this bug was mentioned I think in the 42" thread.
If you set the HDMI label to STB folks have said it always reverts back to soft so just change the label to something else and it sounds like the settings will then stick.

Your awesome! I changed it from STB to Cable and the "Personal" setting now sticks. I'm off to read the 42" thread to see what other goodies are in there.

Your awesome! I changed it from STB to Cable and the "Personal" setting now sticks. I'm off to read the 42" thread to see what other goodies are in there.

Well I guess "personal" is better than "soft", but wouldn't it be better if the TV kept the last selected setting? Sometimes I like "natural" but the TV always switches to "personal", so I still have to play with the settings each time I turn the TV on.

Well I guess "personal" is better than "soft", but wouldn't it be better if the TV kept the last selected setting? Sometimes I like "natural" but the TV always switches to "personal", so I still have to play with the settings each time I turn the TV on.

Interesting point... I never tested whether the TV stuck to the last selected or just defaulted to "Personal". Ultimately the best scenario would be to stick to the last selected. Hopefully this will be addressed in a future firmware update.

Has anyone had this issue with the TV.

I was watching TV and the sound continued (through my stereo and HDTIVO)
and the picture went complelety black. Nothing. Was unable to turn TV off or anything via remote or TV itself. I had to unplug the TV to reset it. Works fine again but it was really weird.

I also notice issues sometimes when I switch from my Xbox360 to my DirectV Receiver (HDMI). Iget get some blue/pink static that comes in and out for a few seconds for a few minutes but it doens't last long.

Has anyone had this issue with the TV.

I was watching TV and the sound continued (through my stereo and HDTIVO)
and the picture went complelety black. Nothing. Was unable to turn TV off or anything via remote or TV itself. I had to unplug the TV to reset it. Works fine again but it was really weird.

I also notice issues sometimes when I switch from my Xbox360 to my DirectV Receiver (HDMI). Iget get some blue/pink static that comes in and out for a few seconds for a few minutes but it doens't last long.

You have just experienced the black screen of death issue, which is well reported on the Philips 42PF7320A message board. Apparently the electronics are the same in both 50 and 42 inch models.

had the black screen of death as well. at least a few times.
:(

tv may have to go back.

few times? Really?

I read some of the other thread (42" version) and it sounds like it is a power issue which triggers it. Not sure how that works but weird that this TV cna't handle it but others can.

I guess I am still hoping to keep this TV. I like it overall and the price was great. I really don't want to return it and have to lug it all the way back and pick up another TV. Pain....

Have had this TV since 1/29, and watch a lot of DVDs and TV through cable (with no box). All of a sudden the dreaded black screen happened twice last night when I was watching a Seinfeld DVD. In the 42 inch thread people think it might be related with the handshake between STB and TV but I don't have a STB. I must have skipped over the discussion about power but is it referring to line volage stability?

When this happens the screen would go black for 5 seconds during which there is no sound either. Then the sound will recover and 2 more seconds later the picture reappears, in the same superzoom format. This is weird and a serious problem.

My black screen would never recover without a complete power off (via unplugging it). It happened when I was watching American Dad off my HD Directv STB Tivo. Had been watching for 10+ minutes with no input changes or anything. It has only happened once so far. And I switch between TV & Xbox quite often. So I am just playing the wait and see game.



The other thread one poseter mentioned he got a Monster power leveler or something and since then he never saw the problem again.

Folks

I Jumped ship. I went to Best Buy and stood in front of the Philips right next to the Pioneer 50 inch plasma. It was very evident that the quality was noticeable. The Pioneer was about $1K more. So I decided to go to COSTCO and see what else they had. They now sale the latest Panasonic HDTV ready panel. WOW what a difference for only $200 more. The colors were consistent, the brightness and sharpness was excellent. It had more inputs than the Philips and they only feature I would miss is the USB port.

I kept saying that this Philips was great for the price, I was wrong. The Panasonic is an excellent unit and the price is right.

I jumped ship also and returned the Philly for the Panasonic TH50PM50U (last one in stock). I got it home and the set has issues with the HDMI input (green flashes). The set does have a really nice picture though. I will have to return this for the Vizio P50HDM, since this is the only 50 incher in stock at the moment.

I am also in the "wait and see" boat, because I generally like the picture and the few annoying things are probably going to be fixed in future firmware updates. I hope Philips lives up to the standard being the fourth largest plasma tv maker. If there more serious problems like the black screen, happens in the future, costco's return policy is comforting to have. So far it only happend twice within the same hour.

I had the TV hooked with cable direct no cable box or anything. I would get the HD channels like NBC, ABC etc at 116.1, 116.2 and worked great. Suddenly now there are no HD channels????? I did a install again and this time the Digital channels found are 0. So i am not sure why this happened? Buddy next to my house (has the same TV) still gets the channels so am not sure if TV is an issue????

I have had the Philips since it went on sale at Costco and am still in the wait and see whether I will keep it. I have noticed this irritating humming or buzzing sound coming from the back top of the TV. My husband thought I had the sound up to high, but I turned the sound down completely and muted and the thing still humms. It drives me nuts. We connected a surround sound system to it and you can't hear the hum when the sound is up - but it seems this should not be happening. Anyone else have this problem? Oh, and I too have seen the screen go blank a few times for a few seconds.

Fyi...a crappy OTA antenna is only worse it that it might not pick up as many channels as a good antenna...with a digital OTA channel, if it comes in, it comes in...there's no better or worse...
I love how people can say this and no one attacks them, but others maintain that a $200 HDMI cable actually gives superior picture quality as compared to a $6 one. :rolleyes:

I have had the Philips since it went on sale at Costco and am still in the wait and see whether I will keep it. I have noticed this irritating humming or buzzing sound coming from the back top of the TV. My husband thought I had the sound up to high, but I turned the sound down completely and muted and the thing still humms. It drives me nuts. We connected a surround sound system to it and you can't hear the hum when the sound is up - but it seems this should not be happening. Anyone else have this problem? Oh, and I too have seen the screen go blank a few times for a few seconds.

WHOA! We had the exact same problem with our Philips 50" plasma, exact!

Call Philips ASAP and get a case started. It took two months for me to get Philips to admit it is a problem. They kept having me send it to different repair shops only to tell me that the buzzing was "allowable", and that they could never reproduce the sudden blank screen. TWO MONTHS of dealing with this crap until they finally admitted to me it is a power supply problem. The only reason they caved in was because I went to the repair shop one day and found two other TV's just like mine with the same problem. I arranged to come back the day the Philips rep was in the area and confronted him. I have to wait TWO MORE WEEKS until the part shows up and gets installed.

Fortunately for me, the place I bought it from has superior customer service, and is letting me return it for a different plasma. I won't get another Philips. Several people seem happy with their Philips plasmas, so my case is not typical. I am sad though, I really liked the PQ.

-Mike

WHOA! We had the exact same problem with our Philips 50" plasma, exact!

Call Philips ASAP and get a case started. It took two months for me to get Philips to admit it is a problem. They kept having me send it to different repair shops only to tell me that the buzzing was "allowable", and that they could never reproduce the sudden blank screen. TWO MONTHS of dealing with this crap until they finally admitted to me it is a power supply problem. The only reason they caved in was because I went to the repair shop one day and found two other TV's just like mine with the same problem. I arranged to come back the day the Philips rep was in the area and confronted him. I have to wait TWO MORE WEEKS until the part shows up and gets installed.

Fortunately for me, the place I bought it from has superior customer service, and is letting me return it for a different plasma. I won't get another Philips. Several people seem happy with their Philips plasmas, so my case is not typical. I am sad though, I really liked the PQ.

-Mike

Why not let them fix it? It is a shame that you are returning it after going throught the trouble of finding the problem. In any case, what TV are you considering as a replacement?

After reading scurva and MJ's post, I tried to listen for any buzzing noises with sound muted and I found that I could hear it if I put my ear on top of the vents on the top edge of the TV. It is low enough and not noticeable one foot away from the vent. The noise is not from the speakers, nor does it sounds like fan noises from a computer. It is similar to the noise from some old fluorescent lights. So it could very well be from the power supply or a transformer if there is one in this TV. I am curious if this is connected to the blank screen issue since someone on the 42 inch thread attributes it to voltage fluctuations. I personally will not call Philips yet becaue the buzzing is too low to be a problem and the blank screen only happened twice during the same night so far (knock on wood).

I personally will not call Philips yet becaue the buzzing is too low to be a problem and the blank screen only happened twice during the same night so far (knock on wood).

Philips is playing completely dumb on this 'black screen' issue. I have called them twice on it and this past weekend returned my 42'' TV for a replacement. I encourage everyone who has seen the 'black screen' to call and tell them about it immediately. If they don't believe it is happening to more than a handful of people they will never treat it like a real problem.

I was re-watching The Sopranos Season 5, episode 4 last night. Funny thing. Chris and the gang made a hit on a truck, full of 50" Philips plasmas. Kinda funny.

Why not let them fix it? It is a shame that you are returning it after going throught the trouble of finding the problem. In any case, what TV are you considering as a replacement?

It is also a shame I was forced to play this stupid song and dance with Philips for two months. I'm not rich, so when I drop $3K on a TV, it has to work exactly right. When it fails out of the box, I don't want it repaired, I want a new one. I bought the TV on December 14th. I have had it a total of EIGHT days in my home. It has been in one shop or another the rest of the time. My $3K investment is floating around from shop to shop while I have nothing. Philips wouldn't even offer me a loaner. After spending over two months having Philips tell me the TV was fine, I am done. Yeah, it's a shame also sine I liked the PQ.

As far as a replacement, I have no idea right now. I'm doing some research here on this site, and I'll look elsewhere. The place we bought the TV from has many to pick from. I'm leaning towards Hitachi, but we'll see.

llnyc.......good to hear your Philips is a good one. I know mine is an exception. You could hear the buzzing from over 10' away on mine. Philips had the nerve to tell me it was within acceptable limits.

-Mike

sadly, i will also be returning my philips. having to cycle power at least once a week is not acceptable.

bummer, the price was great.

gonna try the toshiba.

i am sorry to hear of the problems some of you are having....i too bought my 50pf7220a with the costco coupon deal.....as of today i haven't had any issues, just a marvelous picture

lol i haven't even had a chance to plug mine in...we haven't moved in our new place yet, so its just sitting in the box at wifey's parent's house.

reading all the pros and negs of the tv have me DYING to see how mine turns out!!

To those of you who are experiencing the 'black screen' issue and/or audio dropouts, a forum member here has been kind enough to put together a short but extensive survey. Both 42" and 50" versions of our model as well as other Philips models are included in the survey. Nerdzoo has done a fine job of putting it together and maybe this could be a start in the right direction so Philips will address this problem.

Here is the link for the survey.....

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=310171912834

I've commented on this a few times so here goes again. When the TV set wont turn off as you describe its because the PDP has gone into protection mode. To see exactly why this is happening you need to look in the error buffer(log) and interpret the codes. The error buffer maintains the last five errors(if any) the PDP has encountered. Instructions on how to read and interpret this are contained in the service manual as well as how to gain entry into the service mode or CSM menu. If you cant or dont want to do this its very easy to have Philips schedule a service tech to come to your home and diagnose it as long as you are still under warrranty or extended warranty. The service techs used are the same for other brands of plasma and lcd's. I'm surprised no one experiencing this reported problem has done this yet! The diagnosis takes seconds to conduct . This is the only way you will be able to tell what your problem is, if you do in fact have one. The Survey although well intentioned isnt going to bring about a timely resolution , an individual Service call will. In addition you can review the reasons for issue of various firmware upgrades. And role back your existing firmware to an earlier version. Your manual has instructions on how to do this. Remember firmware upgrades are issued to resolve certain issue, issues that you may not be experiencing, If thats the case dont upgrade you dont need to " If it ain't broke dont fix it". I have never had this problem but if I did I would have a tech check it out yesterday and not wait .From what I can see all of you should still be under the manufacturers warranty as your panels are less then one year old. If you find no errors reported then its not a hardware problem with the PDP the internal VIPER software diganoses system conditions in real time and reports the variables. Rather a handshake problem with your source device(s)or a local environmental issue (power, static STB or SAT configuration ,cabling signal etc.) Looking forward to hearing about your problem being resolved. :)

If you cant or dont want to do this its very easy to have Philips schedule a service tech to come to your home and diagnose it as long as you are still under warrranty or extended warranty. The service techs used are the same for other brands of plasma and lcd's. I'm surprised no one experiencing this reported problem has done this yet! The diagnosis takes seconds to conduct .

SH-YAH right! I have had three different shops look at my TV. Each time they sent a tech out, I got the "We'll have to bring this back to our shop to check it out" line from them. Off my TV went at that time for upwards of two weeks each time. The last time it left was the Monday after the Super Bowl. No sign of it coming home anytime soon according to the guy at the shop it is in now.

I'm buying a new Panasonic on Tuesday. I'm done with Philips.

-Mike

SH-YAH right! I have had three different shops look at my TV. Each time they sent a tech out, I got the "We'll have to bring this back to our shop to check it out" line from them. Off my TV went at that time for upwards of two weeks each time. The last time it left was the Monday after the Super Bowl. No sign of it coming home anytime soon according to the guy at the shop it is in now.

I'm buying a new Panasonic on Tuesday. I'm done with Philips.

-Mike
Actually it is right. If the service techs in your area do not do home repairs there not going to do in home repairs on any brands. And by the way your not the first person from that area of the country who has reported the service techs lack of willingness to provide in home service. I just had my ambilight upgraded and they did it in my home in just over 48 hours from my call. In my area in home repair is the rule, both for my Philips warranty and extended CC warranty. :) I would imagine more rural areas are different from downstate NY.

I've been following this forum since January; got my Philips 50" the first day of the Costco special but don't have many hours on it. I only have it connected to an antenna for OTA HD and to a Sony DVD player with component input; still running original firmware.

Thought I'd post my experience with the black screen of death: Twice while on DVD and once when turning it on (to DVD); powered off by the remote, then back on; got picture, but it was offset about 1/3 of the screen and the color was mostly red or blue; found that by switching the DVD player out of progressive mode that the picture came back fine, then switched back to progressive and all was well.

Preliminary results from the survey can be found at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=191283467998

I've had to disable the responses to the open-ended questions because by not doing so, the responses to the email question would have been revealed.

If you still want to participate in the survey, please follow the link below.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=310171912834

When I watch 2 shows via the PIP option, and when I switch to the second picture/right screen, the sound still plays the first picture/left screen.

Is that suppose to happen? I assumed when I switched between the different pictures in PIP mode, that the sound would play on the picture I chose. :confused:

"..first time writer, long time listener...love the show"

I too am having issues with my PIP but I need to get something off my chest:

THIS TV ROCKS!!!! I love it. I have called Phillips to answer some questions on it and all it took was for me to say "Operator" into the phone when the promps come up and it gets me to a tech rather quickly.

I got a great deal on this set two weeks ago since it was the last one Costco had they wanted to get rid of it.

I have my HDMI1 - cable
HDMI2- PVR (HTPC)
AV1 - DVD

I just can't get any of the inputs to display on the right side window (let alone audio). I think there's a setting I'm missing some where.

Thoughts??

(Side bar: Wowway HD Digital Cable service and this thing rocks. The non HD channels aren't the best..but I didn't buy this TV to watch those channels. )

Jgonz3 :D

Anyone had problems mounting tv on wall using tv stand bolt holes?

Anyone had problems mounting tv on wall using tv stand bolt holes? I saw some have done so but the bolts are so small!!!

I used the small bolts for the stand and it is still standing strong !!!

LOL
I think I am way to paranoid for that and would not be able to enjoy the TV for thoughts of destruction!!
LOL
I found the mount that will work, but now i found that the studs above my fireplace are turned flat and run horizontally. There are 3 of them. Guess im going to have to open the wall and add some king (cripple) studs for verticle support. Someone told me i could just use the top bolt holes of the mounting wall plate and use anchors for the bottom holes to bolt it to the drywall. I dont think so!!!!!
Any suggestions?

I'm having a serious prob with mine. Suddenly, my tv can no longer show the HD picture for our NBC affiliate. All it shows is a highly scrambled digital mess. The audio comes through fine. If I change the channel to another station's HD signal, that signal works fine. But when I go back to NBC, it'll show the last couple of frames from whatever the other channel was, repeating them over and over and over rapidly. Very weird. It does not remember images from non-hd sources. I have this problem whether it's the cable supplied signal, or OTA.

The guy at the NBC station says that their signal is just fine, though they did do some firmware upgrades last Wed. night (the night my tv went nutz).

I have a service request into Philips. Let's see how they do.

Guys
I am a new owner (a few days old), picked up this set @Costco with the deal.
My first impressions:
HD:
Great! Not blown away as I was expecting, but still great! I am coming from a 27" JVC CRT so i was fully expecting to be blown away, but am not (yet).

SD:
Most are grainy, although I expected that.

DVD:
I haven't tried too many yet, just watched Serendipity over the weekend and it was good!. Again, not blown away, just good.

OTA:
I have to still set this up, i am hoping to be 'blown away' by this one.
I need help on this one, antenna-web shows that i need a Large Directional Amplified Antenna, my locals are just under 40 miles away.
Ppl who have OTA working, can you pls chime in and let me know what antenna works for you and distances from towers?
And i assume it is just a coax from antenna to back of tv right?

So far, I haven't had any 'black screen' issues or any other issues yet.

Next action item is to use Avia to do the Video calibration.
Will post the results/settings.

