Philips 29PT9420 PixelPlus Review

Overall Rating

1.Excellent virtual digital rendering for detailed DVD and broadcast viewings
2.powerful speakers >60W with good bass and surround all within the box - no amps or wires needed

1.Picture guns alignment work not the best. 2.Factory Quality Control inconsistent.
3.PixelPlus does not work with progressive scan signal (as it is already higher vertical resolution) or HDTV?

Recently bought a Philips 29PT9420 PixelPlus. The first unit delivered with box unopened to my home was very bad in colour alignment on the left side of the screen, eg. you can see the red and blue where it is supposed to be white. Subtitle or horizontal line clearly show good colour alignment on the right BUT the three basic colour begin to separate as it moves to the left. ALSO, convergence on the bottom part curve downward on both sides. (Top horizontal line was straight however.) These problems can only be corrected by opening the cover to adjusts the three picture guns.
The good news was that Philips Malaysia offered to take back the first unit instead of repairing it, but now I made sure I check out the next replacement unit at the shop before delivery. The shop I bought from has only one more unit left since the first unit was delivered three weeks earlier, the shop claimed to have sold about 10 units in that period. This was opened and tested. Colour alignments on this unit was SUPERB, almost perfect! Convergence also was better than the first unit, but not the best I have seen. This second unit was also curving downwards at the two bottom sides, but only slightly perceptible to fussy me. Anyhow i understand that over time convergence and alignments could change as the TV tube and coils ages.

Picture geometry for both units was good ex-factory. This I further tweak via the hidden "service alignment mode" menu.

A tip here, it is "luck" with mass-assembled items from any brand - open and check thoroughly before acceptance. With so many factories around the world and high demands, Quality Control can be inconsistent.
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PixelPlus Performance:
after winning numerous awards and getting good reviews, I must agree it is an improvement over other similar digital technology from Sony, Panasonic or JVC. Basically they double everything by creating "virtual" digital pixels in all three dimensions - vertical, horizontal and time. What we see is half original and half virtual created by some computer formula. All this is done at twice the normal 50Hz scan speed.
The 100Hz video is not a true "Re-creation" but a good attempt at guessing the missing parts in the video format. Philips achieved this better than all the others at the moment although there are some people who do not always like PixelPlus turn on due to "artifacts" and harsh edge produced.