I just saw this 32" at Costco for under $1500 and the styling is very attractive, and compact/lightweight boxing for easy transporting home. This model has cable card, has two HDMI inputs plus all the others. Phillips has gotten good ratings for some of their LCD's with "Pixel Plus". I could not find any controls on the unit so I was unable to adjust the picture. Below are some details, but I'd really like to hear from someone who has this model at home or who has been able to play with the picture adjustment (remote needed I think).

Cable Card Interface, Monitor out, CVBS, L/R (cinch), SP-DIF in (coaxial), SP-DIF out (coaxial)
AV 1 : Audio L/R in, CVBS in, RGB+H/V, S-Video Y/C, YPbPr, Component Video in, (1, 2, 3Fh autoranging), Y/C
AV 2 : Audio L/R in, CVBS, S-Video
AV 3 : S/PDIF digital coaxial, YPbPr, (1, 2, 3Fh autoranging)
AV 4 : HDMI
AV 5 : HDMI
Front / Side connections : Audio left/right in, CVBS in, Headphone out, S-video in, USB 1.1

Brightness : 550 cd/m²
Diagonal screen size (inch) : 32 inch
Diagonal screen size (metric) : 80 cm
Display screen type : LCD WXGA Active Matrix TFT
Picture enhancement : Pixel Plus, Progressive Scan, Active Control + Light sensor, 3/2 - 2/2 motion pull down, Widescreen Plus, 3D Combfilter, Contrast Plus
Screen enhancement : Anti ageing circuit, Anti-Reflection coated screen
Panel resolution : 1366 x 768p
Response time (typical) : 8 ms
Dynamic Screen Contrast ratio : 800:1

Computer formats : 640 x 480, 60Hz, 800 x 600, 60Hz, 1024 x 768, 60Hz, 1366 x 768, 60Hz
Video Formats : 640 x 480i - 1Fh, 640 x 480p - 2Fh, 720 x 576i - 1Fh, 720 x 576p - 2Fh, 1280 x 720p - 3Fh, 1920 x 1080i - 2Fh

Sound Enhancement : Smart Sound, Auto Volume Leveller, Digital Signal Processing, Dynamic Bass Enhancement, Graphic Equaliser
Sound System : Virtual Dolby Digital
Output power (RMS) : 2 x 15W

Ease of Installation : Autostore, PLL Digital Tuning, Plug & Play, Automatic Tuning System (ATS)
Ease of Use : On Screen Display, Side Control, Smart Picture Control, Channel list, Smart Sound Control, Delta Volume per preset
Remote control type : RC4345/01
Remote Control : Amp, DVD-R, Multi-functional, Sat, VCR, DVD
Screen Format Adjustments : 7 Widescreen Modes, Auto Format, Subtitle and Heading Shift
Child Protection : Child Lock+Parental Control
Picture in Picture : HDMI-Component PIP
Clock : Smart Clock
Teletext : Closed Captioning Full Text

Multimedia Applications
Digital Content Management : Digital Media Reader
Multimedia connections : USB 1.1 memory class device
Playback Formats : JPEG Still pictures, MP3, Slideshow files (.alb)

Tuner/Reception/Transmission
TV system : ATSC, NTSC
Video Playback : NTSC
Aerial Input : 75 Ohm F-type
Cable : Digital Cable Ready CableCARD, Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM
:)

I just picked this up at Costco.

However, i was dissapointed to find the 32PF9630A/37 label but the TV to be
32PF7320A/37

As noted on the philips website, the 9630 has PixelPlus 2 and usb 2.0

Everything else is the same... I just wonder if pixelplus 2 is any better I don't want to be gipped.

I will install it and compare it to my Sony 30XS955 CRT. my CRT has GREAT PQ so this will be interesting.

I just picked this up at Costco.

However, i was dissapointed to find the 32PF9630A/37 label but the TV to be
32PF7320A/37

As noted on the philips website, the 9630 has PixelPlus 2 and usb 2.0

Everything else is the same... I just wonder if pixelplus 2 is any better I don't want to be gipped.

I will install it and compare it to my Sony 30XS955 CRT. my CRT has GREAT PQ so this will be interesting.
According to another avs member who had the more expensive Phillips LCD models, the Pixel Plus 2 is a bit better. He noticed an issue with the original Pixel Plus but I can't remember what it was... I do remember him saying that he only noticed a problem under rare condition and only if he looked for it. I think Pixel Plus 2 is only available on more expensive Phillips models.
Anyway, we are eager to know how you like the picture and features on this model.

I believe the 9630 model also has the ambilight thing doesnt it? It is way more expensive I noticed on the costco site.

The ambilight model has a different bezel design and model number (32PF9996/37)

I won't post a complete review but i'm a amateur so forgive me if I botch a few acronyms here and there.

Initial Impression
This TV looks nice. Definitely better than the Maxent which i was originally looking for. I like a larger bezel on TV's because it makes the TV look "meatier". The sharp AQUOS 32" next to it looked kinda puny. PQ was another issue, i'll talk about that later. I LOVE the thinness of this TV and compared to my Sony 30XS955 CRT it's so sexy... Weight was 45lbs and very easy for a normal person to carry.

Looks like a really full featured LCD with 2 HDMI connections and 3 AV's and CableCard Slot is a nice feature. I was also attracted to the HDTV tuner since the AQUOS doesn't have one.

Picture Quality
There are a lot of settings so I can't fully tell you how good it is yet.


At the Store
First of all... Costco has a nice layout to compare screens. I hate looking at the smaller ones since everything is dwarfed next to the 42" plasmas and it really makes every LCD look TINY. But next to the Sharp AQUOS it was really comparable. I would give the edge to the Sharp for PQ as the images were a bit sharper. I played around with the settings on the Philips until the color seemed more "natural" to me. Another thing was that the HDTV signal would sometimes show the Philips better and sometimes show the Sharp to be better. I would say the colors were back and forth. However, the sharpness was just slightly off. I wasn't sure why but it's was a very slight difference (sharp being a bit better). The AQUOS does not have a HDTV tuner but it was the same price. I wanted OTA free signals so that was a big factor.
*note: some of the lcd had a green stripe on the right or left of the screen. Don't worry because you can adjust the picture left or right to remove it. i found that out later at home.
At Home
At home I unpacked the TV and set everything up. A very sparse manual... i didn't like that. I fired up the OTA antenna and the picture was great. Sharp out of the box and maybe a little less color than i liked but that can be adjusted. I think color "depth" might be the right word b/c my Sony has a little better color.
It was definitely a great size for me as I sit about 6-8' away from the TV.

One thing I noticed was the automatic adjustment of my channels to widescreen. B/c some of the OTA channels are broadcast in HDTV but with black bars on the side (4:3) size... the TV auto adjusted it and it still looked great.

The response time is listed as 8ms but while watching the program "you think you can dance" you could tell there was some ghosting. Noticeable but not a dealbreaker. I would estimate it's probably closer to 20ms but i have no verifiable way of measuring that. Maybe 8ms up and 8ms down ~16ms total... depends how the manny measures it i guess. It's a LCD so I expected it would have some difficulty keeping up with fast moving objects. Overall it does a pretty good job (this is subjective of course) compared to my other LCD monitors ( i have a couple older samsung computer LCDS.)

ON not so action pictures like talk shows, it was gorgeous! Very detailed, very very sharp. Pixel plus may be a factor but i can't compare to another LCD tv?
On DVD
At first, the quality was pretty horrible. mind you I have the panasonic s77s which I LOVE by the way. I first turned it on and connected to HDMI. It had a grainy image and pretty poor PQ. I thought man this sucks... so I checked the settings on my panny and readjusted it to 1080i. Next I adjusted some of the options in the TV and now i get a pretty good image. Blacks are not that good in my opinion. IF you are willing to live with slightly grey blacks or just accept it as black then you'll be fine. Maybe I have the contrast a little high but the Sharp definitely had better blacks.

My Artificial Intelligence looked pretty bad but i attribute that more to the DVD. Gladiator was nice and sharp thanks to my dvd player... and i have to test out a few more and i'll get back to you. I plan on watching lots of DVDs so this will be important. After messing around with the settings I still noticed some slight graininess but i'll tweak it more to see if it can be totally removed.


Menus & Quirks
The menus are easy to navigate once you get used to it. It's not super intuitive and could be easier but I don't mind that much. Some quirks are when you need to push "OK" forward button. the OK button doesn't always do what you want it to do. IE, it may return to another menu when you thought you were selecting something.

Another quirk are the channels. There is no TV/Video button to goto your AV/HDMI inputs. pushing up to the last channel goes into AV1, AV2, HDMI 1&2... and so forth. I dunno why they did something so stupid. Maybe It's the stupid manual that doesn't explain anything.

The auto adjust can be turned off, but during certain commercials which switch back to 4:3 will take 3-4 seconds to adjust to full size. Sometiems the commercial is already over so this can get annoying. Luckily it can be turned off but I like it on.

Price/Value
I bought it for under 1500, you can find the price out for yourself. Considering I bought the 30XS955 for under 1000, I feel like the Value is not as good as the Sony. Sure, it's thin but PQ and everything else is the same as the Sony. So for 2 inches more, LCD sharpness, and super thin TV... I pay that much more. So really, it's up to you to decide if it's worth it.

Notes
Just so you know, the Sams club one is 100 dollars cheaper but it's a different model and has no TV tuner or dual HDMI inputs. I bought that one without realizing it and immediately returned it.

Thanks for the great review!

I was looking at this set in the CostCo today for about 15 minutes. I really love the styling & dual-HDMI inputs, but I'm still deciding about the PQ. It was definitely nicer than the ProView next to it, but there was no Sharp to compare it to. And it's hard to really evaluate it in that setting.

I noticed that the picture wasn't centered - everything looked like it had been shifted 2 inches to the left. One of the videos that cycled through had a logo in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. On the 2 Philips sets (32" & 37"), the left side of the logo was chopped off. Other sets showed the full logo & an inch of room on the left. Is this the same as the green stripe you were talking about? How do you adjust the centering? There was no stripe on the right side of the screen, so it's almost like the HD feed was wider than the screen could display. I went into the settings menu, but the only options were "Widescreen" and "Automatic", which both displayed the same thing.

Just move the ring around the OK button to shift the picture to be centered. There maybe some Overscan? which is why the logos are off. Then again, the signal may have a part in that. All my HD content is properly adjusted for widescreen. Auto will just eliminate the black bars.

Just an update:
Picture Quality
With black there is some macroblocking? I'm not sure what it's called when it's blocky and the colors aren't smoothed together? This only happens in certain pictures... but there is very little ghosting that i notice at all now.

I'm watching the Patriots/Saints game right now and it looks awesome. Very bright and sharp. If you look closely, you will see some blending. Does anyone want to share their settings for the 37" or the 32"?

My settings:
Color Enhancement: off
DNR: off
Active Control: Max
Pixel Plus: on
Dynamic Contrast: Minimum

Just move the ring around the OK button to shift the picture to be centered. There maybe some Overscan? which is why the logos are off. Then again, the signal may have a part in that. All my HD content is properly adjusted for widescreen. Auto will just eliminate the black bars.

Just an update:
Picture Quality
With black there is some macroblocking? I'm not sure what it's called when it's blocky and the colors aren't smoothed together? This only happens in certain pictures... but there is very little ghosting that i notice at all now.

I'm watching the Patriots/Saints game right now and it looks awesome. Very bright and sharp. If you look closely, you will see some blending. Does anyone want to share their settings for the 37" or the 32"?

My settings:
Color Enhancement: off
DNR: off
Active Control: Max
Pixel Plus: on
Dynamic Contrast: Minimum
That "macroblocking" may or may not be the Phillips... I've noticed this (rarely) on my LCDs and found that it was the source, not the monitor. The only thing about your excellent review that concerns me is the black levels. Sharp seems to always win on black levels, but I like the design of this Phillips... very compact attractive design with fairly good sounding speakers considering the size.

Maybe my wording to describe the black levels are incorrect.

ON the Sharp, the black did not appear "lit"

On the Philips looks like it is "lit" and even by turning down the contrast/brightness you can only reduce it so much. however it is "consistently black" throughout the whole picture and in scenes that require black.

Now, when i say lit, it's not like it's "bright" I guess just compared to the bezel that is black, it's not a deep black. Just slightly lit and a little grayish.

Hope that helps.

P.S. I'm really debating between this and the Sharp... but the sharp has no HD tuner which has me bummed. We have a pretty nasty cable company here and I can't receive Sattelite in my apt.

thanks for the detailed review. I am now seriously looking into this tv. will stop by costco to look at it. per your review, cannot still see why there is no tv/source button on the remote to change the source from hd, dvd, cable,etc. have never ever seen any remote without it! so are u keeping this tv or looking at others such as sammy, sony, sharp, etc?

Well, I've only had it for 2 days. I'll probably pick up a AVIA disc calibrator and adjust some settings.

I'm debating between this and the Sharp.

I also saw the Panny 37" plasma which is around the same price range... i'm really torn as i would love to have the HDTV tuner.

I read that someone else found out about an "expert" mode for the remote so you can change to the AV inputs. But i don' t know how yet.

went to local costco to see it. seems that its sold out and no news if its coming back to the store. very strange. went to sterling, va store.

I went to 2 costco's to get this TV, One had two in stock but was sold out by the time I got there... the other one had 8 but it was farther out so maybe less people bought it there.

Try again, it's worth it.

Have something for u reg AV switching. There should be a AV+ button on the remote that shall allow you to switch b/w video sources. saw the 37'' in a store. remote should be the same.
Now some Qs:

- one thing i noticed with 37'' tv is that for changing picture settings like sharpness, etc..the whole screen shows menu...rather than transparent menu..where one could keep watching tv and notice the changes when u play with menu settings..is that true?

- did u setup HD with this tv? I could not see an option to just search for digital channels rather than both digital and analog. Also, if is does put both of them, how does one skip/add a channel? did u see an option for that?

- I noticed that there is a software upgrade for this tv on the philips website. did u upgrade the firmware..maybe it helps with some of the quirks above...

please let me know...PQ looks really good for this TV. ..therefore seriously considering this TV now...

is it true ??? that the remote control that comes with the Philips LCD TV is only multifunctional on Philips products only ....bummer

not heard that volterra..where did u hear that?

I purchased the 32PF LCD and no where it talked about programing the remote
so I called Philips and got a "sleepy" guy telling me the remote only operates Philips equipment .... BTW does Philips make SAT rec. ???

Have something for u reg AV switching. There should be a AV+ button on the remote that shall allow you to switch b/w video sources. saw the 37'' in a store. remote should be the same.
Now some Qs:

- one thing i noticed with 37'' tv is that for changing picture settings like sharpness, etc..the whole screen shows menu...rather than transparent menu..where one could keep watching tv and notice the changes when u play with menu settings..is that true?

- did u setup HD with this tv? I could not see an option to just search for digital channels rather than both digital and analog. Also, if is does put both of them, how does one skip/add a channel? did u see an option for that?

- I noticed that there is a software upgrade for this tv on the philips website. did u upgrade the firmware..maybe it helps with some of the quirks above...

please let me know...PQ looks really good for this TV. ..therefore seriously considering this TV now...

Thanks for the tip on the AV+ button. i didn't notice it... A/Ch switches back to the previous channel you were watching too.

To answer you questions:
1) The menu does fill the whole screen until you select which setting to adjust... 'sharpness, color, etc' will show the slider but the rest of the picture you will be able to see the changes.

2) i did set this up with hdtv. it will scan both analog and digital at the same time.
in the menu you can select preferred channels which will skip/add any channels you want.

3) as for the software upgrade, there is one version higher than what i have right now. you will need a usb card reader to be able to do this firmware upgrade though and i haven't hooked it up yet.

i'm not sure whether you can program the remote for other components.

the menu is not very "sleek" or intuitive as you mentioned. but I think the PQ of philips is surely among the best LCDs. I just wish there was an option to scan only digital or analog channel and not having to take out all analog channels...just extra botheration..really like this feature in my sony xbr.
so...overall...how do u like this tv? are u keeping it? I was looking into sony, sammy and sharp..but at this price and features...I am leaning heavily towards it...despite..its strange menus and some quirks..maybe down the line...the menu is also updated with a firmware change..atleast philips..has the updates..do not know of many companies that even do that!

The firmware feature is a nice touch.

I am really leaning toward keeping this tv. The only thing i wish is that i could buy a 37" or bigger. Right now i can't afford anything larger.

i've been watching DVD's and hdtv and i really like the PQ. i will be hooking up my ps2 with component cables... that's the only thing... not enough component inputs.

I did see a Panasonic 32" that I really liked in terms of color, but i'm still researching it. Still, it may not be good enough to make me give up this TV.

I've been playing around with the settings and service menu:

Options menu shows:

Tvguide US - does this mean it has the tvguide function others talk about? It's off by default.

*edit* - It works. I enabled the tvguide onscreen. also, will work for the 37pf7320a
I assume.

3d comb filter - looks like it has the same 3d filter as the 5320a model from sams club

* i'm curious if this is just a menu OS that is used for all philips LCD or can i really turn on certain features? Ambilight option is present but obviously my tv doesn't have it.

There is also HW (hardware?) and SW (software) mantainence where you can reset the display. however i dunno what that will do so i probably won't mess with it.

Another option is Alignments: IF AFC and Tuner AGC, does anyone know what that means?

You can also adjust Whitepoint? It lists Color Temp, white point red/green/blue and Red BL? Green BL offset? does BL stand for black? I wonder if that will help the black levels...

I just picked up this set at Costco today, and I'm very impressed! Picture quality is excellent, especially on HD channels (of course). Standard def doesn't look nearly as good of course, but it's not as bad as some other sets that I've seen.

The only problems I can see are the strange menu and the lack of component inputs as bluesxtreme said. I also wish there was a way to play videos via the USB port... I only saw options for photos and music, but it did pick those up right away. I went ahead and updated my firmware via a USB flash drive that I have and it upgraded with no problems.

By the way, thanks bluesxtreme! I just enabled the TV Guide function as well. Definitely another plus for this set... this thing is a great bargain with all of these features. :D

I do have one question though. Is anyone accessing their local HD channels through QAM? I'm only getting my local ABC station, TNT-HD, DiscoveryHD, and PBS HD... can't seem to pick up NBC, ABC, or CBS. I'm not sure if this is a limtation of the QAM tuner built into the set or a problem with my feed.

I was at costco today too :-).

Looked at both the 27" and 32" philips units, really liked what I saw, but decided to go with the 32" Vizio for under 1k instead.

I felt like the difference in picture quality between the Philips and Vizio wasn't enough to justify the difference in price (~ $ 500). That and the fact that the Vizio has it's speaker at the bottom (rather than the side) - fits my space much better.

Very happy with the Vizio so far (no complaints) but now I'm wondering if the grass is greener on the other side (i.e. that I should have gone with the philips instead) :-).

What does the TV guide feature do? Works with cable or HD channels? So for sure the remote does not support other companies' products right, ie not universal?
While I am really excited abt the TV, I am still wondering if its worth to buy this for my room! Not sure if/how I shall be pulling another cable into my room for HD.

The TV Guide feature is designed for Cable Card users. Since a cable card will not allow menus from the cable company, the tv guide takes the place of that. I believe that it requires cable to work.

