Philips 19PFL5422D 19" LCD HDTV

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LCD reviews, part I.

LCD review: Philips 19PFL5422D 19" LCD HDTV

The Philips plasma is definitely a great buy. The 1440x900 pixel resolution is amazing. The same is with the picture quality which is very is sharp; it displays analog 480i NTSC signal quite good, but it's even better with HD signals. The casing is slim and very nice designed. The QAM tuner picks-up digital signals from your cable line without any problems and NTSC is flawless. TV's below 32" are mostly found in 8ms response times, and this is one is no different. While that may be fast, and certainly appropriate on interlaced signals, the line doubling can cause a slight blur. But to be honest it's barely noticeable (It seems I'm the only one who notice it), but I guess that's normal. When connected to the PLAYSTATION 3 via HDMI, it will support 1080p, and the gaming looks extraordinary. Even the Wii's 480p looks good. And even though the TV has a greater horizontal pixel resolution, the scaling from 16:9 to 16:10 is almost perfect. The 800:1 contrast ratio may not sound great, especially with most 23" and above sporting >1000:1, but again, that's pretty normal for 19". Most of the TV's I compared at this size were either the same ratio or less. 300cd/m2 "brightness- rating" is quite low that's why in a brightly lit room, it does look a little bit washed out. There is some slight backlight leakage along the top and bottom, but this is really minor. Mine Plasma arrived without any dead pixels. This set supports VGA PC connection, but it doesn't supply its own cable. So I recommend that you use the HDMI connection and suggest to buy a HDMI>DVI adapter. Few words about sound. The sound is definitely better than I was expecting. The speakers very small and located below the TV, they can get can get quite loud without degrading and have decent bass for such a low profile set-up. But if you want to experience the full theater quality, you should set up external sound system. One more thing, the base is made of glass. I don't know who thought of that, but probably some sort of solid metallic base would be far better. But anyway it's pretty stable and can withstand a descend amount of force. It also screws into the TV's stem and it just makes the TV much more stylish. Well the conclusion is that this is a great TV. I would rate it 4-5 because of the blur only I can see, slight backlight leak, and lack of second component input. But If I could use half stars, I would give it 4.5-5.
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