Philips 42PF9631D HD Plasma - Page 12

Speaking of PIP....can we get a damn SWITCH button on the remote? I mean, I have one on my 11-year old ProScan 27" CRT !! Come on, Philips, the Yellow button does nothing -- let us switch boxes when using HDMI PIP !!!

Bullseye !! Got contacted by a high-ranking officer at Philips earlier today. They want to address some of the product questions (technology, marketing, firmware, etc) that we have.

This is your chance to reach Philips. I want to have a list of items -- in addition to what I listed on my letter to corporate -- when I talk to them later this week. If anybody thinks something should be directly addressed that was NOT on the corporate letter, post it here.

Below is a list of the 6 main items I covered in my letter:

**Quality Control
**Customer Service
**Plasma/LCD Repairs
**Technical/Firmware Upgrades
**Ambilight/PixelPlus/Aptura
**Warranty Coverage

Anybody with the Tips Sheet can e-mail me comments to be relayed to Philips execs, or you can PM me or post it here.

Hi Guys -

I've been following this thread since its inception. I've owned the 50" 9631 for about a month now. Originally, I had it running off my DirecTV HR10-250 receiver. The PQ was good, very comparable to the Hitachi 57" F710 RP CRT I had prior to making the jump to plasma to conserve room in our family room.

Recently, my HR10-250 took a turn for the worse and began having all kinds of hardware issues. In frustration, I finally dumped it and bought the newer HR20-700S DirecTV unit to replace it. I also replaced my component cables with an HDMI cable from the DirecTV unit to the TV.

Astonishingly, the PQ with the newer receiver is much improved over what I was getting on the HR10-250. Don't get me wrong, it was never bad by any means, but the difference now that I changed receivers is huge. THe best way to describe it would be like going from a 720p image to a 1080i image, even though I know the 9631 can't even display 1080i.

That being said, I'm not entirely sure if it's the receiver, the fact that I switched to HDMI, or a mixture of both that has improved the PQ so much. In the next few days I'll grab my component cable (Monster) and hook them back up and see how that effects the PQ with the new receiver.

Just wanted to let everyone know and find out if anyone had similar experiences...

Regards,
Nick

It's native resolution is 720p, it downconverts 1080i signals. But I think visually to most of us there isn't much difference at a normal distance between 720p and 1080i. 720p/1080i versus 1080p -- maybe.

But if you have a better PQ, congrats.


Good...should be interesting to find out, please report back !


Good to know. I have cable and a STB but this is the kind of thing that should be of interest to 9630/31 and Philips flat-panel owners.

It drives me nuts that people think 1080i is a better picture than 720p... The science says that is NOT the case.. If people could get past the bigger number, and learn the difference between interlaced, and progressive, this could finally be halted!


Ok. I'm done.

I have the same set, and I love it!

Sorry, I guess I used a poor example to describe the difference I'm talking about with the PQ.

Maybe a better example would have been the difference between 420p and 720p, but not QUITE that much. Pretty close, though.

I am leaning toward the Phillips due to the ambilight and pixel plus. I have hi-def service (no hdmi output on the cable box, only component and a dvi, but it does have the optic digital audio output for my sony 5.1 receiver) an upconverting Phillips dvd player, and a PS3 which comes with blu-ray (hdmi is an available output on PS3, as well as a component output). I will be wall mounting this tv on a white wall in a large room so viewing distance will not be an issue. It seems most people are happy with the phillips. Is the ambilight a real feature or a gimick as I have seen written on other forums/reviews? I already have a 46" ED Gateway plasma that is over 3 years old, and I think the picture is great on that, some times better than what I see when I go into stores now and look at new sets. I have that running through my cable box with composite cables. Any info and insights would be great!

I am a Philips 50PF9631D owner since last July and very satisfied. Ambilight is an excellent feature, lets me view at very low external room light which I like. The combination of the great picture framed by the black bezel and then surrounded by ambilight on two sides makes for a great experience. I have used HDMI and component transmission from my DISH ViP622 and both gave excellent picture (until the HDMI quit which is why I use component, but that is a different topic).

I thought 480p was really good but when I watched "Revenge Of The Sith" on DVD in the progressive mode on my middle-of-the-road Sony DVD player it wasn't close to "ROTS" on a movie HD channel.

One was excellent, the other was outstanding or breathtaking.

Ambilight is NOT a gimmick. Some of the pros don't care for it, but others have installed Do-It-Yourself backlighting kits installed which do what Ambilight does.

I love Ambilight. I would buy plasmas other than Philips in the future, but I would REALLY miss Ambilight and it could be one thing that keeps me in the Philips family, all else equal (i.e., no breakdowns on my existing set, no bad customer service if I need a repair, etc).