There is a big differene between the 9 series and the 7 series LCD of this size. The 9 series has pixel 2 and a backlight feature (not ambilight)

TV guide On screen is a free feature from Tvguide that works through cable (presumbly digital) so you can read and select tv programs to watch. I believe this will work with VCR + too. It shouldn't distinguish between HD and digital tv since it's a guide though i'm not really sure.

Here's a link (http://www.tvgos.com/) to it.

I have to check when i get home tonight after work but the TVGUIDE setup did come up even though I don't have a cable card hooked in. However, I don't know if that just means its capable but it did tell me to wait overnight for all the listings to download (while the TV is off). The only problem is that the remote doesn't have a "guide" button to turn it on or off?

As for the Vizio, I agree it's a nice deal, even the Maxent 32" is a really nice deal too. It is a premium but I do want the tuner(ATSC/QAM) and cable card. Signals can be degraded by cable top boxes and a cablecard will not degrade the signal.

The only other difference is the ability to upgrade the firmware though this depends on Philips to fix any bugs and how often.

Standard (analog signals) are not that great, there is some snow...
Standard (digital signals) are good to great. At least looks better than my sony
Digital is just awesome of course that's why you buy the TV...

I did not pick up and "Free" HD channels. I use the antenna right now but i did try my cable.

I set up the TV Guide functionality last night. I turned on the set this morning and the guide came up fine. It is on screen guide like you would get with your cable company's box. It had descriptions of all of the shows that were on, and I could page pretty far into the future. I didn't have time to see how far out it went. I don't have cablecard either.

Yesterday at Costco I saw the 30" version. Couldn't get over the BLACKS (not charcoal gray at all). And the 'shiny' screen set it apart from the competition.
Guess I'm getting hooked by the HD dazzle and dropping like rocks pricing.

btw, i saw the 30" too...besides the glossy screen I think it is worse PQ and an older model.

Guys ...what's up with the Philips remote "RC4345" the tech support guy tells me it can NOT be programmed to operate non Philips products !!
this restriction is hard to believe , what was Philips thinking ??

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the remote does indeed have a button to access the TV guide function. It's the one to the top right of the directional pad. It's plain silver... nothing on the button itself and no text around it.

cool thanks! I'll try it tonight.

What was Philips thinking??
I'm guessing they were thinking, "Maybe they'll go out and buy a Pronto!"

The 37" version of this set is currently the leader on my short list of new sets and I, too, thought the remote was especially weak compared to what I saw with others.

I suppose once you're spending a few months mortgage payment on a TV (and accompnying HT gear) they assume that you'll be prepared to drop another chunk of money on a remote to control it all.

Todd

Well so far I have hooked up a comcast cable card and initialized the TV guide feature.

TV guide needs to download the info still (this happens at night when the TV is off) so I have yet to fully utilize this feature but it does work when the silver button (blank) on the remote is pushed.

The pictue quality on the HD channels looks great but no better than my Motorola 6412 DVR box via component cables. In fact, if I were really picky I would give the edge to the 6412. This goes against the thought that the cable card is a purer signal and therefore a better picture. This difference is minimal however and also just one mans opinion. I think most would be satisfied either way.

Note: (I do run the output on the 6412 at 1080i because it seems to be sharper than the 720p. I would think the opposite would be true being that this is an LCD at 1366x768. Regarding the DVI from the 6412 box to HDMI on the TV: I just don't care for the picture quality as much as the component cables. I'm sure this has everything to do with the motorola 6412 box and its implimentation of the DVI port. I'm sticking with component for now.)



This TV is really a great flexible package with great picture quality to boot. Not one dead pixel to be found either!

Regarding the PIP:

After installing the cable card which comes through the "TV" output I was able to get PIP with:

TV and S-video (dvd)
TV and HDMI (computer)
S-video (dvd) and HDMI

This works great because one can surf the internet while watching a DVD or Cable card television. (regular and Hd content).

I have the Motorola 6412 on the AV1 output (Component) and this is not compatible with the PIP.

Is anyone seeing these PIP features without a cable card?

My settings:
Color Enhancement: off
DNR: off
Active Control: Max
Pixel Plus: on
Dynamic Contrast: Minimum





I was reading back through the thread and noticed these setting sugestions listed above.

I would suggest that Active control be turned off. This feature seems to negate any "personal" settings that you have entered as it is constantly adjusting all parameters automatically.

The settings I have found work best is basically everything off:
My settings:

Color Enhancement: off

DNR: minimum (this seems to take some of the noise out of SD pictures but no effect on HD.

Active Control: off (Most important)

Pixel Plus: on (just because)

Dynamic Contrast: off

Tint: 0
Contrast:67 (higher than I would like but this TV seems to need more)
Brightness:65
Color:55
Sharpness:3 (always a vague setting)


Please correct me if I am wrong regarding the Active Control but from the testing I have done it seems to interfere with my "personal" settings.

Hope this helps.

Cheers. :)

Help!

I just grab one of those units at costco and tried to connect my computer to it via the HDMI input (using a HDMI-DVI cable) and I can't seem to get it working right. So far, I tried:
1920X1080
1360X768
1280X768 (Which is advertise to be supported by the unit)
1280X720

Only 1280X720 shows me an image and I'm getting at the last 20 pixels cropped in every direction.

Also, I seem to be seeing some shadowing artifact, which would indicate that it's not even using digital connection to the PC.

Can anybody confirm that this is the best this unit can do as far as PC support goes?

Thank you.

-eric

tropicalisland,

I've tried 2 cards (ATI 9200 and Nvidia Ti4200) and I have 3 TVs/monitors to test with here including the Philips. Both my cards have no issues doing the res I listed above, and the Sceptre 37" unit I also bought recently has no issue showing those resolutions (so I doubt it's a card problem).

Just re-reading your post, I saw that you're talking about a "Sceptre"? I was talking about the Philips 32PF7320A/37 here. :)

I guess people don't buy the Philips as a PC Monitor. If there's no way to get 1:1 pixel ratio (aka get the 1360X768) via one of the HDMI inputs, that set is more or less useless to me. Could anybody else confirm this? (Preparing to return it...)

Thank you.

-eric

It is my understanding that HDMI does not support 1366x768 so it is impossible to get a 1:1 ratio through the HDMI port.

This works well for computer use on the philips though:

I have a Nvidia geforce fx5200 with the latest drivers: go to "Dipslay Propertites" then "settings tab" then "advanced" then "Geforce fx 5200 tab" then "device settings" then select "treat digital display as HDTV" then set "select TV format" to 720p then set "HDTV Overscan Configuration" to "underscan" and check the box to remeber your preferences.

This will leave you with 1176x664 resolution that almost fills the entire screen. If you want it to fill the whole screen you can fiddle with "overscan compensation".

Help!

I just grab one of those units at costco and tried to connect my computer to it via the HDMI input (using a HDMI-DVI cable) and I can't seem to get it working right. So far, I tried:
1920X1080
1360X768
1280X768 (Which is advertise to be supported by the unit)
1280X720

Only 1280X720 shows me an image and I'm getting at the last 20 pixels cropped in every direction.

Also, I seem to be seeing some shadowing artifact, which would indicate that it's not even using digital connection to the PC.

Can anybody confirm that this is the best this unit can do as far as PC support goes?

Thank you.

-eric


try Powerstrip

Hi

Can anyone help me with TVGuide (maybe Bluextreme ?) I have accessed the service menu, gone to Options and apparently activated TVGude in the menu. However, I cannot figure out how to exit the service menu - I have forced an exit by pressing 'menu' and by powering off. Anyway, my problem is that TVGuide/On does not 'stick' so when I go back into the service menu, it still shows it as 'off' - Any ideas ?

Thanks!

hjb: After you have activated TVGuide in Options you have to return to the upper level of the service menu and select Store -> Store, then turn off the TV.

It works! Thanks so much.

I just bought this tv set yesterday at costco. the picture quality is very nice, running with CATV signal. i am happy that it can detect my digital channels, but i dont like how it would not let me listen to the audio on chinese channels. philips customer service was no help, they said the TV would only play the audio if it was in english, french, or spanish. i would think that audio signals on digital cable would all be the same format, theres no reason why my tv couldnt play it. on the menu it describes the language as "unknown" which is stupid. is there any setting on the service menu or normal menu that allows decoding of all audio streams? if not, can someone recommend me an lcd/plasma display 32" with DCR(cablecard) and decodes all audio streams?

Can someone in the know out there. I just bought the Philips. I am running on Time Warner Cable, and connect to the TV through HDMI from a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD set top box.

The HD channels come in amazing, but when I watch a regular digital channel, the picture is boxed and I have gray lines on the left and right side. How do I fix this? It seems that the LCD isn't auto adjusting for resolution?

Any ideas?

OK. I figured it out, but thought I would post it in case anyone else ran into the same problem (especially those as AV dense as me).

Under general settings on the Scientific Atlanta box is an option called Picture Format. If you are using and HDMI connection set this to AutoDVI/HDMI, or Pass throug with any other connection.

You also have to go through advanced setup when originally connecting the box, and make sure you select all resolutions available, The Picture Format functioon allows the non HD channels to be viewed in their native format, thus eliminating the gray boxes.

try running the signal thru a DVD player then to the TV

Which dvd players have inputs? I have never seen one. (maybe a dvd burner)

Has anyone connected their PC via DVI - HDMI at 1366 x 768 resolution? If so, what kinda video card did you use? I'm looking at buying a new video card that supports that resolution and that I can use with this TV as a monitor.
Thanks!

I just bought this tv set yesterday at costco. the picture quality is very nice, running with CATV signal. i am happy that it can detect my digital channels, but i dont like how it would not let me listen to the audio on chinese channels. philips customer service was no help, they said the TV would only play the audio if it was in english, french, or spanish. i would think that audio signals on digital cable would all be the same format, theres no reason why my tv couldnt play it. on the menu it describes the language as "unknown" which is stupid. is there any setting on the service menu or normal menu that allows decoding of all audio streams? if not, can someone recommend me an lcd/plasma display 32" with DCR(cablecard) and decodes all audio streams?

Just to be sure, will the QAM tuner in this TV decode the non "premium' HD cable channels without using a cable card?

I've just purchased this tv and am trying to mount it using a wall mount from Target (I wasn't allowed to post a url because I don't have 5 posts yet)

The problem is that the screws that came with the wall mount are not long enough to attach the mount to the tv. Could one of you please let me know what size and length of screw is used to mount your mount to the tv. I'm having a hard time finding them anywhere. Thanks.

I've been playing around with the settings and service menu:

Options menu shows:

Tvguide US - does this mean it has the tvguide function others talk about? It's off by default.

*edit* - It works. I enabled the tvguide onscreen. also, will work for the 37pf7320a
I assume.

3d comb filter - looks like it has the same 3d filter as the 5320a model from sams club

* i'm curious if this is just a menu OS that is used for all philips LCD or can i really turn on certain features? Ambilight option is present but obviously my tv doesn't have it.

There is also HW (hardware?) and SW (software) mantainence where you can reset the display. however i dunno what that will do so i probably won't mess with it.

Another option is Alignments: IF AFC and Tuner AGC, does anyone know what that means?

You can also adjust Whitepoint? It lists Color Temp, white point red/green/blue and Red BL? Green BL offset? does BL stand for black? I wonder if that will help the black levels...

bluextreme, what are the instructions for bringing up the service menu? I'd like to try the guide.

Thanks!

Here you go.

D'oh! I guess I should have read things a bit more carefully...

I'll try turning on the TV guide tonight. Any guess as to why this feature wouldn't be set to "On" from the factory? Did it seem to be working properly after you enabled it?

Thanks!

mjmbond,
I have been using the TV Guide for 2 weeks now. It has worked with no problems. However, I must say there isn't much documentation on how to use it. If someone has more information about how to use it, please let me know. I've searched info on the web but not extensively. Just remember to turn off the TV so the guide can be downloaded at night (not sure what time frame).

To the poster who is wondering about the size of screws to use on the TV, didn''t your TV come with the VESA screws in a plastic bag with the TV itself? Or am I refering to the wrong screws?

I'll look at mine when I get home and let you know even though I have the 37PF7320A/37.

[QUOTE=DammitJim]mjmbond,
I have been using the TV Guide for 2 weeks now. It has worked with no problems. However, I must say there isn't much documentation on how to use it. If someone has more information about how to use it, please let me know. I've searched info on the web but not extensively. Just remember to turn off the TV so the guide can be downloaded at night (not sure what time frame).
QUOTE]

Thanks DJ.
How does the TV Guide "download?" Does/can it get data from my cable feed, or does it come OTA? If it's OTA, then I guess I won't be able to use it as I'm using the antenna (coax) input for my cable feed. Any Thoughts?

Thanks for the info on the screws. The ones that came with the tv are for the stand - not for the mount (or at least I didn't see any others for the mount). Anyway, I did some research on the VESA standards and found out that it uses M4 screws so I purchased a few different lengths and found out that the M4 16mm is the one that fits.

Regarding the guide - I managed to activate it, but so far it hasn't loaded anything (it's been 2 days), but I'm not concerned because I've been busy switching from cable to OTA and back again to try to figure out what connections I'm eventually going to use. Comcast is coming today to install my cablecard so that will leave the coax available for me to use an OTA.

My problem with the guide is that it's always on when I turn on the tv. Is there a way to turn on the tv without having the guide show, and I'll press the button when I need to see it?

Regarding the guide - I managed to activate it, but so far it hasn't loaded anything (it's been 2 days), but I'm not concerned because I've been busy switching from cable to OTA and back again to try to figure out what connections I'm eventually going to use. Comcast is coming today to install my cablecard so that will leave the coax available for me to use an OTA.

My problem with the guide is that it's always on when I turn on the tv. Is there a way to turn on the tv without having the guide show, and I'll press the button when I need to see it?

I activated my Guide yesterday, hoping that it would download data last night, but it did not. I'll give it a couple more days...

I haven't figured out how to keep the Guide from loading at startup either; it may be the only setting.

I'm curious about your cable card installation. I'm under the impression that you'll still need your coax input for your cable feed; the CableCard simply decrypts the cable data. Do I have this wrong?

That's correct, the coax is still required, but it will be connected to the cablecard, instead of to the current coax connection (at least this is my understanding, from what I've read. I'll know for sure today). If my understanding is correct then this frees up the tv connector so that I can use it to connect an antenna to receive OTA HD signal. This means that I can cancel the extra $20 per month that I'm paying to Comcast to get HD (I had to sign up for the digital package in order to get the HD receiver, which is BS IMO). I'll let you know if my understanding of the cablecard is incorrect. What I'm really happy about is that I won't have to have a receiver lying around the bedroom once I have the cablecard in place. I'll miss VOD, which you can't currently use with just a cablecard, but I think I'll live :-)

It may seem to be a silly question.

I am connecting my coax to my TW digital box/DVR and then to my TV.

However, if I connect my coax to the cable card directly, how can I connect to my DVR to record some programs?

Thanks!

In my previous post about the cable card I was wrong in that the cable card does not have a coax input - it uses the existing coax on the tv and just uses the card as a decoder.
Does anyone have a way to connect cable (with cablecard) AND OTA antenna at the same time and watch channels from either? I'm hoping to cancel my HD Comcast subscription (just keep basic cable) and get the HD from OTA antenna, which is just as clear as the Comcast one. Thanks.

It may seem to be a silly question.

I am connecting my coax to my TW digital box/DVR and then to my TV.

However, if I connect my coax to the cable card directly, how can I connect to my DVR to record some programs?

Thanks!

Just get a splitter to split the coax into 2 outputs - then connect one end to the dvr and the other end to the tv. Then connect the dvr to the tv using one of the other inputs on the tv

From what i understand, every time you switch from cable to OTA and back, you have to re-run the configuration for your TV Guide. On the TV Guide setup menu, it tells you when you would have to run the setup, but I don't remember exactly each situation.
I'm pretty sure you have to have OTA reception in order for the TV Guide listings to be downloaded. Oh... and if you switch back to cable after you downloaded the listings, you'll have to re-configure your TV guide again if you go back to OTA. I hope this isn't too confusing.
austerville, I hope you get your TV bolts right. If I was home, I would send you more info on them.
Again... has anyone been able to connect a PC via DVI->HDMI and get a 1366 x 768 resolution? I'm dying to get this to work, but I haven't had any luck so far.

Thanks Jim, but I've taken care of the screw/bolt situation and the tv's nicely mounted in my bedroom.
Regarding cable + OTA antenna - I'm not concerned about the tv guide at all. I would just like to be able to watch either cable tv channels, or OTA channels without having to reconfigure stuff each time. This means that I can watch my local HD channels using OTA, then watch the other channels on basic cable, without having to disconnect cables or run a setup each time. Is this possible with this tv? I know that some other tvs have 2 Coax inputs to allow you to do this (you connect cable to one and OTA to the other), but since this tv only has one coax input I'm hoping that I can still do both. Thanks

Thanks Jim, but I've taken care of the screw/bolt situation and the tv's nicely mounted in my bedroom.
Regarding cable + OTA antenna - I'm not concerned about the tv guide at all. I would just like to be able to watch either cable tv channels, or OTA channels without having to reconfigure stuff each time. This means that I can watch my local HD channels using OTA, then watch the other channels on basic cable, without having to disconnect cables or run a setup each time. Is this possible with this tv? I know that some other tvs have 2 Coax inputs to allow you to do this (you connect cable to one and OTA to the other), but since this tv only has one coax input I'm hoping that I can still do both. Thanks

Hi austerville. I probably don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here, because the solution seems too simple: Simply connect your Comcast cable feed to the coax input on your TV and you can enjoy locals in HD (no need to get them OTA) along with the basic cable channels. Send the CableCard back to Comcast; it's not needed for HD locals and basic cable, only for encrypted "premium" programing. Am I missing something?

I'm pretty sure you have to have OTA reception in order for the TV Guide listings to be downloaded.

Again... has anyone been able to connect a PC via DVI->HDMI and get a 1366 x 768 resolution? I'm dying to get this to work, but I haven't had any luck so far.

Hi Jim. I think you're right about needing OTA reception as the data feed for the TV Guide. My cable connection has been in place for two nights now and no data has been downloaded. This seems odd to me, as Comcast uses the Gemstar TV Guide data on channel 99; you'd think the data would be imported to the TV...

Sorry, I don't have any experience yet with the HDMI connection. FWIW, I did need to do the USB upgrade before the SPDIF connection on the TV would work. I believe the upgrade also dealt with HDMI issues too. The upgrade is simple and works as advertised!

TVguide is downloaded through digital cable.

if you are not receiving it, you might want to contact your cable company.

after downloading it was ask you to setup the local channel listings from your cable company.

From the TVguide website:
"TV Guide On Screen works with regular and digital cable. It supports cable-ready and cable-box setups and is the only way to get an interactive program guide if you use the new CableCARD technology in place of a cable box."

Hi austerville. I probably don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here, because the solution seems too simple: Simply connect your Comcast cable feed to the coax input on your TV and you can enjoy locals in HD (no need to get them OTA) along with the basic cable channels. Send the CableCard back to Comcast; it's not needed for HD locals and basic cable, only for encrypted "premium" programing. Am I missing something?

You're absolutely correct about that. The problem is that Comcast want me to pay for the HD feed, since if you get HD locals you also get some other HD channels that are unencrypted, so they want you to pay. I think that's ridiculous so I'm trying to find a workaround to get both basic cable (which is included in my home owner association fee, so can't get rid of it) and HD basic channels without paying anything more to Comcast.

You should be able to get tvguide info from your cable connection. I just set it up yesterday and most of the guide was loaded by this morning - so I'm certain that it works.