Thanks
KG

Btw, i have set brightness,contrast <=50 for now, is that low enough for the break-in period? How long is the break-in period?

Longtime Lurker, first time poster! haha

I stumbled across this:

flattv
philips
com
/
2K5 Upgrade

(Add "." between each line and remove carriage returns, Can't post links as a first time poster)

Seems like it is a new software version

I loaded it (skeptically) to address the menu pop up issues I had and it worked! Seems to have fixed the menu issue I had. I have also noticed that the video drops I had seen before have not reoccurred. Also, looks like they finally listened and fixed the volume bar. I'd be curious to know if others have same experience. Maybe this upgrade is the upgrade we've been looking for!!!

Longtime Lurker, first time poster! haha

I stumbled across this:

flattv
philips
com
/
2K5 Upgrade

(Add "." between each line and remove carriage returns, Can't post links as a first time poster)

Seems like it is a new software version

I loaded it (skeptically) to address the menu pop up issues I had and it worked! Seems to have fixed the menu issue I had. I have also noticed that the video drops I had seen before have not reoccurred. Also, looks like they finally listened and fixed the volume bar. I'd be curious to know if others have same experience. Maybe this upgrade is the upgrade we've been looking for!!!

Hunh? Like this?

http://flattv.philips.com/2K5_Upgrade

Doesn't work.

?

Remove the space

flattv.philips.com/2K5Upgrade

and it does work!

Remove the space

flattv.philips.com/2K5Upgrade

and it does work!

Ahh ok. I'll check it out tonight and I'll post the results. Thanks!

Yeah, I'll post my results too. I've got the software on my USB stick at work, can't wait to get home.

Does anyone know how to get the firmware back to the factory version?

I just got off the phone with Philips. I called to ask them to add a couple of items to a future software upgrade:

1. When the menu preferences are set at minimum, a giant menu covers 2/3 of the screen when a channel is entered, and it stays on the screen for a good 5 seconds or so. I asked them to reduce the unnecessary giant menu size and the time it stays on the screen.

2. When the menu prefs are set to normal (or maximum, I forget) and the channels changed directly, the channel number stays on the screen for at least a few minutes, maybe longer (I think someone here said 10 minutes). That's crazy, and I asked them to fix that.

Perhaps if a few other folks here could call them with the same suggestions, we can get these items fixed. They'll ask you for the model # (50PF7220A/37) and your serial number, so have those handy.

1-888-PHILIPS

If you do it online, they'll just refer you to call.

Just downloaded the new update, and read the text file. Looks like they took my suggestions! COOL! Hopefully, this update fixes the problems that I ran into last week.

The update worked just fine. I even got one of my HD channels back after the update. However, I still have the problem with the tv not always turning completely off, and when that happens, you can't change channels or do much of anything until it's unplugged for a 1/2 hour or so. I wasn't expecting a firmware update to fix that however.

The new software worked for me too (I actually have a 42PF9630A). I love having the volume bar visible! I posted the link in a new thread, and am surprised more people haven't chimed in with their experience. I haven't seen the black screen issue yet, (I'm hoping it is gone for good!).

The new software worked for me too (I actually have a 42PF9630A). I love having the volume bar visible! I posted the link in a new thread, and am surprised more people haven't chimed in with their experience. I haven't seen the black screen issue yet, (I'm hoping it is gone for good!).

Installed new firmware...Took TVGOS out...What kind od idiots are running the tech. department....

I reinstalled the older version...

I get my volume bar by adjusting the OSD to normal...

Looks like it's been linked on the official product support page now:

Philips Support (http://www.usasupport.philips.com/productDocuments.html?ProductCode=50PF7220A/37&subCat=PLASMA_EXTRA_LARGE_GT43_SU_US_CONSUMER)

Can't wait to give it a try!

for the people that still have this are you happy?

I have the older vizio 42"HDE and I am getting some blue retention.

I just went to Costoco today to look at this tv.

Here is what they had in stock

Philips 42" - forget the exact model, but the 42" version of the 50"
Philips 50" - 50pf7220a
Vizio 50" P50HDM
Vizio 42" P42HDTV10a
Panasonic 50" - TH50PM50U
Maxent 42" ?

I like the idea of the integrated tuners, but doesnt really matter because I have comcast 6412 dvr with HD.

I prefer a tv with detachable speakers, but care more about PQ.

I will be running comcast cable, xbox360, and progressive scan dvd for now.

I have a av receiver for sound.

I thought I had it down to the Philips 50" and the Vizio 50" but now I am not sure.

Thanks for any input

Mike

Just got off the phone with my local Philips tv-repair guy. He suggested that my BS issues may be related to signal strength. A recap:

Lately (the last month or so), when viewing either hdtv or a digital cable channel, the screen/audio will go black after about 5 minutes. This happens about 80% of the time, though less so recently. Analog channels work fine when this happens, but all hd signals or digital channels are completely gone. If I wait maybe 10 minutes, they'll all come back and from then on, everything is fine.

So the question is, how can I tell the signal strength of signals? I have this problem with both cable input, and antenna.

If you have an SA cable box, with the power of the box off and the tv on, you hit the button on the box that's in the center of the channel changer. Hold it down until the message/envelope light flashes, then hold down the guide and info buttons, simultaneously. On your tv screen, a lot of info will appear from the box, including signal strength.

I just have raw cable from the wall (no box), and an antenna.

Just got off the phone with my local Philips tv-repair guy. He suggested that my BS issues may be related to signal strength. A recap:

Lately (the last month or so), when viewing either hdtv or a digital cable channel, the screen/audio will go black after about 5 minutes. This happens about 80% of the time, though less so recently. Analog channels work fine when this happens, but all hd signals or digital channels are completely gone. If I wait maybe 10 minutes, they'll all come back and from then on, everything is fine.

So the question is, how can I tell the signal strength of signals? I have this problem with both cable input, and antenna.

Not sure how to measure signal strength... my assumption is that you can buy some sort of meter at radio shack that will do the trick. I had a similiar issue with my ReplayTV 5040 a few years back (straight coax cable no box) and an electroline drop in amp solved the problem.

http://www.electroline.com/en/products/drop_amplifiers/eda/index.html

Got mine for ~$20 on ebay.

Did the firmware upgrade last week. Same as last time, some HD channels got moved. But I have found everything plus a WB HD channel. Cablevision do not support HD in the package for people not using their box, so it's hit or miss for me each time.

Question for your guys;
1. Is this update supposed to fix the black screen problem?
2. Do you have to recalibrate the picture?

I was just perusing a white paper on the Philips website, and was dumfounded when I read the comparison of these two technologies.
Based on this information, how could they sell a Pixel Plus model and call it 'HD' ready?
The original PP converts all signals to analog, downconverts to 840x480, performs processing, then upconverts to the 1366x768 panel resolution.
The newer PP2HD performs all processing directly on the incoming digital stream, and then converts it to match to panel resolution.
Would you buy a PP version knowing this?
Philips Pixel Plus technology backgrounder (pdf) (http://www.research.philips.com/password/archive/24/downloads/pp2-hd_backgrounder_us.pdf)

Hello there,

I posted this before in a separate thread but got no response.

I bought Philips 50 inch plasma from costco on the first day of coupon (1/23/06). It stayed idle for couple weeks until I installed cable TV. Then, only after 1 week's watching, I found there's a vertical strip on the left bottom part of the TV no matter which channel you watch, maybe 1 or 2 pixels wide, half of the screen in length (from the middle to the bottom).
This strip is very obvious when content is light blue, if dark color then you can not see it.

The strange thing is that: after watching like this for couple weeks, I can not see it anymore. I was going to return it, but now I am not sure.

Anybody know what is this? And is there anybody who returned to costco after 5 months of purchasing?

Besides, I also experienced some other issues that this thread discussed like long power up time (10 seconds), and the black screen issue (usually turn off and turn on the tv again solves it).


Thanks,
Feng

Sounds like stuck pixels to me, continuously on or off or stuck on a particular dark color. While watching TV, it will be tough to spot or notice something like that, if you could attach a notebook or computer to it and make the screen all one color, you can see if it is still there. The bad part is even if it went away, it very well could come back later. I would call Philips, if you don't get any satisfaction,
return it to Costco, they will give you a refund. That is one of the reasons I bought mine there, if it starts acting up, back it goes. So far, mine has performed almost perfectly. I had some audio drop out, reported at other places on this forum, but the recent firmware update seems to have fixed it, hasn't done it in for quite some time now. I've never had the black screen issue and from what I have seen with other PDP's, 10 seconds is not a long time for startup.

yeah, that's what I dont know, if it will come back or not.
It's been a week now I haven't seen it, the kid watched cartoon where all bright and single color and I didn't see it. I don't know what's the reason behind it.

Just an update on my signal power issue: I guess that was the problem after all. Funny, but once I called the repairman to set up a date for him to come out and take a look, it hasn't done it again! I did unscrew, and rescrew the cable line from the wall, so I guess that took care of it.

So if anyone is having BS issues, you might try reconnecting all cable connections. Just an idea.

I was just perusing a white paper on the Philips website, and was dumfounded when I read the comparison of these two technologies.
Based on this information, how could they sell a Pixel Plus model and call it 'HD' ready?
The original PP converts all signals to analog, downconverts to 840x480, performs processing, then upconverts to the 1366x768 panel resolution.
The newer PP2HD performs all processing directly on the incoming digital stream, and then converts it to match to panel resolution.
Would you buy a PP version knowing this?
Philips Pixel Plus technology backgrounder (pdf) (http://www.research.philips.com/password/archive/24/downloads/pp2-hd_backgrounder_us.pdf)

thank you for your finding and the link to Philips' site regarding the differences between pixel plus 2 and pixel plus 2 HD.

Wow! I did not know that my T.V. was downconverting my HD signal to analog 840X480 for processing then upconverted back to 1366X760.
This is not cool.

I bought this TV several weeks ago for full price at Costco. [EDIT] Toshiba 50" Plasma 50HP16. Anyone have experience comparing this set to the Philips.

Overall I am fairly happy with this set except for weird behaviors sometimes when selecting different inputs (especially HDMI1 to HDMI2). Also, occasionally sound will drop out on HD channels and I need to switch station and go back to remedy. I have not installed any software updates.

One question I have and I know has been covered in this forum, but I am still confused, is how to get the volume level to display on the screen? Also, are there any shortcuts to the sleeptimer? I use this often when watching a DVD in case I fall asleep. Want to prevent it from returning to DVD menu screen and just staying static.

Does anyone have a feel for how long something can be static for it to be a problem? I use TiVo through DirecTV and often pause screens when the phone rings or the bathroom calls etc.

One question I have and I know has been covered in this forum, but I am still confused, is how to get the volume level to display on the screen? Also, are there any shortcuts to the sleeptimer? I use this often when watching a DVD in case I fall asleep. Want to prevent it from returning to DVD menu screen and just staying static.

Does anyone have a feel for how long something can be static for it to be a problem? I use TiVo through DirecTV and often pause screens when the phone rings or the bathroom calls etc.

You'll get the volume display with a software upgrade. Be sure to get it. I don't know about the sleeptimer (never used it). And it takes more than a few minutes for there to be any threat of burn-in.

My biggest complaint with this TV is a grainy picture in certain situations. Happens just about anytime there is a static red wall of any kind. Also happens with golds. Also happens with certain facial tones in dark rooms. The worst offender is the set on "24" where President Logan is. Those rooms look horrible and the facial tones are horrible in those rooms. I know FOX has good HD because American Idol is flawless. OTOH, I have no issues at all with CSI on CBS.

My conclusions is that this tv does not handle certain scenes well and I just have to deal with it.

Anyone else have a different view? Do other TV's handle these situations better?

I am using DirecTV HR10-250 HD DVR with strong OTA locals.

Philips has released new software for this tv.

http://www.usasupport.philips.com/productDocuments.html?ProductCode=50PF7220A/37&subCat=PLASMA_EXTRA_LARGE_GT43_SU_US_CONSUMER

My Costco just got in the Panasonic 50PX6U. It was located right next to the Phillips. Wow, what a difference. Bought it. Brought it home. Fired it up. Makes the Phillips look like a SD TV. Phillips is going back pronto. The Panny is worth the extra cabbage.

My Phillips just went dead.... Watching TV all of a sudden no picture...... Now when I go to turn the the set on the green power light goes on for 2 seconds then goes off....... then a red light flashes 7 times and no picture at all...

Called Philips customer support and they said I need to call in a tech....I think am just going to return it to Costco and get a new Philips or another brand...

Just wondering if anyone experienced the same problem and it was a simple fix ????

This TV is now available from Philips outlet (factory reconditioned ) [EDIT]

http://www.outlet.philips.com/b2c_redesign/b2c/productdetail.do?productguid=4328965C3ACA008E00000000828BD47 243A5ECC8562B019900000000828BD4B5&AID=10303852&PID=1371119&productarea=4328965C3ACA008E00000000828BD472&shop=OUTLET&scenario=catalog#specs

Is this truly "Factory" reconditioned, and has anyone bought one of these? I have a $50 iPod that was a refurb, but to drop over a grand on something as delicate as a Plasma, I'm a little hesitant. I thought I saw yesterday that there was only a 90-dy warranty too, but now I can't find that. Does anyone know if this comes with the full warranty?

Yes. I bought a refurbished model because the price was just too good.

However, be advised that it is true, the performance of the Philips is not on par with the Panasonic or Pioneer. The color is just not right. ( to my eyes at least). I said this after trying hours tuning the unit using the Avia and VE disks. Other quirkiness includes settings (channels) not being saved after powering off.

Overall though, for the price, it may be a good buy depending on your risk tolerance and performance expectation.

Also, the refurbishing is done at a company called 'Ozark Electronics Repair Inc.'. Not Philips. You get a 90 days warranty, that's it. And credit card doesn't extend the warranty either because it's a reconditioned product.

If I had to do it over again, would I? Sadly, I would have to say no.

My sources:

Comcast Cable. I get unscrambled HDTV straight from the cable, no STB, no CableCard.

Yamaha upconvert DVD (S2500) using HDMI connection @720p or 1080i. (I don't watch much TV so this is my preferred source.)

Thanks. That's the info I was looking for. Going to stick with a new model for the warranty alone. Even $1000 is still too much to not have a year warranty. Guess I'm going to avoid Philips too, which means that great deal at Costco doesn't help. Bummer :(

Thanks. That's the info I was looking for. Going to stick with a new model for the warranty alone. Even $1000 is still too much to not have a year warranty. Guess I'm going to avoid Philips too, which means that great deal at Costco doesn't help. Bummer :(

I highly recommend the Panasonic 50PX6U at Costco. It is more expensive than the Phillips, but well worth it.

I had bought the Phillips and was not very pleased with it. I had read glowing things about Panasonic plasma displays and when I saw that Costco got this set in, I bought it before even returning the Phillips.

The Panasonic blows the Phillips out of the water. HD is outstanding and SD is very good too.

Wow... regarding the pixel plus and 840x480 processing... sounds like Phillips has opened themselves up to a major class action law suit. I don't see how this can legitimately be classified as an HDTV.

You are essentially buying a SDTV with HD Glass.

Since I bought my Philips 50PF7220A from costco, I am returning it since my local frys just put the Philips 50PF9630A on clearance for much less than I paid for the one from costco on sale. The only difference I can see that is negative is that the 9630 doesn't have rear s-video inputs. Maybe it does and the specs just don't say it. But besides the costco return policy I am upgrading my tv for less money.

I am mostly doing this since I found out that pixel plus isn't really HD and the 9630 has pixel plus 2 HD which is.

I am mostly doing this since I found out that pixel plus isn't really HD and the 9630 has pixel plus 2 HD which is.

If you don't like the idea of Pixel Plus downscaling, just turn off pixel plus. I don't think Philips is alone in this processing style, I imagine most manufacturer's had to do this until recently. (bandwidth, cost of chips, etc.) Philips is the only one stupid enough to say it though.

Didn't realize that if you turned that off, then the pic wasn't put through the downscaling/upscaling cycle.

Is there any advantage of the 7220 over the 9630? From what I can tell the 9630 has all the advantages, including ambilight, a brighter display and the pixel plus 2 HD which doesn't downscale first.

also the 9630 has a cable card input, just in case.

also, the 9630 does have s-video inputs in the rear if anyone needs those.

Hello everyone,

Last night I was trying see what the white point setting was in the service menu (the one where you have to press 062596 Info). Then, I changed some values Red/Blue/Green values to see what effect they had on the PQ. Unfortunately, I hadn't written down the original values.

Can someone send or post the original values of the White Point setting? I believe there are different numbers for each temperature mode. Mine was on WARM.

Thank you much in advance.

I've got the 50PF9630A and I love it. It does have an S connector on input 1 in the back and an S connector for the side input. It does pixel plus 2 (no downscaling first), though in the later firmwares I think PP2 is automatically disabled on HD content (can't run PP2 demo on an HD channel). The BS has been fixed w/ the latest firmware also. You can also turn on stereo ambilight via the service menu. If you can get one instead of the 7220, I'd take it...it's a much better unit.

I did go return my 7220 and get the 9630. The unit's picture is much better. The ambilight feature does help somewhat to make the picture stand out. Also The 9630 is 36% brighter than the 7220 so the picture is that much better, my guess is real contrast values would be higher as well.

Thanks for the input. If you can find the 9630 on clearance in stores right now you might get a great deal like I did $ < 2000.

