Philips 42PFL7403D/27 42" LCD TV

I'm not an expert on the technical issues regarding flat panel TVs, but I did a little research on (not so technical) consumer issues before choosing the Philips 42PFL7403D TV.  Here's what I was concerned with when I made my decision to buy.

Prices:  Dropped dramatically over the past 2 years, making the choice of purchasing one of these much more "doable" for many people.

Quality/Warranty:  Seems that most of the serious issues are solved, giving consumers more confidence that their investment won't be a money pit or service nightmare.  But problems aren't all that uncommon still..Look closely at those "extended warranties" they will always want to sell you.  The fine print might turn you off from buying one...My problem with the one offered me is, it could require me to ship my TV to a service center, and could take months to get it back... should the technician who comes to my home not be able to "fix it immediately."  The indication I got was, they rarely can do that...and you're just supposed to let them haul it off or send it in to some place and wait for them to return it.

Plasma vs. LCD:  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  Know the difference and it might help you choose.  Don't depend on the floor clerk at WalMart or Costco to really be much help with technical questions.

So, having struggled with the above considerations for several months, I decided on the Philips 42" (because it fits my entertainment center perfectly) model.  After 9 months of use, my opinion of it is as follows: 

I am glad I bought it.  It was easy to set up and get running.  The price at Sam's Club was under $1,000..and the picture in HD mode is as good or better than any of the others (plasma or LCD) I have seen in operation.  I suspect picture quality on all similar brands to be about the same, with the quality being as much or more dependent upon the source (Dish or Cable, or over-air) of the signals you use.  But as far as this particular brand/model goes...I simply can't find any fault or flaw in the picture quality at all.  I use it with a popular cable provider, and live in an area with no "over air" signal available.  I chose an LCD set over Plasma because I have it in a room next to a natural light source that is bright.  The LCD screen is not as reflective as a Plasma model of the same size, which has a heavy glass screen.  Also, the LCD sets are much lighter, a consideration if you wall mount it...and they use less energy to operate than the Plasma models.  As far as this particular Philips model is concerned, the technical specs are higher than many of the other similarly priced sets.  Other reviews here list the specs and frankly I don't care much about most of them, since refresh rate, Hz numbers and such are not as important to me as simply looking at the set in operation and comparing it with the others in the same size/price range.  More importantly to me, given that they all pretty much have awesome display capabilities, and virtually identical technologies, I chose this set because it looked good, was well priced, fit the space I had, was available from several sources, so I could choose the best deal, and it had good reviews on several Internet consumer sites.  

What I like most about the set after 9 months of use, is...it's been totally dependable; no technical problems at all.  It has more HDMI outlets than I need...so I have my two DVDs and my Cable service easily selectable.  It was all set up from box opening to playing in about 25 minutes...and I am not a technical geek, so that's saying something.

What I don't like most is the sound quality of the TV.  I wanted a set that didn't have 8 inches of speakers on the bottom, making it too tall for my entertainment center opening...but this set, with its rear mounted speakers has less than top quality sound in my opinion.  After fiddling with the sound set-up in the set, and even choosing the automatic mode that is supposed to be "the best," I still find sound muffled and not balanced correctly in some programing, meaning too much background audio and the voice sound is too low.  It's particularly noticeable in sports programming wherein you can't hardly hear the announcers, but the crowd noise is too loud.  I solved the issue by hooking up my stereo amp to the set, and the sound quality is just super when I use it that way.

Another issue in my opinion is the cheap remote that Philips includes with the set.  It's functional, but not intuitive.  You need to read the instructions for it carefully, in order to understand what it can do.  I find that programing my cable box remote solved that issue, and don't use the Philips remote at all now. 

In summary: I would buy this same TV again, if I were in the market.