I will be returning this TV tonight... The black levels and inability to adjust the backlighting is the only blemish on this set.

Since i watch a lot of HDTV but most of the channels broadcast in 4:3 a lot of the time.. i have to deal with it.

The screen is gorgeous in the features are awesome but my main gripes are listed in another thread:

Bugs & Quirks (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=581571)

TVguide is downloaded through digital cable.

if you are not receiving it, you might want to contact your cable company.

after downloading it was ask you to setup the local channel listings from your cable company.

From the TVguide website:
"TV Guide On Screen works with regular and digital cable. It supports cable-ready and cable-box setups and is the only way to get an interactive program guide if you use the new CableCARD technology in place of a cable box."

Hi Bluextreme. I've already called Comcast three times and spoken to 2 CSRs and a Tech. I know it's supposed to be available through the cable feed, but (at least in the Denver area) it's apparently not. I've been through the setup a couple of times to check the settings, and everything is correct. Either the TV can't see the data, or it's not there. Frustrating, but not a deal breaker as I get a guide with my ReplayTv unit.

It's a nice add-on but nothing more. not essential in my opinion.

You're absolutely correct about that. The problem is that Comcast want me to pay for the HD feed, since if you get HD locals you also get some other HD channels that are unencrypted, so they want you to pay. I think that's ridiculous so I'm trying to find a workaround to get both basic cable (which is included in my home owner association fee, so can't get rid of it) and HD basic channels without paying anything more to Comcast.

Hmmm. I have a friend who is paying only for Comcast's "Basic" cable package (no HD or digital) and yet he is able to pick up the HD locals with his QAM tuner. Does Comcast have a way to filter out these HD channels from thier raw feed if they choose? (If so, I guess my friend got lucky Comcast hasn't caught on!)

I think it depends on where you live and the way your packages are defined. According to what's available in my area the HD channels should be part of the "basic 1" package, which is what I have, but from what I've read Comcast in our area insists on charging for it. Since I ordered the digital package and HD DVR when I first purchased the tv (I didn't know any better) I already have the HD channels. I plan on dropping off the DVR at Comcast's office on Monday and will cancell the DVR, HD and digital service and will see whether I can still get local HD channels without it. I'm hoping that I'll still get at least the HD locals.

I'm hoping that I'll still get at least the HD locals.

I think that you will. IMO, most folks are under the impression that they need a digital package and a CableCard or box installed to get local HD, and of course, Comcast does nothing to correct that misunderstanding. QAM tuners are becoming more common, and hopefully the word will get out!

Please let us know how this works out for you.

Sorry guys if I confused you with my theory about OTA only downloads for the TV Guide. That's just the way that it has worked for me.
With respect to having just the TV be able to allow you to flip back and forth from OTA HD vs cable digital channels, I'm not sure how you can do that. If you find out, please let me know. At this point all I have is regular analog cable and that's fed to my VCR. So, I have my TV setup to get OTA HD and then when I want to watch cable I switch to one of the other video inputs that is connected to my VCR (through my amp) and use the VCR as my cable channel tuner. I know... it sucks.. my wife doesn't like it at all 'cause she then has to use a gazilion remote controls.. yikes!
Oh, and for those of you who want to change the settings so that the TV guide doesn't come up every time you turn the TV on, I was able to just change the settings so that the TV would show me a bar on the bottom that tells me what I'm watching when you power the TV on... it's on the menu settings for TV guide... when I get back home I can provide more details on that.
Good luck guys! And please.. if someone out there has info on the 1366 x 768 - PC connectivity via DVI-HDMI let me know!
Thanks!

Jim, have you tried connecting your "regular analog cable" to your tv to see whether you get any HD channels?

Sorry guys if I confused you with my theory about OTA only downloads for the TV Guide. That's just the way that it has worked for me.
With respect to having just the TV be able to allow you to flip back and forth from OTA HD vs cable digital channels, I'm not sure how you can do that. If you find out, please let me know. At this point all I have is regular analog cable and that's fed to my VCR. So, I have my TV setup to get OTA HD and then when I want to watch cable I switch to one of the other video inputs that is connected to my VCR (through my amp) and use the VCR as my cable channel tuner. I know... it sucks.. my wife doesn't like it at all 'cause she then has to use a gazilion remote controls.. yikes!
Oh, and for those of you who want to change the settings so that the TV guide doesn't come up every time you turn the TV on, I was able to just change the settings so that the TV would show me a bar on the bottom that tells me what I'm watching when you power the TV on... it's on the menu settings for TV guide... when I get back home I can provide more details on that.
Good luck guys! And please.. if someone out there has info on the 1366 x 768 - PC connectivity via DVI-HDMI let me know!
Thanks!

Jim, you may be able to help austerville here. Assuming that HD is available from your cable provider (even if you don't subscribe), try hooking up your raw "analog" cable feed directly (don't go through the VCR) to the coax input on the TV. Then, do a new channel search and see if the local HD channels are found. You may be surprised!

I think that you will. IMO, most folks are under the impression that they need a digital package and a CableCard or box installed to get local HD, and of course, Comcast does nothing to correct that misunderstanding. QAM tuners are becoming more common, and hopefully the word will get out!

Please let us know how this works out for you.

I'll definitely let you know how it goes. I'm planning on returning the DVR on monday, but if the local office is open tomorrow I might just do it then. Watch this space...

Wanted to thank those of you who have commented on this thread. I purchased the 32PF7320 from Costco Home last night. Your comments lead me to the conclusion that it was the right choice.

Question: The Comcast HD DVR that I'm using only has a DVI output that I'm connecting to the HDMI port with a converter cable. The problem I'm experiencing is that the DVR only has an optical audio out port (vs the digital audio input on the Philips). When I connect the analog (red and white) audio cable while using the DVI-HDMI cable, sound does not come through (it seems to be configured to only accept digital audio when an HDMI signal is used).

Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'd prefer to use the HDMI input if at all possible.

Question: The Comcast HD DVR that I'm using only has a DVI output that I'm connecting to the HDMI port with a converter cable. The problem I'm experiencing is that the DVR only has an optical audio out port (vs the digital audio input on the Philips).
Call Comcast and ask to swap your HD DVR for one of the new Motorola 6412 phase III boxes with an HDMI (instead of DVI) output? They supposedly have them already here in Los Angeles anyway ...

Wanted to thank those of you who have commented on this thread. I purchased the 32PF7320 from Costco Home last night. Your comments lead me to the conclusion that it was the right choice.

Question: The Comcast HD DVR that I'm using only has a DVI output that I'm connecting to the HDMI port with a converter cable. The problem I'm experiencing is that the DVR only has an optical audio out port (vs the digital audio input on the Philips). When I connect the analog (red and white) audio cable while using the DVI-HDMI cable, sound does not come through (it seems to be configured to only accept digital audio when an HDMI signal is used).

Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'd prefer to use the HDMI input if at all possible.

When you use the HDMI connection the tv assumes that the audio will be coming through the HDMI cable and it will only check that cable for audio. I'm using a component cable because of this situation.

So i have both the 32PF7320A/37 and the Sharp Aquos LC-G5C32U ...

I set up the Philips today and there's a notable difference between it and the sharp !!!
The picture looks a lot better on the Philips !!!
I'm talking about SD feeds right now... don't have my HD box yet !
I should be getting it tomorrow...

But i have questions for current owners...
does the picture on the 32PF9630A/37 look much better with the pixel 2?
Does anyone know if Costco sells the 32PF9630A/37 ??
How does the philips compare to the Panasonic for SD?
I'm actually impressed by the Philips performance... especially compared to the Sharp

Now for technical questions...
How do i do the firmware upgrade? When i try it through the menu it says that it cannot find updates... what has to be plugged in?

Also is there a way for me to get a decent picture is to watch TV using the 4:3 setting... it's really hard for me to watch TV in any other setting because i lose some of the picture when i do... any ideas on how so solve this?

Finally... How do i connect my HD box to the TV?? just a regular RJ45 cable?
or do i have to use and HDMI cable?

Sorry guys if I confused you with my theory about OTA only downloads for the TV Guide. That's just the way that it has worked for me.
With respect to having just the TV be able to allow you to flip back and forth from OTA HD vs cable digital channels, I'm not sure how you can do that. If you find out, please let me know. At this point all I have is regular analog cable and that's fed to my VCR. So, I have my TV setup to get OTA HD and then when I want to watch cable I switch to one of the other video inputs that is connected to my VCR (through my amp) and use the VCR as my cable channel tuner. I know... it sucks.. my wife doesn't like it at all 'cause she then has to use a gazilion remote controls.. yikes!
Oh, and for those of you who want to change the settings so that the TV guide doesn't come up every time you turn the TV on, I was able to just change the settings so that the TV would show me a bar on the bottom that tells me what I'm watching when you power the TV on... it's on the menu settings for TV guide... when I get back home I can provide more details on that.
Good luck guys! And please.. if someone out there has info on the 1366 x 768 - PC connectivity via DVI-HDMI let me know!
Thanks!


From all the info I have researched: HDMI does not support 1366x768, so it is impossible to get a 1366x768 native signal. Please see my previous post on page 2 for a good compromise. :)

Just another note: I could never get the TV guide to download when using the cablecard. I am in Denver so I don't know if it is area specific?

Also, the cable card is somewhat finicky when initially installing it (recognition by the TV) and every time I turned on the TV the card seems make the TV pause and reinitialize, making for a slow "turn on the TV" process.

I've gone back to just using the 6412 box via component because it is easier.

So i have both the 32PF7320A/37 and the Sharp Aquos LC-G5C32U ...

I set up the Philips today and there's a notable difference between it and the sharp !!!
The picture looks a lot better on the Philips !!!
I'm talking about SD feeds right now... don't have my HD box yet !
I should be getting it tomorrow...
NewbieToHDTV: With no signal to both sets and brightness down all the way which set has the blacker blacks? Or if a blue screen results just use a DVD player signal with a black still-framed shot.
Does one set have more detail than the other in dark, low contrast scenes?

Thanks!

Wanted to thank those of you who have commented on this thread. I purchased the 32PF7320 from Costco Home last night. Your comments lead me to the conclusion that it was the right choice.

Question: The Comcast HD DVR that I'm using only has a DVI output that I'm connecting to the HDMI port with a converter cable. The problem I'm experiencing is that the DVR only has an optical audio out port (vs the digital audio input on the Philips). When I connect the analog (red and white) audio cable while using the DVI-HDMI cable, sound does not come through (it seems to be configured to only accept digital audio when an HDMI signal is used).

Any recommendations would be appreciated. I'd prefer to use the HDMI input if at all possible.

Hi Bryce. The Comcast DVR has a digital audio SPDIP output on the back; it is the orange connector. You can get the digital audio to the TV by connecting it to the "digital in" on the back of the TV by using an RCA to RCA 75 ohm cable. It is working for me. HOWEVER, you may have to upgrade the firmware in the TV to the most recent version to enable the digital input on the TV! The connection DID NOT WORK until I did so. The upgrade is VERY simple. You can go to Phillips' web site and download the instructions as well as the update file. You'll need an USB flash memory stick to move the file to the TV. the file is less than 13mb. I bought a 128mb stick from BB for $20.

One more thing: Once your TV has been upgraded and the SPDIP cable is connected, remember that you'll need to go into the basic setup menu and assign the "Digital In" to whatever HDMI input you're using.

Congrats on you new TV!

Call Comcast and ask to swap your HD DVR for one of the new Motorola 6412 phase III boxes with an HDMI (instead of DVI) output? They supposedly have them already here in Los Angeles anyway ...

Hi powerswitch. I tried to get a 6412 with HDMI from Comcast in Denver, and as of 3 days ago I was told they're not avalable here yet. HDMI would be great, but I was able to show Bryce how to get the digital audio to his TV, so hopefully that will suffice in the meantime.

Just another note: I could never get the TV guide to download when using the cablecard. I am in Denver so I don't know if it is area specific?

Also, the cable card is somewhat finicky when initially installing it (recognition by the TV) and every time I turned on the TV the card seems make the TV pause and reinitialize, making for a slow "turn on the TV" process.

I've gone back to just using the 6412 box via component because it is easier.

I'm in the Denver area too, and I also have had no success getting the TV Guide to download. Oh well...

NewbieToHDTV: With no signal to both sets and brightness down all the way which set has the blacker blacks? Or if a blue screen results just use a DVD player signal with a black still-framed shot.
Does one set have more detail than the other in dark, low contrast scenes?

Thanks!

Hi Cyrano. I my subjective opinion, the Sharp had better blacks (lower black level) and better black level detail than the Phillips using the method you suggest. The black level on the Phillips is better than some and worse than others. The 800:1 CR that is cited in most manufacturer's specs is obviously dubious, because differences are apparent to the eye.

However, if there is a 32" LCD with QAM/ATSC/NTSC tuners, CableCard, 2 HDMI inputs, 3 component inputs with better blacks within $500 dollars of the Phillips going price at Costco, SOMEONE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW !!

Thanks, mjmbond. Right now I have a Proview 32 that is going back to Costco. We have the Sharp at our Costco and I was going to do some "Costco hopping" to try and find the Philips (no Philips at our Costco for some time now). I do already have an HD tuner but I wouldn't mind putting that tuner downstairs with the X1 PJ. I hear HD looks good on the X1.

But I really don't want to have a TV with as bad a black level as the Proview. We also have a Maxent 26". Its black level seems to be about the same as the Proview but the detail within the black areas is very visible so I don't mind it so much.

So, I guess I'm leaning toward the Sharp. One problem: I built a nice (my wife likes it ;) ) shelf on the wall opposite our bed at the perfect spot and height. It fits the Proview 32. The shelf is 11" deep. The Sharp's base is 14". The Philips base looks like it would fit. I really did spend a lot of time on this shelf (that matches the dresser below) and I hate to have to make another.
But I guess the PQ of the TV is what I'm after. I remember seeing a post where the person talked about how much they like a certain TV. They liked everything except the picture. :) Seems like I'm doing that.

Thanks again for your input.
So . . .
Is the Philips Black only maginally less good than the Sharp's?
Is the Philips black level better than the Proview, anyone?

in my personal opinion, blacks and PQ have a lot to do with calibration issues.

my sharp looked worse than the philips b4 calibration, better afterwards. the sharp i feel has significantly better blacks and black detail in dark scenes.

sharp has better connections for HTPC too. I watch a lot of divx and surf on the web.

the sharp does 1368x768 with powerstrip. Yesterday i tried Half life 2 in 16:9 and the resolution was great. there was a little bit of smear but only if you are shaking the mouse back and forth really excessively.

normal play is perfect and half-life 2 has a lot of dark scenes.

anyways, like i said, i think a picture that fills the whole screen minimizes the effect of blacks and covers it with high contrast.

when you watch a lot of 4:3content, the black bars on the side tell the whole story.

Thanks, mjmbond. Right now I have a Proview 32 that is going back to Costco. We have the Sharp at our Costco and I was going to do some "Costco hopping" to try and find the Philips (no Philips at our Costco for some time now). I do already have an HD tuner but I wouldn't mind putting that tuner downstairs with the X1 PJ. I hear HD looks good on the X1.

But I really don't want to have a TV with as bad a black level as the Proview. We also have a Maxent 26". Its black level seems to be about the same as the Proview but the detail within the black areas is very visible so I don't mind it so much.

So, I guess I'm leaning toward the Sharp. One problem: I built a nice (my wife likes it ;) ) shelf on the wall opposite our bed at the perfect spot and height. It fits the Proview 32. The shelf is 11" deep. The Sharp's base is 14". The Philips base looks like it would fit. I really did spend a lot of time on this shelf (that matches the dresser below) and I hate to have to make another.
But I guess the PQ of the TV is what I'm after. I remember seeing a post where the person talked about how much they like a certain TV. They liked everything except the picture. :) Seems like I'm doing that.

Thanks again for your input.
So . . .
Is the Philips Black only maginally less good than the Sharp's?
Is the Philips black level better than the Proview, anyone?

Hello again Cyrano. My Costco has the Proview and Maxent LCDs also. IMHO, the Phillips beats both of those slightly in all areas regarding black level issues. I think the Sharp's blacks are marginally better than the Phillips, maybe 5% or so. For me, QAM tuner and input flexibility are very important. If Sharp provided these for say, $250 more, I'd pay the difference. For $600+ more, no way. (Not for me at least.) I am sensitive to black level issues, and frankly, no LCD I've seen is what I'd call "good." But for me, all features compared and and picture quality told, the Phillips is tough to beat. If it helps, the Phillip's base is about 8.75" deep by about 18" wide.

I agree with bluextreme that calibration is important, but as the test you suggested points out, no calibration will make the black level lower than it inherently is on a given set.

BTW, the Phillips is available from Costco online if you can't find it locally.

Cheers!

Thanks for the help, mjmbond.
Perhaps I need to realize that Black levels in LCDs are not that good to begin with. I have an X1 PJ and it's a DLP. Its black level isn't great either but superior to what I see on the Proview or the Maxent.

I did find a store within 50 miles (!) that has 13 Philips sets. I like the look of the Philips over the Sharp and it'll fit on the shelf. (A WAF) So, I think I'm going to try it, although spending this much money is VERY difficult. :eek:

Thanks for your words as well, bluesxtreme. I completely agree about calibration. I used the DVE DVD disc for all the sets we have and it really does make a difference. But with the Proview there are almost no user adjustments using the HDMI input. If I remember correctly the Philips has most of the adjustments available in HDMI. (or was it the Sharp?) I better go back and read. I know somebody, somewhere mentioned it.

Gracias, and on with the Show.

I posted pictures of BOTH TVs now:

Link (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6245682#post6245682)

Thanks for the recommendation mjmbond, it was exactly what I was hoping for.

I got this TV a week ago and I am very happy. I think its PQ is by far the best in the 32" TV group. I have Dish Network HD hooked up, and it looks great.

Two Questions:

Where can I get a calibration kit/cd/dvd etc?

How do I do the firmware upgrade?

Has anyone gotten the TV to work via their computer, it says it supports XGA 1280x768, best I got was 1280x720..

Let me know!

Ferrarislave... were you able to get 1280 x 720 using HDMI or S-video or Component?

Mini59, what page are you talking about where you explain the HDMI dilema with 1366 x 768? My whole world is collapsing now that you've mentioned I won't be able to get the resolution I want out of this beautiful TV!!!
You see... the idea about digital technology as I see it is that you don't have to go back and forth with DAC or ADC (conversion of analog -> digital -> analog, etc) because every time you do that, there is degradation of picture quality. So, with that said... of course I would want to get the highest resolution possible out of this set from my PC. Right now I don't have a video card with DVI out, but that's what I'm trying to research so I get a good one and can connect my PC to the TV via DVI-HDMI cable. This will also help me avoid having to buy another DVD player. My sony DVD player is a piece of crap that keeps showing black screens once in a while and right now it's just connected via component cables.
Anyways.... I'll stop my rambling... Can you please tell me where you read that HDMI doesn't support that resolution? My gosh... HDMI can transfer up to 5GB/s but can't produce a resolution such as 1366 x 768? I know I'm comparing apples to oranges, but c'mon... the technology seems to be so much better with HDMI!
Thank you for your time.

