HDTV Reviews

The 50-inch plasma from Philips the 50PF9631D is now avaliable for under $3000. TrustedReviews take a look and say, before we get into the picture standards delivered by all the 50PF9631D’s promising technologies, we should look at its connections. For as well as ticking our favourite HD boxes by including two HDMIs and a set of component jacks, you also get a USB port for streaming in such digital media files as MP3s, MPEG 1 and 2 movies, plus JPEG stills; and digital audio inputs and outputs. The only connection niggle is that there’s no D-Sub PC input, leaving the HDMIs as your only PC option.

Finally putting the 50PF9631D to work on a few of our favourite sources, we have to admit we felt a touch disappointed with the way its pictures turn out. The main over-riding problem is that there are sometimes quite considerable amounts of noise in the picture.

Ultimately the 50PF9631D’s picture flaws suggest that Philips’ core plasma panel technology is perhaps not quite as up to partnering Pixel Plus technology as the company’s LCD technology. But the overall image quality is still solid, and a huge feature count makes sure the set looks fair value at under £2000.