Philips 14 PT 2666

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback
Sound Quality
Ease of Use
Range of Features
Value for Money

Advantages:	Nicam, loads of features, not too expensive
Disadvantages:	Plasticy  -  ewww

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Watching television. We all do it - it's like an unofficial drug that draws you in and sucks your life dry. Have you ever been sitting in front of the TV watching some inane programme, and suddenly start wondering why? What interest do you have in amateur sheep-chucking? But after all, why not? TV is your friend. TV LOVES YOU.

Ahem. OK, so we're all addicts to an accepted narcotic that is television. But we might as well make our viewing experience as enjoyable as possible. Portable televisions help us do this - now lie in bed and watch TV, we don't even have to get up in the mornings. It's like a ticket to viewing nirvana.

- Tell me more

The Philips 14PF2666 is a fairly new addition to the televisual market. It's a 14" portable television, a fairly standard spec by anyone's standards. But this one is very special - oh yes. Whereas most portable TVs have a single speaker for outputting sound, the Philips model has two speakers, providing you will genuine Nicam stereo sound. It sounds nice - and it is. Even though the speakers are relatively close together (6W RMS speakers framing the screen on either side), it definitely makes a difference. Plus, if you have a stereo and the relevant bit of cable (standard red/white phono-to-phono audio cable from all half-decent electrical stores), you can use the TV's audio out sockets on the front to increase the sound output and spread your stereo effect. Nice.

- Setting up

Let's step back for a second from the technological goodness, and start from scratch. After pulling your box into your bedroom/back room/garden shed, and extracting the TV itself, set-up is fairly easy. If you're just watching the TV on its own, then just whack in the power and the aerial, and you're ready to go. Tuning in the channels is a breeze - go to the automatic store option in the install menu of the television and it sorts it all out for you.

It gets a bit more complicated with videos and DVD players, the usual problems with getting your SCART leads in the right order is present (the TV only has one SCART socket, but this is true of all portables), but this cannot be avoided.

- Ease of use

It is hard for me to describe the ease of use of the TV, as I have seen people struggle for hour with technology I can figure out in five minutes. To me, the onscreen menu interface seems fair intuitive and self-explanatory, I didn't even have to use the manual, although it is quite detailed enough to use should you get confused in any way. I thought the remote control was not as simplistic as it could be - while I have not problem with an abundance of buttons, a few of them have little icons on them which really give you no idea of what the function of the button actually is. This, to me, is a problem. The layout of the buttons, however, is fairly logical, and most of the buttons you will want to use often sit in the same sort of location.

- Features

We've already mentioned the lovely sound capabilities of this beast, but it has plenty of other features, not all of them obvious.

* FM radio - I thought this function would not prove to be useful at all, but it's actually quite handy to be able to hit a single button on the remote control and have the radio switch on. The functions are also controlled by the TV controls, which is nice.

* Contrast Plus - This is a handy little feature that I didn't even realise my TV had. It identifies black areas of the image, and then alters the image to ensure that they are truly black. Don't ask me how it does it - I'm no Electrical Engineer - it just does.

* Teletext/Smartext - Really quite usefully, you can get teletext on this TV if it is being transmitted, and the remote has the coloured buttons to prove it. With a 10-page memory, you can browse the text-based wonder to your heart's content.

* Connectivity - As already mentioned, the TV has a SCART socket and audio out, and it should also be mentioned that the TV also has a stereo headphone socket. Very useful for watching 'educational' material late at night. Ahem.

- Problems

Nothing is without it's problems (well, except Louise Redknapp, but that's another story), so here's the problems with the 14PT2666:

* Build quality - The case of the TV is plastic. Plastic! It feels a bit tacky, although I suppose it's light to carry. The CRT itself is fine, as are the connectors and controls - it's just the surrounds that irritate. It's also worth noting that this is not the usually visible surround of the TV, but the rear section - the screen frame is much nicer :)

* Unclear remote buttons - random symbols do not make me a happy boy!

- Experiences

I have really enjoyed using the Philips 14PT2666. I have a DVD player and a video, so while there's multi-connectivity issues, the TV is the simplest part of the setup. The picture is sharp, especially with high quality DVDs pumping through it, and the sound is superb. The TV itself allows you to tweak the sound to your liking, so that is fun. The ease of use of the TV has made for a headache-less viewing experience.

- The End

I would recommend this unit to anyone who wants a decent portable for a reasonable price (approx. £130). You get what you pay for, and you shouldn't have any problems using it. Right, I'm off to watch Ghostbusters on my DVD...