Philips has released new software for this tv.

http://www.usasupport.philips.com/productDocuments.html?ProductCode=50PF7220A/37&subCat=PLASMA_EXTRA_LARGE_GT43_SU_US_CONSUMER
Since version BX23U-1.0.13.0.....any upgrade to include TVGOS??
Thanks,

Since version BX23U-1.0.13.0.....any upgrade to include TVGOS??
Thanks,
BUMP.....

Does anybody know why Philips took out TVGOS in all of their upgrades???

Does anybody know why Philips took out TVGOS in all of their upgrades???
...
Since version BX23U-1.0.13.0.....any upgrade to include TVGOS??


I don't have an official answer, but I'll hazard a guess.

Have you used it? I have, and though I miss it badly now that I need newer firmware to receive one of my local digital OTAs, it was never 100% reliable. In six months it probably lost all listings for a week at a time six times. If you look around this forum, that seems common with TVGOS, and it's not specific to the Philips products. I'll just bet Philips customer service got too many complaints about TVGOS not working, and there was nothing they could do about it. I'm not surprised they stopped marketing their sets as having it, even while the firmware still did. So, sadly I don't expect it to return.

Again, just an educated guess.

Mike

I don't have an official answer, but I'll hazard a guess.

Have you used it? I have, and though I miss it badly now that I need newer firmware to receive one of my local digital OTAs, it was never 100% reliable. In six months it probably lost all listings for a week at a time six times. If you look around this forum, that seems common with TVGOS, and it's not specific to the Philips products. I'll just bet Philips customer service got too many complaints about TVGOS not working, and there was nothing they could do about it. I'm not surprised they stopped marketing their sets as having it, even while the firmware still did. So, sadly I don't expect it to return.

Again, just an educated guess.

Mike

Mike, I think you confirmed my suspicions......
I have used it with cablecard from Aldelphia/TW since Feb.

Have had many problems with it....Adelphia kept switching out CC.
That is where I was placing the blame.

Then I finally got it to work flawlessly from April to July..Until TW took over.
Now it sucks . My CC (Motorola) will not hold the any premium channels when I have TVGOS enabled.... switched out many CC.....

When I disable TVGOS...CC works perfectly....

Called Philips...They wont give me a straight anwser..on why they discontinued TVGOS in all of their firmare upgrades....

Guys I need your help.

My current setup is Dish receiver to HDMI and my DVD player to AV1. Everytime I switch to another source (AV1, AV2, etc) and then back to HDMI, I'll lose my audio coming from the Dish receiver. My quick fix is to unplug the HDMI cable and plug it back in.

Anyone else experiencing the same problem or know what is causing my audio to drop out?? Thanks in advance.

I have the same problem with DirecTv HD receiver with HDMI connected when changing sources. I lose sound and have to switch between sources a few times to get sound back.

I like the TV but unfortunately the component in jacks I need to use are on the back so I am looking for a compatible mount for the Philips 50PF7320A that will fit the TV and give me enough clearance on the back for the component cable to plug in and fit. Eye balling it, it looks like I need about 3" or some low profile component cable solution.

Suggestions?

I like the TV but unfortunately the component inputs I need to use for DVD player are on the back so I need a wall mount that will stand the TV off enough for the component cable to fit. Eye balling it looks like I need about 3" or if someone can point me to a low profile component cable then that may work as well. If anyone has found good mounts for the Philips 50PF7320A I'd like a pointer.

Long time reader, first time poster... thanks to you all for the helpful data.

I wanted to contribute back in some small way, so I thought I would offer my thoughts on this rather good, inexpensive plasma (the 220a/37b)—and share a cautionary tale about Philips sub-stellar service and packaging.

Back in July, when techbargains was running the Philips coupon making for a $1299 50" Philips plasma including shipping, I bought one—expecting full-well to be disappointed with the quality as compared to my friends massive Pioneer Elite.

After plugging it into an APC H10 line conditioner and powering the TV on, I looked at the wattage use and it was pulling 230+- watts, far less than the 470 it claims, making use cost $.05/hr vs $.10/hr.

My first move was to lower the picture settings into reasonable zones; Contrast, 49; Brightness, 45; Color, 52; Sharpness, 3; plug in a Sony SACD/DVD player over HDMI and kick back with the recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The picture was far better than expected given the horror stories read on this forum. I was immediately impressed by the lush image liquidity, color-balance, and detail resolution in dark areas. Not as good as the Pioneer, but pretty darned good. After turning off every single picture enhancement and playing straight-from-the-DVD-player 720p, things got even better. I have ordered an HDMI-DVI cable to I can hook up the HTPC with a color spectrometer (Eye-One) to really see what we can do.

Two slight problems discovered were that the audio had a weird bit of feedback periodically when hooked up over digital audio+component, and that, over HDMI, some films showed a green 4 pixel wide bar on the right of the screen. Cosmetically, the case had several smudges on the front bezel that required a bit of work to remove.

Generally content, and not intending to send it immediately back, I decided to see if a firmware update could improve things still further. One of the very nice things about Philips TV’s is the user-updatable firmware. All you need is a USB flashdrive.

Indeed, the firmware was original and subsequent releases addressed my two issues. I formatted a virgin 512 meg flash drive to FAT as opposed to FAT32 and uploaded the latest firmware, as well as a copy of all the email correspondence, manuals, and images of the TV—I figure that way I’ll keep everything together. I followed the instructions for uploading the firmware “automatically” and the firmware package failed Validation with an unplesant CheckSum error. The TV rebooted five times or so, then seemed to recover to its original state. I tried again, this time unzipping the file with a Mac instead of a Dell, and it worked just fine. YMMV.

Right now I am to the point where I am really pleased with the TV. I ordered a UCL-X mount for it (175 shipped on eBay) and, hopefully, will have a nice TV for some time to come.

While I am enjoying the TV, I must say that the purchasing experience is as bad as I have had. After ordering, I received a purchase confirmation email and then didn't receive another contact for nearly a month. Finally, I got a call from Eagle shipping to schedule delivery of the TV, and they then never delivered it. I emailed Philips, and they emailed me tracking info, pasting into the email the fact that the TV had not been delivered and was awaiting return. I called Eagle and they told me the TV was destroyed in shipping. Philips would not credit my card until the machine was back in their hands, at which time I could order a new one (without coupon). To make a VERY long story short, several times Eagle folks were dispatched to my house to pick up a broken TV that had never arrived, and several more times, Philips forgot to ship my second TV (which arrived August 28th, with discount, nearly two months after the first order was placed and two weeks after it was promised by Philips and Eagle).

While I did manage to get a working TV, the box was SO poorly made that it is a miracle the thing arrived intact the second time. There were no hand-holes to grab, no straps on the box, and the tv was off-stand and supported by 4 small pieces of foam. I see how the first one died. One bump of the thing, single layer cardboard and it would be over. All I will say for Philips and Eagle is they deserve each other. We did a Harvard case on Philips in grad school, and found them to be a disaster then—it seems they still are.

Finally, I must offer a disclaimer: while I am known far and wide as owning a very discerning set of ears, I am reasonably easy to please visually. My big home theater setup uses an NEC DLP projector and my commonly used TV is a big Olevia LCD. While these are respectable products, I am not expecting Sim2 caliber reproduction. Consider everything with that in mind.

Hi, is anyone still reading this thread?

Lately the occurence of blackscreen has increased a lot. I am not sure it was related with the firmware update in April-May this year. Anyway, I finally decided it was time to return it to Costco (I have been dreading it since the TV was already mounted over the fireplace). Before taking down the TV, I thought I would come here check out the latest and also was about to contact Phillips about my problem. I saw that there were a new firmware dated Aug 3, and on the release note, it is supposed to fix the intermittent video loss problem! So I installed the firmware last night and I am curious to find out your experience with the blackscreen issue. Needless to say, if the blackscreen is fixed, I will be happy to keep the TV.

I too have been a little unnerved at how quiet the 7320 threads have been. Is no news good news? I don't know. All the action is about the 9630/31s lately.

To sort of answer your question, it seemed a solid majority had their BS fixed. Some still reported it though. Maybe they are the minority with actual hardware problems.

I tried the newer firmware, but have been bitten by the digital channel drop. I am back to 1.1. I was happily on 1.0.13 with TVGOS until the Philips couldn't pick up my local PBS HD without the newer firmware.

After unsatisfying support results online and on the phone, I have written a paper letter. I may well be returning my Philips. I bought where I bought specifically for their liberal return policy. Note I have not had fatal blackscreen, but I have lost almost all confidence in them as a company. The service horror stories and duck and cover denial tactics make me wonder if there will be a Philips plasma television department or if there deserves to be.

Mike

Well, i'm glad to hear that the BS has "sort of" been fixed with the newest firmware.
I did not install it tho since of the other problems it was reported to introduce.

Well, now that i have comcast TV STBs on my 32pf720a i'm getting the 5 second black screen events pretty often now.

The last firmware says mid august. Since this is last year's model of LCD, any idea if they'll continue to offer firmware updates on these? curious.

wendek

About the quietness of this thread, maybe a good part of the early participants have returned their TV.

About the firmware, I looked up my files on my computer. Version 1.1 was the one that had the blackscreen issue for my particular setting. I missed the release of 1.2 and 1.3, now I have 1.4. The good: it may have fixed the BS problem for good since Philips claims so. It is too soon to tell since it has only be two evenings. The bad: I don't have a STB but I used to have no trouble receiving the HD broadcast channels (CBS, ABC, etc). Now that capacity still exist, but only intermittently. Also the ability to set the favorite channels is lost. You can still click the check mark but the TV will not remember the setting. So Philips will have to push out a new release to fix all the issues--hopefully before I decide to return it again.

EDIT: just did more search and found that in the 42'' thread the issues are discussed. Obviously the loss of favorite channels is a problem for version 1.4. I will shoot out an email.

I tried the newer firmware, but have been bitten by the digital channel drop. I am back to 1.1. I was happily on 1.0.13 with TVGOS until the Philips couldn't pick up my local PBS HD without the newer firmware.

What's the digital channel drop? I have the 42" 9631 and have been VERY HAPPY with my set. The August 2006 firmware upgrade has totally fixed the BSOD problem (knock on wood ;) ) and I'm very happy with how this TV works.

After unsatisfying support results online and on the phone, I have written a paper letter. I may well be returning my Philips. I bought where I bought specifically for their liberal return policy. Note I have not had fatal blackscreen, but I have lost almost all confidence in them as a company. The service horror stories and duck and cover denial tactics make me wonder if there will be a Philips plasma television department or if there deserves to be. Mike

Again, sorry to hear that. I don't know as much about this model as I do the 9631. But if they are similar, anybody here is welcome to contact me and obtain my Philips 9631 Tips Sheet with lots of useful tips, suggestions, etc. I suspect that many are good for this set, too.

Since this is last year's model of LCD, any idea if they'll continue to offer firmware updates on these? curious.

Ick. I don't even want to think in "end of life" terms yet. I just got this set in January. Consider I didn't even need new firmware until my local PBS changed their broadcast. I was torn at whom to be more annoyed.

About the quietness of this thread, maybe a good part of the early participants have returned their TV.

That's the thought I found unnerving - that the agreed best solution might be to give up and buy something else.

What's the digital channel drop?
About the firmware...ability to set the favorite channels is lost...loss of favorite channels is a problem for version 1.4.

Note favorites loss is not exactly the same thing, though I would not be surprised if they share the root cause. I never tried above 1.1 long enough to see if I was having favorites loss because of the blasted channel drop.

Channel drop: if a channel isn't coming in at the moment it is deleted completely. You can't flip to it; you can't type it in; you have to re-install it. As you can imagine this is utterly frustrating when you live in an area that requires antenna rotation to receive all stations.

1.2 and 1.3 are also bad; 1.1 is the last good version.
I have had an amazingly frustrating time trying to tell this to Philips. Online doesn't want technical questions. I tried anyway - no response. I called. A really nice and patient but persistent guy put me on hold several times then assured me this was a feature and how the tv should behave. This was even after I repeated that 1.0.8, 1.0.13 and 1.1 do not behave this way. I was polite, patient, but persistent as well. I mentioned my prior firmware; I mentioned this forum; I mentioned I was not alone in this problem.

(I don't know how many times I have answered someone's question, pointed them to the old firmware, and encouraged them to call email and write Philips about this.)

Finally I said, "Then if this is intentional, how can I officially request that it be changed back? since I know Philips has responded to customer requests before (volume/channel display)." He simply gave me the same address on my paperwork. I have nothing but a reference number to show for my efforts and expect little else. We shall see. Those Hitachis look nice.

Mike

Channel drop: if a channel isn't coming in at the moment it is deleted completely. You can't flip to it; you can't type it in; you have to re-install it. As you can imagine this is utterly frustrating when you live in an area that requires antenna rotation to receive all stations.


That is a good description of the problem. Also agree that 1.1 and earlier firmware did not have this issue. But they had other problems such as BS and screen off-center, etc. It seems really simple--the TV just needs a little bit more time to be able to flip to a channel. Mike, you said "you have to re-intall it." Do you been by auto installation that takes more than 20 minutes or there is a faster way? Thanks.

Also I emailed them about the channel loss and will see if anthing comes back.

...the TV just needs a little bit more time to be able to flip to a channel...auto installation that takes more than 20 minutes or there is a faster way?

I don't know about more time, unless by more you mean infinite. With 1.1 and earlier if I choose a channel not coming in it seems I can leave it there indefinitely while I move the antenna searching for it.

Not a full install - you can use weak channel installation.
If you know the actual broadcast frequency (not the mapped channel), you can enter weak channel installation, hunt for it with the antenna for as long as needed (note: in this mode only), then store it.

Mike

Not a full install - you can use weak channel installation.

Mike

I see. My problem is with cable where the weak channel install is not available.

I just got off the phone with Philips. The guys seems to understand the problem. He said the new firmware supposed to fix an issue of not receiving some HD channels but dropping a channel intermittently is news to him and it will need to be "surfaced". He also gave me couple of repair places which will provide on-site service. I will give it a try.

For $200 less, I would have stuck with the Philips, which I have found to be an excellent tv, and it has an ATSC tuner as well. But if it makes you happy, that's all that matters!

I've been meaning to post my settings, so here goes:

Contrast: 52
Brightness: 54
Color: 64
Sharpness: +1
Color Temp: Normal
Tint: 0
Pixel Plus: On (it hardly matters)



thanks for putting the settings on there, but i was also wondering about the rest of the settings, like in the advanced menu, do those settings make a difference. and a question i have about those settings is that do those settings look good on HD and regular channels?

I am considering purchasing the Philips 50PF7220A (7220A) from Ubid - its a remanufactured item.

What is the final general consensus on this unit? Is it worth $1,500.00?

Thanks.

Paul.

thanks for putting the settings on there, but i was also wondering about the rest of the settings, like in the advanced menu, do those settings make a difference. and a question i have about those settings is that do those settings look good on HD and regular channels?

What settings specifically ???? :confused:

I am considering purchasing the Philips 50PF7220A (7220A) from Ubid - its a remanufactured item. What is the final general consensus on this unit? Is it worth $1,500.00? Thanks. Paul.

Not bad, but get the 9630 for about the same $$$....if you're really lucky, maybe the 9631 (99.99% same as 9630).

Get one of those 2 models for that price and you're perfect. :rolleyes:

What is the final general consensus on this unit? Is it worth $1,500.00?

Thanks.

Paul.

Absolutely. Just make sure you get the updates.

I am considering purchasing the Philips 50PF7220A (7220A) from Ubid - its a remanufactured item.

What is the final general consensus on this unit? Is it worth $1,500.00?

Thanks.

Paul.

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS TV, NOT EVEN FOR $1000!!!!

It is a waste of money to purchase this tv. I bought this at Costco and thought it was a good purchase at the time, but now I am ready to return this plasma. I bought the 50pf7220a from Costco and several features do not work properly due to poor firmware upgrades that solve a few problems, but create more. I have e-mailed Philips customer service 8 times and only got two responses to my first two e-mails. Their responses were just about exactly the same, just explaining how to set the feature in the menu, even though i had specifically told them that the feature does not work (channel map does not save channels once you turn tv off, delta volume doesn't save after you change the channel!!!!)...talk about useless customer support for Philips! I am going to take this tv back to Costco once the 50" Samsung (HPS5033) goes down anotehr $200 in price so that it can be an even exchange. I originally thought the Philips tv was a great buy especially because it had upgradeable firmware, but now i know that it is more of a problem than a solution. If you think about it, if a tv manufacturer builds a tv without the ability to upgrade firmware, they test it thoroughly to make sure every feature works the way it is supposed to before they put it on the market. If a tv mfr, like Philips, produces a tv with firmware upgrades, they don't spend the amount of time and effort to make sure all the features work the way they are supposed to. Imagine what would happen if all tv manufacturers decided to to a half-assed job of testing their product and then putt out a tv that had tons of glitches, I'm sure they would be out of business laready!! thanks for nothing Philips!!!!

DO NOT PURCHASE THIS TV, NOT EVEN FOR $1000!!!!

Look, I see other manufacturers having firmware problems and they DON'T have the ability to upgrade from the Web so having that ability doesn't seem to idicate reliability out of the box.

Look, every model has a few lemons. The firmware glitches do seem to be a reality, but I wonder if they are a killer. Since I use a STB, I really don't care that much about preferred or saved channels.

I also have the PF9631 and both it and the 9630 seem to be a bit more reliable than the 7220. I liked the 7220 (42" model) but I liked the 9630/31 more.

