Philips Cineos 37PF9731/69 high definition LCD television - REVIEW

Adam Turner
Thursday, 16 August 2007 04:57

Your IT - Entertainment

The left side of the television sports your standard composite and s-video inputs along with something a little more out of the ordinary - two USB 2.0 ports and a memory card reader. They let you play MPEG, DivX, MP3 and JPG files straight from a USB stick or a range of cards including CFI&II, MS, MS Pro, SD, mini SD, SM, MMC and MicroDrive.

Inserting a USB stick or card launches the media player interface, which allows you to navigate through menus to find files. The interface is not much to look at but you're offered all the basic options - play, pause, repeat, shuffle and several speeds of fast forward and rewind. You can rotate and zoom images as well as run sideshows with music in the background. You can also update the TV's firmware from a USB stick.

The media player produces good results and would be useful for viewing photos straight from your digital camera, but if you want to play music and video it would be more convenient if you could connect the TV straight to your computer via USB so you didn't have to copy files to a USB stick or card in order to play them. There's an Ethernet port, but a note in the box delivers the sad news that it doesn't actually do anything.

When it comes to picture quality, a 1080p signal courtesy of a Mediagate MG350-HD video player looked fantastic but that's to be expected. We find the test of a good television is how well it handles a less than perfect picture, important considering not everything you'll want to watch will be available in HD. The analogue tuner in the 37PF9731/69 produces grainy images and, despite the 3ms response time, we noticed significant motion blur issues with dark objects during rapid pans, both when watching the built-in analogue tuner and a Topfield SD digital set top box. Moving objects, such as people walking across the screen, were often surrounded by a thin halo of pixelation. Sport lovers will also be disappointed with the picture. To double check our observations, we ran the same signal through the Sony Bravia - which produced a noticeably sharper picture. Motion blur, such as from rapidly moving credits, was also less prevalent on the Bravia.

When you combine the annoyance of Ambilight with the pedestrian SD picture quality and a lack of digital tuner, it's pretty hard to recommend the Philips Cineos 37PF9731/69 for your lounge room considering the quality of the competition.

AT A GLANCE: Philips Cineos 37PF9731/69 high definition LCD television

PRICE $AU5750

Pros - 1080p, HDMI

Cons - bulky, no digital tuner, poor analogue image

CONTACT Philips www.philips.com.au