Phillips HDTV

I originally purchased the Philips 32PT9100D/3, which has the non-wide screen.
Loved the picture quality, but decided to go with a wide screen. Bought a Toshiba 34 inch hf85, which has had at best mixed reviews on this forum. The Tosh has worked out well for me.

Well, this is only one person's opinion, but I bought and returned that same TV. The one I got was junk. DVD's looked OK over component inputs, but not great. OTA HDTV looked good, but not great. SD satellite, over S-Video, looked absolutely HORRIBLE. Severe ghosting, double images, and lots of grain. I haven't seen a picture look that bad since trying to watch TV with rabbit ears on my grandmother's large RCA console TV that was almost 20 years old.

I took it back and got the Samsung 26". It's smaller, but since it's for the bedroom that was ok. The picture quality is night and day better, across all inputs. And I'm not talking 10% better. I'm talking at least 50% better over component, and over 100% better over S-Video. HDTV (antenna) is maybe 35% better. They're about the same price, so if you can live with a smaller set...

UPDATE: Actually, I double checked my return receipt when I was home at lunch today, and the one I had purchased was the 30pw9110d. So, it's a slightly different model than the one you're looking at. The 30pw9110d was $668 (I got it $30 off at $638, though), so it appears to be a slightly higher-end model...Not sure what the differences are, though.

I am not a gamer, but I have the 34PW850H and it has a jaw-droppingly awesome picture, especially with DVDs.

That's a good set!! One of the older models as well.

hey i was actually planning on buying this same tv, i just registered so i could post this. so far it looks like one guy says its garbage. im really worried about buying this now, if any one else has any more info postive or negitive please let me know. dont want 2 spend 599.99 on garbage but i'd really like a multitude of opinions, please help me out. thanks guys im sure darkshier will apreciate it to.

Yes it is. Hopefully it will last many, many years. Sometimes I lust after a bigger screen, but then I watch my 850H and realize how much I would give up in going to any other technology. Guess we all have to be happy with 34" and hope they still exist in 20 or 30 years when mandatory replacement time comes. (I watch in a dark room with contrast at 29/100 and brightness at 43/100. This looks best and extends tube life.)

one more quick question is the native resolution of this tv 1080i or 480p. and what would this tv do if it recieved a 720p signal. any help you can give me will be much appreciated.

Actually, I double checked my return receipt when I was home at lunch today, and the one I had purchased was the 30pw9110d. So, it's a slightly different model than the one you're looking at. The 30pw9110d was $668 (I got it $30 off at $638, though), so it appears to be a slightly higher-end model...Not sure what the differences are, though.

The 8420 is a better set than the 9110d or 9100d. Both the d models have a built in digital tuner (hence the d) and for some reason they treat analog material (analog tuner, composite, s-video) like crap. The ghosting is really bad. When using the digital, ghosting is still apparent, but not nearly as bad as analog. We've got one of each of these sets set up at our store side by side and the 8420 has a great analog picture as well as a great hd picture. The analog on the 9110d is completely unwatchable. The only thing I did was I used the service menu to tweak the 8420's color on the HD input since Philips sets don't allow a tint adjustment on component/HD inputs.

Personally, I've got the 30pw850h model and have had it for over 2 years now. The set has performed great. The only downside to mine is that it doesn't have a digital input, either dvi or hdmi.

Excellent comparison. I had tried the "d" model, and found it exactly as you describe: aweful. Good to hear the 8420 is apprently much better...

Very nice to hear that, I was wondering whether I should go with the 8420 or the 9 series. But this puts that question to a end.

ok so what i have so far Gecko85 said it was horrible but then revamped his statement. this threw me off and i started looking for another tv i found this one Samsung TXR2678WH good price and they have one at my local bb. now im confused on which one to get. if oryan dunn reads this what did u mean exactly when u said u had to use the service menu to tweak some things? was it hard? im planning on making my buy within the next month any and all feedback is much apprieciated. thanks guys.

When I returned the 9-series Philips, I got the Samsung, and I like it MUCH better than the 9 series Philips. However, I've never compared it to the 8-series Philips that you're looking at...I'm very happy with the Samsung, and it has an excellent PQ, even with the S-Video inputs.

