New Philips 63" plasma - Page 5

pcgeek: do you mind posting your new settings?

just bought this from costco.com when they had the $400 off. the delivery guys brought it up to my 2nd floor bedroom (pleasant surprise).

so far I have very mixed feelings about this set. compared to my mits 65411 (crt rptv), it has the usual adv. of plams -- brightness, uniformity, no convergence issue. bright outdoor scenes and sports look good. sd looks better. But the mits is better on everything else -- movies and TV shows in hd.

though it can occasionally look great, the set doesn't have that "looking thru a window" feel you supposedly get with plasma (i have fios tv which is supposed to be among the best cable/sat source you can get; using both hdmi and components for testing). it's sharper than the mits, but the sharpness feels artficial. whereas the mits sharpness feels like a well focused photo, the philips sharpness feels like someone takes a pencil and draws outlines around objects. too much grain in dark scenes!! I did not know what pople meant by clay face til now, b/c people's faces almost always look off, like it's plastic and not skin.

I'm sitting about 7-8' away. yes i know, too close, but I sat at same distance with the 65" mits.

my settings:

cont: 70
brt: 48
color: 55
tint: -10
temp: normal

dnr: min pixel+ on dyn cont: min color enh: off active control: off light sensor: off

I know contrast is way too high, but it looks very dull at 50 or below. I'm very careful about black bars and static images so hopefully no burn in. and what is with the tint? I have no idea. I usually leave them at near 0 but that seems to be the best w/ this set. I have yet to do a proper calib with avia or dve, only the test patterns on hdnet, but so far these settings are what look most right to me. I'm hoping I can get the settings better.

edit: reread my post and I sound quite negative. sorry I'm just being honest. I'm just being the usual AVS obsessive type

Check the settings posted in the 9630 and 9631 42" threads or PM me for the Philips Tips Sheet.

Get your B & C below 50.....color seems OK....Tint should probably be higher....TEMP for most of us I think is COOL.....other settings all look reasonable, might want to turn AC to MIN or MED (but not MAX !!).

I didn't see an answer to Wale's question on mounting: Does anyone know if the included "mounting bracket" is just a bracket to attach to a wall mount or is it the flat wall mount itself?

just a bracket, movieman

Thanks Bart2K - just knew that was too sweet a deal.

Correction it is the actual wall mount. Pretty simple design but works nicely.

Sounds like you actually have one. Surprising they would refer to this as merely a "bracket" in their materials and include a wall mount without touting it at all as they do with the stand.

Does anyone know of the 181 pound weight is accurate for the display sans stand? That seems a little high, but I can't tell from the Philips site or others whether the 181 pound product weight includes all of the product (stand included) or just the display.

There are several articulating mounts with max weight in the 160-175 range so it would be nice to know if they are usable with this tv. I think the Sanus is at 175 and the Omnimount is at 200, but I've heard the Omnimount tilt mechanism is a little suspect so it would be nice to have the Sanus option if the weight is under 175.

I'll be notified shortly of my Philips delivery date by Costco. When it arrives I'll let you know actual weight.

Has anyone seen a review of this set? Or even another review of the 42" or 50" 9631 in addition to the one from cnet?

With the huge size difference and pixel size difference and different features such as no ambilight it would be nice if they reviewed the large models as well as the higher selling 42/50 models.

It is a great tv I'm just waiting for the big price drop this summer when they will be around the $2800 range

I just saw the 63" at Costco, next to Sharp Aquos 52" and the Panny 58", all fed with the same material, Discovery HD, using video components. As far as PQ, I do not notice much different among the three, except the LCD is brighter and the Panny next. But after watching for 15 minutes, I notice the dislikes of each. Basically, depending upon the scenes, the skin color keeps on changing to my dislike and each of them seems to be taken turned. In short, all three do not consistently better than the others. Since most scenes in HD Dicovery are bright so I cannot pick up any differentiation on the black level. So the 63" is very acceptable to me and I am no big videophile either, just above average

The 63" really looks good on my opinion, and can be added to the rest of my furniture. I do not want to mount such a large and heavy TV, so now I am looking for a nice stand whose look and presence seems minimal. I also need room to put my center channel which is 22W by 12H. Funny that it is cheaper to buy from the store than from CostCo.com. But I will wait for a few months before pulling the trigger.

