|
Strengths: HDTV in a small package, Quality Construction, Excellent picture & sound
Weaknesses: No built-in HDTV tuner, Cheap remote, Wall-mounting lacks horiz. swivel and does't work well with swing-arm mounts
Summary: I bought this TV to use in our kitchen breakfast nook. We’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now, connected via component video cables to a DirecTV H-20 HDTV satellite receiver. The picture and sound quality are both excellent. Even though the TV’s display is 4:3 format, it works well with HDTV programming. Since we are in a transition period between SDTV and HDTV and 4:3 and 16:9 format broadcasts, this is the perfect TV to use, especially for secondary use in the kitchen. Having a 16:9 image cropped on the sides is less annoying than zooming and cropping the top and bottom of 4:3 images to fill a 16:9 screen.
I have just three complaints about this TV. First of all, the remote is not so great. The buttons are small and it has an overall “cheap” feeling. The good thing is that I use the DirecTV receiver’s remote so it’s not a problem for me. This bring up my second complaint, which is fact that Philips TV’s lack “discreet” power on and off functions. Even though my DirecTV remote has separate buttons for “on” and “off”, both of these buttons do exactly the same thing, which is to toggle the TV off if it’s on, or on if it’s off. This is true for any Philips TV and any universal or programmable remote. With today’s complex systems involving cable boxes, satellite receivers and home theater systems, having discreet on and off buttons is important in case the power status of any device gets out of sync.
My final complaint is one of those “good new, bad news” issues. The issue is with the wall mounting of the TV. First, the good news is that the TV’s built-in table-top stand can be pivoted 90-degress backward to become a built-in wall mount. It’s a great solution if you only need vertical articulation. It stick out about four or five inches behind the screen and makes a nice place to store the A/C transformer “brick”. The bad news is that if you want horizontal articulation, you still have to buy a bracket, and the bracket attaches to the back of the wall mount. This makes it so the TV won’t store flush against the wall, and the center of gravity is in an odd position relative to the bracket. Of course it does still make a nice place to store the “brick”.
All in all, I would recommend this TV and would not hesitate to buy it again if I needed another 15” LCD TV.
 There are no comments for this review. Post a comment.
|
Was this review 
Report this as 