Buying a plasma is much worse than buying a car, house, anything I have ever came across.
This forum/thread is like a soap opera. First people rushed out to grab a Philips 50". Then they crammed them into the car. And first they loved them. Then problems crept up, BSOD mainly. Then one by one it seemed the Philips were going back to Costco’s. Then the thread went silent for some time. The main star seemed to have been killed off.

For an item costing near or over $2000, its not good to hear anything but "this plasma is perfect". No one wants a $2000 lemon or more so, paperweight. And since my desire to get a plasma (on a budget) has began a month ago, I am now to the point where I am almost put off on the idea of going plasma altogether. Many people return the Philips 50" for a Panasonic, but if I go over to the Panasonic thread, there again, nightmare experiences. Go over to the Hitachi and you hear terms like "flicker issue".
AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
With all these issues with almost EVERY plasma, and spending at least $2000 if your going 50", I find it shocking these plasma's only carry a 1 year warranty. You are really taking a huge risk, HUGE.
I researched and googled till I was cross eyed. And I was ready to run over to Costco and get the Philips 50" (almost) till I dug deeper into this thread. Now I'm about ready to give up on the idea of getting anything. Is my observation over reacting?
I want a plasma! And a 50". And around $2000 - $2500. Is this too much to ask??? (Seems to be)

Buying a plasma is much worse than buying a car, house, anything I have ever came across. This forum/thread is like a soap opera. First people rushed out to grab a Philips 50". Then they crammed them into the car. And first they loved them. Then problems crept up, BSOD mainly. Then one by one it seemed the Philips were going back to Costco’s. Then the thread went silent for some time. The main star seemed to have been killed off. For an item costing near or over $2000, its not good to hear anything but "this plasma is perfect". No one wants a $2000 lemon or more so, paperweight. And since my desire to get a plasma (on a budget) has began a month ago, I am now to the point where I am almost put off on the idea of going plasma altogether. Many people return the Philips 50" for a Panasonic, but if I go over to the Panasonic thread, there again, nightmare experiences. Go over to the Hitachi and you hear terms like "flicker issue". AWWWWWWWWWWWWW! With all these issues with almost EVERY plasma, and spending at least $2000 if your going 50", I find it shocking these plasma's only carry a 1 year warranty. You are really taking a huge risk, HUGE.
I researched and googled till I was cross eyed. And I was ready to run over to Costco and get the Philips 50" (almost) till I dug deeper into this thread. Now I'm about ready to give up on the idea of getting anything. Is my observation over reacting? I want a plasma! And a 50". And around $2000 - $2500. Is this too much to ask??? (Seems to be)

Well, maybe the original posters here are happily enjoying their TV's. I notice very little posting goes on Sunday afternoons -- everyone is enjoying the football games in Hi-Def !!! :)

I have a 42" 9631 and love it...a few friends have Philips 9630's and 7320's and they have great experiences, too.

Customer support needs to be greatly improved here but I think Philips plasma TV's are pretty good for the $$$. JMHO.

I had had the refurbished 320 for 3 weeks before sending it back. The picture quality was OK at best and there were just too many glitches w/ the unit for me to think it was going to be a long term survivor. The scaling did not work properly and would also go crazy from time to time. I picked it up for that super cheap $1299 deal over the summer and still didn't think it was worth it. That's still a lot of money and I didn't want to just throw it away (90 day warranty = scary in this situation). In my view, you can get twice the TV for twice the price...a 46" LCD 1080p should probably go for about double what I paid. In the long run, that's a better deal.

I had had the refurbished 320 for 3 weeks before sending it back. The picture quality was OK at best and there were just too many glitches w/ the unit for me to think it was going to be a long term survivor. The scaling did not work properly and would also go crazy from time to time. I picked it up for that super cheap $1299 deal over the summer and still didn't think it was worth it. That's still a lot of money and I didn't want to just throw it away (90 day warranty = scary in this situation). In my view, you can get twice the TV for twice the price...a 46" LCD 1080p should probably go for about double what I paid. In the long run, that's a better deal.

Paying up for 1080p now makes no sense at all. Best to put your $$$ behind a top-of-the-line Philips or Panasonic model, IMO.

I researched and googled till I was cross eyed. And I was ready to run over to Costco and get the Philips 50" (almost) till I dug deeper into this thread. Now I'm about ready to give up on the idea of getting anything. Is my observation over reacting?
I want a plasma! And a 50". And around $2000 - $2500. Is this too much to ask??? (Seems to be)

since most people on here are asking about a philips or own one, i will give you this piece of advise that i hope would steer you in the right direction when considering spending alot of money on a new plasma.......since everyone has their own expeirences and problems/joys with every plasma out there, i think you should at least go for a plasma that is near the top when rated by electronics magaszines or consumer magazines. i have the philips and like i discussed in a previous post, i am not happy with this tv and will be returning it to costco. i would HIGHLY recommend going for a panasonic plasma tv for the simple reason that the panasonic plasma (50px600u) is the top-rated plasma tv by consumer reports for the second straight year (last years model 50px500u was the top-rated plasma). if this were a one year thing, people would be able to argue against this, but the panasonic line of plasmas has been in the top 3 every year in the consumer reports magazines for the picture quality, features and reliability. i took a chance on the philips only because it was cheaper than other 50" plasmas at the time. you can read every single post for every single plasma, but at least give yourself a better chance at getting a plasma that has gotten top reviews. i know the philips model i have (50pf7220a/37) is problematic and that maybe the newer models aren't as problematic, but just from the frustration of not being able to get any help what-so-ever from customer support has made up my mind not to go to another philips plasma.

With all these issues with almost EVERY plasma, and spending at least $2000 if your going 50", I find it shocking these plasma's only carry a 1 year warranty. You are really taking a huge risk, HUGE.
I researched and googled till I was cross eyed. And I was ready to run over to Costco and get the Philips 50" (almost) till I dug deeper into this thread. Now I'm about ready to give up on the idea of getting anything. Is my observation over reacting? I want a plasma! And a 50". And around $2000 - $2500. Is this too much to ask??? (Seems to be)

Randy, have you bought anything yet ??

For some reason, Costco and other return-it-at-any-time stores seem to have MORE PROBLEMS than regular retailers. Maybe they're getting a good deal on TV's because they're taking in alot of defectives and refurbs off the manufacturers hands.

I got my 42" Philips @ Sears. I still think buying a good -- ask to NOT get a refurb -- plasma at Costco makes sense, Philips OR Panasonics. Can you get the 9421, which I think is the equivalent of the 9631? Newer and seems to have fewer problems.

FWIW, if you goto Sears, I think even a 50" and a 3-year warranty is in your budget. Definitely a 42" at the lower end of your range.

i would HIGHLY recommend going for a panasonic plasma tv for the simple reason that the panasonic plasma (50px600u) is the top-rated plasma tv by consumer reports for the second straight year (last years model 50px500u was the top-rated plasma).

Consumer Reports is worthless for evaluating high-end stuff like a plasma TV...I much prefer the actual multi-period usage of AVS Forum members.

if this were a one year thing, people would be able to argue against this, but the panasonic line of plasmas has been in the top 3 every year in the consumer reports magazines for the picture quality, features and reliability.

Panasonics IS a good plasma to get, no argument from me. But again, I would NOT put any faith in Consumer Reports -- the same guys who evaluate toasters and washing machines are suddenly TV and plasma experts ?? :eek: Please.....better to goto folks who do that for a living, like HT Magazine etc. Or better yet, AVS Forum ! :)

i took a chance on the philips only because it was cheaper than other 50" plasmas at the time. you can read every single post for every single plasma, but at least give yourself a better chance at getting a plasma that has gotten top reviews. i know the philips model i have (50pf7220a/37) is problematic and that maybe the newer models aren't as problematic, but just from the frustration of not being able to get any help what-so-ever from customer support has made up my mind not to go to another philips plasma.

Customer support at every manufacturer SUCKS !!! They are ALL terrible !!! That should not enter into the equation.

The newer line of Philips plasmas seems to be alot better -- the 9630/31. I did think the 7320/7220's and follow-ons were pretty good (I actually liked their styling better than the newer models) but again, if you bought a model from Costco or similar big-retailer, they seem to have more problems than places like CC or Sears etc.

I do think that whichever manufacturer puts in place a Customer Ombudsman or Help Specialist to deal with us PERSONALLY would really win alot of market share. All the TV's seem to have glitches, problems, return issues -- and just having someone able to help us would be a major plus. I wouldn't even mind if another $100 or so was tacked onto every TV to help pay for dedicated assistance.

Justed picked up one of these from the philips outlet for a killer price. So far I'm really happy with it, but I do have one question about it. Is there any way to set the TV to NOT cycle through the inputs when using the ch+ ch- button. I mean there's a dedicated AV button to cycle through them, I don't want to cycle through them when I am changing channels.
I checked the manual, the menus, and the service menu and couldn't find anything.
I am running the newest firmware as well.

Justed picked up one of these from the philips outlet for a killer price. So far I'm really happy with it, but I do have one question about it. Is there any way to set the TV to NOT cycle through the inputs when using the ch+ ch- button. I mean there's a dedicated AV button to cycle through them, I don't want to cycle through them when I am changing channels. I checked the manual, the menus, and the service menu and couldn't find anything. I am running the
newest firmware as well.

Congrats....when you mean 'cycle through, I believe that it hits the SOURCE inputs after you reach the end of the channels, no? Sort of like on my older cable TV after I hit the upper end of channels it hits the 2 inputs which connect to my VCR and DVD.

Unless you are going from the end of the channels to the beginning continuousley, it shouldn't be a problem, right? The inputs come up when you are at the top and hit UP or when you're at the lower channel(s) and hit DOWN -- right ?

If you have a favorites function, create a list and it should not include them I believe.

Not sure it'll help, but check the 7220 User Thread -- I don't think our 9630/31 Thread would help you (it might as a last resort).

Congrats....when you mean 'cycle through, I believe that it hits the SOURCE inputs after you reach the end of the channels, no? Sort of like on my older cable TV after I hit the upper end of channels it hits the 2 inputs which connect to my VCR and DVD

Correct, in my case after channel 61 it goes to AV1, AV2 etc. then back to 7 and vise versa.
I do cycle alot when I'm looking for something random to watch. I can edit the channel list to only show certain channels, but I can't de-select the inputs.
If I create favorites, they just show up under the favorites menu, not when I use the ch+/ch-.

Correct, in my case after channel 61 it goes to AV1, AV2 etc. then back to 7 and vise versa. I do cycle alot when I'm looking for something random to watch. I can edit the channel list to only show certain channels, but I can't de-select the inputs. If I create favorites, they just show up under the favorites menu, not when I use the ch+/ch-.

No offense, but if this is the worst thing that happens to your HDTV plasma TV, you'll be laughing about it in the years down the road !! :)

Keep scanning at AVS for a solution, but in the meantime, ENJOY THE DAMN TV !!! :D

I purchased one of the refurb'd 7220's from the Philips outlet store after reading this thread and information elsewhere. It shipped with the BX23U-1.3.0.0_01481 firmware, and I used it for several days before upgrading to BX23U-1.4.0.0_03081 a few minutes ago.

I have no previous direct experience with HDTV, and have done very little side-by-side image comparision. Having said that:

1. Display quality

Considerable tweaking of the various image enhancement options was needed before I was happy, but I *am* happy. I don't see the flaws that some mentioned earlier in this thread (greyish blacks, insufficient brightness). Basically, I'm getting what I expected: superb quality with HD source material, acceptable quality with SD.

2. Features

The USB connection is fun, and I've already used it to set up a mini-slideshow + music playlist to run in the background for a party. There are lots of inputs and outputs. If it had an optical digital audio out, it would be perfect.

3. Useability

It took me a little while to figure out how to delete unwanted channels (the "Preferred" terminology seems counterintuitive to me, but oh well). I noticed this morning that the set seems to have forgotten some of my "unpreferred" choices, which is annoying. That is what prompted me to try the firmware upgrade. We'll see how this works out.

A question:

I have one question that isn't specific to this set. For a modern HDTV like this one that can upsample and scale source material, is there any advantage to having a progressive scan DVD player? Thanks in advance!

I have one question that isn't specific to this set. For a modern HDTV like this one that can upsample and scale source material, is there any advantage to having a progressive scan DVD player? Thanks in advance!

Progressive scan? Absolutely.....

Upconverting? Questionable.....the advantage of an upconverting DVD player is if the scaler in the DVD player is better than the TV's. The Philips scaler is pretty good but some folks have said they prefer the scalers in some DVD players (Denon, Oppo, etc).

It's not so much a question of getting an upconverting DVD player, when you buy a higher quality DVD player that's progressive scan, spending $100-$200 or so, you're probably going to be buying an upconverting model by default (not all the time, but almost always).

Get a good DVD player; those will most likely be upconverters. The Oppo 970 is liked by some who have the 9630/31 models.

3. Useability

It took me a little while to figure out how to delete unwanted channels (the "Preferred" terminology seems counterintuitive to me, but oh well). I noticed this morning that the set seems to have forgotten some of my "unpreferred" choices, which is annoying. That is what prompted me to try the firmware upgrade. We'll see how this works out.



that is exactly one of the 'annoyances' i had written about in a few of my posts about this tv, which i still currently own. it is something you will have to get used to, because the latest firmware (8-3-06) seems to have messed up the preferred channels list. for me, every time i turn the tv off and turn it back on, i have to go through the preferred list of channels and select or deselect the channels i want. this is very annoying if you have an antenna to receive hd signals, and then you have to go through the list each time to deselect the analog sd channels. and again, don't expect any help from customer service on this because they don't seem to understand that this really happens with the set....and don't expect any new firmware upgrades for this model either, there are new firmware upgrades for the newer models of philips plasmas, but not the 7220 or 7320....thanks for abandoning your customers philips!!

Get a good DVD player; those will most likely be upconverters. The Oppo 970 is liked by some who have the 9630/31 models.
I don't want to derail this thread, so this will be my last DVD-related post!

I asked because I wasn't sure that modern TVs actually benefited from a 480p image or whether they'd just combine two 480i frames and produce an identical output. I have a cheap DVD player (Toshiba SD2900) and an older progressive scan model (JVC XV-S502) which was a throw-in with the JVC receiver I bought on eBay a couple of years ago. You've convinced me to plug it in and compare the output directly. Thanks!

<testing ensues>

The JVC has a toggle switch on the back for 480i/480p, and yes, the 480p signal is significantly smoother. I'm convinced! And as a bonus, I just noticed that unlike my Toshiba, this DVD player has an optical audio out. That'll free up my receiver's coaxial digital input so I can use that for TV audio. Sweet!

that is exactly one of the 'annoyances' i had written about in a few of my posts about this tv
I saw your posts, and wasn't totally surprised when it happened to me. I'll see if it continues to be a problem, and if so I'll lodge my own complaint with Philips. If the problem didn't exist with older firmware, it should be fixable. It's just a matter of harrassing them into doing it. :)

I have no complaints with Philips' service so far, though. My TV was shipped quickly, and once I realized that I was missing a part for the stand they had a replacement on my doorstep 2 days later. Nice.

that is exactly one of the 'annoyances' i had written about in a few of my posts about this tv, which i still currently own. it is something you will have to get used to, because the latest firmware (8-3-06) seems to have messed up the preferred channels list. for me, every time i turn the tv off and turn it back on, i have to go through the preferred list of channels and select or deselect the channels i want. this is very annoying if you have an antenna to receive hd signals, and then you have to go through the list each time to deselect the analog sd channels. and again, don't expect any help from customer service on this because they don't seem to understand that this really happens with the set....and don't expect any new firmware upgrades for this model either, there are new firmware upgrades for the newer models of philips plasmas, but not the 7220 or 7320....thanks for abandoning your customers philips!!

Patience....Philips appears to be posting firmware upgrades for the 9630/31 models which solves the dropped channel problem.

It's still not listed as a November/December upgrade, though the "August" upgrade has advanced (changed) to something more advanced.

Give it a few days, once the software for the 9630/31 models is correctly updated and labeled as such, they should have something for the 7000 series. :)

And for those of you upset with Philips customer service -- and you have a right to be -- just don't stand there and bitch or post on AVS. :mad:

Goto Club Philips or Philips.com.....fill out the questionaire, and then when it allows you to list your grievances, be polite but firm. I posted my laundry list over on the 9631 User Thread. ;)

Focus on more timely firmware upgrades that match the newer models where the problem is the same (i.e., dropped channels), faster customer service and repairs (i.e., getting parts faster), and having a direct email to Philips tech people to let them know glitches you would like addressed in future upgrades.

Stuff like that... ;)

And for those of you upset with Philips customer service -- and you have a right to be -- just don't stand there and bitch or post on AVS. :mad:

Goto Club Philips or Philips.com.....fill out the questionaire, and then when it allows you to list your grievances, be polite but firm. I posted my laundry list over on the 9631 User Thread. ;)

Focus on more timely firmware upgrades that match the newer models where the problem is the same (i.e., dropped channels), faster customer service and repairs (i.e., getting parts faster), and having a direct email to Philips tech people to let them know glitches you would like addressed in future upgrades.

Stuff like that... ;)

Has Philips 50PF7220A replaced TVGOS in any of their new firmware upgrades??

Has Philips 50PF7220A replaced TVGOS in any of their new firmware upgrades??

I'm not sure -- I better let a 7220 owner or someone up-to-spec on all Philips software upgrades answer.