FWIW, I don't have a 30pw8420, yet, but I have one on order. During my research before buying I read a lot of really good reviews regarding the PQ, once the set was calibrated and working properly. It seems as though there were some issues with poor displays that were generally always fixed under warranty, ie they were actually defective, and not indicative of the models PQ.

I, too, have seen all the conflicting reports of wether the composite inputs can handle 1080i signals or not. It wasn't TOO important to me, as any HD tuner (OTA, sat, cable) that I connect will have DVI or HDMI and even with just 480p the composite will be fine for DVDs. However, despite what some people have said, it seems that most people agree that you can send a full HD signal over the composite port. I'll test it when I am able to (when I get the TV in about a week, and hopefully pick up an OTA HD tuner with both HDMI and composite).

Either way, it seems like a good TV for the money; I went for a refurb at $400, so not many complaints from me regardless!

Not all of the 9 series are bad. The 30 and 34 in 3xPW981x models are some of Philips best CRT HD sets around. They are all older models and if you find one for a good deal, I wouldn't hesitate to get it. In particular, the 9819 model stands above all the rest because it has a DVI input. These older sets from Philips do some amazing things with analog content. They have a feature called PixelPlus that doubles the horizontal and vertical resolution of analog source material, including 480i dvd input. These sets also have something called DigitalNaturalMotion that does a great job at deinterlacing the picture. These two things combined made these sets hard to beat when it came to and HD set displaying analog content. Many people who have these sets prefer to leave their dvd player in interlace mode and have the TV do its magic on the signal because it looks that much better.

The newer 9 series (91x0d) are no where near the calibure of the older sets. The 8 series (8520, 850h, 8420, 8402, 8502, and 862h) are all similar though some are better than others. The newest one is probably the best, the 8420. The 8402 and 8502 are almost identical feature wise, where the 8502 has the same cabinet design as the 8420 and the 8402 has the same cabinet design as the 862h. The 850 and 862 are very similar internally, except that the 862 has a dvi port. The 8520 is an old set that I don't know much about. I would help if Philips had a more understandable numbering scheme.

You can browse most of Philips sets here:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/3/

This is a world wide listing where 32" and 36" widescreen sets are european sets that would be labeld a 30" and 34" here in the states (viewable size, not actual size). Most of the sets have either the instructions or pamplets to look through.

EDIT:
oh yeah, if you do want to get an old 9 series, keep and eye on this page:
http://www.electronicsnation.com/en/...ct/category/70

Every once in a while one will show up there. That site is an official Philips site for selling refurb tvs and they come with (I believe) the same warranty as a new set. Some have had bad luck with them because they are mail order and if you get a lemon, then it can take a while to get things sorted out.

mrgreen please keep me updated id really like to talk 2 someone with first hand experience. also any info concerning the resolution and the component imputs would be much appriecated because i plan to use the component imputs to recvieve a 1080 i signal from my xbox 360. if it cant do this then im out of luck, please keep me posted. thanks

The 8420 can accept 1080i, 720p, 480p, and 480i over the component input. This tv will fit the bill for the xbox 360. It will also work with a playstation 3 since it has hdmi.

Oh, BTW, mrgreen, there is a big difference between composite and component. Compostite will only pass 480i, its the old yellow plug; whereas component is capable of full hd resolutions over the green, blue and red cables.

Whoops, I knew that... just been on a lot of cold medicine the last few days and typed composite when I meant component!

I've not heard that the 8420 will take a 720p signal... if it does would it upconvert to 1080i or down to 480p?

Steve, when I eventually get the TV (should be here in about a week, I bought it from the site that oryan mentioned, actually) I will also hopefully have worked out a way to get OTA HD signals in my apartment (see my post in the HDTV Antennas thread if you think you can help ) and picked up one of the OTA HD tuners that radio shack has on clearance which will allow me, according to the docs I've seen, select what signal is outputs; 1080i, 720p, 480p, or 480i. I'll plug it into the component port and see what it does with each signal and report back in with a definitive answer.

