Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips 47PFL5603D/27 47-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

I've purchased this TV in February, and couldn't be happier. Besides a nice looking frame, it's got an amazing picture quality, and a very good sound quality.

I'm a TV aficionado, so I did a lot of research before getting this one. There is still a little bit of pixelation on the 120mhz models around, but if you compare this set with others, more expensive ones like Sony or Samsung, this one is by far the best one. The digital natural motion makes everything look so real, its just amazing. Watching a blu-ray movie on this tv, is probably getting the best picture quality you can get around.

The sound is pretty good. The set has its speakers on the back, so you can't see them at all, but still, the sound is clear and it can be very loud if you want to. Nice feature.

My only complain is with the menus. I guess they could've made some nicer ones. Then again, if you buy a TV for the menus and not for the images, go ahead and buy another one.

The remote is also simple to use, and has all the necessary features. I'm not a universal remote-guy, so I'm pretty happy with this one. Light and easy to use.

Btw, the frame makes a perfect fit for my nintendo wii sensor bar! Not that this is a must, but it was a nice surprise! No tapes, no glue, it just fits perfectly!

The set also has MANY inputs.. it has 3 HDMI inputs, plus component, composite, DVI, USB... I've got a ton of accessories plugged in (blu-ray, wii, camera, home theater, occasionaly the laptop..) and there's a bunch of slots left!

I've been selling this particular model for about three months and I've been very impressed with how well it has held up against not just constant demo usage but from customer feedback as well.

First off I must warn all potential customers that with any high definition television you MUST HAVE A HIGH DEFINITION SERVICE if you want your channels to look as awesome as those televisions on the show room floor. Televisions do not magically take a cable signal from a coaxial cable and make it high def. That said, with the 1080P picture quality you can also enjoy the high definition if you have an up conversion DVD player, a Playstation 3, or an XBox 360 Elite/Halo 3 console so long as you have an HDMI cable to transfer the signal. Sadly, the Wii console only sends out a maximum signal of 480 which is not high def.

To compliment the 1080P picture quality is the 29,000 contrast ratio. Most economy-class televisions under $2000 sport around a 2000-8500 contrast ratio, which is OK but let's face it; like the song by Queen you want it all and you want it now. Samsung A3 series typically sport around 8500 contrast while economy-priced Sony Bravias are even less, making the Philips 29,000 far superior.

On top of that, the quality and endurance of the Philips 47 is top-notch. In my eight years of selling screens, Philips is one of the longest lasting if not the longest in the economy-class. They don't use cheap parts like Emerson, Sanyo, or RCA but have the same (if not better) picture as a Samsung or Sony. I hardly see any Philips returned and if they did, it's usually because they want to upgrade to the 52-inch.

The sound isn't bad for a big screen but, like any other, it is designed to be complimented by a surround sound. Nonetheless, depending on the acoustics of the room this model can operate fairly well without one although don't expect a true Pro-Logic II experience.

All-in-all the Philips 47 does something few other screens can; give the economy-class shopper a screen that dominates in picture quality making it affordable to all who want to experience true high definition.

I'm still playing around with this thing so there may be updates to come. I'm not a technophile and bought this monster mostly because of the upcoming digital transition - my plan is to watch mostly off-air hdtv signals, dvds, and some old video.

And this IS a monster, BTW. At almost 80 lbs it's close to the upper edge of my lifting range. Eventually it'll be permanently mounted to the wall, but meantime I'm holding it up while the female of the species meditates on furniture arrangement! I know I'm losing weight, but maybe disks as well...

The menus are NOT right-sized for a 47" tv; they're absurdly huge and unnecessarily obscuring. However the real problem, for non-cable me, is the slowness of the channel-changing. And it's not like you see channel 6.1 until channel 6.2 appears three seconds later - you see a completely blank screen, not even the channel numbers in the upper left-hand corner.

HDTV looks FANTASTIC on this set, though it took a couple of re-channel-formats - and turns of the antenna - to get all the hdtv stations. A fair bit of picture tweaking was required to get an image that doesn't look like shot-on-video: however I now have rich blacks AND stunning detail, despite what the review at NEC (which is of the 42" set) says. The internal speakers seem fine to ME - ok, my previous set was 20 years old...

Non-hdtv looks AWFUL. Judder, artifacts, pixillation - maybe that'd be true of any screen this size. I'm not criticizing Philips, necessarily. However if like me you plan to be watching a lot of old stuff into the indefinite future, I'd strongly recommend a smaller screen!!!

After much on-line research of available large screen lcd's, settled on this Philips. Very pleased with this product. Delivered fully assembled including stand. Install took less than 10 minutes. Audio and video both very good.

I got this from my local warehouse for a great price. The TV has superb picture quality. Fabulous sound with 30W 2.1 speakers behind the TV.

I have a window in front of the TV and there is no glare on the LCD, which used to be a big problem on my standard CRT tv before.

I hooked it up with a philips dvd player (DVP 5992/37) with 1080 upconversion and the picture and sound are perfect.

I would have liked to have the Picture in Picture (PIP) feature, but it seems absent in philips models.

And it is energy star certified, consumes less power in standby. It also plays MP3 and picture slide show directly from USB connected flash drives/cameras.

It was also able to find clear QAM signals on my basic cable connection, so I could watch a few HD channels including CBS, NBC which were great looking. Philips also provides firmware updates for the TV, so in time, they could improve features.