How are you getting on with your new Philips TV's?

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hi Folks

just a general question out to all Boardies that have bought TV's from us over the last couple of months.

I'm wondering how you are all getting on with them?

Do you have any setup tips or TV settings you find works well for you that you'd like to share with others?

Do you have any problems (with the TV's.....not with life in gereral...) that I can help you with?

Need any assistance with a part of your setup that I help solve?

Let me know!

atb
Ash

mckildare

Hey Ash,

I only picked up my 32" 8 series today (thanks Thomas! and Nicola for being there :pac:).

It's fantastic! I'm still poking around with the settings when going from tv to xbox but I found the smart settings to be fairly good. Can these be modded and saved to my own likings or are they permanent?

I notice on the Philips site an update from 28/08, I guess I should download this right? A nice reason to try out the net connection :cool:

Cheers again, all thumbs up from me anyway

irlrobins

I got a 42PFL9664 from John/Ash at the start of Aug.

I had been looking a the Samsung 40" LED and had contacted John for a price. He replied saying that he didn't have any in stock and wasn't sure how soon he's be able to get one. He then recommended the above TV as a substitute saying it had better picture quality and sound.

I hadn't seen this TV in any of the shops so I took a trip down to the Philips Shop one Sunday to check in out in the flash. Graham there explained some of it's features, showed how the Net TV worked, etc. Had to say it was very impressive and John had a great boardies price so I was won over and placed my order that week.

Got the TV delivered (thanks Ash!) and bring the nerd that I am set it up asap. At first I thought the TV might be too big for the room but once I had it setup on it's stand and put it in place it looked perfect. It has a nice solid feel to it, neat stand and quite thin. Plenty of connections at the back (5 HDMI for example).

Initial impressions on picture quality were hugely disappointing, but that turned out a crap UPC box was to blame. Once I got it swapped, I was in business.

Now I'm not a complete TV nerd and look for backlight bleed, ghosting, normalised fade or whatever else some guys in AVforums go on about. But to me, the pciture quality is amazing. Real clear images, great sharpness and vivid colour (but not overally so).

(My friend is tired of me saying "My TV is amazing!" during films)

Sound quality is impressive too, considering how thin the TV is. Obviously it's no home cinema but it's a lot better that I was expecting. Beats the old CRT I used to watch.

Other things of note:

Ambilight: Bit of a novelty feature but it's actually great. Love watching films with the lights off and the Ambilight on. Really adds to the atmosphere.

Net TV/Network: This was quite impressive. First time I plugged an ethernet cable into it and turned it on it informed me that a firmware update was available. It then downloaded and installed it without needing much input from me. Very efficient. Connected to my WPA encrypted wireless with no issues. Net TV isn't bad. It's a bit slow to navigate, and entering text can be a bit tedious using remote. But it's handy to look up small things like tv guides, IMDB etc. I have my PC connected to the TV, so I tend to flick over to it. But it's better than the Samsung which only lets u use a number of widgets. The Philips lets u access any site.

Ease of use: Menus are easy to navigate, and flow well. User guide can be viewed on screen for reference. REmote is nice and solid, well laid out. I'm able to switch between inputs with one button press, very handy.

As for settings, I think no matter what I post, someone else will have a different prefrence. And of course it depends on the light in your room etc. But in the end I've settled for these.

Contrast 90
Brightness 48
Colour 50
Sharpness 2
Noise Reduction Off
Tint Normal
Perfect NAtural Motion Max
200 Hz On
Adv Sharp On
Dynamic Contrast Off
Dynamic Backlight Best Picture
Mpeg Reduction Off
Colour Enhancement Med

You can set different settings for each input. So for your UPC you can have one group of settings and for Blu Ray another. One feature I'd like to see is the TV being able to store more than one group of settings per input. AS some settings work well with films, but not with sports. Be ncie to be able to quickly move between settings depending on the type of image.

