Excellent 42" widescreen plasma display
Written: Feb 11 '04 (Updated Dec 17 '04)
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Pros: Very clear and bright picture, even in a well-lit room. Includes wall mount. Optional E-box.
Cons: No speakers.
Not great for displaying computer text.
The Bottom Line: Recommend for anyone looking for a high quality plasma display.
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| blue_rsx's Full Review: Philips 42FD9935/17 42 in. EDTV-Ready Plasma TV |
You may remember your first time seeing a plasma TV in a Philips commercial back in the 90's, where a group of friends hang a plasma TV on a wall of a small beach house. Philips, based in the Netherlands, is the largest electronics manufacturer in Europe. They make plasma TV's and many other products, but they aren't as well known as Sony or Panasonic in the US. However, their plasma technology is among the best, so I was happy to find an incredible deal on the Philips 42FD9935 42-inch plasma TV at a local store, where happened to get the last one they had. (Note: 42FD9935/17 is the full model number for this TV. It is usually referred to as just 42FD9935).
I'd been looking for a plasma TV for a few months, and I found that this compares favorably to the popular Panasonic and Sony plasmas. Based on my experience and on the quality of the display, the Philips is of a much higher quality than lower-end competitors, such as Gateway or the various Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers like Sampo. The company has been manufacturing plasma TVs much longer than most competitors (they were one of the first), so they have gone through more generations of models to perfect them. Based on the quality and features of this model, it’s one of the best hidden-values I've seen for a quality flat-screen plasma TV.
There are only a handful of companies that actually make the plasma screen glass used in plasma TVs. According to plasmatvbuyingguide, Philips uses the same glass as Sony, which is made by Hitachi/Fujitsu in Japan.
Installation
In the spirit of keeping my costs down, I chose to install the TV myself. I definitely recommend having a second set of hands to lift the TV. Adding the cost benefit, the Philips models come with a wall-mount system in the box. Most other plasmas require that you purchase an expensive (usually $200 to $300) wall mount kit. In order to wall mount, you need to have a clean wall with studs that are spaced out to match the wall mount drill points (for this model, the horizontal spacing is about 16.5 inches apart). A nice foldout template is included so that you can decide where you want to hang the display. A stud-sensor will come in handy. Once the wall mount kit is installed, you have to lift the display and maneuver it just right to slide it into position. This was pretty tricky and it took several attempts to get it on, but once it's on it more or less locks into place.
Mounted to the wall, the Philips looks almost like a picture frame. It has a clean black-charcoal finish, with only one button located on the side and a small indicator light that is either green (on) or red (off). I have the power and video cables routed through the wall behind the TV, providing a clean and uncluttered look.
There is also an optional stand for this display (TC42FL02), which costs around $250, which makes installation easier if you have an adequate entertainment center that can support a plasma TV. This TV weighs about 80 lbs, which is about average for a 42-inch plasma.
Setup
After installing the TV, I discovered that several settings needed to be adjusted before the picture looked good. When I first played a DVD, I could only see outlines, and everything had a bluish-purple tint. It took me a few minutes to discover that the factory brightness was set too low, and once I turned the brightness and contrast up to about half way, the picture was beautiful. The Philips has an on-screen graphical menu system that is very easy to use. It allows you to modify display settings, as well as things like inputs and power savings.
Since I have this TV attached to a satellite, I changed a setting on the satellite dish receiver to output 16:9 widescreen rather than 4:3.
I also had to adjust my DVD player to enable progressive scan. Since the 42FD9935 is 852x480p, it takes advantage of progressive scan DVD players.
EDTV compared to HDTV
One aspect of plasma TVs that seems to cause a lot of confusion and misinformation is the difference between EDTV and HDTV. EDTV is enhanced definition, which means it has 852x480p resolution. HDTVs come in higher resolutions, such as 1024x1024 or 1280x720. True 1080 HDTV is 1920x1080. Generally, each step up in resolution results in a significant increase in price.
As with other EDTVs, this display will down covert HDTV signals with a slight loss of detail. Since 852x480 it is a perfect downscale, the noticeable difference between this and a true HDTV won't be noticeable unless you put the two side by side and do a close-up comparison. Even then, the difference will be slight.