Now in regards to the test with my analog coax connection to the TV. I did that the first day I got the TV. After the installation and search of digital channels, the TV found over 100 channels with the coax feed. The problem? All those channels are scrambled so I couldn't see any of them :( My gosh... I guess that CableCard thing really works :-P and we can't get digital cable channels for free :(

I was only able to get 1280x720 with the DVI to HDMI cable, there is a 5-10 pixel crop on each side though, its nasty. The T.V manual says it supports 1280x768 XGA when hooked up to a computer, appearently it doesn't, or I am not able to do it.

Thank you Ferrarislave... at least you give me more hope... mini59's statement that you couldn't even do 1280 x 720 with HDMI had me really stumped.
Then I'm sure I'll find a way I can get 1366 x 768 resolution maybe through PowerStrip or with a different video card. I know ATI and NVIDIA will be releasing HDMI output video cards next year... maybe I just need to wait?
I think I can live with the pixel crop as long as the image is nice and sharp.

I tried powerstrip, any other res turns the screen blank!

Can you guys tell me where exactly you enable the Tv Guide feature? I upgraded to the latest firmware and dont see it mentioned anywhere.

Thank you Ferrarislave... at least you give me more hope... mini59's statement that you couldn't even do 1280 x 720 with HDMI had me really stumped.
Then I'm sure I'll find a way I can get 1366 x 768 resolution maybe through PowerStrip or with a different video card. I know ATI and NVIDIA will be releasing HDMI output video cards next year... maybe I just need to wait?
I think I can live with the pixel crop as long as the image is nice and sharp.


I have never said you can't do 1280x720.

I have just done several searches on AVS forum and people have mentioned that the HDMI will not do native 1366 x 768. Seems crazy to me too. I don't pretend to understand why or not. On page 2 of this very thread I expalined how I was able to get a pretty acceptable picture at 1176x664 resolution (Nvidia Card) that fills most of the screen (as a compromise). Hopefully, someone will figure out otherwise.

If HDMI does not do 1366x768, then the same applies to all HDMI/1366x768 resolution TV's.

I'll try to search some disscusions on Avsforums and locate the info regarding HDMI/1366x768.

Cheers.

Mini59,
I didn't mean to point the finger at you in particular. I think I did find a threat where they mentioned that, but just didn't make any sense. I agree with you... hopefully we'll find a way to set it up. From what I have read, NVIDIA is the card to go for since you can do custome settings without having to install PowerStrip.

Thanks again... I'm actually more concerned about how to get the wife to let me buy a new PC since the one we have is old and doesn't have PCI Express. The only new PC we have is a laptop and it lacks a DVI output.

For those of you who want the TV Guide, you need to use the code to unlock that feature. I think it's on the first page of this thread, but I don't have it with me. The TV Guide has nothing to do with the firmware update.

Those other 2 cables that came with the system that have som kind of LED (IR), are those for controlling other devices through the TV? I don't think I found anything in the documentation about those.

Hey all, I just picked up this set as well yesterday from my local Costco which had a ton of 'em. I too was on the fence with the Aquos because in store the black levels were definitely different. Although the Aquos seemed very saturated to me. So far, I'm pleased with this Philips, however, I'm having a hard time getting it dialed in for SD viewing for the local stations. I got the HD Cable box from Comcast and I'm still not sure how to get the locals in HD. If anyone in the Bay Area CA knows how to do this via Comcast HD, please let me know. I'm a noob! :)

Also, I can not get the set to do the firmware upgrade. I have tried a USB pen drive formatted both in FAT32 and FAT and it doesn't find the autorun.upg that I DL'ed from Philip's site. I can view other files on the stick. I even tried hooking up my PSP and it'll view the folders on the media, but won't pick up on the file. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thanx

I'm very confused by posters claiming to get local hd channels over basic cable. How in the world could that be possible!!! HDTV is digital, not analog, and basic cable is analog. In addition, at least in our area Comcast carries the local hd channels on channels 210 and up. No way to tune those via analog coax-in connection (I have never seen a tv that will tune anything past the 100's). Someone care to explain what is going on? I am getting an HDTV (won from ESPN) very soon and will be using Comcast, so I want to know my options for receiving HD. OTA is unlikely as I am over 30 miles from downtown.

I'm getting local HD channels and just have basic cable, but I'm using a cablecard that I got for free from Comcast. Without the cablecard I don't get the HD channels, at least my tv doesn't find them when I search.

dripgoss, did you try using the upgrade option from the menu?

I'm having a strange problem with the tv guide. Previously when I used the arrow keys to go to a channel on the guide the tv would change to that channel and the program would appear in the windo on the top left corner of the screen. This suddenly stopped happening and now I can't select channels at all from the guide. I have to note the channel, go back to viewing the program, then manually change the channel number to the channel that I would like to watch. This is very inconvenient. Has anyone else have this happen?
I don't have the latest firmware installed, but will install it as soon as I purchase a new USB drive, since my existing one quit working.
One the subject of upgrading - has anyone tried using a card reader to install the firmware? If that works then I should be able to do the upgrade and hopefully this problem will go away. Thanks.

I'm having a strange problem with the tv guide. Previously when I used the arrow keys to go to a channel on the guide the tv would change to that channel and the program would appear in the windo on the top left corner of the screen. This suddenly stopped happening and now I can't select channels at all from the guide. I have to note the channel, go back to viewing the program, then manually change the channel number to the channel that I would like to watch. This is very inconvenient. Has anyone else have this happen?
I don't have the latest firmware installed, but will install it as soon as I purchase a new USB drive, since my existing one quit working.
One the subject of upgrading - has anyone tried using a card reader to install the firmware? If that works then I should be able to do the upgrade and hopefully this problem will go away. Thanks.


wish i could tell you. i activated the Tv Guide feature three days ago and yet to see it show up (using OTA HD which I was told would work). I used a regular USB thumbdrive to upgrade the firmware and it worked fine, just make sure the upgrade file is on the root of the drive and not in a folder. i could not get the tv to grab the file otherwise, even though the instructions said it was possible.

I'm using the guide with Cable, but I can confirm that I tried it with OTA and it worked.
When you changed the setup options for the guide - did you select that you didn't have cable? I can't remember the details, but I think that I either had to say that I had cable or OTA, I couldn't indicate that I had both. Try specifying that you don't have cable (assuming that you said that you did) and I think that might clear up the guide issue, since it will now look for the guide details from the antenna, rather than from a cable signal.

I'm using the guide with Cable, but I can confirm that I tried it with OTA and it worked.
When you changed the setup options for the guide - did you select that you didn't have cable? I can't remember the details, but I think that I either had to say that I had cable or OTA, I couldn't indicate that I had both. Try specifying that you don't have cable (assuming that you said that you did) and I think that might clear up the guide issue, since it will now look for the guide details from the antenna, rather than from a cable signal.

ah ha! i dont think i saw setup options of the guide, i think i just went in and enabled it. i'll haev to play with it again tonight. thanks for the tip!

It's a little unintuitive to get to the setup after the fact. I'm going from memory here, since I'm not at home - I think you had to press the Guide button, then Menu, then selet "top menu" (or something similar) from the windows on the left and that got you to the top menu bar where you could select setup. Let me know if you don't find it and I'll post the exact instructions tonight

i think i forgot to hit "Store" in the SAM to set the TV Guide to stay ON. Now hopefully it will start to update.
thanks for the help, we'll see what happens.

dripgoss, did you try using the upgrade option from the menu?

Thanks for the reply aus, but I returned the Philly for the Sharp Aquos and am happy as a clam now. The firmware thing was goofy and a quick call to Comcast enabled my "stuck" HD channels, but the straw that finally did it was I couldn't get audio from my 2nd component connection. So when I went to hook up my PS2 via known-good monster component cable, I got no audio and toiled around for a few hours. Also, the VESA 100 bracket I was using felt chinsy for my wall mounting needs. So for a few bucks more I bought a vantage point VESA 200 with my sharp, it feels like I could hang a volvo off that thing!! :) Plus awesome sounding speakers, DVI, no more crazy menus and washed out black levels... Ah but I do miss the bezel.. LOL

But yeah about the firmware, I tried both from the software upgrade menu as well as the recommended "turn on the tv with the media connected" methods both to no avail. I also tried enabling USB 2.0 in the service menu (default was 1.1!) and that didn't work. The funny thing is, it could see folder structures for pictures and music, just not the .upg file on the root of the USB device. I tried formatting a bunch of different ways, but I just eventually had to chalk it up to one of those goofy issues I didn't feel like dealing with...

I'm very confused by posters claiming to get local hd channels over basic cable. How in the world could that be possible!!! HDTV is digital, not analog, and basic cable is analog. In addition, at least in our area Comcast carries the local hd channels on channels 210 and up. No way to tune those via analog coax-in connection (I have never seen a tv that will tune anything past the 100's). Someone care to explain what is going on? I am getting an HDTV (won from ESPN) very soon and will be using Comcast, so I want to know my options for receiving HD. OTA is unlikely as I am over 30 miles from downtown.

The cable company sends all channels (both analog and digital) through the coax cable as rf signals. They can filter the analog channels with a local trap and also encrypt the digital channels. The analog channels are normally 2 to 70 something. The digital channels populate the higher channels (70 something to 100 something). Multiple digital channels can fit on one analog channel (i.e. subchannels 100.1, 100.2, etc.) The cable set top box or TV QAM tuner with cableCARD decrypts the digital channels and remaps them to match your local TV guide listing. Without the cableCARD, the TV's QAM tuner can actually receive any unecrypted digital cable channels without remapping them. In many cases, depending on the cable company and location, the local HD channels (and sometimes other random digital channels) are left unecrypted. Check your local Comcast Cable service thread for more information.

Back to the Philips TV. Does the Costco 37" model have the same HDMI PC resolution issues as the 32"? Apparently, HDMI ports usually only support standard HD resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080i), which seems like a step backwards from DVI. This is rather shortsighted when you consider the inevitable 1080p resolution.

I bought 2 of these TV's from Costco and experienced numerous issues:

1. Tried 3 brands of upconvert DVD players (toshiba -2 models, samsung) using HDMI input, all three brands showed a bright green band about 1/8" on the right side of the screen. This occurred on both sets. with components, this problem does not occur. Tech support won't even try duplicating this problem.

2. I can't navigate around the menus without the TV locking up and rebooting on its own.

I'm using CableCard from TimeWarner, and the picture is excellent, but these problems are annoying and I've already taken one back in exchange for a Proview 32 from Costco. Sure the Proview doesn't have all the features, but it also doesn't have any of the problems. Although I will have to use a HD cablebox.

For $500 more, the 2nd Philips is quickly moving into "return to Costco status." Other than that, the picture and features are nice.

After I activated the tvguide option, I now get the tvguide display everytime I turn on the tv. Is there a way to turn on the tv w/o getting the tvguide display?

Thanks

nevermind, I just figured it out.

I bought 2 of these TV's from Costco and experienced numerous issues:

1. Tried 3 brands of upconvert DVD players (toshiba -2 models, samsung) using HDMI input, all three brands showed a bright green band about 1/8" on the right side of the screen. This occurred on both sets. with components, this problem does not occur. Tech support won't even try duplicating this problem.


The picture has overscan. you need to readjust the picture by pressing left or right of the wheel. It shifts the whole picture left or right.

The proview hasn't gotten very good reviews on this site and a flickering problem has been reported. Good luck with everything.

The picture has overscan. you need to readjust the picture by pressing left or right of the wheel. It shifts the whole picture left or right.

The proview hasn't gotten very good reviews on this site and a flickering problem has been reported. Good luck with everything.


Hi Bluextreme, thanks for your post. What is the adjustment? Is this done in a menu? Which wheel are you referring to? Thanks for your help.
Tim1198

I was referring to the Remote which has a circle around the OK button. pushing left or right will adjust the picture (not in the menu). Just while you are watching DVD's.

Bluextreme, I had no idea there was such a function. Obviously tech support didn't either. But you did! Yeh. I checked the manual (pg 8-9) on the remote control and it didn't mention anything about this......

I addition, I upgraded firmware to the latest .08 release, and all the menu functions are now working. Am I glad you helped me with this. I was really wanting to get this fixed and keep it since it had the Cablecard technology and the picture was awesome.

As for the 2nd Tv, I am keeing the Proview only because my service came with the HD cablebox, and I felt like spending the extra $500 was not worth it since it was not the primary TV.

tim1198

tim1198
What exact version did you upgrade to?
I tried doing an upgrade this morning to version: BX23U-1.0.8.0 00841 posted 10/05/05 but I experienced the same problem that others had where it didn't find the upg file in the root directory of the drive. I'm wondering if it is not recognizing the usb drive. I'm going to try putting some pictures on there and see if it can show them.
I tried both ways... on power up and through the menu and both failed.
Thanks!

I have the 9630a 42 inch plasma. I use a usb microdrive to upgrade the firmware and its worked everytime.

DammitJim,
here's the version:

00841, generation date 2005-09-08 3:05pm.

I downloaded it early yesterday (wednesday). I put the usb into the slot, turned on the TV and it started to install by itself. Check to make sure that you have the file unzipped and place on the root directory of the drive.

I have the s/w on my drive, and if you wanna try, email me at tim1198 at austin dot rr dot

sorry for missing the last part of the email, I can't post without taking it out

tim1198

What is weird is that when I check for the version I have installed, I get the following screen:
------------------------------------
Version:
BX23U-1.0.8.0_00
Release notes:
Release for 2nd Spin:
BX23U-1.0.8.0_00841
Generation date:
2005-09-08 3:05:28 PM
-----------------------------------

Is that what I should have? This morning when I did the upgrade, it said that, but for some reason I thought it was the previous one. Maybe the upgrade did indeed work!
Please let me know... thanks!

DammitJim:
That's the same screen I get. So it looks like it took. Although you should have seen the screen do a "status-bar" during the upgrade. It took a few minutes so you should have seen it...

Also, if you look at the release notes, it shows that this is the latest version, although I don't think it discuss the "second spin" information, only the generic release version.

tim1198

As for the 2nd Tv, I am keeing the Proview only because my service came with the HD cablebox, and I felt like spending the extra $500 was not worth it since it was not the primary TV.


Tim1198 -

I am interested in getting this Philips in place of the ProView. How does it display SD content as compared to the ProView?

I also owned the Proview 32 and returned it for the Philips 32. SD seems to look better. The Philips has much more adjustability. And being able to receive HD channels as well as SD channels with an antenna has been great.

The "Pixel Plus" seems to make the SD look better as long as sharpness is cut way back. HD looks good no matter what.

Good luck.

I would agree with Cyrano. I don't think i've seen other TV's that display SD content better than this.

If you're doing the upgrade make sure it's Formatted for FAT16 and not FAT32.

Also, it's a good idea to have a blank USB drive.

There are 2 methods.

One to load when you turn on the TV (automatic)

One to load while in the menus (manual) (i believe it had to be saved in a certain folder, i dont' quite remember)...

Anyways, i recommend you load it manually while the tv is on.

I tried the auto method and my TV side buttons would turn on and leave a blank screen (which freaked me out) and then i eventually just did it manually.

Either way, make sure you read the instructions carefully... while it shoudl be painless a firmware upgrade can really screw things up if you have something go wrong.

After I activated the tvguide option, I now get the tvguide display everytime I turn on the tv. Is there a way to turn on the tv w/o getting the tvguide display?

Thanks

nevermind, I just figured it out.

Please tell me what you did to disable the guide at startup. I'm having a problem in that almost every morning when I turn the tv on I get a blank screen with just audio. I suspect that it's either the guide or the cablecard. If I can turn off the display of the guide I can rule that out, otherwise I may have to return this tv to Costco for a replacement. Thanks

Austerville, the way I disabled TV Guide from popping up at startup, was by going to Menu -> Setup -> Preferences -> Menu Preferences -> OSD.
Change the OSD from normal to minimum.

That doesn't work for me. My OSD was already set at minimum so I tried changing to maximum, went out of the menu, then went back in again to set it back to minimum. The guide still showed up when I turned on the tv. Has anyone else been able to get this to work?

Has anyone found out how to sort the channels in the guide? Right now mine are a total mess and the only way that I find a particular channel is to scroll through until I see it. It's not in channel number order, or station order - just no order at all (at least none that I can decipher). So, is there a way to sort the channels in the guide into a more meaningful order?

Sorry, I was totally off when I mentioned the TV Guide thing. What you have to do is go to the TV Guide's setup for general settings and on the window to the left there is something you need to turn off. When I get back home, I can try to find the specific parameter. Also, if you want to sort the channels, that's in the setup as well, but I think you have to do it manually from what I have experienced.

For turning off the TvGuide

Goto Setup

Click the third option that pops up -> don't remember what its called.

on the left it should display option for turning off the tvguide when TV turns on.

Hi all, I bought this TV at costco, and yes, it looks great, the features are great, but have anyone try the PIP feature yet? cause I tried it and couldn't make it work. You see, I'm a serious gamer, I play videogames a lot, and on this TV they look great, but sometimes I would like to watch a TV show while still playing, I had a LCD TV before, the 30" Sceptre selling at Costco, it was good, and the PIP work just fine, but I had some problems with the screen so I returned it and bought the Philips instead, thinking it would be even better, cause this TV has PIP/DUAL Screen.

I have my HD cable box connected to the HDMI 1 connection, and the PS2 connected to Component at AV1, but when I press PIP while watching HDMI I'm able to see the main screen, either in PIP or Dual, but the second screen it's just a black screen, and the message "No source available" shows on top, the only time I can make it work it's when I choose TV on the second screen (the pip one), and ended up watching HDMI and TV, which is basically the same signal, maybe one Digital and the other Analog, but the same show :mad:

I tried everything I could think of, but haven't been able to make the PIP work, am I missing something? the HDMI/Component PIP that I read on the features means something totally different of what I thought it meant? Or maybe it's just that my TV is deffective? Anyone, help....

Sorry, I was totally off when I mentioned the TV Guide thing. What you have to do is go to the TV Guide's setup for general settings and on the window to the left there is something you need to turn off. When I get back home, I can try to find the specific parameter. Also, if you want to sort the channels, that's in the setup as well, but I think you have to do it manually from what I have experienced.


I'd appreciate it if you could provide the specifics. I'm still having a problem with the tv freezing when I turn it on, after it's been off for a period of time. The only thing that corrects the problem is to unplug the tv from the power outlet and then plug it back in. I hadn't updated the firmware yet so I was hoping that would correct the problem, but it didn't. I, probably going to take it back to Costco this weekend for a replacement.

Hi all, I bought this TV at costco, and yes, it looks great, the features are great, but have anyone try the PIP feature yet? cause I tried it and couldn't make it work. You see, I'm a serious gamer, I play videogames a lot, and on this TV they look great, but sometimes I would like to watch a TV show while still playing, I had a LCD TV before, the 30" Sceptre selling at Costco, it was good, and the PIP work just fine, but I had some problems with the screen so I returned it and bought the Philips instead, thinking it would be even better, cause this TV has PIP/DUAL Screen.

I have my HD cable box connected to the HDMI 1 connection, and the PS2 connected to Component at AV1, but when I press PIP while watching HDMI I'm able to see the main screen, either in PIP or Dual, but the second screen it's just a black screen, and the message "No source available" shows on top, the only time I can make it work it's when I choose TV on the second screen (the pip one), and ended up watching HDMI and TV, which is basically the same signal, maybe one Digital and the other Analog, but the same show :mad:

I tried everything I could think of, but haven't been able to make the PIP work, am I missing something? the HDMI/Component PIP that I read on the features means something totally different of what I thought it meant? Or maybe it's just that my TV is defective? Anyone, help....

