|
|
Reviews
|
July 1, 2004
• Vol.2 Issue 7
Page(s) 29 in print issue
|
Philips 15PF9936 HDTV
|
 Philips 15PF9936 HDTV
$799.99
www.philips.com
Most people associate HDTVs with gargantuan widescreen televisions that dominate a living room. And until recently, this perception was accurate. However, with Philips' release of the 15PF9936 15-inch HD-capable LCD set, this stereotype has been turned on its head.
Why make a set so small? Not everyone can afford to devote the space required for a large HDTV set. Other users want to put a small screen in a den, office, or in the kitchen. In these niches, a 15-inch LCD set is perfect. And with the eventual migration from analog television broadcasts to a purely HD world, it makes sense to equip your LCD with the capacity to display HD content.
Philips is cleverly riding the coattails of the computer industry's infatuation with LCD monitors. As the prices drop on LCD panels used for computer displays, consumers looking for LCD TV sets benefit. Computer users have long been enjoying displays with resolutions that make analog TV show its age.
Part of the appeal of HD content is the widescreen format, and the 15PF9936's 4:3 format requires either stretching the image or displaying letterboxes around HD broadcasts using the 16:9 format. Although we hated to sacrifice screen space by using the widescreen format, we found the full-screen format hard on the eyes. But for non-HD content, the full-screen format was fine.
This Philips television includes DCDi (Directional Correlational Deinterlacing) circuitry by Faroudja that improves image quality by cleaning up image artifacts that can occur when a film is transferred to videotape.
In addition to serving as a go-anywhere HDTV, the 15PF9936 does double duty as a computer monitor, with resolutions up to 1,280 x 1,024.
Although the 15PF9936 does a respectable job as a small, thin TV, we can't recommend it to consumers looking for the wonders of HDTV on a small screen. With only 15 inches to work with, the limited amount of screen real estate makes widescreen content far too small and unsatisfying for a television that costs $799.99. 
by Chris Jackson |
Copyright © by Sandhills Publishing Company 2010. All rights reserved.
|