For 7320 it has not returned - dead since 1.1
- don't know if 7220 has ever been different

Here's a question:
Does anyone know offhand which sets advertised TVGOS?
I ask because those of us who discovered it dormant in our sets don't really have a leg to stand on wanting it back. What kind of stink has been raised by people who bought a set claiming the feature only to have it killed?

Mike

9630 had TVGOS on the preliminary spec sheets, then pulled it. Philips, like everyone else, has a disclaimer on their spec sheets. That same year's 9830, a fancy version of the 9630, had it on the spec sheets, as well.

I recently upgraded to the newest firmware however after hooking up my new PS3 today I could not display 720p via HDMI. I downgraded to BX23U-1.3.0.0_01481 and am able to get 720p to work.

I continue to have intermittent issues and upgraded back to the newest firmware BX23U-1.5.0.0_03531 and so far it's working again. Starting to think this is something strange with the PS3.

I just bumped my unit up to 1.5. If anything interesting happens, I'll share. :)

I started with 1.3, and noticed that it sometimes lost my favorites and preferred channels settings. More importantly, it also permanently dropped a couple of my cable HD channels when they temporarily failed, forcing a full re-scan to get them back.

Since 1.4, that hasn't happened again. I think it has lost my favorites and preferreds a couple of times, but I don't care all that much.

After flashing to 1.5 I removed a bunch of channels from the preferred list - I'll see whether those *stay* gone.

tyoung:

Sony's recent firmware updates have changed the way the PS3 chooses its default resolution. I would post a link that explains this, but the board won't let me.

I have a 50PF7220A/27 with some serious color tracking issues. A gray scale will produce some levels of gray with colored shades of gray. Black and white images will show colors where there should be none. And colored images will have miscellaneous colors overlaying the main image--a face (including a woman's face)will have a dark green beard and a glowing pink forehead.

So far, Phillips and my local tech have not been able to resolve this.

Could anyone with this TV--or a similar one--please check some settings in your Service Alignment Menu (SAM) to see how they compare with mine.

To get to SAM--with the TV on and displaying a normal picture with no menu or info box--on your remote enter "0 6 2 5 9 6 Info". You should get a small box from which you must then push the RED button to get into SAM. (If you miskey, first clear any items remaining on the screen--usually the Info bar--before trying again.)

Once in SAM select the Options sub-menu.

Select the Display sub-menu, then Screen. Mine reads 001 / 50inch PDP SDI HD. The only other option that could work with my TV is 027 / 50inch PDP SDI HD V4.

Go back to the Options sub-menu, then Video repro. Under Picture processing, mine reads No spider, and is not changeable. Under MOP, mine reads Off. Under POD, mine reads On.

I will really be grateful for any and all replies.

A word of caution. You can change a lot of settings in SAM. Do not change anything under "Option Numbers". Do not chage anything under "Screen". Even if you do change something, the change will not survive a restart--unless you also save the change by using the "Store" option on the main SAM menu. You can exit from SAM at any time with the Menu button on the remote, or the Power button.

I have a 50PF7220A/27b, and my service menu settings are identical to yours.

I'll be happy to check other items if it would help, but I'm heading out of town for a week starting tomorrow AM.

These aren't really the settings that could screw up your color. You'll need the white point alignment settings.

Note: they are different for each temp - warm, cool, and normal. Do all three look awful for you?

I'll check mine later and post them.

Mike

Thanks, mkjnovak. If white point adjustments would fix this problem, the problem would have been eliminated many moons ago.

With a continuous gray scale displayed on the screen, there are numerous bands of extraneous color at points in the scale corresponding to certain levels of brightness in the scale. When the brightness (black level) menu control or the picture (white level) control are adjusted so as to make the brightness levels on the gray scale shift up or down, the color bands move along the scale so as to follow their associated brightness points. But the color bands never go away or change their individual brightness.

The white point adjustments can cause the overall tint of the image to shift (white point affects mainly high levels of brightness, BL offset affects mainly lower levels of brightness.) But none of those adjustments gets rid of--or diminishes--my color bands. They just change the overall tint of the gray scale.

Indications so far suggest to me either the plasma panel or its driver circuits are involved. That is why I am interested in the display code. Possible that the wrong code was used in my set.

Additionally. I was curious as to why my set had an active entry for MOP--used with Ambilight sets for video processing--and no viper, which is used in non-ambilight sets.

Anyway, if anyone has a "/27" set--rather than a "/27B" set, that might prove enlightening.

Sorry, I missed your question about different color temperatures. No, different color temps just change the overall appearance of the screen without impacting those bad colors that should not be there.

If white point adjustments would fix this problem, the problem would have been eliminated many moons ago
...
none of those adjustments gets rid of--or diminishes--my color bands. They just change the overall tint of the gray scale.

OK, as long as you tried adjusting the offsets and white points, never mind then.
It just sounded to me exactly like what goes wrong when those are incorrect.
Example: grey looks purple? you've "run out" of green.

Good luck,
Mike

Just got this set. very nice.. Thanks you guys for sharing your set color settings

One thing...

I tried to hook up a memorex progesssive scan DVD/MP3/CD player

Good bargain $29 at Kmart with $5 rebate 9compact and matches with silver)
But, when I connect the component video I get no sound.. This set says to use the digital coxial input with AV3.

So right now I am using crappy composite inputs on av2 to use this dvd player

Is there anything I have to do to get the digital input to work?

Is my ic sensore for sound corrupted (the thing that looks for signal to turn on ditgital audio...where is this described in teh manual???)? Should I unplug the set from everything for 4 hors and then rehook?

Or is there something in the Phillips menu i have to set to activate the digital input...and if so...what and which menu?

Many thanks for all your help.

Also....how do I get a software update to work using an Ipod nano? I tried to figure it out since someone said it worked well- but I couldn't get that to work either.










BUT

Try this--

Menu--Setup--Source--Digital Audio In--AV3

If you Nano has some files and/or folders on it, plug it into the Philips USB port and do Menu--Multimedia. If you see a file structure that you can read, then you can use the Nano for firmware upgrades.

I installed the latest mid-December update last night. So far, so good. :D

Thank-you! For the 7220.

I have been having a number of issues with this TV which I have owned since roughly January of 06 (from the costco deal last year). Its now roughly 13 or so months after the purchase. I have the original box (part of why I bought this at costco). I am very close to pulling it off the wall to return it due to the power issues, etc.

My question about returning it is how to go about doing that? Do I pull it off the wall & carry it in? Is it that simple?

Any tips on how to deal with a grumpy manager?

I have been having a number of issues with this TV which I have owned since roughly January of 06 (from the costco deal last year). Its now roughly 13 or so months after the purchase. I have the original box (part of why I bought this at costco). I am very close to pulling it off the wall to return it due to the power issues, etc.

My question about returning it is how to go about doing that? Do I pull it off the wall & carry it in? Is it that simple?

Any tips on how to deal with a grumpy manager?

If they give you a hard time (and most likely won't) point at the 100% customer satisfaction guaranteed sign. Worst case they give you your money back and cancel your membership (plus refund membership costs). Of course, you can always call them first anonymously and explain the situation to feel them out.

At Philips outlet:

How the Promotion Works:
For a limited time save $400 on this 50" Pixel Plus Plasma Flat HDTV (50PF7220A/37B) from the Philips Outlet between February 14, 2007 and February 20, 2007 with promotion code: 50PLASMA-0207
Plus receive FREE Shipping during the promotional period!
Participating Model: 50PF7220A/37B
Discount will be deducted at checkout using promotion code: 50PLASMA-0207.
Offer good only on products purchased from the Philips Electronics Outlet.
This Special Offer may not be used in conjunction with another Special Offer.
One promotion code may be used per order.
Void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law.
Offer good for participating models only, while supplies last.
Offer valid in Continental USA only.


For me: it's [EDIT] shipped to California. For a 50" Plasma...., even factory-renewed~WOW!!!

Almost pull the trigger..... What do you think, guys?

I pulled the trigger last night ...[EDIT] a 50" plasma shipped to my door I couldn't pass it up.

Check out this link to 1zelda.com/tv (http://1zelda.com/tv) to see my TV in action.

The TV in the pictures came from Philips Outlet in June 2006. I could not find any combination of adjustments that would make skin tones look correct. My kids made fun of the purple and green floating on faces. I noticed the rainbows around bright spots, and the bizarre colors on flat surfaces like walls, roads, floors, cars.

On September 1, I called Phillips customer service. That escalated up three levels through Philips Customer Relations. During this process I acquired multiple test files (two of the best are on 1zelda.com/TV) and determined that the TV could not accurately track color gradients, producing wide bands of the same color for up to 20 gradient steps, complete dropouts to zero color, and--most important--displaying green from a red input and red from a green input in certain color ranges. I eventually decided that there was reason to believe that no color displayed on the TV was likely to be the color that was intended in the source picture.

The TV has now been through three different picture processing boards, and a plasma panel replacement. Nothing has made any difference at all. Right now I am waiting for a total replacement unit. That unit is almost certainly not going to be any different.

During the three days that the TV was in the shop for the plasma panel replacement, I switched off to a 32" tube TV. I was amazed at how much better the picture looked than the picture on my 50" plasma. I also own a 65" Mits rear projection--the gold standard--so I know how HD TVs should look. My take, in summary, is that the Philips 50PF7220/27 (the "27" means USA, and the "b" means refurbished) has the worst picture of any of the 20 or so TVs that I have owned.

So, my advice. Do not pull the trigger on this one. And to fkingpsuce, Philips takes a couple of days to ship--you might be able to call them right now and cancel.

If anyone does get one of these, please report back here. Try these tests.

1. Use the following settings: Contrast 50, Brightness 57, Color 30. These will produce the most realistic picture for contrast, brightness, and color saturation, and will also reveal the most color defects.

2. Turn Color to Zero--this will, in fact, eliminate all of the color from the source. Or just watch a black and white movie on, say Turner Classic Movies. If your set is like mine, there is no such thing as displayed black and white.

3. Look at the menu color, especially the color of the small box that is displayed when you are making an adjustment. It should be various shades of blue. You can also reduce the Menu Color setting to zero while observing the menu box. The color should go from blue to gray. Mine goes from gray with green and red accents, to brown with green and red accents.

If you want to try to cover up the color defects, change the settings to Contrast 85-100, Brightness 40, Color 60. Your picture will look like the Simpsons on fire, but the defects will be minimized.

OK, so all plasmas have this problem to some degree. (Search AVS for "clay face", "false contouring", "purple snakes", "color banding". But this is as bad as it gets, and Philips has, so far, denied it exists in their products.


All of this said, if all you want is a really bright, high contrast, fairly large TV, and do not care about picture quality, [EDIT]. If you view the picture from, say, 25 feet, you will not be able to see most of the defects--except when a face fills the screen. You will also not be able to tell that it is HD at that distance. Every other quality--other than the color--is first rate. Well. the steel back panel buzzes loudly if you use the simulated surround sound and turn it up a bit--but I do not use the internal sound, so that is not a problem for me. Also, it makes a splendid computer monitor at 720p--unless you plan on viewing videos, or photos, using Photoshop (an absolute no-no), and playing some 3-D games with find gradients.

--E

I have been debating on whether or not to pull the trigger on this deal as well. Reading through this thread it seems like a majority of the people are having some sort of problem with it. The people that like it usually don't comment on contrast or black levels or anything like that, they just say it has a really good picture. Hard to pass up a deal this good, but I really don't want a $1,000 headache. I wonder if they are just getting rid of them cheap because there are so many problems with them.

I bought a refurb 32" LCD from Philips-outlet last June[EDIT] and its been a great TV and so far trouble-free. It's got an excellent picture and sound. Philips has been actively improving and posting firmware updates online:
http://www.usasupport.philips.com/productDocuments.html?ProductCode=32PF9630A/37B&subCat=LCD_LARGE_30_40_SU_US_CONSUMER

My only complaints revolved around delivery from Philips-outlet: 1) the box and packing materials were not original, and inside there was little styrofoam protection (the screen was up against the side of the cardboard box and could have easily been damaged in transit), 2) the screen had finger prints all over it, and 3) the box was left on my porch even though their delivery service is supposed to be "in-home" (thank goodness it wasn't raining).

I've had no problems with the set since purchase. I think Philips only offers 90 day warranties on refurbished units. For peace of mind, I bought a 5-year extended warranty online from a 3rd-party (TedUnlimited.com) for a very reasonable price:
http://www.tedunlimited.com/Store/Tab.aspx?tabid=5

I have been using the 42pf9630a for over a year now. VERY happy with it.
The onlyexception is when I openned all the windows in my room. The picture then is hard to see. But I believe this problem exists with any other plasma TV. Only LCD TVs are not susceptible to bright ambience light.
Now, when I see this [EDIT[ 52", I cannot resist. So here I am, soon
to welcome another Philips Plasma TV into my home.
By the way, if anyone successfully calibrated your TV, can you post the Video setting parameters here for us to use. Much appreciate. :)

All of this said, if all you want is a really bright, high contrast, fairly large TV, and do not care about picture quality, [EDIT]. If you view the picture from, say, 25 feet, you will not be able to see most of the defects--except when a face fills the screen. You will also not be able to tell that it is HD at that distance.
Uh... thanks.

Good luck replacing your defective set.

I am getting ready to bring my set back to costco. Could someone tell me what comes in the package ? I know the remote, power plug, some cables (not sure which cables). The manual on the phillips website doesnt list what is in the package.

I have a coax cable, composite cable, power cable, I took one of my own component cables because I am not sure if the component came with it.

Any ideas what cables the set comes with?

I TOO pulled the trigger and bought the TV over the weekend.....it's supposed to arrive on Monday......


What should I do/What should I know???

Mine arrived today around 5:00. I've been watching it about 2 hours now but I will have to reserve judgement. Right now I'm watching DTV programming thru a DTivo via an S-Video cable. On my old 31" CRT I've always noticed artifacting (DTV compression?) ...and it's even more noticeable on the 50". I'm grabbing a set of component cables for the DVD player tomorrow and HD cable is getting hooked up on Satruday, so I'll post my updated impressions then regarding video quality.

One thing I am noticing is what I'd call video noise ...not sure if that's an accurate description. Sometimes when the picture gets bright, I can hear the TV buzz. It's almost imperceptable once it got warmed up, but when it was cold the noise was irritating.

BTW, this TV is freakin' huge. I never thought I'd say a TV is too big, but this one is close. :)

Okay, I think I'm about to pull the trigger on either the 42 or 50" that phillips has on the Outlet site.

Honestly, the 50" seems to be a better deal, a larger display, and true 16:9 resolution (as opposed to the 4:3 1024x768 resolution of the 42") for $200 more. Kind of a no-brainer now that I think about it.

The only thing that's making me waver is the physical size of the unit. Wall mounting isn't really practical for where I want to put it, so I'm just going to need to get a table for it. Can someone tell me how wide, at the very extreme the "feet" are?

Muchas gracias.

The pedastal that came with mine is just a hair over 32" wide.

Mine mounted on the $50 Wal-Mart stand...

http://frankaintskinny.com/pics/tv/tv1.jpg

Pardon the flash. :D

Well, wake up this morning, and the 50" is off the site, so I guess my decision was made for me... Just as well, I need to buy a new stand for it, and the extra $200 I save will offset that.

was much tempted with the price for the 50" from the philips outlet website.
but reading thru the convoulted warranty doc thought its valid for only 90 days?
anyone have any issues with the returns and has anyone bought seprate warranties?
am a bit worried about buying tvs online.

Please post the info if you know. Thanks.

Good news:
I got a set of component cables and connected my prog scan DVD player (480p) and the picture is MUCH better than with my DirecTivo signal thru s-video, as I would have expected.

Bad news:
Skin tones are not good. When the subject's skin is well lit (like when they're out in the sun), it looks overly pink with bright spots. In all fairness, I still need to get a buddy's calibration disc and set it up right, but I'm not optimistic at this point.

Good news:
I got a set of component cables and connected my prog scan DVD player (480p) and the picture is MUCH better than with my DirecTivo signal thru s-video, as I would have expected.

Bad news:
Skin tones are not good. When the subject's skin is well lit (like when they're out in the sun), it looks overly pink with bright spots. In all fairness, I still need to get a buddy's calibration disc and set it up right, but I'm not optimistic at this point.

I wouldn't take that as much indication, as you're still looking at an SD signal. Calibration can make a HUGE difference.

Also, I'm seeing a tiny bit of something like a rainbow effect ...like you would on an old DLP ...when I move my eyes quickly from one side of the screen to the other. Is that normal?

The rainbow effect when the viewer switches eye focus is due to two things--

One is retinal persistence and shows up on most TVs. More noticeable if you are pretty close to the screen, especially if the contrast is jacked up very high.

The second is sometimes called "dynamic false contouring" and is due to the fact that the plasma pixels are strobed at full intensity for varying periods of time, depending on the required brightness (not constantly lit at the percieved brightness). So your eyes can sometimes pick up the strobing effect if you move your eyes quickly. Again, the further back you are, the less you will move your eyes, and the less the effect.

As for red faces. The only "calibration" to be done is to set the "white point". This can be done for each color temperature, but chances are you will not be able to improve anything over what you can accomplish with the user controls through the used menu.

Most important is color temperature. I believe the consensus for users of Philips sets is that only "Cool" is satisfactory. Both "Warm" and "Normal" will produce faces that are too pink or even orange.

