Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips 42PFL7422D/37 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

A> This LCD has a crystal clear, bright picture. Even with standard def programming and a non-upconverted DVD player, video, movies, and TV looks outstanding. The "Pixel Perfect" option really makes every thing "pop" without making it look over driven or sharpened.

I have this TV in a well-lit room (daytime) and with much glare from windows. The screen does a very good job at handling the glare, and the TV has a light sensor which will adjust the screen brightness based on ambient light in the room. This is a VERY nice feature, not found on many other TVs.

B> The speakers are fantastic, they are VERY clear, with good full range dynamics.

C> It has a TON of inputs! 3 HDMI inputs, side inputs, USB for viewing photos and MP3s, and updatable firmware make this unit mean its will not be outdated next year. Lots of RCA style A/V inputs in the rear as well (3 of them).. yes, this TV has 7 inputs! This TV runs Lunix! Its hackable! Phillips has the source code for free a free download! Cool! I was able to view photos and images and MP3s off a thumb drive, as well hook up my Sony DSC-H1 Camera right up to the USB port, and view pictures. They looked fantastic on the big screen.

D> Easy to setup, easy to use remote. Non cluttered buttons. Easy to program and understand on screen menu guides. You can either let the TV "set things up for you" by showing several nice HD pictures pre-programed in it, and then letting you pick the best picture based on your viewing preferences. Or you can "dig deeper" and really tweak the picture.

E> When you do get HD programming you will be blown away. This picture is BETTER then how it looked in the store!

F> Somewhat lightweight, Most of the weight (while its in the box) is from the heavy steel and glass base (that comes unattached, you must put the base together, and then install it on the TV). This operation should be done with two people. However, I did it myself. Many wall mount options and bolt holes are on the back to fit many styles of wall brackets.

Two minor "flaws".

1 - The HDMI inputs are a little hard to get to... but it does make for a "Cleaner" and thinner wall mount VS other TVs. this tv is _very_ thin.

2 - NO PC input. Bummer. However, a simple conversion box from PC to HDMI takes care of this, and since there are 3 HDMI inputs, its not that big of a deal. You can buy PCs now with HDMI outputs on them, thus, I feel this is not a major issue as I foresee more PCs with HDMI as an output. You can even upgrade your video card to HDMI.. for example - (MSI RX2600XT-T2D512EZ Radeon HD 2600XT HD Video Card )

Update, Ive had this TV for three months, and I am STILL 100% happy with it! :)

I bought this TV at Costco while it was on sale and Costco extended the warranty on this TV to a 2 year warranty free of charge. For the price this is a good TV for watching TV programs in HD broadcast over the air, playing dvds and blu-ray discs, and playing video games on consoles that support HD resoultions. I hooked this TV up to my Play Station 3 using an HDMI cable and the picture quality was excellent especially when playing games like Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.

If you plan to watch HD programming on digital cable with this model because it has a built in ATSC. QAM tuner, beware that you still need a cable box to receive on demand, pay per view programming. Even if you decide not use on demand or pay per view programming, there is no cable card slot in this model such that the channel lineup for digital channels using the built in QAM tuner will be different than what your cable provider advertises. Also cable card or a cable box is needed to subscribe to scrambled premium channels.

As far as picture is concerned with this model, the only issue I had with this model is that when playing blu-ray discs formatted for anamorphic widescreen or ratios near 2.40:1, black bars appear on the screen and when hooked up to the TV using an HDMI cable this TV, the super zoom, movie expand 14:9 and movie expand 16:9 options are disabled. The only options available in HDMI mode are Automatic, Widescreen, and Unscaled and none of them help to remove the black bars so there is no way of removing the black bars when playing blu-ray discs. The only work around is to buy blu-ray discs formatted for full screen which are very rare for films produced today. Although you are not supposed to remove the black bars from the screen when playing blu-ray discs because image quality is lower than what the director intended, people should be given the choice to display the movie on the full screen they paid for.

Some people have complained about a washed out colors with this model. I never noticed this when playing PS3 games or blu-ray discs. One thing I do recommend to ensure accuracy in colors is to make sure HDMI 1.3 cables are used because HDMI 1.3 supports billions of colors and accurate color display.

Besides those issues, this TV is reasonable for the price and is great for those who are on a budget and are looking to buy an HDTV that supports Full 1080 and has a built in ATSC tuner.

This is a really nice tv, great picture and I don't think the sound is bad like I've read in other reviews. BUT if you ship through EAGLE beware! They do not have their act together, they sent me the wrong tv and I had to go crazy to resolve the problem.

I too bought this LCD at Costco for the price and features, however, I had problems using the HDMI with my new HD cable box (Scientific Atlantic Model DC551P). I then switched to component cables and problem "fixed". Didn't call Philips tech support yet but I suspect that this box is not a supported HDMI device. Once I did get it working with component, I noticed too many picture adjustments while viewing. I think this may be partially my fault with the particular settings I have configured but I have tried to minimize all auto-adjusting features of the tv and I still notice some brightness and contrast levels fluctuations. Third thing I noticed is the overly-long response time switching between a normal to a HD channel and vice versa. Again could be something to do with the cable provider or the cable box, but I literally need to wait like 20-30secs for channel to come up when I switch. Like some other people, I would have thought the remote would be better designed. It's a bit toyish and shows the lack of commitment to the overall design of the tv. The good news is that I have 90 days to return it. Hopefully by then I can work out all these nuances.

Decent picture as long as you're not trying to see it via DirectTV's HDMI. We have DirectTV and tried to hook this unit up via HDMI cable but, like one of other reviewers said, we keep getting "Unsupported Video Format" for this. I talked to a manager at Philips and he said this was a compatibility issue with the DirectTV. However, when googling this issue it only comes up with this TV as a problem. If this was a compatibility issue why don't other TVs have the same problem?
So, all in all , two stars...