Philips 55pfl5505 need some feedback

Cisco: Check out Philips website - all the specs are there - it will do the 24fps - I just ordered one and should have it here by mid week - The specs on this TV are extremely good for the money - 240 hz, 1MS response time and a very high contrast ratio and a rather interesting backlight system. I can let you know how the 24fps works - I have a new OPPO Blue ray player which should how good this tv is . I couldnt find a tv with these specs at this price anywhere.

Wazy

I don't think LG owns Philips - as far as I remember - they have a joint venture - same as Sony and Sharp or Sony and Samsung.
Also, I'm not sure about Canada, but in the USA Philips has sold its business to Funai, so it's not really Philips anymore. Too bad - I always liked them

I have tested the 5505 (Pre Prod) since November 2009 ... and also did the FMF (Fast Market Feedback) test on that model ... If you don't care about internet on the TV, the 5505 has really good picture quality. Mainly because of 1D Dimming and the Scanning Backlight which makes it a 240Hz class panel. There were many changes made to improve the PQ during FMF, it also has decent speakers.

It has a static contrast ratio of 7000:1 & 10 bit (8 bit + 2 bit dithering) Color Support.

Also, FYI ... all Philips 2010 5 & 7 series TVs have Samsung panels, not LG. 2009 6 & 7 series had LG panels.

Philips does not have a JV with any panel manufacturers. Philips LCD TVs have mainly used Samsung, LG & Sharp panels. The only thing which diffrentaites the TVs is the PQ chips used in the products. Think of it as two different PCs with the same monitor but different graphics cards

Philips in USA & Canada is the same. It is run by P&F USA, which is a new company mostly consisting of ex Philips employees which is a subsidiary of Funai.

I just looked it up - LG and Philips used to have a JV - it was called LG.Philips LCD.
But in 2008 Philips sold its stake - which I didn't know about. I guess that explains use of Samsung panels. I wonder what panels they use in their Europian models

The Samsung & Philips are almost identical in terms of PQ performance, its upto you really.

Cisco: My TV arrived today and just finally got it all hooked up - havent spent much time with the settings yet but here is my first impressions:

Excelent HD PQ quality (Running expressvu satelitte), Vibrant colors with very good black levels. I quckly ran my OPPO blue ray test disc through and the picture was stunning to say the least - currently have the natural motion set at minimum and have not noticed any motion blur whatsoever - I will report back by next week with further impressions after i get to play with it for a while. - It does have a Game mode which I didnt know it had and will hook up the kids xbox to it and see how that performs. I will check out a couple of blue ray movies over the weekend as well and see how they look - Based on what I have seen so far It's a very impressive TV for the price tag . we will keep you posted!

Wazy

Cisco: I bought mine at future shop for $1599.OO - We watched Shutter Island on blue ray lasy night and was blown away by the black levels and the details this tv can produce -the scanning backlight is superb and makes for great whites as well - the settings assistant I dont like so i used my OPPO's video calibraton disc to make the adjustments and the tv got way better. The motion circuitry is something I havent had on a tv before and it's something you need to play with - everyone here likes it as they say it makes movies look very realistic but Im not sure yet - some programing I turn it off and some turn it back on - I did notice that on some HD channels there was more backgroud noise than others but it was most likely the source as other channels were like watching a blue ray. Originally the colors were way over saturated but after turning off the color enhancement and doing the calibration they are perfect with really vibrant images. For the money it is truely an excelent telivison and so far it has far exceeded my expectations.

Wazy

"Digital Natural Motion" i.e. TV interpolates video frames vs. doing a simple frame repeat to achieve the panels 120Hz refresh rate is something you eventually get used to.

Film content used to be shot at 24fps simply because of technological limitations back in the day. I wish studios started shooting movies at a higher film rate. Simply because real 60 fps looks way better than 24 interpolated to 120.

You will get used to DNM, and once you do, you'll start hating the 24fps judder (which I have no clue, why people still like) ...

maverick: did you get to see the 7000 series LED models or just the 5000 series? I was thinking of the LED backlight of the 7000 series but was a little concerned with screen uniformity with black levels - I have heard of a number of people that have had issues with LED backlighted screens unless they have local dimming. With Philips you have to go to Europe to get the LED tv's with local backlighting and spend the big bucks on their high end 9000 series - I know they don't sell them here (too bad) but was just wondering what the 7000 series looked like in comparison to the 5000 series.

wazy

Well, I work for P&F USA, so I have access to the entire line-up in the lab so I have tested all of them. I also personally own the 5505.

