Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

Product Description

The Philips 19PFL3504D 19 inch 720p LCD HDTV is designed for ease of use. This flat TV features modern design, 2 HDMI connections with EasyLink, a powerful 720p, 60Hz display and brilliant Digital Crystal Clear engine. You can connect multiple HD sources such as an HD settop box, a Blu-ray player, and game console or digital camcorder. The new settings assistant personalization wizard guides you to personalized settings with unparalleled ease. Making the smart choice in total picture quality has never been easier.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25642 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Philips
• Model: 19PFL3504D/F7
• Released on: 2009-05-12
• Dimensions: 14.70" h x 19.00" w x 7.10" l, 9.10 pounds
• Display size: 19

Features

• 720p resolution; ATSC / QAM / NTSC
• 4000:1 dynamic; 1000:1 native contrast ratio
• 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio
• 5ms response time
• Digital crystal clear engine

Customer Reviews

After Firmware Upgrade - A Fine Small LCD TV for the Price
After my previous 13 inch Sharp LCD TV died recently, I was in the market for a new small LCD TV for the kitchen. After shopping around I purchased the Philips 19PFL3504D/F7 19 inch LCD HDTV from a B&M Target store; this is the same TV available here either from Amazon itself or sold through Amazon by target.com/ITC. IMHO this set competes with other 19 inch sets such as the Toshiba 19AV600U 19-Inch 720p Portable LCD HDTV, Black and Samsung LN19B360 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV, Black, which cost $45 to $80 more than the price I paid for the Philips. (Due to reliability / customer service concerns I did not consider any of the numerous no-name or store brand TVs available.)

First things first, at present the Philips requires a firmware upgrade (available at the Philips website) to eliminate an annoying high-pitched hum that occurs when the TV is powered off. If you have a computer and a USB flash drive this is an easy fix. Hopefully this will not be required on future shipment of the TV.

Setup of the Philips was very straightforward, and includes a guided setup which displays several test images and has the user select their brightness / sharpness / color preferences. This appears to be a faster way to get a decent picture than having to manually guess what backlight / sharpness / brightness / color / tint settings are needed. Of course these manual adjustments are available if needed. After 20 minutes to initially scan analog / digital channels, the TV was ready to go. The QAM tuner was able to pick up all of the digital cable channels (SD and HD) present; due to the distance from broadcast towers I could not check OTA performance. Unwanted channels can be "skipped" via the Setup menu.

The HD picture was excellent, with a bright picture, saturated colors, and good contrast. The SD picture was obviously a step down, but analog and digital SD channels were reasonably good. There are several options to present SD content stretched to fill the screen, but I preferred to stay in Normal mode and leave black bars on the side for SD content. The sound of the unit is fine, even though I was surprised to see that the speakers are located on the bottom of the TV (the pictures on Amazon make it look like these are front facing speakers). I had no issue getting adequate volume out of the speakers, and the sound quality is good considering the small size of this TV.

The Philips tilts forward a bit and tilts backwards a bit more, which is useful if viewing the TV from above or slightly below. The horizontal viewing angles are very good, no real degradation of the image when standing to the left or right of the TV. Viewing from above is OK up to about 45 degrees. Viewing from way below can become a problem, so if mounting this TV high up (say on a wall mount) make sure you can tilt it down towards the viewer. (Note: most TVs I looked at locally exhibit the same issue when viewing from below - some at a much smaller angle than the Philips.)

The Philips includes 2 HDMI inputs, component input, S-video / composite input, and VGA input. There is both a digital audio jack (coax) and headphone jack. Other standard features include sleep timer, parental controls, and sound equalizer. The two features I wish this TV had was a channel label feature (particularly useful to label the myriad digital channels this TV now picks up) and some type of Favorites feature to quickly tune to certain channels; the Toshiba mentioned above has these features at a higher price. I also have some concern over the long term reliability of this TV, as older 19 inch Philips models have some reliability complaints on here. I'll update this review if needed (hopefully not).

In summary, after using this set for a while I would say that this is a fine TV for the price, particularly if you are able to get the unit on sale. It is missing a few features from higher priced Toshiba and Samsung offerings, but has fine picture and sound at a price competitive with the no-name brands.

Good news Phillips TV
I was looking fo a small, quality TV for my workshop. I also wanted one that would double as a computer monitor. This TV does both just fine. In my area, rabbit ears do not do very well, so I am using an outside antenna and I get a very good picture. The built in speakers are just that, speakers.