HT Mag reviewed the 9630, predecessor to the 9631, and it was very positive. I have a few other reviews on the 9631 on my Tips Sheet going out in a few weeks.


Wow, I didn't know that the 63" didn't have Ambilight...you'd think with the same model number it would have that critical feature. I'm shocked that Philips didn't include it on this model.....I can't believe they're not making it standard on all their new plasmas !!!!

acc. to the diagram of the installation instrutiom on how to mount the display onto the stand, it's 176 withOUT the stand. the diagram shows 2 men lifting the panel over the stand and shows 176lbs on the panel and arrow poiting down.

not sure where 181 or the 185lbs on costco web site comes from. i know the stand is more than 5-9lbs.

Thanks for the info, even if Philips can't seem to give a straight answer. I think the new Vizio is 161 pounds for the display only and it is 3" smaller, so I would think this one would be somewhere above 161.

I would also think that the stand is over 10 pounds but if it is acrylic and not any metal then maybe it is only 5 pounds. Not many articulating wall mounts go over 175 pounds so that will narrow the options if it is true.

No, I don't know where to get it. Sorry. Does that have a great starting point? My eyes are not as learned as my ears have become, after years of audiophilia, but I can learn.

TIA for the help.

PM me your e-mail.

Done and using the PME calibration settings: Contrast: 69, Brightness: 51, Color: 51, Tint: -1, Sharpness: 2, Temp: Normal really woke the picture up and it is much more satisfying. With the guilt of running the contrast removed if over 50 or so, I c an enjoy the picture as was suggested by the same poster, who claimed that glass life had little to do with the 'myth' of break-in.

I am now fine-tuning the settings to taste, but they will be minimal. So far, in a brightish room: C=65 B=49 C=48 T=-1 Sh=3, with Pixel+=On and others minimal or off.

Perhaps, as I read, contrast bing the most critical of PQ components, explains the 'high' setting, which plasmas excel at delivering.

Why would they have not included Ambilight on their top of the line plasma?
IMO, that is one of the best features of the philips..
Stupid decision.

No idea....ridiculous, IMO...something I will mention to Philips.

I`m a little confused, what break in settings should this set be on. Thanks

It is not as clear as it should be. At CES, Philips fouled up their press release and said that they would have a 63" 1080p for sale in June for $3499. Then they corrected that and said it was a 63" 1080p but for $5499 in June. The implication was that the non-1080p model would be for sale at $3499 in June, but there is no mention of that on the Philips site in a corrected press release or otherwise.

So the short answer to your question is June, but that's a guess at this point. And it may street for that much at C* within weeks with the new Vizio hitting the store at $2999 msrp, so that June date may only be relevant for stores that sell it near msrp.

Speaking of Vizio 60", anyone do any side-by-side comparison? On the 60" Vizio thread there is an unsurprising consensus that the Vizio PQ looks better than the 63" Philips. Seem to be from non-owners of the Vizio so not as biased as you might think. Wondering if those on this thread that go to C* agree.

I like the look of the Philips a bit better and the extra 3" is nice, but if it's $1000 more and pq isn't any better it's not a tough choice to go with Vizio (over Philips at least).

has anyone managed to connect a computer via dvi<->hdmi cable and get something above 1024x768, like 1280x720 or 1920x1080. i'd like to know if it's worth it to get a video card w/ dual dvi so i can hook both my lcd monitor and the plasma to my pc.

addendum: is anyone else seeing clayface effect? neevr knew what it was until I see it on this set and immediately realized yep that's clayface. skin tone looks strange and unnatural, almost like an animated character than a real person. if I reduce contrast way down I can minimize the effect but the rest of the picture is unacceptably dull. I can play around with the colors all day but all I manage to do is change to a different shade of clay. I see it wth STB, internal ATSC, and PC via RGBHV, so it's unlikely it's the source.

From Vizio thread:

"I spent about 2 hours, while the wife was shopping, comparing the different sets at C*. For the most part I was looking at the Vizio 60" vs Phillips 63" and the Vizio 47" LCD vs Sony xbr 46".

The reason I was so impressed with the Vizio was numerous. First, it had better black levels than the Phillips. Second, the whites on the Phillips looked like an old T-shirt of mine. Quite Grey! The picture was also brighter on the Vizio. The Phillips looked more like an LCD projection screen than a plasma. Finally, I'm tired of black and silver TV's! I have a very dark maple built in cabinet and the family room has a lot of earth tones. The bronze/copper cabinet is a fresh look in my opinion and one that would look great in my home."