I recommend these other settings--

Contrast: 50. This will work for low to moderate ambient lighting. You can bump this to 70-75 in high room lighting without changing the other settings, and get pretty good results. But anything above 50 will make solarization noticeable. This is where the highlights on faces (and other objects) get too bright, lose detail, and ulitmately turn white and glow brightly. A setting of 50 works for all inputs on my set except for photos viewed through the USB port, where 5 megapixel photos like a setting below 20, but 1 megapixel photos are happy at 50.

Dynamic Contrast: Max. This will brighten the brights and increase detail in the low lights. Most calibration afficionatos will tell you to turn off all "picture enhancements" like this and Pixel Plus. My take: on this set they improve the picture without hurting anything else.

Brightness: 57. This gives good resolution of detail in dark areas and usually makes black look black. You may have to adjust brightness for different inputs. On my set, only the TV (antenna) input requires a different Brightness setting. Also, this setting does not need to be adjusted when the contrast or color is changed. It merely sets the black level.

Color: 27. This produces bright deep colors where that is appropriate and leaves faces only very slightly overcooked. Any setting over 30 will make faces and other items start to glow.

Tint: 0.

Pixel Plus: On. This enhances fine detail, cleans up the picture a bit, and otherwise causes no harm.

Color Enhancement: ?. This does not appear to do anything. Let us know if it has any effect on your set.

Sharpness: 4. I believe this is the equivalent of "no change" to the picture and works best for me with all inputs, including a computer at 720P wide screen.

Dynamic Noise Reduction: Off. Unless you have a source that is noisy--irregular sporadic spots on the screen. This control will not get rid of MPEG compression artifacts in the source, and it will fuzz the picture a bit.

Active Control: Off. This control, when On, will bump up the contrast as the ambient light changes from dim to bright. Sometimes it works well, but if you use it, you should turn it on, adjust the picture in low light, then let the TV control the bright light setting. The control automatically adjusts other settings, too--watch the demo.

Auto Picture: Personal. Keep this on Personal. All of the built in settings (Rich, etc.) appear to be meant to be used for a store demo or in a sports bar. Also, if you think you will use one of the built in settings and tweak it a bit, beware. The built in setting will become the new Personal seting, replacing everything you have programmed into Personal.

Whatever you end up with, let us know what the color of your user menu is. It should be various shades of light blue with a bright blue highlight outline for the selected item. Some sets produce other colors on the menu, indicating a potential problem that might be related to your red face problem.

Another problem. The cable guy came and got me hooked up. However, when I go into the installation process to detect channels, it will only let me select "antenna" and it only detects channels 2-12. If I select the "cable" option, the little green dot with "next" disappears.

Another problem. The cable guy came and got me hooked up. However, when I go into the installation process to detect channels, it will only let me select "antenna" and it only detects channels 2-12. If I select the "cable" option, the little green dot with "next" disappears.

You do have the cable (from the street, not from the cable box) connected directly to the TV's antenna input don't you? Maybe through a splitter.

Perhaps you did not wait long enough for the channel search to finish.

The channel search for digital cable takes a very long time. For the first twenty minutes or more, there appears to be no progress. Then finally a "channel found" count will appear. Mine required maybe forty minutes to find 336 digital and 89 analog.

If this does not work for you, you should still be able to key in a valid channel number and see it displayed--as a test to see if your cable connection works. The cable guy should have done this for you.

Yep, the cable comes directly from the wall into the coax input on the TV.

When I go into Menu --> Installation --> Autoprogram --> Start Now, there are two options ...Antenna and Cable. If I chose Antenna, the little green dot at the bottom says Next by it, and if I hit the green button on the remote, it will scan for channels. It finds no digital channels, only 12 analogs. I don't touch anything until it's finished, which is only about 1 minute.

If I go back a step or two and choose Cable instead of Antenna (which seems like the logical choice to me), the green dot at the bottom does not say Next and I cannot proceed with a channel scan.

If I type in a channel number that should work, say 50, it says "searching channel" for a second or two, then I get a black screen and it says "channel not available".

I did have a CableCard installed if that matters. The installer stuck around long enough to make sure it paired correctly with the TV, then he was gone. He said my channels would start showing up in 10-15 minutes ...that was 6 hours ago. :( I called the cable company a couple hours ago and they said they would reset the CableCard and the channels would start showing up. Negative on that happening.

Son of a bleep....

On a whim, I decided to shut the TV down, unplug it, remove the CableCard, and power it back up. It now lets me run the "Cable" scan and it's finding digical channels. Problem with that is I won't be able to view HD channels for now.

So do you think the issue is the card or the TV?

Who is your cable provider? I use RCN in DC, no cable card, and all the HD channels work fine through the antenna port, except for the encrypted HBO, Showtime, etc. I believe it works the same with Comcast and Cox. Cable providers are required to make local HD channels available at a minimum, without a cable box.

What kind of cable box do you have?

I'm with Adelphia ...soon to be Comcast.

Oth the channels it picked up after removing the card, I found some of them were HD ...including the locals ...but I wasn't getting any of the others like Discovery, Nat Geo, etc. I put the card back in and now the TV channels match up to the Adelphia lineup (had been way off before). The cablecard is a Motorola.

For some reason, I thought you had both a cable box and a cable card.

You have to subscribe to a digital package of some kind to get the HD versions of non-local channels. Or to some package that includes at least the extra HD channels. Most or all of these packages include a digital cable box, and the I-Guide program guide, video on demand, digital music channels, additional digital channels, and pay-per-view.

I personally recommend a DVR. Works like a two-tuner HD Tivo, but better.

Also, if you get a cable box and manage to hang onto your cable card, you can do some really neat split-screen two-channel viewing.

I recieved my 50PF7220A/37 yesterday purchased from the Phillips outlet store. The setup instructions were confusing (not plug and play).

The TV has main Menu screen image is ghosted (burnt in) on every channel. Is there a fix or do I have to send this set bacK??

My Series 3 TiVo will be here tomorrow. :-D

BTW, the couple HD channels that I get look incredible ...I don't see the "posterization" or bright skin tones at all.

I recieved my 50PF7220A/37 yesterday purchased from the Phillips outlet store. The setup instructions were confusing (not plug and play).

The TV has main Menu screen image is ghosted (burnt in) on every channel. Is there a fix or do I have to send this set bacK??

I'd complain to them. I just got my refurbed 50PF9630/37B on wednesday from them & the first thing I did was put a "whitewash" jpg on it to look for that. I made the jpg using adobe photoshop (they have a save setting for HD 720p & 1080p) to check for burn in.

How many hours are on the set (It's in the service menu) which if it's the same as the 9630's you punch in "062596" the hit the "Info" button. It comes up with a display which you have to hit the red button to continue. then step through the settings there will be an overall hours diplay and a PDP hours which according th PhilipsPhanatic, is the real time as the overall adds 1/2 hour everytime you turn it on or off. (PhilipsPhanatic if you read this, is this info correct for the 7220's?)

What I'm getting at is if there is only a few hours on the set then you may be able to "remove" the burn in if it's just an image retention issue and not a hard core long term burn in using some of the utilities for "fixing" plasma displays without long term burn in problems such as displaying a "whitewash" image for a while etc.

I punched in the code and hit info but it didn't do anything....just came up with the info bar (no selections). Any other ides how to get into the service menu?


I called Phillips this morning and they gave me a service call reference number. I don't want a headache with this TV, I am on extensive travel the next 3 months and have no time to jockey service calls.

I recieved my 50PF7220A/37 yesterday purchased from the Phillips outlet store. The setup instructions were confusing (not plug and play).

The TV has main Menu screen image is ghosted (burnt in) on every channel. Is there a fix or do I have to send this set bacK??

This may not be permanent. First thing to do is reduce the contrast to 50, brightness to 55. Then unplug the TV for a minute, and try again.

As far as sending the set back, that may not be possible. If you have the usual warranty which states that "in home" repair is your only remedy, Philips will not accept returns. You must go to the Philips Customer Service site, register the TV, then file a claim online. Philips will get back to you by phone and give you contact info for several nearby authorized service centers. You will then be on your own to contact a service center and get your TV fixed. But first, try to get info on the service centers any way you can; Angie's List might help.

Philips will go to great lengths to avoid taking a set back. Even if your TV self-ignites and burns to a crisp, you will require a visit from a technician to verify the problem, contact Philips for a replacement, recieve the replacement, test it out, have you examine the replacement, then bring it to your home for installation.

I have this same set from Philips Outlet, bought last July. It developed flashing pixels on the screen. Philips supplied a replacement plasma panel kit that included a new panel, all the panel driver circuits, all the power supply components, and the picture processing board. Basically, everything but the cabinet and the remote. Well, the flashing pixels are gone, and the new plasma panel has less than 100 hours use on it today.

Anyway, if you have to ask for repair on the menu burn-in, wait a while and check out everything else to see if something else needs fixing. Read this thread thoroughly, and check out this link (http://1zelda.com/tv) for other possible problems.

I punched in the code and hit info but it didn't do anything....just came up with the info bar (no selections). Any other ides how to get into the service menu?


I called Phillips this morning and they gave me a service call reference number. I don't want a headache with this TV, I am on extensive travel the next 3 months and have no time to jockey service calls.

The service menu--do it again, no more than one second between key presses, including "info".

0-6-2-5-9-6-info

As for service calls, see my previous post. If a ruined screen is diagnosed, insist the tech call Philips from your home on the first visit to set up the replacement process.

Okay, the original code had a 062586 instead of a 062596. I did this and it worked......Operation hours were 10, PDP hours read 0001.

I think this is a good sign, could the screen have burn in with this few hours??

I have this same set from Philips Outlet, bought last July. It developed flashing pixels on the screen. Philips supplied a replacement plasma panel kit that included a new panel, all the panel driver circuits, all the power supply components, and the picture processing board. Basically, everything but the cabinet and the remote. Well, the flashing pixels are gone, and the new plasma panel has less than 100 hours use on it today.
Wow, a "NEW" set doesn't suck.

forced347, hope it's easy to resolve, as for the service menu, I had tried the sequence I told you about a few times before it worked, the first time it came up with an "invalid channel" indication. The menu access may be different for your 7220, the info I gave you was for the 9630 series, hopefully someone here can shed some light on accessing yours. whatever the outcome, you may want to look into an extended warranty. I did just for peace of mind since it's a refurb like yours. I found
http://www.newworldvideodirect.com/categorylist.asp?ParentID=167

decent prices. I applied for the Repairtech 5 year.(which is really 4 years because they assume a 1 year fact warranty but the NWVdirect rep said refurbs would get 4 years addition to the factory 90day) the rep from Newworld called today and warned that Repairtech may have an issue with getting parts for the ambilight feature my set has since that company doesn't use philips factory authorized service centers & that the "Mack" warranty uses philips authorized repair centers and he offered that 3 year ( which is 3 years additional to the 90 day and was 23 bucks more than the repairtech) for the same price as the repairtech. So I get 1 year less coverage but I get philips factory repair vs non philips. You may want to ponder this to help you sleep better. Good luck

Oh, by the way, I'm in no way associated with the above site. I just came upon them by surfing the net. Mack, Repairtech and a few of the others are registered with the Better Buisness Beureau as satisfactory, so hopefully they're not a risk.
In fact I went to the bbb.org site & couldn't find Mack, so I called the rep @ NWVdirect & he gave me their websit (which is Mackcam.com) and they have links to bbb.org on their site. He also gave me a reps name @ mack along with his extension to call with any questions, so hopefully these aren't fly by night buisnesses.

My hours read 1050 and 696. :(

My hours read 1050 and 696. :(

Did the 062596 info command work or was it different?

Forced347
Sounds like you should complain & hopefully get another set. They claim that the reworked units meet factory specifications. I don't recall seeing anything in the specs that addresses how much burnin factory specs allow :(

When I ordered my reworked set, I spoke to the rep @ Philips outlet site and he said there may be some cosmetic imperfections but they meet factory specs, which I would expect it to mean a scratch or two on the case but the display should be as good as any other similar model, crisp, clear, & no burnin. If they don't offer to resolve it, you can complain to your credit card company and dispute payment. I recall seeing another post somewhere on this forum where the guy complained to them, but was nice about it (I remember him writing that it's amazing how far you get if you're nice) and they agreed to have it shipped back to philips & refund his credit card. They should at least either replace it with another tv or replace the panel in yours. You should call them first thing Monday & get this on record & get a service reference # from them.

i'd be interested to know what you finally get, keep us informed & good luck.

PhilipsPhanatic,

You're very knowledgeble about Philips, have you seen other cases such as forced347's in dealing with the outlet site?

The 062596 code worked for me.

The 062596 code worked for me.
Is your model a 7220. How long have you had the set?

Is your model a 7220. How long have you had the set?

Yep, it's the 7220 ...just got delivered on Wednesday.

While going back I saw:

Okay, the original code had a 062586 instead of a 062596. I did this and it worked......Operation hours were 10, PDP hours read 0001.

I think this is a good sign, could the screen have burn in with this few hours??

Sorry forced347, I meant to type 062596 but my finger has a hearing problem. I will go back & edit my original post so others don't get bad info. As for your question, I don't see how the display could have a burnin with 1 hour of time on it. Maybe Philips sets the hour indicator to zero in some cases. But if thats the case, you think they would've set fkingspuce's set to zero too????? :confused:
Anyone else out there know if this is the case?
I checked my 50pf9630 on wednesday when I got it from the outlet ( I had it on for about 6 hours when I finally checked it) and it showed 14 hrs. I went back after learning of the pdp hours indicator and at that point found overall 25 hours & pdp of 17 hours. I've heard it's hit or miss with the outlet. Does anyone know if the 90 day refurb warranty is in home or do you have to ship/take it somewhere?

okay......I just got my refurbished set on on Friday.....

so my set says the hours are 2200 and 1541....

wtf?

Can I get a replacement?

Do I need to pay to ship it back??

okay......I just got my refurbished set on on Friday.....

so my set says the hours are 2200 and 1541....

wtf?

Can I get a replacement?

Do I need to pay to ship it back??
Unless there is a problem, you may be stuck with it. i remember somewhere on the Philips outlet site that you cannot return in case of "remorse" or something to that effect. Also if the PQ is good & no burn in I wouldn't let it bother you that much. these displays are spec'd at a halflife (that spec means the display will be half as bright as new) of 60000 hours. As i've heard it described, even CRT's started losing brightness from the minute they're first turned on and I have an old RCA colortrack 2000 that was made in '84 that still looks good & it was used 10+ hours / day for at least 10 years when the kids were little. You can't be blamed for trying to get another set though, good luck.

Here is something to consider. The information in the service menu in the first two menu items cannot be reset--unless you have a special service instrument available only to techs. So the total operation hours (plus serial number, firmware version, standby processor ID) is beyond your reach.

But the PDP hours can be set to any number you choose. My set arrived indicating 400 PDP hours (and approximately 400 hours of operation time). At 2500 PDP hours, the panel was replaced with a new one, and the tech did not reset PDP hours. I then set the PDP hours to 0. It now reads 250 after six weeks.

This is just to point out that the reading of PDP hours on any given TV may not represent actual hours of PDP use.

And the total operating hours reading may not give a clue to actual PDP hours when the unit has been through a refurbishing process.

A word of caution. Changing some of the settings in the Options tab of the service menu can cause your display to go dark. And you will not be able to undo the change unless you are able to navigate the menu without a display. Be warned.

If you use the service menu to adjust white points, be sure to make a record of the original settings before you start. There is a separate white point for each color temperature. Get all three recorded. You can change the color temperature setting from within the White Point tab.

Unlike most other settings changes, you can test a white point change without permanently storing the results. Make a white point change in the service menu, press the "menu" key on the remote, and you are back to regular viewing with the new white point setting. If necessary, return to the service menu and make further white point changes. These changes will stick until you turn off the TV power. If you want to permanently change a white point setting, after getting the white point you want to keep, return to the service menu, pick the "Store" tab, and store the changes. The stored settings will survive a restart.

I need some help to determine if the color problems in my 7220 are due to a faulty component, or due to a design defect. It will be very useful if you new owners (and veteran owners, if there are any still watching) could let me know how your set does on the following tests--

1. Color enhancement (the menu item). How, if at all, does this change your picture when turned on and off? Mine does nothing at all.

2. Menu color. First, set your Color control to zero, and leave it there for the remainder of the test. Your menu (in particular the small adjustment window) should have changed from shades of blue to shades of gray, and whatever program is on the screen behind the menu should look like a black and white movie. Do you see any color at all on the menu or the program? My menu has vertical bands of various colors (none of then blue), and the program content has colors of all sorts in the picture, none of them matching the expected color of an object on the screen.

Second, adjust the Contrast control up to 100, then down to 20, then up to 50 (leave it at 50). Do you see any menu color at any contrast setting? My menu color bands move left and right with changing contrast.

Third, set the Color Temperature to each of its three settings. Do you see any color or color changes in the menu or the program? (The Warm setting should give brighter areas a light pink cast. The Cool setting should give brighter areas a light bluish cast. Normal should be more or less neutral. Darker areas should not be affected by the Color Temperature setting.) My menu color bands change to different colors, being most vivid under Warm.

Fourth, return your menu items to their usual settings.

Please post your observations. If you see some color where there should be none, please describe whether it is barely noticeable, or pops right out at you. I really hope no one sees anything other than gray, for that would mean my TV is fixable.

Color enhancement has no effect on my TV when changed.