I have the same problem. The PIP/Dual Screen works somewhat if you use the builtin tuner as one of the sources. Hitting the PIP button again takes you to the second source as your main picture. But the 2nd source won't let you choose another PIP source. I hope the FW upgrade fixes this someday.

Has anyone had any better luck with this feature?

Lepetitemorte & Cyrano,

I hope this can help you guys. I sorta encountered the same problem when I bought the TV because I didn't read the manual nor is the TV very intuitive.
However, let me tell you my setup:
I am using the internal ATSC tuner and I wanted to have the PIP with AV1.
If I'm watching a show using the ATSC tuner and I press the PIP button on the remote, it shows a black box with no video playing. Sometimes what you have to do is use the cursors on the remote (the circle with the OK button in the middle) and select the black box, which will in turn change to a yellow border. Then press the channel buttons and that should let you select your other source.
Let met me know if this doesn't work. Then I can be more specific.

Jim, I already tried what you said, I did read the manual of the TV, I even downloaded the better and more complete version off the Philips website, but I haven't been able to make it work anyways. The problem is, when I choose the black box and have the yellow border around it, I change channels, but the only one that displays something is the TV one, all the others (AV, Composite, HDMI) shows a "No Source Available" message.

One question thou, I was in the believe that you have to use a HDMI signal combine with another signal to be able to use the PIP, wich means you need to have something connected in one of the HDMI connections and use another source as well (quoting the manual:
Remind:
Dual screen/PIP functionality, also called HDMI PIP, is a function used to watch a
broadcast and a HDMI source simultaneously.
• A broadcast can be analog or digital, cable or antenna.
• An external HDMI device (DVD, DVD-R, Set Top Box, A/V receiver,...) must be
connected to HDMI1 or HDMI2)

After reading this, I started to think that maybe I was wrong thinking I could use the PIP function, 'cause as I understand this, I can watch a broadcast (which to me it's a TV signal, nothing else, either digital or analog) and a HDMI source, wich can be anything, DVD, Receiver, etc. I hope I'm wrong, but do this means I can only watch TV and something else conected in HDMI? It wouldn't matter that I have something connected via component? It would really suck if we can only use the PIP function using regular tv and HDMI, 'cause HDMI is really new, there are not a lot of devices out there that have HDMI connections, and even if there are, that would mean we have to buy new devices with HDMI connections to be able to use this function.

DammitJim (great name):

I use the ATSC tuner also. I have been doing as you stated. I can bring up any other input with the tuner in the other window. That's not the problem. The PIP/DS function is just REALLY limited in its abilities. It could be a lot more flexible and I hope they make it so. You should be able to choose audio with left or right picture. And perhaps the other pic would go into CC (a dvd player would have to be instructed to do so) mode.
One should be able to use ANY combination of inputs. And, moving the yellow box should allow you to make any box become the main pic. The left box must be the tuner or the game stops. I can go to the AV1 right box and let that become the only picture but it is not smooth or instantaneous. It is a feature that needs work.
We should all notify Philips about the wounded nature of the PIP/DS function; it is probably improvable.

I agree with Cyrano. Even though this TV has many pluses... there is a lack of envisioning on Philips side. Don't get me wrong... I love my TV, but of course, there are many things that could be improved.
To tell you the truth, my setup is pretty messed up because I don't use the speakers from the TV, but everything is fed to my amp. I have so many remote controls to do certain things. So, if I'm using PIP, I have to switch sources on the TV and on the Amp as well. My gosh... sometimes I think I should get rid of all this crap and simplify my life! But 2 seconds after that I find myself laying on my couch watching a good movie with great surround and an awesome Philips picture ;)
Lepetitemorte, so when you are scrolling through sources in the yellow PIP box, do you see that you are selecting AV1, AV2, AV3, HDMI1, HDMI2, Side? Also, if you don't use PIP and you go to another source, can you just watch the feed by itself? BTW, I would change the PIP to side by side so that you can control the boxes better for testing the PIP feature (then you don't end up moving the PIP around the screen).

Jim,

Sounds like you need to get a Harmony remote. Best money I ever spent. Best, and smartest, remote with the least amount of programming to do the most complicated things. Heck, even my mom can use it to watch a movie - just press the "watch a movie" button and it turns on the tv (or leaves it on if it's already on), turns the tv to the correct channel, turns on the receiver, switches it to the "dvd" input, turns on the dvd player and sets the remote up so that volume control now controls the receiver instead of the tv.
Press the "watch tv" button, turns everything else off, puts tv on correct input for tv, volume control now reverts to the tv, channel changes now change channel on tivo etc. All this with one button and I didn't even have to "program" it - just connect the remote to my pc with supplied usb cable - connect to the harmony website and tell it what equipement I have and I'm done.

Lepetitemorte, so when you are scrolling through sources in the yellow PIP box, do you see that you are selecting AV1, AV2, AV3, HDMI1, HDMI2, Side? Also, if you don't use PIP and you go to another source, can you just watch the feed by itself? BTW, I would change the PIP to side by side so that you can control the boxes better for testing the PIP feature (then you don't end up moving the PIP around the screen).

Jim, I do see that I'm selecting AV1, AV2, AV3, etc. when I scroll through sources in the yellow PIP box, but I'm unable to see any video in any of them, just the message "No source available", with the exception of the one call TV. Let me remind you that my set up it's like this: my cable box connected to HDMI1, PS2 connected to AV1, when I scroll through channels without using PIP I can see video in HDMI1 and AV1, but when I use PIP I can only watch HDMI1 and TV, or TV and HDMI1, any other combination would show "No source available" in either one of the windows.

By the way, after reading the posts here, I tried something different, now my setup is like this: cable box connected to AV3 and PS2 connected to AV1, when I press PIP, now the only combination that works is TV and AV3, or AV3 and TV, which is basically the same case as above (both signals are from TV, one through turner one through cable box), I can't seem to make PIP work with AV1, neither using HDMI1 or AV3. What I'm thinking is the only AV connection that works with PIP is AV3, I could connect my PS2 here, but this connection is only for video, it doesn't have any sound (I'm using digital sound from cable box to TV to watch cable) and the PS2 doesn't have any digital output connection. Has anyone been able to make PIP work with AV1? if so, what's your setup? This is really frustrating....

When you use the HDMI connection the tv assumes that the audio will be coming through the HDMI cable and it will only check that cable for audio. I'm using a component cable because of this situation.


This is not true. I have connected my OPPO upconverting DVD via HDMI to my Philips and pass sound through a digital coax cable and into the digital coax socket on the LCD.

You just need to under SOURCE setup choose the "Digital Audio In" as the HDMI port you streaming the video in (to sync)...

Then you're good to go!

I bought 2 of these TV's from Costco and experienced numerous issues:

1. Tried 3 brands of upconvert DVD players (toshiba -2 models, samsung) using HDMI input, all three brands showed a bright green band about 1/8" on the right side of the screen. This occurred on both sets. with components, this problem does not occur. Tech support won't even try duplicating this problem.

2. I can't navigate around the menus without the TV locking up and rebooting on its own.

I'm using CableCard from TimeWarner, and the picture is excellent, but these problems are annoying and I've already taken one back in exchange for a Proview 32 from Costco. Sure the Proview doesn't have all the features, but it also doesn't have any of the problems. Although I will have to use a HD cablebox.

For $500 more, the 2nd Philips is quickly moving into "return to Costco status." Other than that, the picture and features are nice.


Have had no problems with my OPPO upconverting DVD player. Really happy with Philips TV and player!

First off THANKS!!!!! This fourm has been incredibly valuable. I bought the 37" Philips (37PF7320A/37) last Monday at Costco. Overall VERY pleased. I do see that the Sharp (the Costco by me had a 37" Sharp ( LC-37G4U I think) does have more color tuning options a deeper black. BrightHouse has failed to get CableCARD to work. I have them coming out again today, will let everyone know how it goes. If the cableCARD is a no go in next week or 2, I might consider taking back and returning for the Sharp. But I am a minimalist and love the fact this TV has CableCARD and HDMI and do now want unnecessary cables of a STB. I am wall mounting and want to run as few cables as possible.

I have LG UpConversion DVD player connected via HDMI. Now I had to go thru 2 DVD returns and 1 remote return, but.... DANG. The Image quality is like nothing I've ever seen. My guess is that its quality improvement over component is minimal, I love because its one cable for everything.

TV Guide help given here has been incredibly valuable. My wife would freak without a channel guide!
:)

Repost from another (seemingly dead) thread to this one.......Anyone else seeing this?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bought the 37PF7320A/37 from Costco about 1 month ago. So far, so good - PQ is great, DVD's and HDTV sources look great, even SDTV through Tivo look good.

Phiips support has been great with the two minor issues I encountered.

There is one issue that remains and I wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing it.

Every so often, when Closed Captioning is on, the captions will "freeze" and the TV will fail to respond to any commands. After a moment or so, the picture will "flicker", and the TV will essentially reboot itself. This became more pronounced once the CableCard was installed; each time the CableCard is reinitialized, a diagnostic message is displayed on screen.

I thought it may have something to do with the CableCard at first, but the same thing sometimes occurs when watching the Tivo, when the CableCard is not involved.

Anyone else having this?

-m

Ok, I've got everything working in terms of getting the guide to show up, but I cannot get the listings to update. I have tried just about everything. My options for chosing where the cable was hooked up was: RF, AV1, AV2, Side. I selected RF as I am just taking basic cable as it comes in from BrightHouse. I noticed on the TV that source is called "TV". Any ideas on what's going wrong here?

Thanks!

Mini59,
I didn't mean to point the finger at you in particular. I think I did find a threat where they mentioned that, but just didn't make any sense. I agree with you... hopefully we'll find a way to set it up. From what I have read, NVIDIA is the card to go for since you can do custome settings without having to install PowerStrip.

Thanks again... I'm actually more concerned about how to get the wife to let me buy a new PC since the one we have is old and doesn't have PCI Express. The only new PC we have is a laptop and it lacks a DVI output.

For those of you who want the TV Guide, you need to use the code to unlock that feature. I think it's on the first page of this thread, but I don't have it with me. The TV Guide has nothing to do with the firmware update.

Those other 2 cables that came with the system that have som kind of LED (IR), are those for controlling other devices through the TV? I don't think I found anything in the documentation about those.

Did you ever find out any information on the IR cable? I tried everything I could think of. I even got out my digital camera that can see IR to see if they had any IR output.(no output) My next step would be to call support but after reading from this form I don't think they will be much help.

Did you ever find out any information on the IR cable? I tried everything I could think of. I even got out my digital camera that can see IR to see if they had any IR output.(no output) My next step would be to call support but after reading from this form I don't think they will be much help.

The Philips website has a FAQ page. In there they answer your question. Basically, the IR out is disabled and is reserved for future use (probably via a firmware update). I'd love to post the link, but I don't have 5 posts yet.

I'd bet the IR transmitter works when you enable TV Guide and set it up for VCR recording. My LG set (which has TV guide enabled out of the box) came with a similar IR transmitter which is intended to be used to switch channels on a cable box or VCR. I have not tried this feature on the Philips or the LG.

Cheers,

Mike

TV Guide On Screen glitch....amazing Philips is this screwed up

I purchased the Philips 32" LCD from Costco a few days ago because of the built in HD tuner and Cable Card feature. I wanted to eliminate the cable box and have one remote to control everything. The Sharp with the same features is not available at Costco but is available online but at a much higher price.

When I got it home I called my cable company (Charter) and confirmed they had Cable Cards available. I set up a time for install. I was informed that once I switched from the cable box to the card that I would lose any programming information. I was told that my TV had to have the TV Guide installed to be able to access programming with the Cable Card.

After reading through the manual and checking out all the menus I found nothing that even mentioned the TV Guide On Screen function. I called Philips customer support and was told that none of the Philips LCD's had TV Guide On Screen available. I did everything but call the guy an idiot....and demanded to speak to a supervisor. After about ten minutes the supervisor came on and told me the same thing. I read him some of the posts from this thread where several people were explaining how to turn on and use the TV Guide function. He was in total denial, and continued to tell me that TV Guide On Screen was not available on Philips LCD's.

Can you believe this crap? If I had never searched this forum I would have never found out the answer. What it boils down to is the only way to even get near the TV Guide program is to enter on the remote and press info. You get a service menu disclaimer saying warranty is void if you go further but proceed with caution and follow the information on page 1 of this thread and you can activate TV Guide On Screen.

Why is Philips hiding this feature in a service tech only setting? Why is this feature not mentioned in the user manual? Why does Philips customer tech support deny the feature exists? Could there be so many glitches with it that they decided to hide it? We need some answers here, this is insane.

P.S. I asked the Costco rep to get me the remote for the Philips because the Sharp was sitting next to it and looked significantly brighter. Sure enough, the Philips had multiple settings and once I changed the settings it was nearly impossible to detect any difference between the color and picture quality of both sets.

For those of you with cablecards - are you able to search to use the auto search function to search for cable channels? I can search for "antenna" channels, but I don't get the "next" prompt in the setup process when I tried to do the same for cable.
I had problems with my first tv and returned it to Costco and now that I have the new one I find that I am not able to auto tune the cable channels with the cablecard installed. I'm pretty sure that I was able to do that with the first tv, but I tried so many things with that tv that it's possible that I'm wrong about that. I'm having problems with the tv guide (no listing on the guide) and I suspect that it has something to do with Comcast having to setup the card for this specific tv (apparently they link the card to a specific tv). I had a technician come home yesterday and he even put in a new card, but I still can't search for channels on cable in the install process, which makes me think that I couldn't do this before. Could someone please confirm.

The other issue is that I tried to install the new firmware, the process started off fine and got past the validation process, but halfway through the "programming" part it received an error and I've never been able to get past that point. In fact now the tv won't even recognise that I have firmware on the USB drive, even though it's the same USB drive that I used the first time, with no changes. Any ideas?

TV Guide On Screen glitch....amazing Philips is this screwed up

Why is Philips hiding this feature in a service tech only setting? Why is this feature not mentioned in the user manual? Why does Philips customer tech support deny the feature exists? Could there be so many glitches with it that they decided to hide it? We need some answers here, this is insane.


I suspect that this is not an advertised feature because it's not yet ready for prime time. I'm on my second tv now and had all kinds of issues with the first tv (like in the morning I'd have audio and no picture, or the tv would freeze) and I suspect that these were related to the guide, since the tv normally shows the guide on startup. My replacement tv just seems to work so much better and I suspect that it's because I haven't enabled the guide yet. I'm sure that I'll confirm that this weekend when I get around to activating the guide. I suspect that Philips are not ready to deal with these problems yet, that's why they placed the guide in the service menu.
IMO I suggest that we don't complain to Philips about options that we're not supposed to have access to. It would be VERY easy for them to close this loophole in a firmware upgrade and then we'd lose them.

IMO I suggest that we don't complain to Philips about options that we're not supposed to have access to. It would be VERY easy for them to close this loophole in a firmware upgrade and then we'd lose them.


You must be kidding? When you install a Cable Card you lose all the programming guides from the Cable Box. In this age of technology when you buy the latest in LCD TV you shouldn't have to subscribe to TV Guide paper back to find out what the hell is on the tube.

For those of you with cablecards - are you able to search to use the auto search function to search for cable channels? I can search for "antenna" channels, but I don't get the "next" prompt in the setup process when I tried to do the same for cable.
I had problems with my first tv and returned it to Costco and now that I have the new one I find that I am not able to auto tune the cable channels with the cablecard installed. I'm pretty sure that I was able to do that with the first tv, but I tried so many things with that tv that it's possible that I'm wrong about that. I'm having problems with the tv guide (no listing on the guide) and I suspect that it has something to do with Comcast having to setup the card for this specific tv (apparently they link the card to a specific tv). I had a technician come home yesterday and he even put in a new card, but I still can't search for channels on cable in the install process, which makes me think that I couldn't do this before. Could someone please confirm.

The other issue is that I tried to install the new firmware, the process started off fine and got past the validation process, but halfway through the "programming" part it received an error and I've never been able to get past that point. In fact now the tv won't even recognise that I have firmware on the USB drive, even though it's the same USB drive that I used the first time, with no changes. Any ideas?


Once you installed CableCard, the auto search feature is diabled on Cable. CableCard use favor list set by cable company. I have Comcast CableCard installed, press "AV" button on remote and select "TV" to activate CableCard service. Once that is complete TVGuide will download at night time. It take couple days to fully setup TVGuide.

Try download the firmware again, I have no issue on firmware upgrade.

Hi, I posted a couple of messages a week ago, but I never got any answers, so I'll ask again, this time a shorter version thou. Have anyone been able to use the PIP function? if so, what is your setup? what connections are you using?

I can only make it work choosing HDMI 1 and TV (using cable box in HDMI 1), or AV3 and TV (using cable box in AV3), no other combination worked for me, can anyone help?

You must be kidding? When you install a Cable Card you lose all the programming guides from the Cable Box. In this age of technology when you buy the latest in LCD TV you shouldn't have to subscribe to TV Guide paper back to find out what the hell is on the tube.

You're absolutely correct in that statement - I feel the same way too. My point is not that you shouldn't use the tv guide - I'm merely stating that this is a non-advertised feature of this tv that someone has managed to activate. This means that you use it at your own risk and don't expect Philips to provide support to functionality that you weren't supposed to have. I also stand by what I said that you shouldn't call Philips support to complain about issues with the guide, since they're obviously aware that it doesn't work 100% of the time and don't want to deal with support issues related to it. If they get enough calls to complain about it they'll simply remove the option from the tv until they're happy with the way that it works.
I'm sure that they're just as eager to get the guide added to the regular menu, since it will probably get them to sell more tvs, but for now it's not considered to be a feature of the tv, so either live with it the way it is, or turn it off. JMHO

Once you installed CableCard, the auto search feature is diabled on Cable. CableCard use favor list set by cable company. I have Comcast CableCard installed, press "AV" button on remote and select "TV" to activate CableCard service. Once that is complete TVGuide will download at night time. It take couple days to fully setup TVGuide.

Try download the firmware again, I have no issue on firmware upgrade.

Thanks for your info on the cablecard. I have downloaded the firmware again, but the tv still doesn't find it.

Thanks for your info on the cablecard. I have downloaded the firmware again, but the tv still doesn't find it.

Try reformat the usb drive using fat.

That was the second thing that I tried - after just re-downloading the firmware onto the drive. Unfortunately that didn't help either :-( The weird thing is that when I insert the drive into the tv it recognises the drive and even displays the drive manufacturer name and allows me to browse it for multimedia. I'm open to anymore suggestions that anyone has. Thanks.
BTW, this thread is the most informative info that I've found on internet for this particular tv. I think the answers to most of the questions are VERY helpful to anyone who purchases this tv (I know it's been great for me). Thank you to everyone that's contributed.

Bluesxtreme mentioned: " If you're doing the upgrade make sure it's Formatted for FAT16 and not FAT32."

You're absolutely correct in that statement - I feel the same way too. My point is not that you shouldn't use the tv guide - I'm merely stating that this is a non-advertised feature of this tv that someone has managed to activate. This means that you use it at your own risk and don't expect Philips to provide support to functionality that you weren't supposed to have. I also stand by what I said that you shouldn't call Philips support to complain about issues with the guide, since they're obviously aware that it doesn't work 100% of the time and don't want to deal with support issues related to it. If they get enough calls to complain about it they'll simply remove the option from the tv until they're happy with the way that it works.
I'm sure that they're just as eager to get the guide added to the regular menu, since it will probably get them to sell more tvs, but for now it's not considered to be a feature of the tv, so either live with it the way it is, or turn it off. JMHO

You are totally missing the point...Read the ad below copied and pasted from TV Guide On Screen's website.

