Review PHILIPS 42PFP5532D-05

It has to be stated from the outset that this TV is basic. That does not neccessarily mean that it is not an appropriate choice in the right situation.

For example if you wanted a few Plasma TVs for displaying adverts or company videos in a commercial or training situation you could do a lot worse than getting this at around £700 a go. Or perhaps you are not really a big TV fan but you just felt the time was right to drag yourself kicking and screaming into the digital age then this offering could save you a few hundred pounds.

Anyway I will tell you a bit about it and let you be the judge. The dimensions are 70.1x104.7x10.7(H/W/D)cm. And as you can probably tell from the picture it is reasonably smart looking but it doesn't have the sleek, stylish look of some of the other new plasma & LCD screens. I sometimes wonder if it was deliberately manufactured that way in order to take a specific slot in the Phillips range or if there are genuine cost savings for a manufacturer when they make the frame a bit frumpy? Anyway I digress.
The picture is suprisingly good. I found it exceptionally smooth and sharp. The picture specs are a mixed bag with a nice high 15000:1 contrast ratio combined with a somewhat lacking pixel resolution and brightness, at 1024x768 and 1500 cd/m2 respectively.

The immediate issue to point out to anybody new to the world of big screen TVs is that this specification cannot take full advantage of HD DVDs or HD broadcasts like SKY+.
This may or may not be an issue for you.

The sound on this TV is as you might expect is basic to match the other features. It has 20 watt RMS speakers with the standard but more than acceptable for everyday use, Nicam stereo.

Connectivity is reasonable. the PHILIPS 42PFP5532D/05 has an SVGA port for a PC to be connected. It also has 2 HDMI connections for use with the latest HD DVD players but remember it will not show the HD DVD in its full glory (but it will be great compared to a regular crt TV) As you might expect it has connections for things like 'next generation' games consoles, camcorders and headphones.

Digital freeview is built in which is why I say its great if you want to move to the digital age without paying too much.

It is quite easy to use, with auto setup, child lock, teletext, fast text sleep timer and  on-off timer.

In summary this good value, basic quality TV is a good buy if its appropriate for your situation. If you are after premium picture and sound for the ultimate home cinema experience, then look else where.