When I set my color to zero, I definitely see some color in the menu and picture. It's not much, but it's there. There was a dude on AI with a bright pink shirt and with the color all the way down, it was gray, but with a very slight yellow tinge. Also, bright red on the screen (Coca Cola cups) had a pink tinge.

When I turn the contrast all the way up, the left vertical edge of the small menu takes on a slight purple'ish hue.

Changing the color temp had a bigger effect. On warm, everything on the screen, while mostly gray, took on a brownish hue.

I noticed all of this on an HD recording, which looked great with all my "normal" settings.

Thanks fkingpsuce.

The non-working Color Enhancement is a mystery. Philips customer relations has told me that should not happen.

Your description matches much of what I see. You might want to check out a black and white movie. No need to change any settings to check for coloration there. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) usually throws in one or more of these each day.

I contacted the area service representative about the ghost menu screen , he opened a case and ordered a new plasma display. He said that they were backordered and if not received in 20 working days Phillips is required to replace my set. We'll see how this pans out.

I want to share my philips experience.
Ordered my unit on 2/17 received it yesterday. The delivery guys were nice and since I was not home my wife asked them to undo the package and put the Plasma on a my TV stand. They did it.
First the unit looks brand new, no scratches or whatsoever. The only sign of usage is on the Remote.
My hours reads 0042 and 0010. I am not sure this means something!
I must mention that I have a 50' Viera Panasonic bought 3 months ago.

My provider is Comcast via Motorola Box HD thru component.

Philips picture is excellent. Not as warm as the Pana but for $999 it looks damn good!

It took me some time to make the right settings but my picture is really amazing in HD.

Philips audio is just incredible compared to the Pana. A Pana with no sound system is useless but the Philips provides very good surround.

Guys, for less than $1000 dollars we got a 50' HD Plasma delivered to our home. I don't recall paying so little for a TV set since a long time way before Plasma even existed!!

The only issue I have is with volume. There is no on-screen info for volume!! Is that normal?

forced347, just how bad is the ghost menu screen? Does it appear slightly yellow (color opposite of blue)? Can you read any text in the menu?

If you could take a few minutes to do the tests in post #432 above, I would greatly appreciate your input.

The only issue I have is with volume. There is no on-screen info for volume!! Is that normal?

Not normal for most sets but it is normal for this Phillips plasma.

Not normal for most sets but it is normal for this Phillips plasma.

Same for the 42' or just the 50'?

Question for the experts:

What is your SW version?
or What is the latest SW available for those sets?

I would imagine that Philips is sending refurbished units with latest SW on it.

Question for the experts:

What is your SW version?
or What is the latest SW available for those sets?

I would imagine that Philips is sending refurbished units with latest SW on it.

Version 1.5 is the latest software. Do not assume anything.

Go here (http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?slg=AEN&cat=FLAT_TV_CA&sct=PLASMA_EXTRA_LARGE_GT43_SU&grp=TV_GR&session=20061215123429_207.172.94.56&ctn=50PF7220A/37&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software).

The only issue I have is with volume. There is no on-screen info for volume!! Is that normal?

If you mean the volume level bar that appears vertically on the left side of the screen every time you change the volume, you must have yours turned off. Go to--

MENU - TV - Setup - Preferences - Menu Preferences - OSD

Set to Normal (not "Minimum").

Question for the experts:

What is your SW version?
or What is the latest SW available for those sets?

I would imagine that Philips is sending refurbished units with latest SW on it.

Einride is right, don't assume anything. I got my 50pf9630 from the outlet last wednesday with rev 1.3, 2 rev's behind.

cizake--

While I have your attention (hopefully), if you could take a few minutes to do the tests in post #432 above, I would greatly appreciate your input.

I have a tech coming at 9 EST tomorrow morning, and I need all the info I can get.

indept--

Same request to you. If you could take a few minutes to do the tests in post #432 above, I would greatly appreciate your input.

Have you upgraded your SW yet? If you still have version 1.3, there might be a different result with test 1 (Color Enhancement), and maybe even test 2.

Einride

Thank you for the link. SW of my set is 1.3!!! I cannot beleive Philips is not patching units prior shipping...

See my answers below each request

1. Color enhancement (the menu item). How, if at all, does this change your picture when turned on and off? Mine does nothing at all.

No change

2. Menu color. First, set your Color control to zero, and leave it there for the remainder of the test. Your menu (in particular the small adjustment window) should have changed from shades of blue to shades of gray, and whatever program is on the screen behind the menu should look like a black and white movie. Do you see any color at all on the menu or the program? My menu has vertical bands of various colors (none of then blue), and the program content has colors of all sorts in the picture, none of them matching the expected color of an object on the screen.

I see no color at all, no vertical bands

Second, adjust the Contrast control up to 100, then down to 20, then up to 50 (leave it at 50). Do you see any menu color at any contrast setting? My menu color bands move left and right with changing contrast.

Same thing here but black and white as you asked to keep color to 0

Third, set the Color Temperature to each of its three settings. Do you see any color or color changes in the menu or the program? (The Warm setting should give brighter areas a light pink cast. The Cool setting should give brighter areas a light bluish cast. Normal should be more or less neutral. Darker areas should not be affected by the Color Temperature setting.) My menu color bands change to different colors, being most vivid under Warm.

Well I see a difference between cold normal and warm. My menu color is also more vivid under warm

cizake--

Thanks much for the input. You are the only one so far reporting no visible menu coloring.

Did you run those tests with the 1.3 software? If so, you may want to delay updatng to 1.5 until this issue is resolved.

The menu coloring, by itself, is not really a problem--it is just an easy-to-detect manifestation of what may be a much larger problem of unwanted color errors that can show up in normal viewing of TV prrograms and other content. Maybe--just maybe--the colorization was introduced with software version 1.4.

---Anyone else see--or not--any coloring in what should be a gray menu?

I will update later today to 1.5 so I will let you know if I encounter same problems as you do.

Here is a list of SW updates:

BX23U-1.5.0.0_03531
Following problems are solved :
• Availability cablecard channel map.
• Improved info in the service menu.
• Improved picture quality and stability on HDMI.
• Installation of channels.

BX23U-1.4.0.0_03081
Following problem is solved :
• Issue related to intermittent video loss is solved.

BX23U-1.3.0.0_01481
Following problems is solved :
• Robustness improvement when receiving channel map changes.

BX23U-1.2.0.0_01471
Following problems are solved :
• Channel map changes of the OOB channel table are reflected in the TV's channel map
• Robustness improvement to support streams which have wrongly set Audio Only bit
• Solution for sudden audio drop
• Audio improvement to avoid click in sound in case of high input signal
• Make RRT5 functionality user controllable
• Data only channel are filtered out after installation
• Give priority to SCTE21 above SCTE 20 compliant captions to prevent duplicate characters in the CC text
• Improvement of CC processing on scrambled HD channels

BX23U-1.1.0.0_01461
Following problems are solved :
• solution for sudden popup of menu or disfunctioning of keys on the television
• improved robustness in POD behavior
• improvements for playback of some specific streams not following standards.
• based upon customer feedback: the permanent channel nr is not displayed anymore when OSD is put to normal, this enables the
customer to have the volume bar without permanent channel numbers

BX23U-1.0.13.0_01441
Following problems are solved :
• improvement for selection of Secundary Audio Program on digital channels
• extra step in automatic installation to detect scrambled channels and unmark them in
preferred channel list, as a consequence the scrambled channels will be skipped when pressing CH+/CH- and are not visible in the
channel map
• default horizontal & vertical center value corrected on inputs where horizontal & vertical shift is allowed

BX23U-1.0.8.0 00841
Following problems are solved :
• intermittent black flashes seen with specific distribution amplifiers
• Preferred Channel menu item temporarily disabed in BX23U-1.0.7.0 00831 is enabled with this
release

BX23U-1.0.7.0 00831
Following problems are solved :
• improved robuustness for digital audio connections with some specific cable boxes
• improved robustness for source selection and recovery time with some specific HDMI or DVI device
• bad colours after switching between HDMI and YPbPr inputs
• wrong decoding of very low bit rate ATSC streams

I will update later today to 1.5 so I will let you know if I encounter same problems as you do.

Here is a list of SW updates:

BX23U-1.5.0.0_03531
Following problems are solved :
• Availability cablecard channel map.
• Improved info in the service menu.
• Improved picture quality and stability on HDMI.
• Installation of channels.

BX23U-1.4.0.0_03081
Following problem is solved :
• Issue related to intermittent video loss is solved.

The significant items in 1.4 and 1.5 are--

the cablecard change--if you use a cablecard the change will map channels on the cable to the lineup you would get if you had a cable box instead. Otherwise you had to tune to things like 107.08 manually. Which you still have to do if you get your programming over-the-air.

HDMI--was a bit unstable and lost connectivity occasionally. I believe this change made the PQ over HDMI better than the PQ over component.

Installation of channels--finds more channels than before.

Loss of video--was a major problem requiring a reboot of the TV, now no problem.

indept--

Same request to you. If you could take a few minutes to do the tests in post #432 above, I would greatly appreciate your input.

Have you upgraded your SW yet? If you still have version 1.3, there might be a different result with test 1 (Color Enhancement), and maybe even test 2.
I'll give it a go by tomorrow night, been real busy at work lately. Oh yeah, mine is a 50pf9630, but then philips is philips :rolleyes:

FYI, mine shipped with the 1.5 firmware.

I need some help to determine if the color problems in my 7220 are due to a faulty component, or due to a design defect. It will be very useful if you new owners (and veteran owners, if there are any still watching) could let me know how your set does on the following tests--

1. Color enhancement (the menu item). How, if at all, does this change your picture when turned on and off? Mine does nothing at all.


Ditto, Nadda, Ziltch

2. Menu color. First, set your Color control to zero, and leave it there for the remainder of the test. Your menu (in particular the small adjustment window) should have changed from shades of blue to shades of gray, and whatever program is on the screen behind the menu should look like a black and white movie. Do you see any color at all on the menu or the program? My menu has vertical bands of various colors (none of then blue), and the program content has colors of all sorts in the picture, none of them matching the expected color of an object on the screen.


I see some slight shade of purple in the grays of the menu and sometimes on peoples faces, not always with the faces.

Second, adjust the Contrast control up to 100, then down to 20, then up to 50 (leave it at 50). Do you see any menu color at any contrast setting? My menu color bands move left and right with changing contrast.

the same purple which varies slightly & moves about the menu a bit as I adjust contrast.

Third, set the Color Temperature to each of its three settings. Do you see any color or color changes in the menu or the program? (The Warm setting should give brighter areas a light pink cast. The Cool setting should give brighter areas a light bluish cast. Normal should be more or less neutral. Darker areas should not be affected by the Color Temperature setting.) My menu color bands change to different colors, being most vivid under Warm.

pretty much as you stated, with slight changes in the purple. In all cases it's slightly more than barely noticable but not so much as to call it jumping out at you.

What's the going thought here, do you think it is a firmware issue, A hardware issue, or a calibration issue?

Also some people have the infamous clay face. For instance, while watching Jay leno (in HD) he seemed to have clay face, but his hands looked normal color while other people being interviewed in the audience seemed fine. Any thoughts on that.

. . . .

What's the going thought here, do you think it is a firmware issue, A hardware issue, or a calibration issue?

Also some people have the infamous clay face. For instance, while watching Jay leno (in HD) he seemed to have clay face, but his hands looked normal color while other people being interviewed in the audience seemed fine. Any thoughts on that.

Clayface is just one manifestation of the general problem of not being able to display colors correctly.

The plasma screen works a lot like other color TVs have for the past 40 years, with red, green, and blue phosphors that glow when "excited" by electrons. Florescent lighting tubes work the same way (just no separate phosphors). And neon sign tubes are early plasma gadgets. The plasma panel is a sort of combination of a million neon (and zenon and something else) micro-tubes each with a coating of red, green or blue phosphor dots that glow when a high voltage ionizes the gas in the individual micro-tubes (or "cells", or "pixels").

A problem occurs because plasma cells, like florescent lights, cannot be dimmed reliably like incandescent lamps can--they tend to stay lit at the same brightness as the applied voltage is lowered, then suddenly turn off. As a method to more reliably control the brightness, a scheme of applying a train of high frequency pulses of voltage was developed to deal with this. To produce a situation where an input signal calls for a red pixel to have a brightness of, say, 100 on a scale of 0 to 255, there could be 100 voltage pulses applied during a single frame of a TV picture.

All well and good, but. Then you have to account for the user adjusting the contrast, brightness, tint, and color temperature. Then there are corrections for a 3D comb filter for noise reduction, 3:2 pulldown for 24 frame per second movies, and, for Philips (different for other manufacturers), pixel plus, dynamic contrast, color enhancement, dynamic noise reduction, and auto picture. This is why there is a computer in your TV, and the programming for combining all these things has to take all these things into account to produce the appropriate brightness for that red pixel even after all these things have been adjusted throught their full range of adjustment. Not impossible, but it takes careful programming.

Then the nastiest factor is adjusting the luminous output of that red pixel to account for the particular plasma panel installed in the set, where the red phosphors can behave differently from panel manufacturer to manufacturer, and from panel production run to subsequent runs, and from engineering changes to the pixel response. This takes a non-mathemetical, almost trial-and-error type of programming that may have to change over time during the production cycle of a particular TV model. And this is where I think things are most likely to go wrong.

You can see the most obvious manifestation of the source of color errors by displaying a red-green-blue color ramp on the TV. A full screen ramp can be downloaded from 1zelda (http://1zelda.com/tv). This is a 1920 x 1080 pixel jpeg file that you can put on a USB memory stick and display on your TV. The image consists of red, green, and blue horizontal bars with 256 segments from black to max brightness for each color. They should display as smooth transistions of increasing brightness. This is the way they will display when viewed on a computer monitor. On a 7220, set the brightness to 57, contrast to 50, view in a dimly lit environment, and get very close to he screen.

I have been through three 7220s so far. All three display the same problems with the RGB Color Ramp. There are dropouts (dark segments). There are color reversals (green segments in the red bar, red segments in the green bar). There are intensity mismatches (green bar noticeably brighter than red and blue over some segments). There is banding (several contiguous segments in each color are the same intensity). And there are intensity reversals (segments that should be darker are brighter instead, and vice versa). In short, there is no way that serious color errors will not be displayed in ordinary viewing content, and, in fact, they do.

Einride,

Thanks for the explaination. I have to research how exactly plasmas work. I have an electronics backround but never took the time to learn the theory behind it. I also saw something interesting,,,. While watching NBC news (ch 10 here in NJ.) in HD via comcast stb. I noticed the fine detail in their faces, hair etc. when they were still, but when they would turn their heads, the fine detail in both face features & hair "blurred" until they stopped movement, then the fine detail returned til they moved again. I saw this on the NBC show "1vs100" too. I played with different adjustments, turned off enhancements, pixel plus etc with no change. When I went to ABC news, everything looked great, no blurring during movement at all, went back to NBC and they still blurred. Seems like this is a signal problem, not my tv. It did it in both component & HDMI input. Have you seen this?

This is why there is a computer in your TV, and the programming for combining all these things has to take all these things into account to produce the appropriate brightness for that red pixel even after all these things have been adjusted throught their full range of adjustment. Not impossible, but it takes careful programming.
Are you referring to firmware or user adjustment calibration when you say "programming"?

Also, where my findings in my last post helpfull. Seems like it's more common than you may think since it has similar results on my 9630.

Einride,

Thanks for the explaination. I have to research how exactly plasmas work. I have an electronics backround but never took the time to learn the theory behind it. I also saw something interesting,,,. While watching NBC news (ch 10 here in NJ.) in HD via comcast stb. I noticed the fine detail in their faces, hair etc. when they were still, but when they would turn their heads, the fine detail in both face features & hair "blurred" until they stopped movement, then the fine detail returned til they moved again. I saw this on the NBC show "1vs100" too. I played with different adjustments, turned off enhancements, pixel plus etc with no change. When I went to ABC news, everything looked great, no blurring during movement at all, went back to NBC and they still blurred. Seems like this is a signal problem, not my tv. It did it in both component & HDMI input. Have you seen this?


Are you referring to firmware or user adjustment calibration when you say "programming"?

Also, where my findings in my last post helpfull. Seems like it's more common than you may think since it has similar results on my 9630.

ABC broadcasts HD at 720p, NBC at 1080i. Which output do you use from your cable box (64xx? maybe). I have not noticed the motion blurring effect you describe, but I could have missed it. I have a 6416III, and I use the HDMI output at 1080i, which seems to produce a somewhat better picture on all HD channels.

Besides at the user end, the effect you saw could be caused at the origination end through the use of different cameras, different compression of the digital signal by the broadcaster, and probably a lot more.

By "programming", I meant all the software that controls the picture composition pixel by pixel. It is all numbers, you know. Some of that is in the ungradeable firmware, and this is the same for a particular group of TV models. (Your 9630 uses the same firmware as the 7220s.) And some of the programming appears to be hardcoded (not user changeable) and stored on non-volatile memory somewhere on the hardware. This last could be used to make performance changes necessary for production run changes that the universal firmware cannot accomodate, and would be programmable in the factory through a connector inside the set. (Some of this I picked up from reading about similar problems on Sharp and Panasonic plasmas in the AVS forum. Both Sharp and Panasonic have fixed their problems by redisigning and reprogramming one or more digatal processing boards in their sets.)

And, yes, your post was very helpful. I suspected a more widespread problem, and I hope to convince Philips to take some sort of remedial action. Something more effective than just sending me a new set that behaves the same as the previous ones.

