Philips 42PF9631D 42" Plasma TV

After doing a lot of research and looking at several TVs in the store, we took the plunge and bought the Philips Ambilight--found a good price online (with free shipping). We got the TV for Christmas, so have only been using it a few weeks; we've had no problems with it so I can't speak to Philips customer service.

The TV itself is very nice looking. I prefer the black border to silver; the black seems to make the picture stand out more. It's more of a matte black than shiny black, so it doesn't hold onto fingerprints the way a shiny finish would.

The picture is very nice, sharp, clear, vibrant colors. It's not the latest and greatest, 1080p etc., but it's more than adequate for the casual viewer. Picture is very crisp and bright with DVDs and Xbox, and still very nice on "regular" cable TV. A little experimentation with the remote will allow you to access the setup menus and play around with the settings to set the picture to your preference. I tend to like a bit less brightness, so I turned it down, but even out of the box, the picture looked great--and the settings were NOT turned all the way up as I rather expected they'd be. To be honest, I couldn't tell much of a difference with the Pixel Plus. There's a demo mode for several of the settings, and I had to go to the Pixel Plus demo to see the difference--it's there, but not crucial for the casual viewer. It may be more of a difference in true HDTV signal, rather than the picture from our cable provider.

The Ambilight feature is a nice touch. It has multiple settings you can adjust, depending on what you are watching, and can either be a constant light, or adjust color and brightness depending on what's on the screen (or you can turn it off if you don't like it). It does enhance the viewing in a dark room.

I read in reviews that the sound was terrible. For us, it's just fine. Of course, we don't have a huge family room, but for me, the sound is more than sufficient. It goes up a lot louder than we have it set. If you want a movie theater type experience, no, the built-in sound will not give you that (but I don't think any built-in TV sound will). There are connections to put in home theater sound, but for the casual user, the sound is just fine.

The TV comes with a tabletop stand. My husband had a little trouble getting the TV in the stand, but he didn't read the directions and he was doing it by himself. He was able to manage it, although the TV weighs about 100 pounds.

The remote is okay. Not hard to figure out, even without reading the manual. One of the buttons is "mushy"; I prefer a firmer tactile feedback, but this is minor.

There are a number of connection types: A/V, S-Video, RGB, 2 HDMI. No DVI; you will have to use a DVI to HDMI cable. One thing I don't like--there is no true PC input. To connect a PC, you're required to use either a DVI to HDMI or VGA to RGB cable (depending on what your computer is equipped with) to connect to the TV. Not a huge issue, but there are TVs where this is easier, if you have a big need to connect your computer. Just about all other necessary connections are there. A plus is the A/V and S-video connections on the side panel, along with a headphone jack and a USB port. Having these connectors on the side rather than the back is handy for those things you don't necessary need connected all the time. The USB port is nice. You can put a slide show on a USB device and have it show on the TV (kind of like a big digital picture frame). You can also use a USB device to update the software on the TV. No secure digital card slot, but hey, can't have everything for the price we paid.

Overall, I'm pleased with this purchase.