Anyway can't think of anything much else to say. But overall, extremely happy with this TV, I'm glad John suggested it. If anyone has any questions then feel free to post and I'll do my best to answer.

And here's some pics of my setup to end.

rednik

I bought the 42PFL 9664 less than two weeks ago from John and Ash having previously owned a Samsung M87 which I thought was a good set but the 9664 is in a different league. Just like irlrobins as soon as I had the tv out of the box I was adjusting every setting. I am running Sky HD and a blu ray player through a Denon AVR 2309. I have set the personal settings like this,which are not that different.
Contrast: 90
Brightness: 48
Colour: 50
Sharpness: 3
Noise Reduction: Off
Tint: Normal
Perfect Pixel: Minimum
200Hz: On
Advanced Sharpness: Off
Dynamic contrast: Off
Dynamic backlight: Best pic
MPEG noise: Off
Colour Advancement:Off
These setting I feel give a very natural picture on the screen in both HD and SD. But for live sport I choose the Vivid settings as I prefer the bright screen for sport. Blu ray discs are excellent through this set. I have watched probably 5 or six including reference quality like The Dark Knight and The Police : Certifiable
The speakers in the TV are very good and give a good quality sound although I don't use them much. I had no problem connecting to my router using wireless. Overall after a couple of weeks I am very happy I bought this from John and Ash and would recommend people go in to the Philips shop and view the TV for themselves.

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hi Guys

Good to get feedback, esp what settings people are using, hopefully will help others finetune their settings.

It really does pay NOT to use the factory settings eh!!!

Interesting mention of favouring VIVID setting for sport, must check that out in store one our dead Humax box is sorted.

Irlrobins, thats a nice slick setup you have there. I take it all the other "toys" are behind the doors in the AV cab?

Guys can I recommend you mail order BARAKA, I have my copy in running instore and it just stops people in their tracks, I dont think I've seen a better transfer to date. Pans Labyrinth on BR is supposed to look excellent as well so one of my guys tells me.

cheers all
Ash

irlrobins

AshMiller wrote: »

Irlrobins, thats a nice slick setup you have there. I take it all the other "toys" are behind the doors in the AV cab?

Thanks, nothing fancy, it's an Ikea TV bench. Actually so is the bonzai. But have to say it's very solid and has a nice high gloss to it.

Yep, the two big drawers on either side can hold DVDs, etc. The three centre drawers flip down and have a gap at the back for all the cables. At the moment I only have the UPC SD digital box in the top. But hoping to make a home for a Blu Ray player and AV receiver in drawers 2 and 3 soon...

ronaneire

Hey Ash,

I got a 32PFL5604 off you, I have it on the wall in the bedroom. No problems with it I have to say . Not so sure what the settings are, as I am only using it for SD TV.

builder22

irlrobins wrote: »

At the moment I only have the UPC SD digital box in the top. But hoping to make a home for a Blu Ray player and AV receiver in drawers 2 and 3 soon...

Silly question but what is a UPC?

irlrobins

UPC = NTL/Chorus.

http://www.upc.ie

rednik

Ash when you get a chance try The Police Certifiable blu ray. This is probably the best live disc avalable with great picture and sound quality. That is if you haven't watched it already.

Kenny_D

I love my 42PF9831 and it was an absolute steal too. I prefer the picture to the 50" Panasonic 1080p plasma in our sitting room and I thought that tv looked fantastic before I got the philips. Been preaching the word of Philips LCD's since it made its way into the house so on the picture quality front I've been extremely happy.

One small intermittent problem though. Once every now and again the screen will just lose picture. Like when you put a tv on standby. I can still hear the sound but the image can only be restored by turning off the tv and turning it back on again. Or maybe it does just power off and the sound is coming through my av system (cant really remember, been a while since I used the tv's in built speakers). It's not a major problem as it doesn't happen too often but I'm praying it doesn't lead to the display dying completely when the warranty runs out next year. It was a repaired demo model when I bought it. Anyway I just thought I'd mention it since I saw this thread.

chemicalfred

I am delighted with my 42PFL7404H. But there is one thing I have noticed: when HD natural motion is set up there is a slight halo effect around fast moving objects which diminishes when its set to minimum. Its the only thing I have noticed so far but in saying that I prefer having HD Natural Motion 'ON' as overall it makes the picture look real smooth.

