Most folks here in the U.S. know Philips as a company that makes light bulbs. But the European electronics giant has been at the forefront of the flat-TV revolution since Day One, releasing a wide range of slim models in the plasma and LCD categories. Apparently a bulb ignited over someone's head there across the pond, because the company's new sets combine two of its core product lines — flat TV and lighting — into one innovative design. Philips calls the TVs, which have vertical fluorescent backlights flanking either side, Ambilight models. Hard-core videophilies have been backlighting their TVs for years, so having a manufacturer finally step up and build a backlight into the set itself seems like a bright concept indeed.
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What are the advantages to backlighting a TV? For one, it lessens the eye fatigue that comes from staring at bright images in a dark environment. It also adds a light source to the room that doesn't reflect off the screen and screw up picture contrast. Of course, there are a few geeky details that you should know if you're thinking about backlighting your TV. First, the illumination needs to be the correct “color temperature,” and for watching TV that's 6,500 K. Second, the surrounding environment should ideally be a neutral gray hue (for all you thirtysomething guys still living at home, Star Wars-themed wallpaper won't cut it).
Though the Ambilight TVs don't have an exact 6,500-K preset, Philips does provide controls for brightness, color, and saturation that will get you close to the target. There are additional presets and an auto mode that changes the backlight color to match the dominant hue of the onscreen image. But unless you're into psychedelic light shows, these modes are little more than gimmicks.
Ambilight aside, the Philips 42PF9966 is an HDTV monitor, which means you'll need an outboard digital tuner to watch HDTV programs, although you can receive analog TV stations with the TV's built-in tuner. Its 42-inch screen sports a wide (16:9) aspect ratio and has a pixel resolution of 1,024 x 768. The outer frame is a silver-toned plastic, while the thin metal grille across the bottom conceals the built-in speakers.
A set of controls to power up the TV, navigate menus, adjust volume, and switch channels is built into the right side, while the left side provides an A/V input. The set comes with both an angled glass table stand and a wall bracket — a welcome freebie considering that you normally have to pay upwards of $250 for mounting hardware.
A/V connections include an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port and two sets of component-video jacks, one of which doubles as an GB input. Another cool extra is the DVI (Digital Visual Interface)-to-HDMI adapter cable.
Philips's slim, aluminum-faced remote control has a solid, high-end feel, and its styling put my other remotes to shame. There's no backlit keypad, but the buttons are big and comfortably spaced out over its surface. You switch sources by hitting the OK button in the center of the disc-shaped menu-navigation control and use the on screen menu to cursor to the one you want.
The Screen Format button toggles through seven display modes, which include two zoom and two stretch modes plus 4:3 (standard) and widescreen (16:9). Unfortunately, the set locks into widescreen mode for HDTV, so you can't adjust the shape of stretched 4:3 programs like the ones shown on the TNT-HD channel.
SETUP To get things rolling, I connected my DVD player to the TV's DVI jack and my high-def cable box to one of its component-video inputs. You can select from five video presets with names like Natural and Eco, but there's only one global custom picture memory for standard- and another for high-def signals. I found this somewhat limiting since I couldn't store separate picture adjustments for my DVD player and cable box. The set accepts 720p-format HDTV programs, but because it displays them “pixel for pixel” with no vertical scaling, you'll see a “windowboxed” image with black bars on the top and sides. For this reason, I recommend setting your high-def tuner, satellite receiver, or cable box to feed only 1080i-format signals to the TV.
PICTURE QUALITY DVD images looked superb after I made a few adjustments in the TV's hidden service menu (see “in the lab” below). Contrast was solid, with deep blacks and punchy whites, in the sunlit scene from Master and Commander where sailors trade goods with natives, and the blue-green hues of the ocean looked vivid. On closer inspection, the image did have a red bias — something we see on many HDTVs out of the box — which made the sailors look like they'd spent too much time in the sun. I was able to achieve a more natural look by turning the color control down.
The Philips also did a generally good job of rendering dark scenes shot in the ship's interior. For example, there was a decent amount of shadow detail in the post-battle shots of the ship surgeon in his dim, cramped workspace. I did notice some false contouring — bands of color instead of a smooth progression of dark to light tones — but only during fog-enshrouded scenes.
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Any review of this TV would be incomplete without an evaluation of Ambilight, and I'm happy to report that it's a worthwhile feature. Results will vary from room to room, but in my neutral gray-toned space the Cool White setting was just about perfect. Watching the HDTV broadcast of CSI: Miami with Ambilight switched on (the default setting is off) was a truly engaging experience. The backlighting helped bring out the contrast in both the sunny outdoors and dark crime-lab scenes, making the show's already candy-colored palette look even richer. And detail was stunning in the expansive shots of the Miami skyline and the closeups of the scruffy yet serious lab technicians — I could make out the individual hair strands on their furrowed brows.
BOTTOM LINE In the competitive landscape of 42-inch plasma HDTVs, the stylish looks, cool features, and crisp high-def performance of the Philips 42PF9966 make it stand out from the crowd. And its Ambilight system is more than a gimmick — when used correctly it's a picture-enhancing feature that's long overdue.
In the Lab
Color temperature (Warm setting before/after calibration)
Low window (20-IRE) .............. 5,073/6,453 K
High window (100-IRE) ........... 5,463/6,474 K
Brightness (Warm setting before/after calibration, 100-IRE): 24.2/30.5 ftL
With its Warm color temperature selected, the Philips 42PF9966 displayed excellent grayscale tracking after calibration, deviating only ±150 K from the 6,500-K standard throughout its range. (Calibration needs to be performed by a qualified technician with specialized equipment, so discuss it with your dealer before purchase, or call the Imaging Science Foundation at 561-997-9073.) The backlight provided by the Cool White Ambilight setting also measured close to the standard when bounced off a neutral gray wall. Picture overscan was 3% on all sides for both the standard- and high-definition inputs, which is average. Using the color-decoder-error pattern from the Avia test DVD, I measured +10% and –15% errors on the red and green channels, respectively, the effect of which was to skew the color balance slightly toward red. — A.G.