As for your other questions, I can't recall a single negative experience posted here on the 9631. Maybe there is one or a few, but they don't stick out. A few on the 9630 thread (nearly identical TV), but not many. Philips seems to have improved both the PQ and QC with those models.

There are other good quality plasmas out there, don't get me wrong. But I love the features, PQ, price, and add-ons like Ambilight that you get with Philips.

I have a 50PF9966 (50 inch Plasma) and after two years of use, the ambilights started buzzing and flickering odd colors...on both sides. It was suggested it might be bulbs but they wouldn't both go at the same time or flicker the same.

TV has been fantastic, love it otherwise but am very afraid of even engaging with service. Thinking I might just leave it off...but its frustrating because I like the feature.

Usage is a couple hours per day.

Suggestions?

I think Ambilight bulbs are replaceable, if this is in fact what is causing the problem. Someone on the 9630 thread may have also had this problem -- check there.

Anybody shed light on this? Any 9630 Thread readers over here ??

I don't know that model. Was it subject to the recall?
Mike

I actually had the european 42 inch model of that 9966 and and it buzzed like crazy from day 1. I suppose I should have had it repaired but back then I decided just to live without ambilight. I don't know what is the standard guarantee period where you live but if the TV is still inside the guarantee then I would definitely get it fixed. If you even plan to sell your plasma I'm sure that a working ambilight would be worth something.

But back to the real topic
I too have bought this set (actually 50PF9631D/10 european model) and not had things go easy on me. I have had problems with pic blackouts of 576i via component, picture getting distorted via s-video, the unit buzzing and ambilight not wanting to shut down. The pic blackout problem got cured by a software update (same 0.48.30.0 might have cured the ambilight problem too) but atm the TV is undergoing repairs because of the other problems. This is sad because after the not-too-contrast-rich 9966 (alis panel) the new 9631 seemed like a dream during my initial tests. The repairs should be completed during this week so I am anxiously waiting if they managed to correct the problems. One thing I do say: I consider it poor testing and finalization if you have to do a software update on your brand new and very expensive set. Not forgetting that there are people out there who: 1) simply don't know how to do it and 2) don't dare to do it. Still points to Philips for making the update at least somewhat easy...

if anyone has the default white point settings for a 42pf9431d/37 for normal, warm and cool, could you please post them on here. not realizing what i was doing, i wrote down the settings for the normal white points, didn't realize that the other two were independant and changed them without writing them down. i should have known better, but none the less, the damage is done. so any help would be greatly appreciated. (i'm talking about the alignment settings in the service menu.

thanks,
Brent

This is why you need to excercise EXTREME CAUTION when entering the Service Menu.

I believe others here are currently making changes in the SM and I believe there's a post (might also be in the Philips Tips Sheet -- get me a good e-mail, Brent! ) that has the original settings. Don't worry, it's easily fixable.

How's the set working otherwise? And hows the 'new' PQ with the wrong settings ?

appreciate the response, i got you a good email. other than that, i can get the color close to ok, but the picture itself is horrid. the whole picture looks dithered as if the color depth is 4 or 8 bit. don't know if this is the way it's supposed to be or if the set is defective. the truth is, i had a 32 inch lcd that had nice picture, but wasn't happy with the size, i moved up to the 42 inch plasma and stayed with philips cause i was impressed with the sound quality of the 32 inch. i'm probably going to have to go back to a lcd or go with another vendor. i'll play with this one a little more and if i can't resolve it, back to the store again i guess.

Brent

Thanks for the comments Maxi but the 9966 does not have user updatable sw.

I have a Sony HDMI DVD player and most movies look absolutely fabulous (when my TV decides to work). I saw Blue-Ray and HD-DVD demoed at Best Buy last week and they didn't look any better than my system. ROTS and any recent "regular" (not HD/BlueRay) DVDs that were shot with HD cameras look incredible and I can't see how the picture can look any better. I just don't see the need for a fancier player right now.

I did have a Toshiba HDMI DVD player for a few weeks before I got the Sony but the picture sucked big time and the physical quality of the unit was only slightly better than styrofoam and cardboard. The differnce in quality between the units was unbelievable.

Ok, I have a problem. I just hooked my plasma up last night and I can't get a picture from my dvd player. Right now I only have a dvd player (cable is being installed today) so that is all I can test. I have the dvd player hooked up to AV1 with component cables and composite audio and when I try to play a dvd I only get sound. I've tried hooking up the component cables to AV3 and I still don't get a picture. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this??? I messed around with the tv for several hours last night and decided to call it quits around 11 or so. I should be able to test cable out today, but I would like to figure out why the dvd won't work. Thanks for any help!