In terms of pure picture quality and black levels, the 5000 series (120Hz panel + scanning backlight = 240Hz class & 1D local dimming) beats the 7 series (120Hz panel with edge-lit LED) hands down.

The only reason why the 7000 series is more expensive is cos it is an LED panel, which also means the boards used inside the TVs are more expensive to manufacture and just cos its LED-LCD, & as of now all LED-LCDs cost more than CCFL-LCDs.

Also, ur right about the 9000 series European models, they are awesome, have those in the lab as well ... only time will tell if we get some of them here on North American soil.

Also, even I never use the Settings Assistant, you are better off calibrating the TV yourself based on your viewing environment. But you should understand, we have to include tools like that for the average Joe who is not a geek and does not care about calibration. For someone like them, it is fantastic and we have received positive feedback about that tool in our FMF runs.

maverickrohan:

Thats what i had thought was the case re the 5505 verses the 7505 - Im happy I made the right decision - There used to be a Philips employee on the AVS forum called Davinga who eventually disappeared after the P&F changeover - any relation to him? - One thing is for sure if Philips (P&F) does decide to bring the 9000 series to North America - I will be buying one ! All of 2009 reviews of them across Europe put them at the top of the class and I would imagine the 2010's are even better. Thanks for you input here it is extremely valuable.

Wazy

Yes you did.

Have no clue who Davinga is ... I joined P&F USA after the switch but ~80% of P&F USA is ex-Philips employees.

Hey where in BC is the Phillips 1499??? thanks

Still around, just no threads to comment on....

LOL ... it is "Dave in GA" ... he sits next to me

maverickrohan:

Im starting to really enjoy the motion circuitry on this philips - I now have it on the minimum for all movies and turn it off for sports or fast action programming - I was watching some golf the other day the the ball had trails on it - thought I was having a college flashback!. With the DNM off it goes away - we were watching Green Zone on the weekend with DMN on minimum and it wasnt even a blue ray just a regular DVD and the picture was superb. The blacks scenes are terriffic and image details were like watching a blue ray. One thing I really was surprised at is the pc connection - we hooked up my daughters laptop to it and the picture filled the entire screen perfectly with excelent detail - very impressed!

Wazy

Cisco

Thanks for the info - I called them and they are giving me a credit - makes it an even better deal then it is. Thanks again for the heads up on this!

Wazy

I just picked this TV up yesterday from FS for $1499. Definitely we are very happy with the TV.

I haven't gotten a chance to really play with it yet, and have just started playing with some of the settings but the image quality is very sharp.

Compared to my parents Samsung 52A750 I have to say it's almost as good in terms of picture quality with the Samsung having deeper colours then the Phillips.

Can anyone recommend some good settings for this TV I'd really like to continue playing around with the settings to try and get the best picture possible.

IMHO, it is best to use a calibration disc & calibrate the TV based on your viewing environment.

Also, this is special s/w upgrade which has numerous PQ fixes:
Update (8/23) -> http://www.mediafire.com/file/8288zo...L-0AA_116_0.7z

It is compressed with 7-Zip from www.7-zip.org. Use it to uncompress, then copy the *.upg file to a USB stick, then follow the instructions in your Manual to update.

Please note, it takes about 15 minutes to upgrade since, not only does it flash the S/W ROM but also flashes the ROM on the secondary PQ chip.

It will be on the Philips website in a week or so but I just put it up here so that you guys could try it and let me know what you'll think.

Wow, thanks a lot maverick, I'll download that tonight and give it a try. So far very happy with my purchase.

Kungfuice: here are my settings - i used a calibration disc that came with my Oppo Blur Ray player - For your info -I downloaded the software that maverickrohan provided and didnt really notice anything other than the DNM maybe changed? - don't know if it was the source picture or not. Maybe maverickrohan can advise what updates were made in this new software??? - Anyways here are my settings and I have not changed them with the new software at this point. let me know what you think.

Contrast 77
Brightness 46
Color 46
Tint 3
sharpness 5
color temp normal
dynamic contrast on
DNM off for everything but movies
noise reduction off
mpeg red on
color enhancement off
active control off - on for watching movies in a barkened room - (increases black level)
picture format unscaled

Wazy

Changes include:
Preset (Sports, Standard, Movie, Game, ...) picture & sound settings were internally modified to improve them based on FMF feedback, etc.
Dynamic Contrast response time was improved (that was the PQ chip ROM update)
There might be more but since we do not have the official change log yet, these are all I know, and like you said, these are the only changes you will notice.

@wazy - What changes did you notice in DNM?