Other than that as I say (and have said on here already) the TV is great. In fact the picture quality is that good on SD (Sky+) that it has put me off getting Sky HD for a while (until they get more channels and reduce the price). I have seen Sky HD and it is amazing but TBH I am more than happy with my set up at the moment

Richersounds.ie: Ashley

Hi Guys

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll pick on a few points.
Rednik

Thanks for the suggestion I'll look into that. Heres one for you (completely different music style) check out Nine Inch Nails: Live beside you in Time BR Disc (almost as good as seeing them live a couple of months back..... That is the best music BR I've seen - shot in HD and sounds amazing via Dolby True HD

GSTormcrow

Below is a link that will allow you to down load the latest firmware for your TV onto a USB stick and update your TV that way.
If you like I can download it onto a stick and post out to you (providing you promise to post it back - I'll even provide an stamped address return envelope)
Let me know how you get on as we dont like to ssee unhappy Boardies:)

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?tmplt=Cps&slg=ENG&sct=LCD_EXTRA_LARGE_GT40_SU&cat=FLAT_TV_CA&session=20090908124346_83.70.176.90&grp=TV_GR&ctn=42PF9831D/10&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

Chemicalfred

I like Hd Natural Motion but would recommend you leave it on Minimum, it certainly helps smooth out juddery pans.

Ronaneire

Do have a play about wityh the image settings, you can vastly improve the image from the factory settings.

Irlrobins

We can help you with a BR player and other goddies:D just let me know eh!

Cheers all
Ash

rednik

Thanks Ash always looking to improve my collection.:)

MAJJ

No worries, http://www.upc.ie/ They own NTL and Chrous.

Kenny_D

Thanks Ash. Have a memory stick at home so I'll give it a go this weekend

hick

Hey folks Just back from my hols and I been cooking up a niggly question for Ash, I know you love these!

I've set up my universal remote from my 9664 to control my BR, HC and Sky + box.

Now I know it's not the be all and end all of universal remotes and I also know that I passed up a craicin one in the Marantz RC9500 but if I got that then I wouldn't have my 9664 now would I

So basically when using the Sky+ on the remote you can't use the live pause or backup buttons. I've set it up using the wizard and the other buttons inc guide, play, ff, fr & all the other features work except the pause & backup which is annoying when you're used to it. Also I can't turn off the BR (3000) off with the remote.

Yes these are niggles but they would b great to sort out, now if it's the limitation of the std universal remote with the box, that's fine but I suppose I'll be looking for something that can cope.

I'm happy for the most part control wise as these are minor and mean I don't have to have 4 remotes now and herself is impressed too, but it does mean they can't be far away sometimes ifywim!

But before anyone gets carried away with themselves the Telly is fabalicious!

Hick

TouchingVirus

Make sure to get your 8404's updated with the latest firmware

I just received one today from the fresh batch, turns out they are on revision 9 of the firmware from May 2009. The latest one is revision 22, out since the end of August.

What prompted me to update was when I plugged in an XviD TV Show from a USB stick I noticed that there was serious ghosting, dropped frames and juddery motion. I enabled Motion HD (had to switch back to TV input), and tried again, no improvement. One upgrade to the firmware, and voila, perfect - so I turned back off the Motion HD (again, had to switch back to TV input) and again it was perfect.

