Philips 40PFL9704 LCD TV

Over the past year Philips has managed to stand out, some would even say dominate the large screen Tv market. Not an easy feat given the falling prices and advancements in the industry- and yet they continue their success with the 40PFL9704.

This TV is one of Philips' 9000 series LED Pro range of TVs.

I could talk at length about the classy design of this TV, its brushed aluminium frame and three-sided Ambilight system, and its individual character. But these are not the features that make the 40PFL9704 one of the best LCD TVs on the market. That distinction is achieved by the superior quality of its hi-def pictures and the audio experience offered by its built-in speakers.

The Philips LED Pro is a backlight system featuring 224 LED lights arranged in a matrix behind the entire screen, which are switched on and off individually as required.Other manufacturers are using Edge LED systems, where frame mounted lights shine into the panel can have less effect at the middle of the screen. Sharp's recent sub-$1000 LED TVs use a similar LED system; so at $2500, the Philips LED Pro TVS have to offer something special to merit their price tag.

The 40PFL9704 has an abundance of HDMI ports, five yes five, included with a multimedia USB port and a built-in Wi-Fi module! There is a set of component video inputs, two scart inputs, an S-video port, a PC connection, analogue stereo i/o and a headphones socket. But unfortunately no digital audio output (for home cinema etc).

Although the 40PFL9704 supports most major file formats stored on a USB device, media playback is rather restricted; MP4, MPEG, WMV and some AVI video files (but not most DivX movies) play without any issues, as well as the usual MP3, WMA music and JPEG files.

Though primarily for powering the set's Net TV feature, the Wi-Fi module enables the 40PFL9704 to stream music, video and photos from a computer on the home network.The Wi-Fi streaming feature is markedly slow with video files, but works well with Net TV. Included are some applications giving you access to YouTube videos and Ebay, and are operated from the TV's remote control. Browsing Ebay is also slow, and much easier to do on a computer.

Ambilight Spectra 3 is a collection of yet LED lights around the outside of the TV that projects coloured light on to the walls behind, intended to reduce eyestrain. With lights around the sides and top of the rear of the TV. Philips' Perfect Pixel HD engine adds to the full HD quality picture, this is a 200Hz system with Perfect Natural Motion, a combination designed to rid Blu-ray playback of blur and judder. The 40PFL9704's performance with Blu-ray is excellent, great contrast, with dark areas of the image showing as good as plasma. The LED Pro system lives up to its promise and the screen exhibits stunning contrast all over its full area.

Whilst this TV's HD performance is superb, digital TV pictures appear soft, with processing evident across the picture; the 40PFL9704 does performs best work with High Definition.

The 40PFL9704 has a wide viewing angle, meaning it can be watched from anywhere without any loss of colour or contrast.

With its rear subwoofers, the 40PFL9704 sounds almost as good as a Loewe screen. The Bass is somewhat distanced from the overall sound, but dialogue is clear and full. The great performance does not benefit much from a 'surround' mode but it does give more depth and an impression of some rear effects. Although a litle bulky, the 40PFL9704's speakers are a success and easily able to replace a separate home cinema system.

Performance with Blu-ray discs is excellent.
Great stereo sound with good bass.
Versatile - blu-ray and HDTV and digital video.

Cons:

Sometimes the Perfect Natural Motion feature creates flicker.
Not so good with Digital TV.
Sound quality means abulkier unit.

This stylish powerful LCD LED set is good value if it's within your budget.

This is a great LCD LED TV but a plasma at half the price, is a very realistic alternative.