Philips 32PW9509

...due to the clever features Philips have built in, most notably PIXEL PLUS 2. This increases vertical resolution by a third (i.e. it displays 833 lines rather than 625) and horizontal resolution by a factor of two (each line is made up of twice the number of dots or pixels). PIXEL PLUS 2 is the latest incarnation of PIXEL PLUS. Philips claim the new version is a significant improvement.

The TV is a traditional CRT screen meaning it ...
...My neighbour had a Philips Pixel Plus (not Pixel Plus 2) TV and I was so impressed I very nearly bought one - until I went into a shop for a final look. I was appalled by what I saw, a game of tennis where the ball left a comet like trail after it. I know stores often set up TVs poorly but that really put me off. I mention this tale to put things in context. Tennis is 100% fine on my TV, what I've seen is nowhere near as bad. I'm only aware of shimmer ... more

I've had a 32PW9509 for 9 months and overall I'm very pleased. It's a 32 inch, pure flat wide-screen and gives an excellent picture due to the clever features Philips have built in, most notably PIXEL PLUS 2. This increases vertical resolution by a third (i.e. it displays 833 lines rather than 625) and horizontal resolution by a factor of two (each line is made up of twice the number of dots or pixels). PIXEL PLUS 2 is the latest incarnation of PIXEL PLUS. Philips claim the new version is a significant improvement.

The TV is a traditional CRT screen meaning it is deep and VERY heavy. It took 3 of us (I admit I'm a weakling) to lower it carefully on to its stand. I won't be moving it in a hurry!

What do I like about the TV? The picture, the sound and the minimalist appearance. This means it doesn't dominate our lounge, it looks a lot smaller (our old TV was a 21 inch 4:3) than we feared.

I like the picture a lot, almost all (say 98 %?) of the time. With my old TV I had to alter settings according to lighting conditions or the source I was watching. I never need to do this now although I sometimes draw the curtains in very bright sunlight. This is because the TV dynamically alters brightness and contrast (even contrast within the picture) depending on what is being shown and the lighting conditions in the room. It just works.

I also leave Pixel Plus 2 on permanently. The set has a demo mode which splits the screen in two with one half showing Pixel Plus 2. The difference is definitely noticeable. If you want to try this in a shop use the italic 'p' on the remote, it's the top right button. I mention this because in my experience sales assistants don't know how to do this for you!

The set has alternative settings to Pixel Plus but they don't work for me. DOUBLE LINES (yes it doubles the number of lines) makes the picture glare, not relaxing at all. 100 HERTZ is supposed to be very good (the picture is refreshed twice as fast as normal so flicker should be reduced) but loses picture detail. MOVIE PLUS is meant to eliminate shimmer around fast moving objects. Shimmer is a by product of all the clever digital processing in this TV but didn't see much improvement with Movie Plus.

Shimmer (Philips call it the 'halo' effect) is my main gripe but the problems I've seen might not be caused solely by the TV itself. This is difficult to describe so I'm going to digress slightly, please be patient. My neighbour had a Philips Pixel Plus (not Pixel Plus 2) TV and I was so impressed I very nearly bought one - until I went into a shop for a final look. I was appalled by what I saw, a game of tennis where the ball left a comet like trail after it. I know stores often set up TVs poorly but that really put me off. I mention this tale to put things in context. Tennis is 100% fine on my TV, what I've seen is nowhere near as bad. I'm only aware of shimmer on SOME football or rugby games when the camera takes a very distant view. When the players are small on screen any picture disturbance around them has a disproportionate impact and is very irritating. I very rarely see any shimmer on other programming except occasionally on abc1.

So, why I am still pleased with this TV? Shimmer is intermittent and never affects the analogue signal so *perhaps* the cause lies elsewhere. My Freeview box runs off an old aerial. Maybe the signal is sometimes too weak or the broadcasters are causing trouble by varying picture quality (bandwidth). It could be that abc1 is a lower quality transmission. I'm suspicious because I have my old TV connected to another Freeview box and when I look very carefully at programmes that 'shimmer' on my new TV I can see traces of shimmer on my old kit. I guess I had just never noticed this before on the smaller screen. To put this all in some sort of context I was born a perfectionist and nobody else has even mentioned shimmer to me.

Picture formatting was initially a big disappointment but I'm less bothered now. My old 4:3 TV and Freeview box allowed me to see programmes in the format they were broadcast. 4:3 pictures filled the screen; widescreen appeared in letterbox and 14:9 with smaller black bars at the top and bottom. That isn't possible on this TV. You have to choose from these formats (Auto format, Super zoom, 4:3, Movie 14:9, Movie 16:9, subtitle zoom, Wide screen). I have become adept at guessing what format a programme is in and if I'm really that bothered I chose the format explicitly. However I do this less and less because Auto format usually does a pretty good job. The screen formatting doesn't bother anyone else in my house so it won't be an issue for a lot of people.

One useful feature is Digital Noise Reduction. This improves poor reception and works without visible side effects. I have this set to 'max' which means we now get a watchable picture on analogue Channel Five, this was very poor on my old TV. We also get better video replay.

The TV stores 1200 pages of analogue teletext. This eliminates waiting for pages or sub-pages, at least once you've been tuned to a channel for a couple of minutes. For example you can scroll through sub-pages (the ones which display as say page 1 of 8) at your convenience rather than waiting for them to be transmitted.

The remote looks attractive, durable and sits nicely in your hand. It's reassuringly heavy and is made of silver coloured alloy to match the TV. The underside of the remote is grey plastic. Evidently it can control VCR,DVD,SAT,AMP and CD if you have Philips products, I don't.

As a Hi-Fi enthusiast I usually 'put up' with the sound from TVs but this set is fine. You can choose 'incredible surround' or 'virtual Dolby surround'. It's easy to heavily customise the sound to your preferences. After playing around several people have remarked on how natural the sound is, certainly clearer and less boomy than most.

Connectivity: There are 3 rear scart sockets and discreet side sockets (right hand side) for AV. Scart1 handles CVBS and RGB, Scart 2 CVBS and Y/C, Scart 3 CVBS and RGB. I have a Freeview VCR plugged into Scart1 and the TV behaves as expected. It briefly displays 'RGB' when I switch to Freeview and 'CVBS' when I play a video.

A few minor quirks:
Changing volume has to be done solely by ear, there's no visual display to help you. Switch the TV on and prepare to wait. It takes a little while to get going and your patience is sometimes rewarded (once in 50 attempts?) by a picture in black and white! Getting colour back is easy enough; I just retry or turn on my Freeview box.

Things I wish this TV had? An inbuilt Freeview tuner and HDMI input. High definition TV is apparently around the corner (2006 for SKY anyway?) and this TV is not HD compatible.

Conclusion:
Despite quirks and frustrations I do not regret paying £800 for this TV. The picture is almost always superb, the sound is fine and I wanted a wide screen TV. This was the best TV I could find for under £1000.

Reasons to buy:
This is a top quality widescreen TV.
If you must have a new TV now it's hard to beat.

Reasons not to buy:
Perfectionists may notice that screen shimmer affects some programming.
Not High Definition compatible although admittedly very few TVs are.
 

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