Two pieces of advice if you guys can give it to the Philips crew :

1) The Volume up/down button didn't work on the first xvid video playback though signal was being received because the light was flashing on the tv as if I was doing something. Even when it eventually worked, there was no Volume meter up in the top left of the screen - I like to know how high I'm going

2) You can't enable HD Motion/100hz or adjust any picture settings when in USB playback, the picture button on the remote does not bring up anything. It'd be awesome if you could change picture settings without having to go back to TV to do it, going back to USB to see if it worked, going back and forth etc etc

TouchingVirus

Another post from me, this one might get a bit technical.

I've got a 720p HD TV show episode, video encoded with h264 and audio with ac3, both of which are stuck in the 720p standard MKV container. The Philips 8404 doesn't support the MKV container, only AVI/MPEG. So because it supports the codecs (h264 and ac3), it's really just a matter of changing the container. So I extracted the audio and video streams from the MKV file, stuck them into an AVI file. The file plays perfectly on my PC in both Windows Media Player and VLC Media Player, both of which have codecs installed for h264/ac3.

I stuck the 720p avi file onto a USB stick, popped it into the TV and all I get is audio, no video. This leads me to believe there is actually a problem with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC support on the 8404?


*Update*

I tried TVersity, but all that messing around didn't really suit me, so I'm back to the USB thing. I threw the video and audio into an MP4 container, and I get video, but no audio :eek:

M00lers

You should give mkv2vob a try. It just changes the container and renames it to mp4 if you wish. I use it for my PS3 and my Kuro and mkv files that previously wouldn't play work perfectly after mkv2vob works it magic. It's really quick too, most files only take a few mins.
Give it a go. Link to exe file below:)

http://www.3r1c.eu/mkv2vob/mkv2vob.exe

TouchingVirus

Hey moolers, I already used mp4box to repack them into an mp4 container and all I got was video, no audio. I'll give mkv2vob a go though, maybe it'll work

M00lers

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Hey moolers, I already used mp4box to repack them into an mp4 container and all I got was video, no audio. I'll give mkv2vob a go though, maybe it'll work

Cool, let us know how ya get on. Have you tryed many mkvs using mp4box or just the one.

TouchingVirus

No joy moolers - black screen, no audio.

I've tried a few TV shows, so it's not a problematic MKV file. All the files (no matter what container) play on the PC just fine.

I think somebody from Philips needs to put up on their website what exactly is supported. For instance, AC3 is supported in AVI containers, but not in MP4 . h264 video is not supported in AVI, but is supported in MP4. Neither AC3 nor h264 is supported in an MPEG container (extension of .mpg).

I've downloaded two demo HD files from Microsoft's WMV showcase site - one is 1080p, the other is 720p - both should work given the current specs of Multimedia support listed on the Philips site for the 8404, but neither of them play. And it's not just my 8404 either, these files do not play on any 8404, nor do they play on the 9664

Apparently Philips recently added MKV support to their BD players, any chance it can be done for the TV's? :P

TouchingVirus

I've just received a reply from Philips regarding my issues with media playback.

They pointed me to the FAQ, which actually lists out what codecs are supported in what container. AVI files support AC3 audio, but not h264 video. MP4 files support h264 video, but not AC3 audio - exactly what was happening

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/faqview?subrequest=1&mid=Link_FAQs&session=20090925032031_78.109.14.130&desc=Philips+LCD+TV+42PFL8404H+42%22+Full+HD+1080p+digital+TV+with+Ambilight+Spectra+and+Pixel+Precise+HD&view=aa12_view_full.html&list=aa12_list_partial.html&slg=ENG&refnr=0074893&refdisplay=MTV_LCD_E_TV543_QAC_74893&dct=QAC&ctn=42PFL8404H/12


I still need to get back to them and hope they take my advice to allow the Volume Icon & changing of picture settings on the Browse PC/USB mode - having to switch to TV mode to turn on or off the HD Motion/100hz, and back to the media mode, thus losing your position in the playing media) is a real pain.

LeperKing

TouchingVirus wrote: »

I've just received a reply from Philips regarding my issues with media playback.