Check your DVD player. Mine has a manual switch on the back that you can choose to flip to either Composite/S-Video output or to Component output. It's dumb, but it does. It had me stumped for hours...To confirm this, you could try unplugging your component and connecting a composite video cable to the TV side input, then flip to that input.
I hope that's it - DVD's look great on this TV!

PhillipsPhanatic: It does! Doesn't it?
Move the yellow box and then hit PIP on the remote again. It switches to the source that the yellow is focused on. If you hit the other button to the right of PIP on the bottom, it switches to the last source you had in the other yellow box.

At least that's how my setup works. I have FTA on AV2 and Cable on HDMI1. Now that I think of it, I haven't tested the same source in both boxes....

Also, speaking of annoying; Why can't I see the volume bar on the HDMI source?!!

Thanks for your help. I checked my dvd player's manual online and it says I have to change the output to component and I didn't do that before. I will give it a shot when I get home. Thanks again!

No, I mean switching what is seen in the little and big boxes, not switching what sources go to which box.

If I have a game on in the little box and the news in the big box, sometimes I like to 'swap' them to see and hear the game in the big box and relegate the news to the small box.

OK, let us know how the SD and HD viewing is....hopefully, you report back in a few days and not tonite, as that will mean you're enjoying the TV and mesmerized by the picture quality , not coming here with more glitches or problems.

Hey everyone, I just received a 9631 from Philips, replacing my 9630 which had a signal board fail.

Anyway, the new model seems to work great except for one thing: the Ambilight is way too dark (especially compared to the 9630). I've got the brightness and contrast on the picture turned way down for the break-in, but I don't think that is causing the problem. I tried raising both of those controls to torch level and it had no effect on the Ambilight.

I have the Ambilight Brightness set at 100. There is no difference between any of the modes (I preferred "Action" on the 9630) because the Ambilight is just too dark. The "Color" setting on my 9631 does produce the desired brightness of the Ambilight, but since it is only the solid color, it is not preferrable.

I just checked the Philips website, it appears I do have the latest firmware. Does anybody have any suggestions?

What settings are B & C for your break-in ?

Try COOL which is a constant blue at 95-100 on the strength scale. How's it look ? Then go into the OSM and reduce it gradually with the TV on -- it should darken a bit as you lower the number. Have the TV on a bright channel like ESPN-HD or FoxNewsChannel when you do this.

You should see the Ambilights darken as you reduce the numbers (or vice-versa). Then try the other 4 modes and you should see them adjust the brightness as the picture changes.

The other settings ARE less bright than COLOR. Are you in a totally darkened room -- nighttime, no lights or PC's on, no other lights?

Report back.

Well, let's put it this way, if the 9631's Ambilight should be much the same as the 9630's, something definitely isn't right.

On my 9630, the Ambilight's brightness essentially had two different levels: "Color" and "Action" were extremely bright and the other three were about half-that brightness. Now on my 9631, "Color" is the same, but the other four modes seem as if they are about 1/10th of the brightness.

I've got my B&C both set to 45 for the break-in, no processing at all except for Pixel Plus. If I jack the contrast up to 85+, then I see a bit more brightness on the Ambilight, but it barely reacts to the colors on the screen in "Action" mode. I liked "Action" on the 9630 because the colors were vivd, bright, and it had a quick response time. I see none of that with the 9631. All I see on the non-"Color" modes on the 9631 is a very dim whiteish-blueish light that reacts very little to anything on the screen. The color temperature setting didn't seem to change anything. I tried this on multiple channels.

I should note my 9631 is in the same exact spot as I had the 9630, and all of these results are in a completely darkened room. Also, my 9631's Ambilight Brightness control showed very little difference between 0-100 in any of the modes.

I know the non-"Color" modes are supposed to be a bit dimmer than "Color." But I feel certain my Ambilight isn't right...unless it was changed significantly from the 9630.

Agreed.....I'm wondering if maybe the set isn't damaged or maybe just the Ambilight. It should definitely compare favorably to your older 9630.

They may have 'toned down' the color response to not drive some of the reviewers as nuts, I dunno. See if you can see a 9631 from a friend or a store and check out it's Ambilight's capability.

My non-COLOR modes change and I can see them darken/brighten on the wall behind the TV. I CANNOT see specific color changes unless I am standing right next to one of the Ambilights. And the overall lighting strength appears less bright on non-COLOR. I would say that the non-COLOR modes (all of which look about the same to me, FWIW) are about 60-70% as bright as the COLOR mode I use normally (which is COOL BLUE and set to 95 on the strength. I think the other modes are pretty much at default settings).

Check the settings on the other modes to make sure they're not very low.