Total convenience — right inside your TV.

Once you find a program you like, press OK on the remote to tune right to the channel or to set a recording or reminder. The point and click functionality of TV Guide On Screen makes every option easy to use.

TV Guide On Screen works with regular and digital cable. It supports cable-ready and cable-box setups and is the only way to get an interactive program guide if you use the new CableCARD technology in place of a cable box. Please visit your local retailer to see a variety of digital TVs with TV Guide On Screen built in. (end of ad)

Now do you get my drift? Why would a company manufacture state of the art HD LCD products with built in HD tuner and CableCard....without promoting TV Guide On Screen. In fact, if it wasn't for this forum nobody would even know the feature is available. If you read this thread you will see that hardly anyone can even get the feature to work. Boooooooooooo Philips...

I know that it's the only way to get a tv guide if you use a cable card, but that doesn't mean that all tvs that support cablecards have a tv guide built into them. I can't think of examples off the top of my head, but I do know that I encountered a few while researching what tv to get. Note that your quote also didn't mention that this tv has a guide and neither does any of Philips' promo material.
I'm not disputing that Philips should get this to work properly - I'd love for them to do it. All I'm saying that this is not an advertised feature of this tv and you shouldn't expect support for it. Hopefully the fact that it exists means that they're working on making it an advertised feature, but for now I don't mind using it the way that it is, rather than have them turn it off because they're receiving too many complaints. I know if I were them that's what I'd do.

Hopefully the fact that it exists means that they're working on making it an advertised feature, but for now I don't mind using it the way that it is, rather than have them turn it off because they're receiving too many complaints. I know if I were them that's what I'd do.


I guess you don't grasp this from a marketing standpoint. The CableCard function isn't worth a crap if there is no TV Guide software to use it with......why introduce LCD TV with CableCard WHEN YOU CAN'T PROVIDE PROGRAM INFORMATION? :mad:

Hmmm... Interesting. I've recently experienced the EXACT same problems after enabling the guide. On 3 mornings in a row, I've found the TV in a frozen state; it required a reboot (unplug/replug) to come back to life.

I've just disabled the TVGuide and hopefully, things will go back to normal.


I suspect that this is not an advertised feature because it's not yet ready for prime time. I'm on my second tv now and had all kinds of issues with the first tv (like in the morning I'd have audio and no picture, or the tv would freeze) and I suspect that these were related to the guide, since the tv normally shows the guide on startup. My replacement tv just seems to work so much better and I suspect that it's because I haven't enabled the guide yet. I'm sure that I'll confirm that this weekend when I get around to activating the guide. I suspect that Philips are not ready to deal with these problems yet, that's why they placed the guide in the service menu.

austerville,

Did you figure how to disable TV Guide on startup? I can't find the function to disable it on setup menu.

No I haven't figured out how to do that. I'm still waitingon DammitJim to report back on how he did it. For now I've just disabled the guide in the service menu. If anyone else knows how to turn it off on startup, while still keeping the guide functionality, I'd really like to hear from you.

No I haven't figured out how to do that. I'm still waitingon DammitJim to report back on how he did it. For now I've just disabled the guide in the service menu. If anyone else knows how to turn it off on startup, while still keeping the guide functionality, I'd really like to hear from you.



TV Guide automatically comes on when you turn the TV on. Hit OK on the Philips remote and its gone. Hit the blank button on the right hand top section of the Philips remote to turn TV Guide on and off.

All,

To disable the automatic TV Guide display on startup, bring up the TV Guide display, go to setup, choose the third option down (change default options), choose the first item (general options), and turn off the auto-guide option in the window on the left. Once you do this the guide will only come up when you press the blank button on the remote. I think this has been previously posted in this thread.

That said, both my Philips and LG TVs have not had guide data all week, but my LG DVR does. Not sure what is going on there...

Cheers,

Mike

Thanks for the options to turn the tv guide off. Unfortunately I can't try it since I'm having some serious issues with the guide right now - can't see anything except the 2 tvguide icons on the left side of the screen. I'm guessing that it's related to the firmware load not completing so I just disabled the guide for now.

I realized that I couldn't get the tv to find the new firmware because I didn't have it in the Upgrades directory on my USB drive (it needs to be there for manually doing the upgrade). Unfortunately I'm having problems with this new firmware 10/5/05 because it fails halfway through the programming part (after the validation) with a message that it encountered an error and that I should contact the dealer. Has anyone managed to get this version of the firmware to load? Does anyone have a copy of the previous version of the firmware that they would be willing to send me to try? Thanks

Hmmm. I've done the firmware upgrade three times since I picked up the set; all have been successful (including the most recent October version). I also retrograded one of the firmware versions after discovering Philips had disabled the preferred channel feature.

Each time all I have done is unzipped the upgrade file, dragged it to the root directory of an otherwise blank USB memory stick, inserted the stick in the TV, and turned the TV on. Have not had an unsuccessful upgrade yet.

PM me an address and I'll send you a zipped firmware image - I have versions 1.0.5.0 (Jul 05), 1.0.7.0 (Aug 05, which has preferred channels disabled), and the current 1.0.8.0 (Oct 05).

Cheers,

Mike

Hi All,

I purchased this TV last week to replace a 30" Vizio. Everything about this LCD is great in my opinion and am I alone in thinking that consumer firmware upgrades is the next best thing to sliced bread? Hats off to Philips for this! Are any of the other manufacturers doing this?

I upgraded to the latest firmware by copying the unzipped firmware to the root directory of a FAT (not FAT32) formatted USB drive, swithching the input to TV, powering down, inserting USB Thumbdrive, and powering ON. Took on the first try.

On the downside, I have sensitive hearing and occassionally hear "operational hum" and sometimes a "popping" noise from this set. I only hear this during late night viewing when the volume is turned down low and seems to be input independent as far as I can tell. Anyone else notice this? My previous Vizio was so quiet the only way I knew it was on was by the green light around the power button.

BTW, if you are going to mount this LCD you'll need 4mm screws. I needed 4mm x 16mm and they were not easy to find. I had to try two Home Depots and a Lowes before finding them.

jake

Ace hardware has those screws and they're quite cheap. I think I paid just over $1 for 4. BTW if anyone has an older firmware could you please PM me. Thanks.

Is there a way to show the volume when increasing/decreasing and hiding the input display?

Hmmm... Interesting. I've recently experienced the EXACT same problems after enabling the guide. On 3 mornings in a row, I've found the TV in a frozen state; it required a reboot (unplug/replug) to come back to life.

I've just disabled the TVGuide and hopefully, things will go back to normal.

FYI Disabling the TVGuide has brought my set's behavior back to normal. No more reboots required.

I just recently bought this TV and love it, I found it to be a pretty good value with the features it offers. The user interface/manual could certainly be improved though.

Thanks to AVS Forums I now am watching HD for no additional services from my cable company! Thank you all!

However I have one quick question on this TV. Does anyone know how to lable the channels manually? I have gone over this thread and read the manual but I can't seem to figure it out. Some of my channels got labels during auto scan but most importantly, the HD ones did not.

I want to use the favorites list for HD channels (and digital music) but do not want to have to scroll through them all to find the one I want each time.


Thanks,

Mike

In case anyone cares, my TV guide now has data (only took a week) and appears to be working normally. My LG also has guide data again - I'm guessing the local station that carries the guide must have had a hiccup.

Have had any lockup/reboot issues since enabling the guide...

Cheers,

Mike

FYI Disabling the TVGuide has brought my set's behavior back to normal. No more reboots required.

Same here, once I disabled TV Guide my TV is back to normal. I wander is this the reason Philips disabled the TV Guide feature.

In case anyone cares, my TV guide now has data (only took a week) and appears to be working normally. My LG also has guide data again - I'm guessing the local station that carries the guide must have had a hiccup.

Have had any lockup/reboot issues since enabling the guide...

Cheers,

Mike


it took mine about a week to update as well, i was about to give up hope, then one day, BAM! no problems with lockups or reboots. keeping my fingers crossed.

great tv!

I have no problem on lockups/reboots until almost a week after I enabled TV Guide. Hope yours work better than mine. I updated the firmware, still no help.

Bluesextreme you mention the settings and service menu I would like to know how to get into the service menu I dont see it in my menus antwhere thanks for the help

I just wanted to warn all in this thread, IF you enter the "SAM", Service Alignment Mode, on a Philips Television, YOU VOID YOUR WARRANTY! As for the TV Guide option on this set. It is going to be a future option if Philips decides to do so, BUT at this time it is NOT a featured item and Philips will not support it until then. Please be aware once Philips has your Serial # and you have registered your product for warranty purposes, then they have the right to revoke your Warranty if you access this "Service Mode". If you need help on any "supported" features of this TV, please ask me I will try to help you all as best as I can.

Just FYI, Philips support DOES know about this thread, and knows that consumers are accessing this TV Guide option, from what I hear, they are going to disable this now in a future firmware upgrade and not let you know when, So thank you to the people that have pointed this out and now they are going to take it away.. :mad:

PS, I am not be supported by Philips in any way shape or form. I used to work for them and now I do custom theater installs and such. Let me know If I can help :rolleyes:

Is there a way to show the volume when increasing/decreasing and hiding the input display?

Hey Jakej, The answer is no, it is either none or all with this model. The ODS settings in the customer menu are: Menu>Settings>Preferences>Menu Preferences>OSD and then

Minimum = No Volume bar or Input ID On Screen Display
Normal = Volume bar shows up and vanishes 5 to 10 secs after adjusting the
volume, and the Input ID OSD is on constantly.

Hi austerville. I probably don't understand what you're trying to accomplish here, because the solution seems too simple: Simply connect your Comcast cable feed to the coax input on your TV and you can enjoy locals in HD (no need to get them OTA) along with the basic cable channels. Send the CableCard back to Comcast; it's not needed for HD locals and basic cable, only for encrypted "premium" programing. Am I missing something?

Umm, NO...

You can only get HD Locals these ways:
1. OTA, NO cable involved
2. Cable Box
3. Cable Card

You CAN NOT, or atleast, should not be getting your local HD channels via cable without a cable box or card. IF you ARE getting your local HD channels via basic cable WITHOUT a cable box or card, then you have a MAJOR RF leak in your cable as it is letting the ATSC OTA broadcast leak in and it should not be there.

Cable systems are closed systems, as in, there should not be anything on there feed EXCEPT what they want, and they do not want you to get HD channels of any kind on their feed if you are not paying for it.

Umm, NO...

You can only get HD Locals these ways:
1. OTA, NO cable involved
2. Cable Box
3. Cable Card

You CAN NOT, or atleast, should not be getting your local HD channels via cable without a cable box or card. IF you ARE getting your local HD channels via basic cable WITHOUT a cable box or card, then you have a MAJOR RF leak in your cable as it is letting the ATSC OTA broadcast leak in and it should not be there.

Cable systems are closed systems, as in, there should not be anything on there feed EXCEPT what they want, and they do not want you to get HD channels of any kind on their feed if you are not paying for it.


If you have a QAM tuner, many cable providers broadcast (on purpose) the free local network HD channels that you can pick up. No RF leak needed.

If you have a QAM tuner, many cable providers broadcast (on purpose) the free local network HD channels that you can pick up. No RF leak needed.


Ok, Ok, your are correct, BUT in saying that, let me correct my first statement:

You can only get HD Locals these ways ON THIS TV:
1. OTA, NO cable involved
2. Cable Box
3. Cable Card

This TV does not have a QAM tuner, that is my statement, Sorry, I was not clearer on that... :p

Maybe you should check phillips specs before you claim to know so much about them. The 7320 includes a built-in QAM capable tuner. The 5320 does not.

Dude what is a matter?? What did they say to you when you called in?? I just got off the phone earlier today w/ the support center, and everyone I spoke with was very professional, but still did not mention anything that would allow me to activate the Guide on my unit either. Sorry to hear about you taking your unit back to costco but hope the new Sony works out.

Well this is just short of amazing. I think you are lying to this forum because I just got off the phone with you half an hour ago and you do work for Philips...in fact you are a supervisor there and a rude one to boot. You made this post because I told you about this thread during our phone conversation. I hope an executive from Philips reads this and terminates you.

I am taking this Philips 32" LCD HD built in HD tuner and CableCard back to Costco tomorrow and buy the Sony. I have been misled, lied to, and insulted by Philips support over the past two weeks because the TV Guide On Screen programming they have installed in their HD LCD's is glitched and turned off in the service menu. When you install a CableCard on the Philips LCD you cannot access any programming guides. The TV Guide on Screen programming is the only program guide that works when using a CableCard. Most reputable manufactures who offer the CableCard function have working programs that support TV Guide on Screen programming.

Thumbs down Philips.
Just to let everyone know upfront I am new to the HDTV and FlatTv technologies, so sorry if I come off like a noob. I just got this Philips unit 3 days ago, and now have my cable card installed. Everything is great, and the quality is unbelievable, but I can't seem to figure out how to get any guide info on my unit using this cable card. I called into the Philips hotline and spoke to many of their knowledgable tech's and even a supervisor and they stated that this option is not currently operational. The supervisor stated that this option would more than likely be a future enhancement on the unit via an upgrade to the software on the unit. Is there any way around this on my unit, and if so how would I go about doing this. The supervisor informed me that if I was able to enable the Guide option on the unit, it would have to be done in a way that would void my entire warranty. Does this sound true, and if so is there any other way to activate the guide, maybe by calling the tvguide company?? If not how would anyone actually know if I did indeed activate this feature on the tv??
If anyone could help please let me know. Thanks Alot

Maybe you should check phillips specs before you claim to know so much about them. The 7320 includes a built-in QAM capable tuner. The 5320 does not.

Ok, Here are what the specs say:

Tuner/Reception/Transmission
• TV system: ATSC, NTSC
• Video Playback: NTSC
• Aerial Input: 75 Ohm F-type
• Cable: Digital Cable Ready CableCARD,
Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM

Now, understand that Most Cable companies DO NOT offer these type of channels.
This is per SCTE standards. The cable companies do not want you to get HD channels at all unless you are paying for them. If you get local HD channels on your basic tier of programming without a cable box or card, then you are one of the few in the US.

Just to let everyone know upfront I am new to the HDTV and FlatTv technologies, so sorry if I come off like a noob. I just got this Philips unit 3 days ago, and now have my cable card installed. Everything is great, and the quality is unbelievable, but I can't seem to figure out how to get any guide info on my unit using this cable card. I called into the Philips hotline and spoke to many of their knowledgable tech's and even a supervisor and they stated that this option is not currently operational. The supervisor stated that this option would more than likely be a future enhancement on the unit via an upgrade to the software on the unit. Is there any way around this on my unit, and if so how would I go about doing this. The supervisor informed me that if I was able to enable the Guide option on the unit, it would have to be done in a way that would void my entire warranty. Does this sound true, and if so is there any other way to activate the guide, maybe by calling the tvguide company?? If not how would anyone actually know if I did indeed activate this feature on the tv??
If anyone could help please let me know. Thanks Alot

Yes the Warranty statement is True... There is a warning on the TV before you access the SAM...

Everytime you access the SAM (Service Alignment Menu) the TV makes a log of it, a local ASC (Authorized Service Center), if they have to look at it, would see that the SAM had been accessed before and then would contact Philips for a Service record based on the serial #. If there was no previous record that the set was worked on before then they would have to deduct that the consumer had accessed the menu and if they found any options changed from the factory default, then that is when they would claim that your warranty would be void. Just a FYI, the ASC's have a program called Compair, this hooks a PC to the TV for diagnostics and settings, which is where they see this log.

You can turn on the TV Guide on the TV, but it is disabled for different reasons.
1. It is NOT mandatory to have this feature per broadcasters, SCTE, and FCC specs
2. It will pick up the programming in some areas and not others, signal issues.
3. Since it is not standardized across the USA yet, Philips tends to shun away from things that will just confuse consumers more if it does not work. Most consumers don't like to be told that it must not work in your area...

Hope this helps some, Apparently, some People in Montana don't have patience or common sense, it looks like some other people tried to explain this before I got here, look at page 6 of this thread and you'll see what I mean...

PS, Congrads on getting the CableCard to work, from what I hear on the SCTE newsletters, ALOT, and I mean ALOT of cable companies are having issues getting them to work. But it is a NEW item and will take some time to get the bugs out. Hope everything goes well :>)

If Philips is indeed reading these forums then they should be working night and day to fix the glitches of their TVGuide disabled feature set.

If folks can access the TV repair menu to enable whatever, its their right despite warnings. I had a Philips tech rep have me access this menu to change settings, am I now doomed because the TV knows I accessed this menu? The rep didn't even know who I was (haven't registered yet), so there is no way they are tagging who went in alone or through the guidance of technical support reps.

All the above chatter is Garbage. If Philips doesn't want to honor the warranty on their product let them duke it out with Amex and the Platinum Card Dept or better yet Costco that will never carry their sh*t again if they get too much returned merchandise.

Overall the TV works great, other than TV Guide...

Philips get your act together, upgrade and fix this asap through Firmware...!

Ok, Here are what the specs say:

Tuner/Reception/Transmission
• TV system: ATSC, NTSC
• Video Playback: NTSC
• Aerial Input: 75 Ohm F-type
• Cable: Digital Cable Ready CableCARD,
Unscrambled Digital Cable -QAM

Now, understand that Most Cable companies DO NOT offer these type of channels.
This is per SCTE standards. The cable companies do not want you to get HD channels at all unless you are paying for them. If you get local HD channels on your basic tier of programming without a cable box or card, then you are one of the few in the US.

Um, no. In fact, the biggest cable provider giant of them all, Comcast, does not encrypt the local HD channels and they can be viewed with a TV + QAM tuner. There is some debate as to whether HD channels are subject to the same regulations forbidding encryption of analog local channels, which is why a few cable markets encrypt them. See this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=594916) for more info. But I have no idea why you'd think it would be weird to get unencrypted HD channels (or why first you'd say you can't get them b/c this TV doesn't have a QAM tuner--again an incorrect fact), as that's more the standard than not. . . .

Um, no. In fact, the biggest cable provider giant of them all, Comcast, does not encrypt the local HD channels and they can be viewed with a TV + QAM tuner. There is some debate as to whether HD channels are subject to the same regulations forbidding encryption of analog local channels, which is why a few cable markets encrypt them. See this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=594916) for more info. But I have no idea why you'd think it would be weird to get unencrypted HD channels (or why first you'd say you can't get them b/c this TV doesn't have a QAM tuner--again an incorrect fact), as that's more the standard than not. . . .



Second of all, In the State of Florida you mainly have Brighthouse Networks and Time Warner. I know there are others, I'm just not sure, For both Brighthouse and Time Warner, they do not have any HD locals on their analog Tier, channels 99 and down. From what I read on that thread you linked to, it looks like there are several other people that do NOt have access to their local HD's on their basic tier of channels without paying something for them, so my point is still valid.

I will be reading into this more... :rolleyes:

Yes the Warranty statement is True... There is a warning on the TV before you access the SAM...

