight and after some calibrating, I have to say i was quite impressed. The blacks weren't as black as on the plasma obviously but still very acceptable, also the colors popped off the screen. Motion was also very nice, I have been looking at some fast action scenes and haven't noticed any stutter. The design was beautiful and the ambilight amazing.

The only thing that bothered me was the sluggish and slow menu's, it wasn't as responsive as I would like it to be. Also, the smart tv functions of the Philips felt a little "cheap" compared to for example Samsung.

The Samsung 6640 looked nice also, though it think the Philips looked better. The 7000 series looked great but not that great to pay at least 500 euro more compared to the Philips 7008. Samsung's Smart TV platform however looked much better compared to the Philips one.

Right now, I'm leaning towards the 55" Philips 7008k. But I would still like to hear some more opinions on this. Perhaps people that own one of the mentioned TV or that have been in same situation as me.

Cheers :smashin:
 
I am also in market to buy a new TV.

At the moment, I am watching 32" LCD 1080p HD tv but I want o upgrade it to 55" or bigger size but I dont think that I would able to afford 65".

I have been following forum, I visited few stores to see TVs which will suitable to me. I am after

1) Top picture Quality
2) Size does matter
3) I liked Passive 3d
4) Friendly user tech
5) After main brands (Sony, LG, Panasonics etc)

After having couple of visit of to local curry, I and my wife become fan of 4k tv. I had a brief chat with a guy in curry. He recommend us to wait for six more months before prices of 4k tvs goes down....

I was reading an article stating that most of uk retailer predicted that price of 4k will be halfed next year. Therefore I am going to wait and I want to buy 4k tv only ...
 
I just don't get those people who says/buys bigger television sets with inferior picture quality, and most of them live in an average sized room! I got some recommendations to get a 46" WXGA model over a 42" or 39" 1080p model, that's just ridiculous! I mean where has Physics gone? People don't even care or knowledgeable about their viewing distance, I have seen so many people watching their 42" from a mere 3 or 4 feet distance, and watching SD picture on it. Anyway, kindly go to carltonbale website and see how big t.v. you need for your viewing distance, quality should be chosen over size any day, that's my opinion at least.
 
I just don't get those people who says/buys bigger television sets with inferior picture quality, and most of them live in an average sized room! I got some recommendations to get a 46" WXGA model over a 42" or 39" 1080p model, that's just ridiculous! I mean where has Physics gone? People don't even care or knowledgeable about their viewing distance, I have seen so many people watching their 42" from a mere 3 or 4 feet distance, and watching SD picture on it. Anyway, kindly go to carltonbale website and see how big t.v. you need for your viewing distance, quality should be chosen over size any day, that's my opinion at least.

I don't get what this has to do with my situation, and why you bring this up to be honest.

I'm sitting about 8ft to 10ft away from my tv, several calculators I used, people I spoke with mention that 55" is a perfect size for such distance. Quality over size only goes until a certain point in my opinion. You can have the best possible TV with suberb quality but if your sitting too far away from it, your not going to benefit from the suberb quality anyway. Your not gonna buy a 42" TV and sit 12ft away from it to watch 1080p content. That's as stupid as buying a 55" to watch SD from about 3ft distance, like you mentioned yourself.

To enjoy the quality, your TV should be big enough. The 55" perfectly fits my viewing distance. The Philips 7008 series is by no means a bad TV with inferior PQ. Of course it's not their flagship model, the 8008. That one costs roughly 600 euro more here with a few minor improvements in quality, not worth that amount of money in my opinion.
 
Decided to go for a Samsung UE55F7000. The Philips didn't convince me, and the awful sluggish menu's/smartTV made me look elsewhere. The Panasonic was awesome, but with my young cousin around pretty often, i am not going to risk a plasma with a possibility of IR or burn-in. Besides, my girlfriend noticed plasma flickering straight away and it bothers her.

The F7000 has a slick design, great picture quality and a nice SmartTV platform. Looking forward to picking up this TV somewhere in the next weeks.

Thanks for helping me out! :)
 
Decided to go for a Samsung UE55F7000. The Philips didn't convince me, and the awful sluggish menu's/smartTV made me look elsewhere. The Panasonic was awesome, but with my young cousin around pretty often, i am not going to risk a plasma with a possibility of IR or burn-in. Besides, my girlfriend noticed plasma flickering straight away and it bothers her.

The F7000 has a slick design, great picture quality and a nice SmartTV platform. Looking forward to picking up this TV somewhere in the next weeks.

Thanks for helping me out! :)

Go for Panasonic/Sony LED.

SAMSUNG are ok but a very shoddy company. Philips are awful regarding picture quality, same goes for LG as they more or less use some same panels etc. Years back there were loads of Philips TVs to buy, now you hardly see any at most retailers in store.

Go for this Sony Bravia KDL55W905 LED;
Buy Sony Bravia KDL55W905 LED HD 1080p 3D Smart TV, 55", NFC with Freeview HD and 4x 3D Glasses with FREE BDP-S5100 Smart 3D Blu-ray Disc/DVD Player online at John Lewis

For picture quality it's Panasonic/Sony.
 
I've just signed up in order to reply as I've also been lurking for a few weeks.

Like you, I was looking at Philips TV's as the ambilight seemed rather appealing. I was all set on buying a 42/46 PFL6008S before I came across the PFL6188 series. Having read up on what the 6188 is exactly, it's the same as the 6008 with a slight boost to the Perfect Natural Motion and speaker power but is only sold through independent retailers.

So, John Lewis sell the 42PFL6008S with 500Hz PNM for £899.95 whereas Euronics sell the 42PFL6188S with 700Hz PNM for £749.99. The same goes for the 47PFL6008S for £1099.00 and the 47PFL6188S for £849.99 as well as the 55PFL6008S for £1399.99 and the 55PFL6188S for £1149.99.

I ended up in Richer Sounds and JL over the weekend and nearly bought a Panasonic 42" GT60 plasma with a free Panasonic blu-ray player but ended up purchasing a Philips 40PFL8007 for £799, one of last years top of the range TV's with ambilight on 3 sides.
Coming from a 4/5 year old Samsung, the difference is night and day with the picture quality being immense. It looked as good as a Sony W9 - to my eyes anyway. The ambilight is pretty good as well.

Sorry, this may be dredging up an old thread, but I was looking at getting the 47PFL6008S, when I noticed the 47PFL6188S about the same money (or less). Seems a bargain, and the differences you mention are correct. The 47PFL6188S however also comes with 2 additional Dual Play glasses (as well as the standard 4 x 3D glasses)
 

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