Philips 37PFL9632D Review

What does the Philips 37PFL9632D have to offer? Well, one thing I can tell you, is that it offers a lot. The 37PFL9632D is fully loaded with their proprietary picture-enhancing wizardries including Ambilight, Perfect Pixel HD, HD Natural Motion and 100Hz Clear LCD. But putting it through its paces, let’s see how this set fares.

Looking at its design, there is no doubt in ones mind that he is looking at a thing of great beauty. The Philips 37PFL9632D showcases a chic double-frame styling wherein the LCD screen is framed by a glossy black bezel which is accentuated by silver borders. This bezel then sits forward from a larger black frame that sports a perforated appearance and more silver trim. The matte finish of the trim matches that of the swivelling pedestal connecting the panel to an elegant black glass base featuring a transparent rim. At the side, you will see the light panels that makes up Philips’ Ambilight technology.

The Philips 37PFL9632D connection options are okay to say the least. All three HDMI inputs for the 37PFL9632D is located at the back. There is no VGA input and the dual RCA/ phono connectors are replaced with a 3.5mm mini jack socket for component audio feed. Philips though thoughtfully included a USB port on the side. You can probably use this to listen to MP3s, view JPEG photos and slides, and update the firmware on Philips 37PFL9632D.

Let’s go straight to this set’s performance. The 37PFL9632D is one of the HDTV’s out there when it comes to Blu-ray high-definition content. It could easilty compete with other much more celebrated set in the market. Bright daylight scenes are handled really well while facial close-ups on movie characters are very good. Overall, it gives believable richness to the colors that is expected from high-definition content. Philips didn’t really performed well with black-levels. However, their Ambilight technology helped tremendously. When tweaked to provide constant 6500K bias lighting via the Colour mode, the Ambilight improved perceived blacks and contrast on the Philips 37PFL9632D.

Standard-definition is probably the greates strength of the Philips 37PFL9632D. Phenomenal SD (standard definition) video processing ensured that upscaled images retained sufficient detail without overblown edge enhancement, and that jaggies were kept at bay. Whereas on other HDTVs you may need to manually switch between video and film mode deinterlacing depending on the screen content, the 37PFL9632D automatically recognises film-based vs video-based programmes, and applies the necessary processing.

In conclusion, the Philips 37PFL9632D is not the best HDTV set around. But, it does have its own ups that could prove attractive to some users that are not really looking for the best, but want just enough in their TV set.

Sources:
http://www.testfreaks.co.uk
http://www.consumer.philips.com
http://www.afterdawn.com