Phillips 63" Plasma (63PF9631D)

It is on display at costco here in Phoenix at a great price for a 63" plasma.They had a lousy feed,hard to tell about PQ.The set itself looked very nice.

Well, the 42" model is great for SD and HD so if the 63" works as well, it's a winner.

Can you tell us what the MSRP at Costco was? I think MSRP posting is allowed and doesn't violate TOS. I think someone posted a while back that it was coming in close to $5K.

As far as I know, the MSRP is $6,000.

The pricing at Costco is for people to do their own (easy) research on as mentioning it here is a rule breaker, but I'm intrigued by this set.

It's "streeting" at what Panasonic has the 58s for and it finally brings the 60-plus-inch category near where it is "supposed" to be price-wise vs. historical trending.

I'm intrigued. costco.com has it online for LESS than the 58 panny. Need to see it in action.

I suppose since it's costco, one could always take a chance

It's such a new and limited TV that you can't possibly get a refurb or returned model. So quality control should be pretty good, plus you have the Costco return.

If anybody gets one of these, please report back here or on the 42" 9631 thread (most of the functions including our Tips Sheet should be good for the 63" TV).

Manual says it will not do native resolution (1366x768) via analog or HDMI video inputs. All PC resolutions supported are 4:3 aspect. Too bad. Looks good otherwise.

What does that mean? Not "via analog or video inputs" would seem to cover all inputs in a video display. What is a 60p input? I have not heard of that. I assume this displays 720p signals just fine over some input, so I'm not sure what you are saying here.

Thanks for any clarification.

Sorry, left out the word HDMI. Post has been edited.

Sorry, I'm a newbie to all of this. Does the post from LesMoss, above, mean to suggest that watching this 63" Philips with an HDMI source will only allow for 4x3 aspect? I can't watch an HDMI-upconverted DVD on this thing, in 16x9? I hope that's not what it means, 'cause that would be a deal-breaker for yours truly.

I'm sure HDMI is not limited to 4:3. That would be asinine.

Edited my post again. 720p60 is of course 16:9.

PC resolutions supported are: 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768.

Per manual: http://www.p4c.philips.com/na4/6/63p...37_dfu_aen.pdf
page 64

I saw this TV yesterday at the Edmonton Costco. It is definitely a big-screen TV.

Nothing new, you say, but what is significant is that it was being driven by a BluRay HD player. Unfortunately, it was playing Ice Age, but that was the best looking Ice Age I'd ever seen. Standing 5 feet away I could not see pixlels, even though it's a 1366x768 display.

Our local Blockbuster rents some BluRay tiles (about 35 of them, I'm told), so I'm considering renting a movie to take to Costco so that I can see what the big Phillips can really do.

I assume that these 35 are new releases, but I am completely unfamiliar with which BluRay titles are of excellent picture quaity and also have plenty of fast action and dark scenes. I'd like to walk into BB with a list of about 10 that meet that criteria, so that, hopefully, they'll have at least one of them that I can rent. Any suggestions?

Both HD DVD and Bluray have a software forum section on AVS, best to look in those for titles and info.

I saw this unit in action at Costco here in Phoenix yesterday. It was on the same feed and sitting next to the Vizio 60". In the building next door (Costco Home Store) they had the Pana 58". So I got a pretty good perspective for comparison.

Price-wise the Vizio is a fanatastic deal, but the lower PQ was noticable. Maybe its the Pixel Plus feature of the Phillips that makes the difference, but its image was definately crisper. I couldn't detect much difference in brightness or color. Even with the good price of the Phillips (I couldn't find it online for less), the Vizio is still quite a bit lower. So, of course, it comes down to budget. They both seem like good deals. Its just a matter of 'do you want to pay more for 3 extra inches and a slightly better image'?

Then I went next door and looked at the Pana 58". Of course its always a personal taste thing, but appearance-wise I happen to think Panasonic really blew it with this model. The Phillips has cleaner lines (minimalistic) and easier on the eyes. I didn't notice any difference in the PQ between the Pana and the Phillips. The Pana was several hundred less than the Phillips, so again, it just comes down to personal taste and paying a little more for the extra size.

As far as the PC display resolution not being available at full 1366x768 capability of the Phillips; Normally I would have thought this to be a dissappointment, but in reality with my current Samsung 61" DLP I found that I prefer a display setting of 1024x768 which the Phillips can do. With so much screen size in front of you, you don't really need the smaller fonts you get when you go any higher.

And of course... even with their newly revised return policy (90 days, 2 years P&L), Costco is still better than most.

That's my thoughts... I'm headed back to Costco to pick up the Phillips.

__________________________________

Something else just occured to me; If you're intending to use a Media PC to play movies on this unit, the resolution limitation might be more of a concern than it is for me. If watching at 1024x768 impacts the movie quality at all, I'm not sure how much. I don't use my PC for movies. Maybe someone who does could respond?

I also noticed the Pana 58" doesn't have a PC connection (RGB/VGA) nor USB. The Phillips 63" has both. When I get everything all connected, I'll play a movie from my PC and let you know what I think.

Congrats, it's a great set, just don't know why it doesn't have Ambilight.....

Samsclub also has this TV...Too bad they don't have it in-store..

Man this TV sounds pretty sweet, with the Pixel Plus technology it sounds like a winner, plus it has PIP, which the Panny does not. I am having a hard time making a decision between the pioneer 6070 and this unit.

Can anyone else out there add something to making my purchase.

Most would say that the 6070 has a better picture. Most would also say that the Phillips has a very good picture. The question is, does the PQ difference warrant the price difference for you? Does one look enough better to you when the display is turned off? How much do you factor in the 3" size advantage for the Phillips?

It's a tough call...if the Philips had the Ambilight, it'd be a no-brainer.

The Phillips is available at Samsclub with a lifetime warranty...It is a no brainer...

Please explain lifetime warranty. I looked at Sam's Club and all I saw was the one year warranty. Thanks

yeah please elaborate more on a life-time warranty

Life-time warranty?! Or are you just saying Sam's return policy is unlimited (like Costco's used to be). Please do let us know where you saw this.

phxphun. Did you go back and get the TV at costco last night?

Unlimited Return Policy. sorry about that

mrmabry -

Yes, I did. But as it turns out, they are completely out-of-stock. So I asked where I could get one... "no Costco stores in Arizona have any". They are waiting on Phillips to ship them.

Good luck. I'm considering this "Delivery Only" set from Sam's myself. I've looked around but can't find much info on this set other than what Philips has published as advertisment.

It's not delivery only. I found a Sams club near me that has it in stock. You just have to pick the right location on the Samsclub.com website.

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=8