EDTV plasmas have several nice advantages over HDTV plasmas:
1. They use progressive scanning, so all the lines are redrawn with each refresh. By comparison, many HDTV TVs (such as those using 1024x1024 resolution) are interlaced, which mean they only displays every other line with each refresh. The progressive scanning results in a smoother image, especially during action sequences.
2. EDTV perfectly matches the output of a progressive scan DVD player, so there is no scaling or converting that could distort the picture.
3. Standard programming tends to look better on EDTV plasmas than on HDTV plasmas, again because there is less scaling required.
4. EDTV plasmas such as the 42FD9935 are much more affordable than HDTV plasmas.
The disadvantages associated with EDTVs are:
1. Not true high-definition, so HD signals will be down-converted.
2. Not as good for displaying static computer images when compared to HDTV displays. Most computers today output 1024x768 or 1280x1024, which will look better on a higher resolution HDTV display, especially when there is a lot of text involved. To display computer output on an EDTV plasma, you'll probably want to set the computer resolution to 800x600 which looks fine for presentations, photos, or games.
In terms of overall picture quality, both EDTV and HDTV displays can vary greatly. The better EDTV plasma displays can match or best HDTV plasma displays, because there is much more than just resolution defining a good picture. Good contrast, darkness levels, and the quality of the video source itself will do more to make video look great than whether the resolution is EDTV or HDTV. When comparing the two types of displays, view them from your typical viewing distance, and judge them based on the overall picture quality rather than the screen resolution.
Picture Quality
1. DVD picture quaility
I decided to first try out some DVDs to test the picture quality. Compared to my old CRT TV, the 42FD9935 display quality is very impressive. On the old TV, I couldn't see much detail when viewing widescreen DVDs. With the Philips, the picture is crystal clear, bright, and large. Details that were not visible on the CRT are clearly visible on the plasma. Some of this is due to the larger size of the plasma, but it is also due to the better clarity and brightness of the plasma display.
I looked at a number of different DVDs to compare the picture, including the Pixar hit, "Finding Nemo." The colors and animations in Finding Nemo were brilliant and lifelike. Some of the early scenes displaying lots of color were almost overwhelming, but the colors appeared to be very accurate and they were stunning to look at on this TV.
Some DVDs required that I nudge the brightness level up or down. For example, the movie Aliens is a very dark movie, and the brightness had to be increased to see all the details. Still, the black levels seemed pretty good and did not look too gray. Action sequences were smooth, and fiery explosions lit up the room.
Plasma TVs tend to have more difficulty displaying dark images compared with conventional CRT TVs. In many plasma TVs, the blacks in a picture are either too gray (too light), and/or black images lack definition. With the right brightness and contrast set, blacks appear dark as black ink on this plasma TV. The only situation where the black level can appear slightly gray is watching with all the lights are turned off at night. Ambient lighting, such as a candle or dim light, actually improve the picture by proving some contrast in the room.
I used the Avia Guide to Home Theater DVD to do some further testing and configuring of the brightness and contrast. There seems to be an ideal setting of about 50 to 51 for brightness, and between 30 and 40 for contrast (out of a scale of 0 to 100). At these settings, the darkness level and the definition are most balanced. Turn down the brightness, and the picture has inky blacks but those images can begin to lose definition; turn up the brightness, and the dark scenes can begin to look to gray and washed out. Note that the contrast should not be set too high. A high contrast setting can reduce the lifespan of the display. Once the ideal settings are found, the plasma produces beautiful results for both DVD and HDTV viewing.
2. Standard 4:3 Video
With standard satellite signals, the display still looks good, but it varies with each channel and program. With a TV of this size, low quality video is more evident, sometimes resulting in a somewhat blurry and grainy picture. This is mostly an issue only if you sit close to the display. A large display such as this requires that you sit father back from the TV while viewing. Typical recommendations for a 42" TV such as this are 10 to 12 feet.