Quick question about the Philips 8 series, and I suppose HD CRTs in general... I and my family have had standard CRT sets that lasted for 10+ years with little to no troubles. I'm using two sets that are in the 15 year old range right now, and while they are both starting to lose the brightness and color accuracy they used to have they do work.

Will this TV last 10 years, assuming there are no 'catastrophic failures'? I bought a 2 year warranty, so I am hoping anything is going to happen will happen in that period, but after that, what can I expect? I've read that LCD and Plasma displays have a significantly shorter lifespan than CRTs, but do the higher quality HD CRTs have the same sort of reliability that the old ones do?

Thanks for any insight here!

I double checked today on the 8420. When the receiver outputs 720p, the tv shows 1080i. So this downconverts 720p to 1080i for display.

So you're one of THOSE! ;-) Personally, I have trouble seeing the difference between the two, but that's good to know.

lol, I personally don't see the difference either, but the technical properties of 720p are slighly higher than 1080i, even though 1080i has a higher resolution.

Hey, sounds like you have access to a lot of these HD sets, I'm assuming you work in a showroom, store, or repair facility? Anyways, I was wondering if you could answer a question about the 8420 for me... Does it automatically convert 480i signals to 480p? I thought that I read some of the Philips sets did and others did not? Or maybe they all did? Is this conversion noticeable or is just something on paper?

Lastly, for SD sources, namely my TiVo, will using the SVideo port over the composite port make any difference? I'm trying to order all my cables online to save money, and to have them all here by the time the TV arrives so I don't have to crawl behind it later on... I already ordered myself a DVI to HDMI cable and some good component cables for my Mac and my progressive scan DVD player, but didn't think to get an SVideo cable for the TiVo. Should I? Will it matter?

Thanks for answering these questions, I know that I am not the only one who is wondering a bit about this set as there are a lot of really good deals out there for it right now.

On my set, I have the option in the menu to convert 480i sources to 480p or to have them converted to 1050i (yes that is a 5, which comes from the 525 lines of standard def where only 480 are actually visable). Both look almost identical, but 480p mode has some moire effect towards the edges so I leave it on 1050i. As for the 8420, I can check at work on monday, but I don't recall there being an option, so it probably does one or the other.


To be honest I don't see much difference in composite vs. s-video on my set. If I had the choice though, I'd use an S-video just becuase it is slighly superior. Basically if the set you are hooking a component to has a very good comb filter (at least thats what comming to mind, it may acutally be some other part of the set) then it is possible for composite to look just about as good and maybe better than s-video in some circumstances. I'm just going by pure gut on this, so if anyone has facts one way or the other let me know, but I'm thinking that a device like an N64 will look better over composite than s-video because to make s-video the n64 has to separate the chromanace from the luminance internally and it is quite likely that your tv will do a better job of it than the unit itself (iirc, the n64 internally is rgb and just combines them for composite signal and hence why it must separate y/c for s-video). Again I could be way off base on that, so let me know if I am.


np, and yes there are some great deals. Check my profile for my job.

hey can u also find out what this tv does with 720p thanks.

Converts it to 1080i

Did you have a chance to check what the options were for 480i signals on the 8420? I appreciate all your help in this thread!

Crap forgot! I'll try to remember to check tomorrow at work.

Well, I couldn't be certain, but I was looking at this display while I was in WalMart today, and it looked like the SD content was being upconverted to at least 480p. As far as I could tell all the TVs were getting the same 4:3 feed and the 30pw8420 was in some kind of non-linear stretch mode and it looked much clearer and cleaner than anything nearby it (another philips 30" widescreen, something in the 9xxx series that was black, a couple Sanyo's, and some 26" widescreen I can't remember - Advent?).

I was actually trying to figure out if it was an HD image for a couple minutes until they went to a video game commercial that had some borders around the game image, and that made it pretty clear it was a stretched image. If all SD content looks that good I think I am going to be in for a treat!

I did notice some significant geometry issues around the edges of the display, but some time spent with a calibration disc and the service menu should be able to fix any issues like that.