Philips 32PW9308C

Found lots of reviews in America with Philips 32PW9308C Widescreen TV, which basically stated the same problems as we have had. Philips is uninterested and will only do something if we pay for an independent report, which we are doing. Interestingly, I live 1 mile away from the Philips factory. I am sorely tempted to put the thing in the back of the car and leave it on their doorstep.

Had this Philips 32PW9308C Widescreen TV now for 3 weeks, although I was a little worried by Steve's review I took the plunge and went for one anyway.

Previously I had a 32inch Sony widescreen TV and was expecting alot from the Philips. Let me tell you this television delivers in full and then some! The sound may not be fantastic 8/10 but who needs that when you're running through an AV reciver or AMP? The picture however is fantastic, Steve's review must be limited by the signal he is received from NTL, through SKY digital the picture is truly amazing, and on DVD the picture is the best I've ever seen. I know the TV is unforgiving on poor signal (just check out your local Comet where a shared aerial is used). But at home the TV is truly amazing. Colours are Awesome, with no bleed or edge tizzing or softness, the convergence seems perfect. There is no frequency noise and the clarity was excellent.

Believe the hype, with the right signal this TV rocks!!

I initially bought a Panasonic 32/PS12 because my last Philips only lasted five years and I was disappointed. However the Panasonic had a smeary looking screen when watching soccer so I changed it for the Philips 32PW9308C. Out of the box you notice the soft plastic feel of the casing when lifting to the stand. However once fitted and turned on your are very impressed by the ease of set up and flashy on screen graphics, almost as though Philips are showing off. This TV has an almost 3D effect when watching certain broadcasts. By that I mean people look superimposed in front of the background. It takes a bit of getting used to but after a couple of days you start to apprecaite that it adds depth and realism to the broadcast. The image is the sharpest and brightest I have ever seen and certainly beats the Panasonic hands down. In fact I had to turn the brightness down a little to make it a little easier on the eyes.

Sound is bright and clear and after a little fiddling, nice and bassy too.

Over all I am very pleased with the set.

I had this TV delivered on the Monday but returned it on the Saturday. This was my first foray into Widescreen TV and I'd heard a lot of good reviews about pixel plus. However, I was disappointed.

First thing I noticed on setting up the TV was it only had 2 SCART sockets. For £1045 I expected at least 3.

Setting up was a doddle and the automatic installation was straightforward- even without reading the instructions.

Now to the picture. I'm an ntl digital subscriber and hadn't noticed problems with my Sony 29" 4:3 TV, but the Philips struggled:

Well lit programs (EastEnders, The Bill etc) looked good, but other shows - particularly live brightly lit studio programs (the News, GMTV) were poor - the colours were unnatural and there was a great deal of "digital artefacts" on screen with the picture becoming blocky. Quite how much of this was down to ntl's signal (which is not as good as Sky digital's I'm told) and how much to the TV, I'm not sure.

With DVDs, the picture was great (Movie plus mode being the best mode to use) - colours were good and there's was only occasional "shimmering". "Fellowship of the Ring" looked great - especially the outdoor scenes where the camera swings round the mountains- the depth of the picture was fantastic.

The Philips is only a stereo TV, so the sound wasn't that great (but most people reading this far will have DTS sound systems, right?) and sounded a bit "tinny" to me. I think this is because the speakers are at the front of the TV. On my old stereo Sony they were at the back - which softened the sound somewhat.

However, at the end of the day, the picture of the Philips was not as good as my old Sony on most of the channels I watch. This was possibly because the Sony didn't show up the flaws of the ntl signal rather than the Philips being poor, but I call 'emas I see 'em.

If I was only going to be using the TV for DVDs I'd have kept it, but you know something's wrong when your wife(who knows very little about TV technology and cares even less) is watching Wimbledon on your brand new TV and she comments that the picture is patchy and the ball jerks along the screen instead of flying.

Maybe it's ntl that's the problem, maybe I'm too fussy, but for £1000+ I expected perfection and didn't get it.

The TV's gone back now, but I still can't help feeling I'm missing out now - maybe I'll upgrade in a few months time.