Aside from the color problem, which seriously messes up a lot of programming, the Philips plasmas do almost everything else right. Among other things, they produce an excellent standard definition picture, something many other manufacturers have not put much effort into.

Try the RGB Color Ramp, and also the Diamond Grayscale, and tell us what you see. If you can display these through a connected computer (HDMI or component is best, but not necessary), you can change the TV contrast while viewing and see some very interesting effects.

So if I understand this correctly, there's nothing I'm going to be able to do to the set to fix the color issues? Should I call Philips and complain? ...or am I SOL for not doing all of my homework before purchasing?

ABC broadcasts HD at 720p, NBC at 1080i. Which output do you use from your cable box (64xx? maybe). I have not noticed the motion blurring effect you describe, but I could have missed it. I have a 6416III, and I use the HDMI output at 1080i, which seems to produce a somewhat better picture on all HD channels.
I have the Motorola 3400 series stb & I'm using the hdmi output @1080i also. This issue occured on the component outputs too. Where did you find that "ABC broadcasts HD at 720p, NBC at 1080i", is there a site you know of that lists that? My concern is that my 9630 isn't processing the 1080 interlaced signal properly. I asked this same question on the 42PF9630 thread to see if others with the same set see this. PhilipsPhanatic said he would try it with his 9631. The other possibility is that my local NBC affiliate in Philthydelphia has an issue with their broadcasts since Saturday Night Live looked great and they're originating out of NY.

I have the Motorola 3400 series stb & I'm using the hdmi output @1080i also. This issue occured on the component outputs too. Where did you find that "ABC broadcasts HD at 720p, NBC at 1080i", is there a site you know of that lists that? My concern is that my 9630 isn't processing the 1080 interlaced signal properly. I asked this same question on the 42PF9630 thread to see if others with the same set see this. PhilipsPhanatic said he would try it with his 9631. The other possibility is that my local NBC affiliate in Philthydelphia has an issue with their broadcasts since Saturday Night Live looked great and they're originating out of NY.

Here is a detailed HD channel listing (http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5119938-1.html), including broadcast resolution.

You can also connect the cable directly to the TV antenna input, tune to the HD channels, and read the rosolution on the "Info" data from the Philips. It can be a bitch finding the channels if you donot have a cable card, though.

The most recent firmware upgrade for the 34xx and 64xx boxes added a new option for HDMI output. You can select the "color space" for the HDMI output. Choices are "RGB" and "YPbPr" (the dafault). I switched mine to RGB and decided the picture pn the Philips was improved with more realistic colors. Unfortunately, you need two TVs or two cable boxes or both to do a real side-by-side comparison. I believe this appears on the cable box setup screen as "Additional HDMI Options"

Here is a detailed HD channel listing (http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5119938-1.html), including broadcast resolution.

You can also connect the cable directly to the TV antenna input, tune to the HD channels, and read the rosolution on the "Info" data from the Philips. It can be a bitch finding the channels if you donot have a cable card, though.

The most recent firmware upgrade for the 34xx and 64xx boxes added a new option for HDMI output. You can select the "color space" for the HDMI output. Choices are "RGB" and "YPbPr" (the dafault). I switched mine to RGB and decided the picture pn the Philips was improved with more realistic colors. Unfortunately, you need two TVs or two cable boxes or both to do a real side-by-side comparison. I believe this appears on the cable box setup screen as "Additional HDMI Options"
Thanks. judging from that link, I've viewed a few of those stations with excellent results so my sets ability to process 1080I content isn't the issue. It's most likely the feed from my local NBC in Philly. I was hoping someone from the philly area could check this to see if they get the same result. I saw thw RGB & YPbPr option on my stb & tried RGB but still got the blurr.

Hey Folks,

Just got this TV via the deal about a month ago, and just wanted to report my findings. I would say that on a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being utterly disappointed and 10 being blown away, I would rate my purchase at a 6. The TV has lots of inputs, lots of configurable options and is HUGE. However, I have experienced all of the color display issues that other users in this forum have reported. Whites and reds (especially) have this grainy kind of noisy look to them, even on the HD channels. This is even more prevalent with darker shades of these colors. I have noticed the "clay face" phenomenon as well. It is especially noticeable on SD/Analog sources. I have the Motorola DCT6412 HDDVR, which broadcasts the analog channels poorly, making them look even worse. The DCT6412 is using a DVI->HDMI cable fed to the TV.

I also have an xbox 360 wired in with component. The HD games actually look pretty good. If you look close you can still see some of the color gradient failures, but it seems less prevalent then through the STB from Comcast.

If anyone has found a "miracale" solution to fix the color banding in the Philips set, I am open to any suggestions. I am satisified, but still toying with the Idea of selling/returning it because the analog/sd channels looks worse the 27" CRT in the bedroom.

Thanks.

Hey Folks,

Just got this TV via the deal about a month ago, and just wanted to report my findings. I would say that on a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being utterly disappointed and 10 being blown away, I would rate my purchase at a 6. The TV has lots of inputs, lots of configurable options and is HUGE. However, I have experienced all of the color display issues that other users in this forum have reported. Whites and reds (especially) have this grainy kind of noisy look to them, even on the HD channels. This is even more prevalent with darker shades of these colors. I have noticed the "clay face" phenomenon as well. It is especially noticeable on SD/Analog sources. I have the Motorola DCT6412 HDDVR, which broadcasts the analog channels poorly, making them look even worse. The DCT6412 is using a DVI->HDMI cable fed to the TV.

I also have an xbox 360 wired in with component. The HD games actually look pretty good. If you look close you can still see some of the color gradient failures, but it seems less prevalent then through the STB from Comcast.

If anyone has found a "miracale" solution to fix the color banding in the Philips set, I am open to any suggestions. I am satisified, but still toying with the Idea of selling/returning it because the analog/sd channels looks worse the 27" CRT in the bedroom.Thanks.
Sorry to hear you're having problems. I bought a 50 inch 50PF9630 refurb from their site just over 3 weeks ago for. I've had no problems apparently. I say that because I've had some questions posed to this forum about apparent problems but they have turned out not to be problems, just my misunderstanding or a bad signal etc. I have been suspect of this set just because it's a refurb so everytime I see something I think is an issue I question it. If you are seeing problems, which it sounds like you are, don't wait, complain to Philips immediately. They claim all of their "renewed" sets meet factory specs, but it seems that as long as it turns on & produces heat, they ship it, so it's hit or miss with these tv's. If you get one you like, get an extended warranty. "Mack" has a decent warranty.If you go to www.mackcam.com you can check them out. There is a thread in this forum where members can get a warranty @ a discount. For your price range you can get a 3yr for about 120 - 130. I usually don't get warranties, but when your dealing with refurbs it helps you sleep. Good luck.

indept,

Thanks for the response. I'm not clear on the differences between the 50PF9630 and the 50PF722A, but maybe that has something to do with why mine is worse. The TV seems to work fine for the most part, except for the color display issues. I've read other posts in this thread about users having almost the same issues, so I'm attributing it to just a characteristic of plasmas and it just happens to be worse then usual on mine. Also because the TV is SOOO much bigger then any TV i've had, so errors or problems in the picture are easier to see.

On an unrelated note, this TV is on sale for $999 again with free shipping on the Philips outlet website. Can't post links yet (<5 posts) but just go to the main philips outlet site and there will be a link for it on the lower right corner.

I think the offer expires on the 21st, so there are a couple days to contemplate the decision!

just wanted to say i got in on the refurb 50" Philips 7220 deal for a grand from philips outlet. was actually waiting for a 42" to fall to that price, but when i saw this deal i couldnt pass it up. i've had it for a week now and i am very pleased with my decision to buy it. HD picture looks great, and the DNR function really cleans up SD channels. so far no problems to speak of. from reading this thread it looks like i got lucky...(knock on wood!)

just wanted to say i got in on the refurb 50" Philips 7220 deal for a grand from philips outlet. was actually waiting for a 42" to fall to that price, but when i saw this deal i couldnt pass it up. i've had it for a week now and i am very pleased with my decision to buy it. HD picture looks great, and the DNR function really cleans up SD channels. so far no problems to speak of. from reading this thread it looks like i got lucky...(knock on wood!)
Thats where I got my 50pf9630 from. I bought a 3yr Mack warranty, I typically never buy warranties but felt that being a refurb it must have had some issue so I sleep better at night. You can get one for about 120 through this forum.

I got this TV from the Philips Outlet store with a 5-year VISA extended warranty for $113. Not a bda deal but I am experiencing some of the color problems people have reported in this thread. A few questions:
- would calibration (using AVIA, DVE etc) help?
- I did enter the service menu and changed the white point alignment values for red/green/blue. Is there a way to restore those to the factory settings?
- can someone post the results of a professional (or DVD) calibration? The most annoying issue is the clay face factor - I see this in most SD channels and (a lot less) in some HD channels. Is it worth getting Philips to come and solve these and, potentially, replace the set or are all the same?

Any input/feedback would be highly appreciated.

Thank you!

I got this TV from the Philips Outlet store with a 5-year VISA extended warranty for $113. Not a bda deal but I am experiencing some of the color problems people have reported in this thread. A few questions:
- would calibration (using AVIA, DVE etc) help? I did enter the service menu and changed the white point alignment values for red/green/blue. Is there a way to restore those to the factory settings? can someone post the results of a professional (or DVD) calibration? The most annoying issue is the clay face factor - I see this in most SD channels and (a lot less) in some HD channels. Is it worth getting Philips to come and solve these and, potentially, replace the set or are all the same?Any input/feedback would be highly appreciated.hank you!

How bad is the clayface? It is barely noticeable on my 9631 and SD never looks as crisp as HD. Calibrating MIGHT help -- why not get an ISF technician to do it once for you, it might be worth it?

Be careful about changing SM stuff. Always write down the starting variables.

My mother-in-law purchased a refurb 50PF7220A/37B from the Phillips outlet. I was attempting to adjust basic picture controls. I used the Digital Video Essentials DVD fed from a Oppo 981HD DVD player over HDMI with the Oppo output at 720p. I'm using all the default settings on the Oppo.

The problems are:
1) When setting brightness using the Pluge with Log Gray Scale test pattern (Title 12 Chapter 2): When I pulled this up, I never could get the 3 stripes (blacker than black, 2% above black, and 4% above black) to show up now matter what brightness setting I used. I'm assuming that this means the plasma is crushing blacks at a level greater than 4%.

2) When setting contrast using the reverse gray ramps (Title 12, Chapter 14). When I pull up this pattern, about 1/3 of the gray ramp pattern had the whites crushed as if the contrast was set way to high. I changed the contrast settings from one end to the other and this did not change the white crush.

3) When setting Color/Tint using the Blue Filter with the Color Bar pattern (Title 12, Chapter 6): I could never reach my goal of getting an even shade of blue by adjusting color and tint. There were always some blocks that that were a much darker shade of blue. I had used this test pattern in the past on CRT rear pro and front projector without much difficulty.

After experiencing this, I then attempted to change other picture controls but none of them solved any of the 3 issues. Is this normal for a plasma or this particular Philips model? Could settings in the service menu correct for this? Could this set be defective? There is about 60 days left on the warranty.


Sincerely,
snooktarpon

I have a question about hookup I need a quick answer to.

My cable box had a DVI connector, so I am forced to use a HDMI to DVI cable. I get a picture but no sound, I have tried hooking up RCA cables to the back of the TV from the cable box but I can't seem to get sound. Is there a way to hook this TV up using a DVI to HDMI cable?? The cable company tells me they have no HDMI boxes other than DVR which they want to soak me an additional $16.95 a month (I don't need or want a DVR on this TV). Any insight is apprecaited.

I have a question about hookup I need a quick answer to.

My cable box had a DVI connector, so I am forced to use a HDMI to DVI cable. I get a picture but no sound, I have tried hooking up RCA cables to the back of the TV from the cable box but I can't seem to get sound. Is there a way to hook this TV up using a DVI to HDMI cable?? The cable company tells me they have no HDMI boxes other than DVR which they want to soak me an additional $16.95 a month (I don't need or want a DVR on this TV). Any insight is apprecaited.

I have mine hooked up the same way. The way I got the audio to work was run a digital coax audio cable from the box to the "Digital Audio In" on the back of the TV. In the TV menu ( I think Settings > Source > Digital Audio In), you can select which source the TV will play this audio to. Just set that to HDMI1 (or 2 depending on where your DVI/HDMI cable is plugged into). Then, when that input is selected the video will be from DVI and the audio routes through the digital coax and plays correctly. This is how you would hook up the TV if you were using it as a computer monitor using HDMI. There is a hookup diagram in some of the documentation that came with the TV showing what I described here.

Thanks.

Won't this set auto stretch via component inputs?

I use a cable box connected via component for the HD recorder and pause features. The cable box can upconvert to 1080i for everything, but I con't like that because then the TV won't stretch. I set the cable box to pass-through the video and the TV still doesn't stretch the picture.
Using the tuner and changing the channels with the TV's tuner stretching occures fine.

Is the problem because I'm using component?

(added question)
Is there a way to use the cable box and get the TV to auto stretch?

thanks,
Dom

OK, as long as you tried adjusting the offsets and white points, never mind then.
It just sounded to me exactly like what goes wrong when those are incorrect.
Example: grey looks purple? you've "run out" of green.

Good luck,
Mike
I'm having a problem like that with this tv. Some greys have a purple color to it. What can i do to correct it?

Just upgraded to the Panny TH-50PZ700U but have a hard to find Philips compatible VGA -> 5 RCA adapter. Send me a PM if you're interested.

I purchased this TV in March from Philips refurbished for the incredibly low price of $999. Everyting has been great, picture quality, ease of use etc. But now I am noticing flashing red pixels showing up in the middle of the screen...any ideas? it has me more confused, because it will come and go, not there all the time, sometimes more than others and sometimes only in dark areas...but again, only near the center of the screen...HELP! does this mean i need to replace "guts" inside the TV?

I purchased this TV in March from Philips refurbished for the incredibly low price of $999. Everyting has been great, picture quality, ease of use etc. But now I am noticing flashing red pixels showing up in the middle of the screen...any ideas? it has me more confused, because it will come and go, not there all the time, sometimes more than others and sometimes only in dark areas...but again, only near the center of the screen...HELP! does this mean i need to replace "guts" inside the TV?

Regardless of what you are watching? If you see it on one channel of SD, is it there on another SD channel? HD channel ? What about when you put in a DVD ?

It's difficult to determine if this TV is a POS or not? Does the 1.5 firmware definitively correct all the major issues discussed here - black screen and clayface/color issues? On paper the set seems great particularly when considering the price. But I don't want to buy into a hunk of junk I'll regret purchasing.

Hey Folks,

My 50PF7220A is doing something strange. All across the screen, the pixels are displaying as green... it looks awful... all images have this staticy green tint to them. This TV is only 6 months old!!! I will be so upset if the TV is truly damaged.... any ideas on what could have caused this or what I can do to fix it?

thanks...

Hey Folks,

My 50PF7220A is doing something strange. All across the screen, the pixels are displaying as green... it looks awful... all images have this staticy green tint to them. This TV is only 6 months old!!! I will be so upset if the TV is truly damaged.... any ideas on what could have caused this or what I can do to fix it?

thanks...

I have a 50 in as well - the newer 9731d model and I believe from what your describing might have the same issue although mine appears to be green and red pixels which seem to show up on dark backgrounds and much more noticeable on HDMI inputs than component. Mine also disappears after anywhere from a couple of minutes to 15 minutes and goes away quicker when on component input - after it disappears on the component it's gone on the HDMI and not so noticable on dvd through HMDM2 input - Because it does not do it all the time and goes away rather quickly I havent worried about to much. I find the more I change channels the quicker it goes away. I have talked to a tech who contacted Philips and they advised they havent heard of this issue ?? I have seen a few threads on AVS that have the same type of complaint but it hasnt been many. Our plasma gets lots of use and I am keeping an eye on it but as I said sometimes it's not there and somtimes you barely see it and other times it's very noticable. Hopefully Philips will be able to put out a software upgrade down the road that will fix this!

Wazy

The significant items in 1.4 and 1.5 are--

the cablecard change--if you use a cablecard the change will map channels on the cable to the lineup you would get if you had a cable box instead. Otherwise you had to tune to things like 107.08 manually. Which you still have to do if you get your programming over-the-air.

HDMI--was a bit unstable and lost connectivity occasionally. I believe this change made the PQ over HDMI better than the PQ over component.

Installation of channels--finds more channels than before.

Loss of video--was a major problem requiring a reboot of the TV, now no problem.

Has anybody heard that Philips will be coming out with a firmware upgrade for the new 2.0/M-Cards??? I called tech support...she just gave me the 1.5.0.0

I also have a Panny 50PX600U...And they are sending the firmware upgrade for the 2.0/m-Card.

Thanks in Advance....

I'm trying to hook my computer up to this TV. Has anyone had luck with this? If so what cables are you using, and what resolution.

Currrently i'm trying to use a VGA to HDMI connector on various resolutions. In the book it says you need a DVI to HDMI connector but I dont have an DVI port. Is this port necessary?

There hasn't been any activity on this thread for many months so I hope there's still an experienced person monitoring that can help.

I have significant overscan. This forum taught me how to get into the Service Alignment Menu but after looking into every section/sub-menu I haven't found any relevent option to adjust the vertical or horizontal. Can someone please tell me exactly where to go to adjust the overscan?
Thank you