I bought my 30PW8420/37B from Philips Outlet two years ago next month. It arrived in mid-January 2006, and it's still working like a champ. While not big by current standards, the image produced at 1080i, fed by our LG LST-3510A HD tuner/dvd player, is beautiful. For whatever reason, Philips sets get bashed here a good bit, but my set has been both a bargain and a great performer.

I'm afraid to say anything as I don't want to go & jinx it.

My illips-phay has worked ate-gray for 12 months now.

The only HD I've had until recently was from my Xbox360. A couple of months ago I got dishHD. I can say the picture is competitive with any of the sub $2000 panel TVs out there.

Best $350 I've spent on a TV.

No jinx to worry about. Mine just passed two years old and continues to produce beautiful HD images. Especially with live events like NFL football I just sometimes am still amazed at the realism. I used Avia to fine-tune the display, which makes for a really nice picture without all the sales floor over-brightness.

I remember giving them serious consideration when shopping for my first HDTV around 8 months ago. The picture quality was killer. I was scared off by stories of tuner problems with the 911 model though. But that picture was unbeatable, even by Sony & Panasonic.

No question about it; the PQ is great. Mine's the tunerless version, the 8420. It looks just like the 91xx models, but requires an external source. There definitely was a problem with the tuner in the 91xx.

Hi, as long as you don't have a refurb you might luck out but mine was, great price, but it died at a little past 2yrs. I will not stay on and so far all the brains in my area including one place who needs to revise their pompus web page dont want to touch it.

Hello all,
I've got the 30PW9110D/37, it's been a great TV for the past couple of years. I just found the Service Manual yesterday & downloaded it, I have no idea how to use it.. but I have it now! lol I still like the pic on this set.. I just never have been happy w/the grayscale/black level/shadow detail. I have Digital Video Essentials DVD & have ran threw the disc several times trying to get the black levels set, but I'm never happy w/the end results!? The colors are fairly decent though. Does anyone know how to tweak the "grayscale" on this set? I seen in the service menu where you can tweak the preset colors, I think if a guy knew what colors to tweak in one of these presets (NORMAL?) you could get a half decent black/shadow level detail.

Service Menu--->
Service Alignment Mode (SAM)--->
White Tone--->
COOL--->Delta Cool Red
Delta Cool Green
Delta Cool Blue
NORMAL--->Normal Red
Normal Green
Normal Blue
WARM--->Delta Warm Red
Delta Warm Green
Delta Warm Blue
Good HDTV Overall Though, Any thoughts? Phil B.

I've had my 30pw850h since Sep 2003 and it is still going strong.

I've had my 30PW9100D/37 since February 2006. This past Wednesday the 25th it wouldn't come on after like two weeks of displaying a shakey image when turned on.

I bought my HD Philips by late 2006. It's still working great.
I have the South American version (no tuner since by then no country had selected a digital standard down here), but 1080i component input nonetheless.

I did a mini-review back then...
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1040925/big-fat-philips-hdtv-ready-crt-lack-hdmi

All these (30PW8420, 29PT8422, 32PW8422) are based on the Philips L05 chassis.

I wanted the 32" with HDMI but couldn't find it anywhere, it was in short supply, so I settled for the 29" without HDMI input.

Still, I got myself an upscaling DVD player which does 1080i over component
http://geekgaucho.blogspot.com/2007/04/get-1080i-hd-upscaling-over-component.html
and it works great. Even 720p works wonders for movies, my eyes can't honestly tell the difference between 720p and 1080i.

Luckily digital HD cable has component outputs, but I still miss not having HDMI. I looked on the service manual for the 30PW8420 series and I see the HDMI input is just a stand-alone circuit board that "converts HDMI to CVI for use by the main board" and then is plugged into the main board. It's got labeled "HDMI panel" but I don't have a part#.

$1M dollar question:
How difficult would it be for an authorized Philips repair center to request a "replacement HDMI panel" for a 30PW8420 or 32PW8422 ?? What would be the cost?.

There's a setting in the service menu that can be used to enable the feature bits for HDMI input and thus it'd be possible for owners of the 29" sets to have HDMI (if you don't mind voiding your warranty).

FC

I think that's the model I got back in 2007. I lasted 28 hours then turnd into a smoke machine. It was a Philips, and Wal-Mart cheerfully refunded. Then got a Samsung CRT HdTV (don't remember which one) It lasted 8 months.

We're coming up on 4 years with this set and I continue to be very happy with this bargain that I got from the old Philips Outlet online. Since Philips has licensed its name to Funai for production of US Philips-labeled TVs, there's no longer a Philips Outlet, though there's now aneBay Philips store (http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Philips-Certified-Auctions__W0QQ_armrsZ1QQ_fsubZ248444015), with free shipping, like I got from Philips Outlet.

I suspect the jury's still out on the quality of Funai Philips sets, and, like the direction taken by most manufacturers, there's no longer a CRT option. Since LCD panels are made by a handful of manufacturers, the issues I suspect will come down to the power supplies, tuners, and controls.

I'm in no rush to replace our WS CRT though. It has a fantastic picture and coupled with the surround sound setup we have, it provides a great movie medium. I hope to get at least ten years of use out of the 30PW8420.

Interestingly, this CRT appears to use less electricity than a comparably sized Philips LCD. According to the manufacturer's specs, the current Philips LCD 32PFL3504D, a 32" set, uses 155W, while our Philips 30" 30PW8420 WS CRT uses 133W. I thought LCDs were supposed to be the "green" solution.