When used in conjunction with a Philips E-box video receiver/enhancer, the standard satellite picture can improve dramatically. (Here is my full review: Philips E-box). The E-box provides video switching for component video, s-video, and composite video sources, and it enhances low-quality video with a number of options. Most dramatically, slight wavy lines and other video noise that appear frequently in standard DirecTV video feed are cleaned up (especially in dark scenes), and lines are doubled for progressive scan video output. Unfortunately, the terrible compression artifacts in most DirecTV programming are too glaring to hide. This is most noticeable on less popular channels, which have a higher compression level. Some programming, such as the major network channels, tend to come across with a somewhat cleaner picture, probably due to a lower compression level. The E-box can smooth these artifacts, but then the picture looks less sharp.
The E-box can also automatically adjust settings such as brightness and contrast. This is particularly useful, because the DirecTV receiver I had fed a much brighter picture than the DVD player or HDTV receiver. With the E-box, I didn't have to manually change the brightness levels when switching between devices. The E-box gives the Philips an advantage when compared to the other plasmas for those who watch mostly standard programming, providing a better, but not great, picture (when compared to HDTV and DVDs, which look incredibly clear and sharp)
I've found that the 42FD9935 displays standard signals better than most of the plasma HDTV's I've seen in stores like the home theater stores. This is especially the case when compared to DLP Micro displays and LCD Projection displays, which tend to look awful when displaying standard definition programming. As I understand, there's so much more conversion going on in the HDTVs when displaying standard signals that you actually lose picture quality, and the projection TVs only magnify deficiencies in the programming.
I’ve also discovered that the standard-definition video quality can vary significantly with the service and even the satellite receiver. When I first bought this plasma TV, I had a DirecTV receiver with Tivo. I have since changed my service to Voom. The Voom channel lineup includes both high-definition and standard definition channels. Fortunately, Voom’s standard-definition channels appear much cleaner and exhibit none of the graininess of the DirecTV service. This may be due to a better compression or perhaps less compression with the Voom service. If you invest in a plasma TV and aren't satisfied with the picture quality, consider changing to a better quality service such as Voom or Dish. I would strongly suggest that you avoid DirecTV at all cost of you buy a plasma. DirecTV's heavy compression algorithms result in very low-quality video similar to that of an old VHS tape. Judge the difference yourself and you'll understand.
Another picture factor for most plasma TVs is displaying traditional 4:3 programming on a 16:9 widescreen display. The 42FD9935 offers several methods of displaying standard programming that is recorded in the 4:3 ratio. One options is to expand, which increases the scaling but can also cut off some of the top and bottom portions of the picture. A second option is to stretch the 4:3 to fill the entire screen. This can have the effect of making people and objects slightly obtuse, which may look odd to some people. The third option is to display in the 4:3 mode, which leaves black bars on the left and right side of the screen, but does not distort the picture. I use the stretch option, which fills the entire screen.
Some of the older plasma displays had a tough time stretching 4:3 to 16:9, but the newer technologies do a great job of making the programming fit.
3. High-Definition Video
The Philips 42FD9935 is HD-ready, and it accepts 480p, 720p, and 1080i HDTV resolutions. Again, the 42FD9935 will convert high-definition video (HDTV) to enhanced-definition (EDTV). To receive the high-definition signals, you need either an over-the-air HD satellite receiver, or a high-definition cable or satellite subscription.
With high-definition content, the Philips produces an extremely clear and lifelike picture. It displays accurate colors that are vivid and lifelike, and details that are incredibly sharp. The HD content provides a completely different experience from standard definition TV, creating an almost 3-D experience.
I initially used a Samsung T151 over-the-air receiver with an antenna to test out the HD capabilities of this display, and the Philips never ceased to amaze me with its beautiful picture. After using the T151 receiver for a while, I decided it was worth moving to an integrated HDTV satellite system. I chose Voom, which has the best HDTV package of the major satellite providers. I connected the Voom receiver to my Philips plasma using the DVI cable provided by Voom. The high-definition video received via the Voom service looks equally extraordinary on this display.
The DVI connection seems to provide the best results, likely because it is an all-digital connection. The Philips also accepts VGA and component video connections for high-definition video.