Everytime you access the SAM (Service Alignment Menu) the TV makes a log of it, a local ASC (Authorized Service Center), if they have to look at it, would see that the SAM had been accessed before and then would contact Philips for a Service record based on the serial #. If there was no previous record that the set was worked on before then they would have to deduct that the consumer had accessed the menu and if they found any options changed from the factory default, then that is when they would claim that your warranty would be void. Just a FYI, the ASC's have a program called Compair, this hooks a PC to the TV for diagnostics and settings, which is where they see this log.

You can turn on the TV Guide on the TV, but it is disabled for different reasons.
1. It is NOT mandatory to have this feature per broadcasters, SCTE, and FCC specs
2. It will pick up the programming in some areas and not others, signal issues.
3. Since it is not standardized across the USA yet, Philips tends to shun away from things that will just confuse consumers more if it does not work. Most consumers don't like to be told that it must not work in your area...

Hope this helps some, Apparently, some People in Montana don't have patience or common sense, it looks like some other people tried to explain this before I got here, look at page 6 of this thread and you'll see what I mean...

PS, Congrads on getting the CableCard to work, from what I hear on the SCTE newsletters, ALOT, and I mean ALOT of cable companies are having issues getting them to work. But it is a NEW item and will take some time to get the bugs out. Hope everything goes well :>)
Thanks I am Philips for the info. I have called in to the help line on my 50pf9830 multiple times and they were very helpful, even the supervisors/ managers were very professional and cooperative. Maybe it has to do with how you treat them, as I am sure they don't get the salary to be abused???

So basically Mr.Philips (lol) the only way to get around the guide issue in the time being would be to get a set top box from my Cable comp, I guess that doesn't matter as long as I could utilize the HDMI port from the box.

PS. People in Montana just need to relax, and obviously learn how to read disclaimers. I saw the message on my unit to, and just exited for the simple reason I like having a warranty :)

deez...I live on the central coast in California. You are a frigging moron buddy. Keep sucking up to this creep Philips because the two of you are from the same mold. The guy is a liar and and an idiot. Maybe you two are cousins?

Deez202,

Don't step down to his/her level, this person is not even worth the words, I have already reported him to the Forum Gods and they will take care of him, :D

As for Montana_slim2002, you are just showing what kind of person you really are. I feel sorry for you... :o

folks

there is a new policy on AVS:

Do NOT post service menus: instead go here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6435297&&#post6435297

and request a PM

be aware that you can render your display inoperable by attempting to access the service menu: it has happened

Moderator will edit threads to delete service menu info

Repost from another (seemingly dead) thread to this one.......Anyone else seeing this?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bought the 37PF7320A/37 from Costco about 1 month ago. So far, so good - PQ is great, DVD's and HDTV sources look great, even SDTV through Tivo look good.

Phiips support has been great with the two minor issues I encountered.

There is one issue that remains and I wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing it.

Every so often, when Closed Captioning is on, the captions will "freeze" and the TV will fail to respond to any commands. After a moment or so, the picture will "flicker", and the TV will essentially reboot itself. This became more pronounced once the CableCard was installed; each time the CableCard is reinitialized, a diagnostic message is displayed on screen.

I thought it may have something to do with the CableCard at first, but the same thing sometimes occurs when watching the Tivo, when the CableCard is not involved.

Anyone else having this?

-m

What is the Diagnostic/error message that you are getting on screen? I have the Service manual for this set, I maybe able to help?? If it is happening on both inputs, the cablecard AND the TIVO input, then more than likely it maybe the SSB (Small Signal Board) having a issue. That is the board in the set that houses the Captioning software/Eprom chip.

I purchased the 32PF LCD and no where it talked about programing the remote
so I called Philips and got a "sleepy" guy telling me the remote only operates Philips equipment .... BTW does Philips make SAT rec. ???

I remember this monster, The Philips RC4345 remote does NOT operate other devices outside of Philips products. When I worked for Philips I thought this was pretty stupid, but hey, I didn't design them. :confused:

Hope someone here can help? I have the 42pf7320a/37 and utilize both HDMI inputs (dvd & Time Warner STB). On more than one occasion, in the middle of viewing a dvd or cable the picture on my set goes black (reboots?), the audio to my receiver still works fine, no interuption. The pitcure usually reapears within 5-10 seconds. Any ideas on what is causing this? Thanks!

Hope someone here can help? I have the 42pf7320a/37 and utilize both HDMI inputs (dvd & Time Warner STB). On more than one occasion, in the middle of viewing a dvd or cable the picture on my set goes black (reboots?), the audio to my receiver still works fine, no interuption. The pitcure usually reapears within 5-10 seconds. Any ideas on what is causing this? Thanks!

Here is what I have experienced on this:
just FYI, STB= Set Top Box, HDCP= High Definition Copyright Protection

1. It maybe your cables, some low quality HDMI cables will have shorts in them, this causes the TV or the device your hooked to, in your case DVD player or STB, to lose the HDCP handshake, causing the video to black out for a few moments.

2. It maybe the source, but since it is happening on BOTH the DVD and STB then I doubt this, but it is still possible.

3. It could be, but very unlikely the TV's SSB (Small Signal Board).

4. Make sure you don't have any Electrical power cords routed with your HDMI cables. The EMF (Electrical Magnetic Field) generated around these cords will sometimes interfer with the HDCP signal causing this. ALWAYS keep power cords away from ALL video and audio cables. Route and bundle them seperately :o

Are you by chance using DVI to HDMI adapter cables? I've heard of this happening more with them cause the sources send out a HDCP signal to make sure you are not recording the video and the adapter cable sometimes flubs that up. If so, try to use HDMI to HDMI cables, it probably won't happen then.

If all else fails and it keeps doing it, call Philips tech support and ask for the closest ASC (Authorized Service Center) and they can take a look at it for you under warranty :rolleyes:

Thanks I_am_Philips. At first I thought it could be a cord problem as well, when it only happened on the DVD, but then it happened on the STB as well. I have 2 different HDMI to HDMI cords (monster & radio shack) and its happened on both, no DVI adapters used. Its not a frequent occurance, maybe twice in the last 50 hours of viewing. So it may be difficult to repeat while a tech is examining. I've already updated with the most recent firmware (maybe this is the problem...lol). Thanks for the tip on the power cords, I'll have to check on that. I will probably end up calling tech support though, especially since I've only had the tv for a few weeks.

folks

there is a new policy on AVS:

Do NOT post service menus: instead go here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6435297&&#post6435297

and request a PM

be aware that you can render your display inoperable by attempting to access the service menu: it has happened

Moderator will edit threads to delete service menu info

Editing threads that are not offensive just because they have service menus is inexcusable and in a way sensorhip IMHO.

Your members will find other areas to share their insights on AV Technologies if this infringement on free posting becomes prevalent.

Hey, folks are blogging out of these forums in drones daily anyway... I for one will consider finding alternate sources for my AV info now that I know this is happening on AVSForum. I will advise firends and colleagues of this as well.

All in all, I paid $1500 for my LCD TV, its MINE and I can access the darned Service Menu hourly if feel so inclined to do so...If I break it, hey my problemo.

Nobody tells me not to tinker with my car's engine on any of the Automobile forums I belong to because I can break my car!!!! Its ludicrous!

Shame on you AVS for deleting fully legitimate posts...

we have provided a sticky thread ( http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6435297&&#post6435297) to obtain service menus from the pros!

feel free to post your requests :)

Editing threads that are not offensive just because they have service menus is inexcusable and in a way sensorhip IMHO.

Your members will find other areas to share their insights on AV Technologies if this infringement on free posting becomes prevalent.

Hey, folks are blogging out of these forums in drones daily anyway... I for one will consider finding alternate sources for my AV info now that I know this is happening on AVSForum. I will advise firends and colleagues of this as well.

All in all, I paid $1500 for my LCD TV, its MINE and I can access the darned Service Menu hourly if feel so inclined to do so...If I break it, hey my problemo.

Nobody tells me not to tinker with my car's engine on any of the Automobile forums I belong to because I can break my car!!!! Its ludicrous!

Shame on you AVS for deleting fully legitimate posts...

It is a private forum (well sponsored by several comp) and they fully own the rights to limit what can or cannot be posted on here. It's just a PM message away so its not like they discourage it.

Certainly if there were trolls i'm sure you would want them gone or offensive posts deleted. Though this isn't extreme, i'm sure you understand the concept that it's AVSforum's right to prevent or limit unnecessary content.

FYI, i was the one who found the service menu code and shared it with this forum and i'm not upset at the decision.

Montana_Slim2002

if you wish to post on this forum, kindly abide by forum rules

FYI, when i had this TV... I also experienced freezing. I'm not sure if it was related to the Tvguide however the backlight would stay lit even when i turned off the TV. This was after I did the firmware upgrade. Also, the tvguide worked fine for me.

I just wanted to warn all in this thread, IF you enter the "SAM", Service Alignment Mode, on a Philips Television, YOU VOID YOUR WARRANTY! As for the TV Guide option on this set. It is going to be a future option if Philips decides to do so, BUT at this time it is NOT a featured item and Philips will not support it until then. Please be aware once Philips has your Serial # and you have registered your product for warranty purposes, then they have the right to revoke your Warranty if you access this "Service Mode". If you need help on any "supported" features of this TV, please ask me I will try to help you all as best as I can.

Just FYI, Philips support DOES know about this thread, and knows that consumers are accessing this TV Guide option, from what I hear, they are going to disable this now in a future firmware upgrade and not let you know when, So thank you to the people that have pointed this out and now they are going to take it away.. :mad:

:rolleyes:

This is exactly what I expected would happen - that they would remove the option with a firmware upgrade. I'd hate for that to happen, but from their perspective I can see why they'd want to do it, especially with people calling for support on unsupported features!! :mad:

FYI, when i had this TV... I also experienced freezing. I'm not sure if it was related to the Tvguide however the backlight would stay lit even when i turned off the TV. This was after I did the firmware upgrade. Also, the tvguide worked fine for me.

I had that backlight issue on the tv that I returned to Costco. I haven't seen it happen with the current one, but then again the tvguide is still disabled. I can't say whether it's related, but I'll report back if it recurs once I get around to enabling the guide again. BTW, please check your PM.

Hope someone here can help? I have the 42pf7320a/37 and utilize both HDMI inputs (dvd & Time Warner STB). On more than one occasion, in the middle of viewing a dvd or cable the picture on my set goes black (reboots?), the audio to my receiver still works fine, no interuption. The pitcure usually reapears within 5-10 seconds. Any ideas on what is causing this? Thanks!



I have the same problem with my tv, the only difference it's that I'm not using HDMI, I have my cable box connected to AV3, and sometimes (seems to be random) the image goes black, it's more like if the tv turns off, cause even the audio is gone, but I know it's not off cause you can still see the green light on at the left of the tv, and after a few seconds the image and sound come back. Is it rebooting?, is it a bug?, have anyone else experience this?

PS. Did anyone read my post about the PIP?

I have the same problem with my tv, the only difference it's that I'm not using HDMI, I have my cable box connected to AV3, and sometimes (seems to be random) the image goes black, it's more like if the tv turns off, cause even the audio is gone, but I know it's not off cause you can still see the green light on at the left of the tv, and after a few seconds the image and sound come back. Is it rebooting?, is it a bug?, have anyone else experience this?

PS. Did anyone read my post about the PIP?

Ok, I'm going to contact some of my Friends and get Schematics of this TV. When you lose the Image and audio, do you hear any clicks, hums or anything like that?

It sounds like it maybe the SSB (Small Signal Board) or the main pwr supply brd...

As for your PIP question, what is it again, I could not find it in the Thread?? :o

bluesxtreme
FYI, when i had this TV... I also experienced freezing. I'm not sure if it was related to the Tvguide however the backlight would stay lit even when i turned off the TV. This was after I did the firmware upgrade. Also, the tvguide worked fine for me.



You stated you had a set top box and not a CableCard. The conversation in this thread was centered around the TV Guide feature not working with the CableCard because the CableCard is 1 way. The set top box is 2 way so it would only make sense that the TV Guide would work with a set top box.

I_am_Philips, thanks for checking with your buddies, I hope you find something out. At least it doesnt seem to be an HDMI issue. No clicks or hums on my end.

Lepetitemorte: I have my PIP setup with signal splittler attached to my cable with one going straight to the TV and the other to the cable box which I then run a HDMI cable to the TV. It works great for watching 2 football games! I think the options available for PIP are horrible, since it has to be 1 HDMI source and 1 broadcast source. On a positive note, the Dual Screen PIP is awesome!

I_am_Philips, thanks for checking with your buddies, I hope you find something out. At least it doesnt seem to be an HDMI issue. No clicks or hums on my end.

Lepetitemorte: I have my PIP setup with signal splittler attached to my cable with one going straight to the TV and the other to the cable box which I then run a HDMI cable to the TV. It works great for watching 2 football games! I think the options available for PIP are horrible, since it has to be 1 HDMI source and 1 broadcast source. On a positive note, the Dual Screen PIP is awesome!

The PIP problem is an interesting one. I could never get it to work with the first tv that I purchase (always said source not found), but I got it to work on my first try with my new tv. Now I must point out that I'm not using HDMI at all. I used the tv as the one source and a Directivo as the other source. The tivo is connected to the tv using AV2 and it DEFINITELY worked - at least for one day. The next day it wouldn't work so I called Philips support and the person I spoke with told me it ONLY WORKS IF YOU USE HDMI. Now I know for a fact that this is not true, since it definitely worked and I don't use an HDMI connection. I'm guessing that this is another one of those "features" that doesn't work 100% of the time, like the tv guide, so they tell you that it's not a function of the tv.
I REALLY like this tv and the SD picture quality is the best that I've seen with an HD tv, but I've never experienced another tv on the market (and I've had a few) that was as finicky as this particular one. Sometimes I feel like I'm using my PC, rather than just watching tv, since there's so many things to debug.

The PIP problem is an interesting one. I could never get it to work with the first tv that I purchase (always said source not found), but I got it to work on my first try with my new tv. Now I must point out that I'm not using HDMI at all. I used the tv as the one source and a Directivo as the other source. The tivo is connected to the tv using AV2 and it DEFINITELY worked - at least for one day. The next day it wouldn't work so I called Philips support and the person I spoke with told me it ONLY WORKS IF YOU USE HDMI. Now I know for a fact that this is not true, since it definitely worked and I don't use an HDMI connection. I'm guessing that this is another one of those "features" that doesn't work 100% of the time, like the tv guide, so they tell you that it's not a function of the tv.
I REALLY like this tv and the SD picture quality is the best that I've seen with an HD tv, but I've never experienced another tv on the market (and I've had a few) that was as finicky as this particular one. Sometimes I feel like I'm using my PC, rather than just watching tv, since there's so many things to debug.


Just like Austerville, I always get the message "Source not found", I had try a lot of stuff to make PIP work, and so far I found out that PIP works with AV3 and TV source, or HDMI and TV source, nothing else I tried have work for me. My problem with this is, I can either connect my cable box to AV3 or HDMI, and if I use PIP, I would be getting the same program or signal, just in two different windows (unless I use a splitter like Jerry did), but I'm not really interested in watching 2 shows at the same time, what I want to do is watch a show and play videogames at the same time :D

That was actually the question in my other post, wondering if it would be possible to use PIP with my cable box and my PS2, but so far no luck :(

and about the blacking out, just like Austerville, no hums or clicks here, just the tv turning off for a couple of seconds and then turning on again.

Just like Austerville, I always get the message "Source not found", I had try a lot of stuff to make PIP work, and so far I found out that PIP works with AV3 and TV source, or HDMI and TV source, nothing else I tried have work for me. My problem with this is, I can either connect my cable box to AV3 or HDMI, and if I use PIP, I would be getting the same program or signal, just in two different windows (unless I use a splitter like Jerry did), but I'm not really interested in watching 2 shows at the same time, what I want to do is watch a show and play videogames at the same time :D

That was actually the question in my other post, wondering if it would be possible to use PIP with my cable box and my PS2, but so far no luck :(

and about the blacking out, just like Austerville, no hums or clicks here, just the tv turning off for a couple of seconds and then turning on again.

Alrighty, I have some answers. As for the picture blanking out, if it is happening on both component and HDMI inputs, it is a processing problem on the eagle video processing Eprom. In other words if it becomes a very recurrent problem, then contact a ASC (Authorized Service Center), you can find one here:

http://www.bds.philips.com/servicelocator.aspx
:D This will show you all ASC's between 5 to 50 miles of your Zipcode, Try to find one that states it is a PLASMA/LCD Servicer :D

As for the PIP deal, From what I understand, Philips stance on things is that the PIP only works with one of the windows being HDMI. Of course you all know that is not true cause you are seeing it yourselves working other ways too. So, from what I can see in the service manual, the PIP will work if one side is a NON HD capable input, and the other window IS a HD capable input. IE, AV1 and AV2? I don't have one to test at this time, but I'm trying to get one to play with. I spoke to some of my old contacts at Philips and they want me to come back and work there again. Maybe I'll go back part time to get a inside look at things, and then come back here to report them on the hush hush... :o

Try the PIP on different inputs and see if this helps and works. Of Course Tech support is ALWAYS going to go by what they are told and if the DFU (Directions For Use, Owners Manual) says it only works with HDMI, then they are going to say that on the Phone. ;)

Hey Jakej, The answer is no, it is either none or all with this model. The ODS settings in the customer menu are: Menu>Settings>Preferences>Menu Preferences>OSD and then

Minimum = No Volume bar or Input ID On Screen Display
Normal = Volume bar shows up and vanishes 5 to 10 secs after adjusting the
volume, and the Input ID OSD is on constantly.


I didn't think there was and thanks for the confirmation. The "operational hum" is really starting to get to me. The hum goes on and off every few seconds. I notice the same thing with a Philps tube tv I have also. Any chance they share a part that causes this sound?

Alrighty, I have some answers. As for the picture blanking out, if it is happening on both component and HDMI inputs, it is a processing problem on the eagle video processing Eprom. In other words if it becomes a very recurrent problem, then contact a ASC (Authorized Service Center), you can find one here:

http://www.bds.philips.com/servicelocator.aspx
:D This will show you all ASC's between 5 to 50 miles of your Zipcode, Try to find one that states it is a PLASMA/LCD Servicer :D

As for the PIP deal, From what I understand, Philips stance on things is that the PIP only works with one of the windows being HDMI. Of course you all know that is not true cause you are seeing it yourselves working other ways too. So, from what I can see in the service manual, the PIP will work if one side is a NON HD capable input, and the other window IS a HD capable input. IE, AV1 and AV2? I don't have one to test at this time, but I'm trying to get one to play with. I spoke to some of my old contacts at Philips and they want me to come back and work there again. Maybe I'll go back part time to get a inside look at things, and then come back here to report them on the hush hush... :o

Try the PIP on different inputs and see if this helps and works. Of Course Tech support is ALWAYS going to go by what they are told and if the DFU (Directions For Use, Owners Manual) says it only works with HDMI, then they are going to say that on the Phone. ;)


The thing is I tried already everything I could think of, and no luck, I use HDMI in one window, and tried the rest on the other window, everything gave me the message "No Source available", the only one that worked is like I stated before, the TV source, or signal broadcast, and I just refuse to believe that you can only use PIP on this tv using tv source and either HDMI or AV3.

I didn't think there was and thanks for the confirmation. The "operational hum" is really starting to get to me. The hum goes on and off every few seconds. I notice the same thing with a Philps tube tv I have also. Any chance they share a part that causes this sound?

