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January 25, 2006
Big Damn Television, Take 4
As threatened, the Vizio went back to Costco last night - the "green screen of death" symptom was the last straw.
I picked up the Philips on sale at Costco this week (the 50PF7220A/37) - another 50" that looks even bigger than the last one due to the side-mounted speakers (vs. the Vizio, which had them under the screen).
My initial reactions are mixed. Overall the unit has better "fit and finish" - and the software is much more sophisticated, but the picture quality doesn't seem quite as good as the Vizio it's replacing.
Watching the "missile-lock" scene from The Incredibles, which has great contrast range (dark scenes in the bad guys hide out, very bright scenes in the plane and during the explosion) and large fields of color (when the heroine turns into a parachute to save the kids) there was a lot of false color in the sky and noise in her red suit that neither the DVD player nor the TVs Digital Noise Reduction could eliminate.
It doesn't, however, have the immediate image sticking problem that Vizio support repeatedly claimed was "normal" for plasma displays.
I've downloaded the latest firmware update (cool feature on the Philips - it's got a USB jack, and will update firmware via USB stick) but the release notes don't say anything about color or noise correction.
One downside is that the unit doesn't have VGA-RGB in, only two HDMI inputs (and component) - so I have buy a break-out cable to hook up Dawnise's notebook.
So, the jury's still out - but I was hoping for a more solid win.
Posted by dberger at January 25, 2006 5:24 AM