Comparing the quality of HDTV content on different plasma displays is difficult, as most of them tend to look very good. It takes some thorough reviewing to notice the subtle differences in details among the different displays. I have seen a few duds, such as the Sampo models that tend to look washed out and grainy, even with HD content. I've also seen a few magnificent 50" and 60" models, although they cost several times the 42FD9935. However, none of the other 42" plasmas I've seen really stick out as having a noticeably better picture than the 42FD9935, including much more expensive higher-resolution units. The bottom line is that I'm very impressed with the picture quality of this model, and I wouldn't spend more unless I was purchasing a larger-size display. For me, the difference in detail between the good 42" EDTV and HDTV displays is too negligible to justify the higher cost of the HDTV models.
Other Notes
Plasma Benefits
One of my favorite aspects of the TV is how good it is in my bright living room. My old TV was un-watchable in late afternoon on a sunny day due to the reflections from sunlight in the room. On the 42FD9935, the reflections are less noticeable and the picture is bright enough to overcome the room light. Some ambient light actually improves the viewing experience. By comparison, a flat screen LCD or a projection TV would be un-watchable in a bright room due to their inferior brightness levels.
An additional benefit to having a plasma TV is the wide 160-degree viewing angle. Unlike big-screen projection TV's, a plasma TV can be viewed almost anywhere in the room. Plasma TVs offer much more leeway to be creative with the placement of the TV, and they save a great deal of room space when hung on the wall as mine is.
Plasma drawbacks
Aside from darkness levels, another drawback to plasma TVs is the potential for video burn-in. If static images are left on-screen for a long time, they can become temporarily or even permanently burned into the screen. This is also true for traditional CRT TVs, but it can happen quicker on plasma displays. Fortunately, the 42FD9935 performs automatic periodic picture adjustments to reduce the likelihood of burn-in. I haven’t had any problems with burn-in on my display in the 11 months I've had it.
Some plasma TVs use fans to cool the display, which can create noticeable noise while the TV is on. Fortunately, the 42FD9935 does not use fans for cooling. Instead, the case was designed to create natural air-flow through the back of the display. As a result, this TV is completely silent while running. The air vents on the top back of the TV can get warm after extended use. The Philips is rated for use in temperatures from 40 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remote
The 42FD9935 includes a fairly basic remote. Since this plasma doesn't have a built-in tuner, it doesn't need a fancy remote control. I use a Philips Pronto programmable remote, so the TV remote is a non-issue for me, as I control all my devices from the Pronto. The only complaint I would voice regarding the included remote is the lack of a direct button to change the input mode to DVI. Instead, you have to press the VGA button three times, as it switches between VGA1, VGA2, and DVI in that order. The Pronto automates this by using macros.
Sound
The 42FD9935 does not come with speakers, so it will need to be attached to a stereo receiver. To me, this is a non-issue, as the upgrade to plasma seems to warrant using my home theater system instead of built-in TV speakers, which are typically low quality. Still, for people who only watch sitcoms or TV news, using a home theater system may be overkill.
Connections
As with most plasmas, this TV is really just a display, and you need to attach it to a cable box, DVD player, VCR, satellite receiver or a dedicated tuner for the TV signal. Some newer TVs have built-in tuners, but you typically end up paying significantly more for those models, and your best bet is to choose a receiver based on your needs (satellite/cable), which may change over time. The 42FD9935 has a multitude of inputs, including component video (YPbPr or YCbCr), two VGA inputs (one can act as a throughput), a DVI digital input, S-Video, and S-VHS. It also has RC-OUT and RS232 ports for remote controlling the display. With the E-box, you also get component and s-video switching.
Conclusion
Overall, I am very impressed with this TV and would recommend it to anyone looking to enhance a home theater system. It offers an excellent picture for a great price, and it provides enough inputs and features to handle most situations. If you're just looking for an all-in-one TV and don't care about upgrading components in the future, you may want to get a plasma TV with a built-in tuner and/or speakers. If you have $20,000 to spend on the best TV you can get, you can find a slightly better HDTV picture for a lot more money. But the Philips is a great choice for those wanting a great plasma TV without requiring a second mortgage.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3000
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Epinions.com ID:
blue_rsx
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Reviews written: 5
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