Anyone else have any problems with the blacks and whites on the Philps, vis-a-vis the Vizio or not?

Nope. They were fairly close on Warm and better when calibrated. The blacks are also fine. The comments about the whites makes me think he's looking at different color temperatures. D65 looks a lot more "brown/red" than the super-hot settings they usually use on display. When calibrated to D65 the actual color of white will look the same on both sets (black levels and lumens will not but the actual color will).

Anyone know how the black levels are on the Philips 63" - I'm actually looking at the 63" 1080p but figure the current generation of 63" are probably close if not exact. How do the black levels compare to Panasonic's plasmas? The 5 plasmas I'm truly considering this summer are the Panasonic 65", Philips 63", Pioneer's 60 "SED killer", maybe the LG 60", and maybe a Samsung if they have any 1080p at 60" or 60"+. I think the Pioneer although probably outstanding will be far out of my budget as I think $10K is definitely out of my budget. I like the Panasonic, but I don't like the fact that the speakers and stand are not included, to me for $7K+ you should definitely get those free of charge. Anyone know if Panasonic will offer these as free add-ons to be competitive this summer? Philips seems to have everything I'm looking fore in a set, but I am concerned the PQ and black levels are not going to be on par with current gen Panasonics or Pio. Has anyone compared them. Lastly, it seems that Samsungs offering is at max 58" 1080p and LG, I'm not very familiar with their track record when it comes to quality, PQ, black levels, etc. Any thoughts on this?

I guess I should say my budget is going to be around $5K to maybe $8K max.

Thanks,
David

Sorry, took me a while to get back and post the calibrated settings (may or may not translate to another set):

Contrast: 80
Brightness: 46
Color: 45
Tint: 0
Sharpness: 5
Color Temp: Custom (if you don't want to go custom, use warm, it's the closest to 6500)
Custom: (started by loading warm settings)
R-WP = 112
G-WP = 99
B-WP = 74
R-BL = 13
G-BL = 7

Pixel Plus: on
Dynamic Contrast: Medium
DNR: Medium
Mpeg Artifact Reduction: off
Color Enhancement: off
Active Control: on
Light Sensor: on

For those with "clay face" problems, try turning off the various noise reduction settings (DNR andd Mpeg) to see if it gets better. The Mpeg reduction in particular is overly aggressive.

edit: Decided to push contrast up from 75 to 80 to get the extra "pop" I was missing (looking out the window feel, whatever". These contrast numbers don't map to any other settings (though are close to warm) but cool in particular pushes a lot more lumens for a given contrast. I/m not particularly concerned about making the set last 20 years either, just about enjoying it as much as possible for the 4-5 years I expect to have it (and at 80 I have some headroom to go up as it dims and still keep it calibrated).

thanks, pcgeek. sadly, the warmer colors just makesthe clayface effect more pronounced on my set. I wonder if there's a problem with my set or I'm just too focused on skin tone.

I notice that in darker scenes or cool scenes with blue or green tinted light, skin tone is ok. but in bright scenes with sunlight or studio light, it loses all skin texture and just really does look like clay, whereas in the same scenes on my crt or lcd monitor, the face may look good or it may look too reddish or yellowish, but it still looks normal, like someone with too much tan or makeup, not like a computer animated face.

btw, what do you use to calibrate your set with? I wonder why there's no adjustment for blue black point and if that matters.

I use a Spyder II with the free HCFR software (much better than what comes with the unit for calibrating). The reason there's no black point for the blue is that they are usually relative (though usually to green) so blue is held steady and is probably directly tied to the brightness then red and green are relative to it. (Though you'd assume the same is true for contrast/white point - but whatever). You're usually adjusting 2 of the colors to match hthe 3rd anyway.

Have you tried turning off the various "enhancements" (or maybe just turn them all off) - pixel plus, DNR, Active Control, color enhancement? Any combination of them could easily be thinking the facial features are noise and wiping them out or blasting the colors (that's why I turned color enhancement off). I chose the settings I'm using as a compromise since I watch a fair amount of SD over FIOS and the dynamic contrast and pixel plus really help make the image watchable but turning everything off would yield a better picture for HD or DVD.

Check the 42" 9631 thread or PM me your e-mail for the Philips Tips Sheet.