This is another silly thing about this tv. Most people, myself included, like to see confirmation of their volume setting on the screen, but I don't know of too many people who like to see the channel number permanently displayed on the screen. I really don't know why Philips would force this on their customers. If Philips really IS "watching" this thread (as someone mentioned previously) then I'd like to request that they give us the option to see the volume control without having to constantly see the channel number on the display.

This is another silly thing about this tv. Most people, myself included, like to see confirmation of their volume setting on the screen, but I don't know of too many people who like to see the channel number permanently displayed on the screen. I really don't know why Philips would force this on their customers. If Philips really IS "watching" this thread (as someone mentioned previously) then I'd like to request that they give us the option to see the volume control without having to constantly see the channel number on the display.

A BIG Seconded!! The fw upgrade ability of this set should allow ALL of these problems (The PIP feature needs to actually work - easily) an easy solution. Come on Philips, make us proud. (And more satisfied)

Exactly the same thing i wrote about here!!! I dunno why they did that. It definitely factored into my decision to return it.

Philips Bugs & Quirks
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=581571

I don't think that it's extreme enough that it would cause me to return it, but it definitely has a lot of quirks. The one major thing that keeps me from returning it is the fact that the SD picture quality is better than any other tv that I've seen. Since most of my channels are currently SD that factors heavily into my decisions. I'm also hopeful that Philips will eventually listen to our complaints and make these changes in a firmware release soon. Some of them seem like they should be pretty easy to implement, like the OSD complaint for volume control.

I have watched this HD set now for approximately 2 weeks. I have a CableCard installed and have commented several times on the inability to receive any type of programming guide. I am taking the Philips back to Costco for several reasons.

a) The support people at Philips suck. They are arrogant, condescending, and uninformed...especially when it comes to CableCard technology.

b) I bought this set because of the built in tuner and the CableCard features. This set supports current CableCard 1 way technology. Within a few months CableCards will be available with 2 way technology allowing users to access Pay Per View, Movies on Demand, and all the other programming guides etc. that the cable companies offer. The new CableCard 2 way card will not be compatible with the current 1 way card. In other words....you will not be able to use the 2 way card on this or any other set that offers 1 way technology. This set will be obsolete in a few months as it relates to CableCard technology.

c) I have experienced a constant problem with this set turning off in the middle of a program. The backlight stays on, but the set goes dead. If you just turn the set on and back off again when it goes dead you may or may not get back the digital and HD channels. Sometimes you have to unplug the TV and wait a minute or so before plugging it back in. This happens almost daily.

d) The HD channels are very clear. The digital HBO and Showtime channels are ok but there is quite a bit of noise. The 0-99 analog channels are so bad I can hardly bare to watch them. My Panny 42"ED is much clearer on all the analog and digital channels and HD channels on the Panny look nearly as good as the Philips.

e) Ghosting....there is constant ghosting with this set. It is worse in sports but shows up in all digital and HD programming. They have a real glich here. Sometimes it's so bad it smears half way across the screen and is several inches thick.

f) I thought this set would have a better sound but it doesn't. It is marketed as built in Dolby but trust me it is marginal at best sound and you can't remove the speakers. I prefer a set with speakers on the bottom so the footprint from side to side is considerably less.

I picked up one of these sets at Costco the other day, for use with a PC running MCE 2005, and I'm having problems getting the proper resolution to stay set.

The PC has an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and is connected to the first HDMI port via a DVI - HDMI cable.

I had a hard getting full resolution set on the display; since the monitor doesn't seem to handle resolution changes gracefully, I set Windows to reboot before applying a new resolution, and set it to 1280 x 720 as suggested in the manual. On reboot, I was still at 640 x 480. Various other combinations yielded either 640 x 480, or similar low resolutions.

Going into the ATI settings for Display, under Flat Panel I tried setting "Force 1080i", which got an unusable resolution. Setting "Force 780p" worked nicely however -- it switched to 1280 x 720 and the monitor handled the change. This gave a fairly workable display, although (as others have noted) it clips 10 - 20 pixels on each edge.

This would work fine, except that it doesn't seem to "stick" -- shutting off the display (but leaving the PC run) overnight, the next morning there is no picture on HDMI, even though the PC is still running.

Rebooting the PC brings back the display, but the resolution is back at 640 x 480, even with all of the proper settings set. Going back into the ATI Display panel and switching it to 1080i and back to 720p brings it back to 1280 x 720, which works fine (even through reboots) until I leave the display off again for awhile. Screen Saver and monitor power saver settings are both disabled.

I'm kind of at a loss -- I'm guessing that something happens when the display is off that affects plug and play settings, and makes the PC think it should crank the resolution back down. Once this happens, the display won't re-synch when turned back on, leaving a blank screen.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this, other than not shutting off the display?

Thanks!

- Chuck

I am looking for the exact measures of the Philips 32PF9630A/37 WITH THE STAND as I need it to fit in a tight space.
On the web, I only found the measures of the TV without the stand: 36.7 x 20 x 4.7.
Thanks a lot for your help.

I just measured mine. The height with stand is about 21.5 inches and the stand base is about 8.75 inches deep. The width is definitely 36.7 inches.

wendek

I am looking for the exact measures of the Philips 32PF9630A/37 WITH THE STAND as I need it to fit in a tight space.
On the web, I only found the measures of the TV without the stand: 36.7 x 20 x 4.7.
Thanks a lot for your help.


If you have a tight fit you will probably want a set with the speakers on the bottom instead of the sides. The speakers on this set are not removable and need appx 6" more room side to side.

Montana_Slim,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. In the interest of equality, I wanted to post my experiences with the same TV.

- This set is not advertised with any type of TV Guide. I did enable it through the "secret" service menu, but found it to be half-baked and quickly disabled it. No harm, no foul. Tivo to the rescue.

a) Support at Philips has been great. They have quickly and efficiently handled my calls, escalated where needed, and gotten me answers in a very respectable time,

b) There are NO CableCard 2-way sets available now.

c) I've had the set "reboot" itself a few times - seemingly related to Closed Captioning. When this happens on content viewed through my Tivo, the reboot simply displays a CableCard initialization on screen. However, when watching CableCard HDTV content, the channel needs to be reselected for the video to re-appear. This one does seem to be an issue that Philips should work on. However, in my case, as the CableCard is a secondary Tuner, I can live with it.

d) Sounds like you have a bad cable feed. All of my channels are good and this set shows SD better than others (from the reviews I have read).

e) Perhaps your set is haunted, but mine doesn't seem to have the same issues. Just watched Batman Begins last night, no ghosts to be seen (a few bats though).

f) Audio goes through my Home Theatre system, can't comments on this.

Good luck with your next set.

-m

I have watched this HD set now for approximately 2 weeks. I have a CableCard installed and have commented several times on the inability to receive any type of programming guide. I am taking the Philips back to Costco for several reasons.

a) The support people at Philips suck. They are arrogant, condescending, and uninformed...especially when it comes to CableCard technology.

b) I bought this set because of the built in tuner and the CableCard features. This set supports current CableCard 1 way technology. Within a few months CableCards will be available with 2 way technology allowing users to access Pay Per View, Movies on Demand, and all the other programming guides etc. that the cable companies offer. The new CableCard 2 way card will not be compatible with the current 1 way card. In other words....you will not be able to use the 2 way card on this or any other set that offers 1 way technology. This set will be obsolete in a few months as it relates to CableCard technology.

c) I have experienced a constant problem with this set turning off in the middle of a program. The backlight stays on, but the set goes dead. If you just turn the set on and back off again when it goes dead you may or may not get back the digital and HD channels. Sometimes you have to unplug the TV and wait a minute or so before plugging it back in. This happens almost daily.

d) The HD channels are very clear. The digital HBO and Showtime channels are ok but there is quite a bit of noise. The 0-99 analog channels are so bad I can hardly bare to watch them. My Panny 42"ED is much clearer on all the analog and digital channels and HD channels on the Panny look nearly as good as the Philips.

e) Ghosting....there is constant ghosting with this set. It is worse in sports but shows up in all digital and HD programming. They have a real glich here. Sometimes it's so bad it smears half way across the screen and is several inches thick.

f) I thought this set would have a better sound but it doesn't. It is marketed as built in Dolby but trust me it is marginal at best sound and you can't remove the speakers. I prefer a set with speakers on the bottom so the footprint from side to side is considerably less.

nonliteral,

I've got the ATI 9600 and am having the same probs with my phips. My next effort to fix this will be installing Powerstrip and adjusting the resolution timings/resolution that way. I will probably manually install a widescreen monitor driver like the Sony WDM-900. This setup has worked well for my PJ.

If anyone has done this already, your PowerStrip settings for the 32" phips would be much appreciated.

Good luck

My cable was out for about 2 weeks due to hurricane Wilma and was just turned on again last night. Well, today I tried out the PIP again and guess what... it worked!!! I'm using AV2 with a Directivo and Comcast cable on my coax input. I'm not sure why Philips says that it doesn't work, but today it worked.... just in time for football. Now whether it will work tomorrow - that's another story...

WhaleDriver,

I just stumbled into a thread over on TheGreenButton on this topic -- apparently it is a bug in the ATI Catalyst drivers past version 5.6, and affects all digital connections (DVI or HDMI) on Radeon cards. ATI has acknowledged the problem but has yet to issue a fix.

The workarounds are to drop back to the 5.6 drivers, unplug and replug the connection when it happens, or use two hot-key configuration settings to change the resolution and change it back.

I've been doing the latter already, but I think I'll give the 5.6 drivers a try; apparently most of the difference in later drivers is gaming performance, which i don't care about in this application.

I'd post a link to the thread over on TGB, but I don't have enough posts here to post a link. The thread title is "ATI RADEON X850 looses monitor signal" in the Display Hardware and Drivers section.

- Chuck

My cable was out for about 2 weeks due to hurricane Wilma and was just turned on again last night. Well, today I tried out the PIP again and guess what... it worked!!! I'm using AV2 with a Directivo and Comcast cable on my coax input. I'm not sure why Philips says that it doesn't work, but today it worked.... just in time for football. Now whether it will work tomorrow - that's another story...

Ok, Here is how your PIP should work if you have firmware Version 1.0.8 or 1.0.7
If you do not have these versions, then upgrade via the philips site at:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?sct=LCD_LARGE_30_40_SU&cat=FLAT_TV_CA&grp=TV_GR&scy=US&ctn=32PF7320A/37&slg=AEN&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

Otherwise, here is what works for what input:

AV1 = ATSC Tuner, Digital OTA Broadcast channels only, not analog
AV2 = AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, ATSC Tuner
AV3 = AV2, Side, NTSC AND ATSC Tuner channels
HDMI 1 & 2 = AV2, Side, NTSC AND ATSC Tuner channels
Side = AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, ATSC Tuner channels
ATSC Digital Channels = AV1, AV2, AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, Side
NTSC Analog Channels = AV3, HDMI 1 & 2

Let me know if you have problems with this, also the firmware version you are using if the above does not work... :rolleyes:

I_am_Philips,

Thanks for the great info- I purchased a 32pf9630A a little over a month ago. I love the set, but am also experiencing odd quirks (including the PIP issue- I will try your solutions tomorrow). For instance, the set does not remember my personal picture settings on HDMI 1 (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD STB/DVR from Cablevision)- it always defaults to "Soft". Yet, the set remembers my preferences for the other inputs. I was referred to an ASC, who came over and is now awaiting delivery on a part.

Also, for some reason, the Active Control demo does not register/detect any motion when the source is the HD box (regardless of whether I switched from HDMI to component). It registers motion from other sources, like VCR and DVD (using one of the component inputs). Does that mean there is no motion compensation when watching the HD box? According to Philips support, they were surprised to discover the same situation on their set as well, thereby concluding it works as designed. That seems odd to me, considering that Pixel Plus 2 HD (9630A) was designed for HD sources (as per my understanding).

Also, does it make sense to professionally calibrate the tv? When the ASC tech was over, he said that calibration was for rear projectors and not LCDs. But I would like to improve the black levels if possible....

- Eric

I_am_Philips,

Thanks for the great info- I purchased a 32pf9630A a little over a month ago. I love the set, but am also experiencing odd quirks (including the PIP issue- I will try your solutions tomorrow). For instance, the set does not remember my personal picture settings on HDMI 1 (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD STB/DVR from Cablevision)- it always defaults to "Soft". Yet, the set remembers my preferences for the other inputs. I was referred to an ASC, who came over and is now awaiting delivery on a part.

Also, for some reason, the Active Control demo does not register/detect any motion when the source is the HD box (regardless of whether I switched from HDMI to component). It registers motion from other sources, like VCR and DVD (using one of the component inputs). Does that mean there is no motion compensation when watching the HD box? According to Philips support, they were surprised to discover the same situation on their set as well, thereby concluding it works as designed. That seems odd to me, considering that Pixel Plus 2 HD (9630A) was designed for HD sources (as per my understanding).

Also, does it make sense to professionally calibrate the tv? When the ASC tech was over, he said that calibration was for rear projectors and not LCDs. But I would like to improve the black levels if possible....

- Eric

Ok, Lets look at each issue:
1. The picture settings not staying where you left them on HDMI 1
(I have heard of this and think it is a problem on the SSB, Small Signal Board,
which is probably the part they ordered for you.)
2. Motion on active control
(There is less motion compensation needed on a HD signal due to the chroma
and Luminence being seperated, ie, your color and brightness are not combined
on a single cable, like composite video. It is also going to depend on what you
are watching. IE, action movies with fast moving images will get more Motion
comp than scenes with little action. I don't think this is a issue with the TV.)
3. Black levels,
(All I can say is if the ASC told you that you don't have to set black levels on these
TV's, they haven't set many of them up for high end customers. I almost always
have to set up black levels with my AVIA calibration disc. You can learn more
about those here > http://www.ovationmultimedia.com/avia.html
If the AVIA disc sounds too complicated, then I suggest using a THX Optimizer
on a THX certified DVD. Examples: Finding Nemo, Toy Story, The Incredibles.
You can learn more about using the THX optimizer here:
http://www.thx.com/mod/products/dvd/optimizerIntro.html

Let me know if this helped any :D

I hope the PIP list above helped some people, This is a thorn in the side of many
people that own these sets. It took my 2 days and I looked at 4 different models to come up with that info :confused:

I'm having an unusual problem.. I have a Panasonic CD/DVD player (mini system) on AV1 using component cables. (TiVo on AV2) Whenever i use the DVD player, with disk inserted or not, the picture shifts to the left 1/2 to 1 inch. There is a vertical black bar of blank space on the right hand side of the screen, that seems to vary in width up to an inch.
Adjusting picture on either the DVD or on the TV does nothing to fix this that i have found yet.

Has anyone seen this? Could this be a TV problem or a wiring/hook up problem?
thanks for your time,
Wendy

use the circle with the OK button in the middle and adjust the picture left or right until the screen is filled properly.

I_am_Philips,

Thanks again for the response- I really appreciate the fact that you take the time to help us all out.

Regarding (1), I think you are right- they are going to replace the SSB (I just thought it weird that the set remembers my personal settings, it just always defaults HDMI 1 to "Soft", but the other inputs default back to my personal settings).

Regarding (2), the motion (no matter how fast), doesn't register on the Active Control demo when using the STB. It is not the input (HDMI1), because I switched the box to component and it still did not register motion. It registers motion on the other inputs (AV1 and 3- VCR and DVD respectively).

Regarding (3), I will look into the calibration- thanks for the ideas.

Regarding PIP, with HDMI1 as source 1, there is no signal on either AV1 (VCR) or AV3 (DVD- component). I have the digital audio input assigned to AV3. I do not have an aerial, so am not getting any signal on tv. Think I should ask the ASC to look into it?

I have to say I do like the pixel plus 2 HD. I was driving my wife crazy the first week toggling it on and off :)

- Eric

use the circle with the OK button in the middle and adjust the picture left or right until the screen is filled properly.

Thanks, bluesxtreme. It worked as you already know. As i learn this new TV, i'm finding that i like it more and more. Too bad it's an inch too wide to fit into my Living room entertainment center.. So it has to be in my bedroom.

happy sigh..
~wendek

Can anyone help me get to the guide for program information. The other thread is non-responsive. Just PM me if you can.

do you mean television programming? titantv dot com is a good place to check out.

I_am_Philips,

Thanks again for the response- I really appreciate the fact that you take the time to help us all out.

Regarding (1), I think you are right- they are going to replace the SSB (I just thought it weird that the set remembers my personal settings, it just always defaults HDMI 1 to "Soft", but the other inputs default back to my personal settings).

Regarding (2), the motion (no matter how fast), doesn't register on the Active Control demo when using the STB. It is not the input (HDMI1), because I switched the box to component and it still did not register motion. It registers motion on the other inputs (AV1 and 3- VCR and DVD respectively).

Regarding (3), I will look into the calibration- thanks for the ideas.

Regarding PIP, with HDMI1 as source 1, there is no signal on either AV1 (VCR) or AV3 (DVD- component). I have the digital audio input assigned to AV3. I do not have an aerial, so am not getting any signal on tv. Think I should ask the ASC to look into it?

I have to say I do like the pixel plus 2 HD. I was driving my wife crazy the first week toggling it on and off :)

- Eric

Cool,

Glad to hear it helped some, as for the PIP issue, There is nothing wrong from what I found. In post 237 I put the folowing for what inputs work with each input,
Please look below:

Left window Right Window
AV1.................ATSC Tuner, Digital OTA Broadcast channels only, not analog
AV2.................AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, ATSC Tuner
AV3.................AV2, Side, NTSC AND ATSC Tuner channels
HDMI 1 & 2.......AV2, Side, NTSC AND ATSC Tuner channels
Side................AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, ATSC Tuner channels
ATSC tuner......AV1, AV2, AV3, HDMI 1 & 2, Side
NTSC tuner......AV3, HDMI 1 & 2


So as you can see for HDMI inputs you can either have AV2, Side, or either tuner channels types on the right window of PIP. Your scenerio follows this list, so I would assume it is ok. Philips States that the unit ONLY works PIP with HDMI, but that is not the case as you can have PIP with AV1 & ATSC channels, OR AV2 & AV3, OR the side input & AV3. From what I have found, (testing 3 different models for 2 days, 7320a, 9630a, 9830a) This is how the PIP worked for all of them with Firmware Versions 1.0.7 and 1.0.8

I_am_Philips,

Is it odd for PIP to work this way rather than permitting any two sources? This is my first set with PIP, so I do not know whether it is nornal for tvs to only accept certain sources. At least the STB supports PIP within itself (i.e. I can watch two cablebox channels).

- Eric

Re: 32PF7320A

I have had a problem with the last slide freezing on the screen with the slide show xml with background music playing - and not restarting. Anyone know the cause? I have gorgeous Wide jpg's from Webshots on a USB drive that look great. It just won't run continuously. Anyone know a work around?

Thanks.

So, for those that have this television, would you recommend it over the Sharp Aquos 32" LCD? I'm currently trying to decide between this one and the Aquos, and can't make a decision.

The Samsung was briefly in the running too, but I think I'd take the Sharp over the Samsung.

So, for those that have this television, would you recommend it over the Sharp Aquos 32" LCD? I'm currently trying to decide between this one and the Aquos, and can't make a decision.

The Samsung was briefly in the running too, but I think I'd take the Sharp over the Samsung.

Hate to reply to my own post, but after a little more researching on this forum, it sounds like I should go for the Sharp, if I can afford the difference in price. Would this be an accurate statement?