Philips 47PFL7403 47" LCD TV

My wife and I have had an eye on this Philips 47 Inch 1080p 120Khz LCD HDTV for quite a while now. We bought it at Sam's Club and have been waiting for the price to go down. The last time we looked at it, the price was @ $1700. This time, it was $1494 and we decided to go ahead and get it.

We could have gotten a bigger TV and maybe spent a little less money, but I wanted the 1080p and the 120khz refresh rate, both of which will yield the absolute best picture quality. Many of the cheaper 42 and 47 inch model televisions only have a maximum resolution of 720p. I figured that if I am going to spend the money on such a big TV, I might as well not shortchange myself and get the ‘almost' HDTV when a couple hundred bucks more would get me the best there is available.

When you first turn on this TV, it brings up a series of photographs where you choose which half of the screen looks better to you. When finished, it has all your picture settings already configured. You can always go back into the menus to fine tune everything, but I thought this photographic menu system was a great way to set up the picture, especially for people who are scared of getting into menus.

I used to have my Sony PlayStation 3 connected to this TV using component cables, which isn't even the best possible picture. Even so, Blu-Ray movies looked excellent and my PS3 games made me want to give up PC games altogether. When I finally bought an HDMI cable to maximize the potential of the PS3, it looks even better.

So far, I've played several PS3 games on this TV and they look wonderful. Condemned 2: Bloodshots, which is a bloody first person fist fighting game, runs nice and smooth. Resistance: Fall of Man, a very fast-paced first person shooter, looks wonderful even when I'm jumping around and making explosions. Some of the downloadable PS3 games, like Jeopardy or High Stakes Poker, looks incredibly vibrant with their bright colors. Needless to say, this TV adds a whole new level of enjoyment to my video gaming.

In addition to the games, I use my PS3 as a Blu-Ray player. I've only seen a few movies in Blu-Ray so far, but they looked very good. In fact, the picture was so bright and realistic that it took some getting used to. In facial close-ups, you could see guy's stubble and even the fine little hairs on a woman's neck. If there's one downside to high definition it's that you can really tell when the movie production crew was having lighting problems, because sometimes the lighting varies from scene to scene. It also gives make-up artists a lot more work to do since you get to see every little detail sharper than ever before.

DVD movies look pretty good on this TV, though you can still see some of the flaws in the video compression on DVD movies. By flaws, I'm talking about jagged edges that sometimes appear on objects in the background, and other little anomalies that sometimes occur when video is compressed into the DVD format. I probably wouldn't have noticed it before, but after having watched some Blu-Ray movies, you can really tell the difference. I eventually upgraded to a Sony DVP-NS700H upscaling DVD player and it made a huge difference in image quality. I wouldn't recommend keep your 'old' DVD player to use with this TV.

This HDTV also has a digital tuner built in, so all you need to pick up the digital signal in your area is a pair of rabbit ears. I have a cheap set from Wal-Mart and I can watch HD-quality stuff right over the air. I don't have cable or satellite service, either.

The sound on this TV is pretty standard, though most of the time I turn it down in favor of my Panasonic 5.1 channel surround sound system. One weird thing I have noticed with the sound on the TV versus my Panasonic system is that they aren't quite in sync. It seems like one or the other is just a split second off, so there is a slightly noticeable echo effect when the TV volume is turned up too loud. It could just be because the speakers are mounted on the back of the TV and I'm getting an echo from the sound bouncing off the wall behind it.

The TV does feature an equalizer for playing with the sound, but I have to question just how much of an effect it has. There's only so much those dinky little built-in speakers can do. I though the equalizer was more of a gimmick than anything else. Some simple bass and treble slider controls could have done the same thing.

As a final note, I must say how great Sam's Club is to their customers. One week after I bought this TV, I was on the Sam's Club website looking up its tech specs (for this review) when I noticed the price had dropped a whopping two hundred dollars. My wife immediately called Sam's and they agreed to credit us back the difference. How cool is that?

Here's all the tech specs on this HDTV:

Picture/Display:
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
Brightness: 500 cd/m²
Dynamic Screen Contrast: 29,000:1
Response Time (typical): 2 ms
Viewing Angle: 178º (H) / 178º (V)
Diagonal Screen Size: 47 inch / 119 cm
Visible Screen Diagonal (inch): 46.96 inch
Panel Resolution: 1920x1080p
Picture Enhancement: Pixel Plus 3 HD, 3/2 - 2/2 motion pull down, 3D Combfilter, Active Control Light sensor, Dynamic contrast enhancement, Progressive Scan, 120Hz LCD, HD Natural Motion
Child Protection: Child Lock Parental Control
Clock: On main display, Sleep Timer
Ease of Installation: Autostore
Ease of Use: 4 favorite lists, Auto Volume Leveler (AVL), Channel list, Settings assistant Wizard, Side Control
Screen Format Adjustments: 4:3, Auto Format, Movie expand 14:9, Movie expand 16:9, Super Zoom, Widescreen, unscaled (1080p dot by dot)
Multimedia Connections: USB memory class device
Playback Formats: MP3, Slideshow files (.alb), JPEG Still pictures
Aerial Input: 75 ohm F-type
TV system: ATSC, NTSC
Video Playback: NTSC
Cable: Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM
Tuner bands: Hyperband, S-Channel, UHF, VHF
Computer Formats: 640 x 480, 60Hz; 800 x 600, 60Hz; 1024 x 768, 60Hz; 1280 x 768, 60Hz; 1280 x 1024, 60Hz; 1360 x 768, 60Hz; 1920 x 1080i, 60Hz; 1920 x 1080p, 60Hz
Video Formats: 480i, 60Hz; 480p, 60Hz; 720p, 60Hz; 1080i, 60Hz; 1080p, 60Hz

Inputs/Outputs:
AV 1: Audio L/R in, YPbPr
AV 2: Audio L/R in, YPbPr
AV 3: CVBS in, S-Video in
HDMI 1: HDMI v1.3
HDMI 2: HDMI v1.3
HDMI 3: Analog audio L/R in, HDMI v1.3
HDMI-control (CEC features): One touch play, Power status, System info (menu language), System standby
Front / Side Connections: HDMI v1.3, S-video in, CVBS in, Audio L/R in, Headphone out, USB
Audio Output - Digital: Coaxial (cinch)

Audio:
Equalizer: 5-bands
Output Power (RMS): 30W
Sound Enhancement: Incredible Surround
Sound System: Dolby Digital (AC-3), BBE
Built-in Speakers: 4

Power:
Ambient Temperature: 5°C to 40°C
Mains Power: 110-240V, 50-60Hz
Power Consumption: 295 W
Standby Power Consumption: < 1 W

Dimensions and Weight:
Dimensions: 45.8"W x 31"H x 12.9"D (w/ stand)
Weight: 90.7 lbs. (w/ stand)