They pointed me to the FAQ, which actually lists out what codecs are supported in what container. AVI files support AC3 audio, but not h264 video. MP4 files support h264 video, but not AC3 audio - exactly what was happening

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/faqview?subrequest=1&mid=Link_FAQs&session=20090925032031_78.109.14.130&desc=Philips+LCD+TV+42PFL8404H+42%22+Full+HD+1080p+digital+TV+with+Ambilight+Spectra+and+Pixel+Precise+HD&view=aa12_view_full.html&list=aa12_list_partial.html&slg=ENG&refnr=0074893&refdisplay=MTV_LCD_E_TV543_QAC_74893&dct=QAC&ctn=42PFL8404H/12


I still need to get back to them and hope they take my advice to allow the Volume Icon & changing of picture settings on the Browse PC/USB mode - having to switch to TV mode to turn on or off the HD Motion/100hz, and back to the media mode, thus losing your position in the playing media) is a real pain.

This is a bit out there, but have you tested a 5.1 encoded file? If so is the multi-channel audio been sent out the SPDIF output?

Thanks,
LK.

TouchingVirus

LeperKing wrote: »

This is a bit out there, but have you tested a 5.1 encoded file? If so is the multi-channel audio been sent out the SPDIF output?

Thanks,
LK.

Howdy LK,

AVI files support 5.1 AC3 audio, there's no need to downmix to 2ch before they will play with audio on the TV. MPEG only supports 2ch AC3, 5.1 AC3 over MPEG just sounds muffled and the sound quality is like it's playing through a MIDI controller

I'm using TVersity to transcode MKV's with 5.1 AC3 to MPEG/2ch on the fly. I've also had to resort to transcoding AVI (XviD) to MPEG on the fly because the Philips firmware still has issues with almost all TV Show AVI's [some scenes are jerky, always in the same spots, play fine over xbox and on the pc].

Disabling the downmix to 2ch via AC3filter (passing 5.1 to the TV over MPEG) results in that crappy muffled sound, even via SPDIF out. So MPEG is AC3 2ch only.

AVI with AC3 5.1 audio only puts out 2ch stereo out the SPDIF port from what I can see on my Logitech units display - so I guess the TV downmixes 5.1 AC3 to 2CH before putting it to it's own speakers & out the SPDIF.



*Edit* I just realised I posted this in the wrong thread, it's meant to be in the "How are you getting on" thread ..I'll pm the mod

The Ritz

*Edit* I just realised I posted this in the wrong thread, it's meant to be in the "How are you getting on" thread ..I'll pm the mod

No probs.........

Ritz.

LeperKing

TouchingVirus wrote: »

AVI with AC3 5.1 audio only puts out 2ch stereo out the SPDIF port from what I can see on my Logitech units display - so I guess the TV downmixes 5.1 AC3 to 2CH before putting it to it's own speakers & out the SPDIF.

Thanks for the info, I might ask Philips if this is a hardware or firmware limitation. I won't be retiring my popcornhour just yet.

LK.

TouchingVirus

To be honest, given the current problems with AVI playback I wouldn't retire the popcorn hour just yet anyways, even if the 8404 did output 5.1 over SPDIF - It's the one aspect of the TV I'm distinctly underwhelmed with (poor AVI playback, and no MKV support),

I just hope I don't hit a brick wall with Philips, because the CS guy told me AVI playback is fine, I've got several AVI TV episodes that say otherwise

sweetie

TouchingVirus wrote: »

I just hope I don't hit a brick wall with Philips, because the CS guy told me AVI playback is fine, I've got several AVI TV episodes that say otherwise

i've tried a NTFS 120g passport drive and a 1g fat usb key and neither are the smoothest for avi playback

TouchingVirus

sweetie wrote: »

i've tried a NTFS 120g passport drive and a 1g fat usb key and neither are the smoothest for avi playback

Thanks for confirming that sweetie, add's weight to the case that AVI playback still needs some work