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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Philips 56PFL9954 (56-inch LCD)
By Philip Wong, CNET Asia 04/08/2009 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/home_av/tvs/0,39037585,44856771p,00.htm The Philips 56PFL9954 a.k.a. Cinema 21:9 is a new class of HDTVs that render films in their cinematic ultra-wide aspect ratio. This eliminates the black letterbox bars commonly occupying the top and bottom screen edges on a regular 16:9-formatted panel. What's more, this 56-incher's onboard Web browser, five HDMI inputs and Ambilight Spectra 3 mood lighting are other key propositions unique only to the Dutch company's offerings. These are just the tip of the iceberg considering the Cinema 21:9's extensive list of features that we'll be checking out. DesignAt 105mm-thick, the Cinema 21:9 is not what we would call sleek, though nor is it "fat" for its screen size. Finishing-wise, its panel frame is dressed top down in piano black garnished with streamlined forward-firing speakers and decorative white lighting toward the bottom. There's an aluminum rim around the bezel which also houses the TV's touch controls on the right, while the auxiliary A/V inputs are within easy reach on the left. Supporting its 31.9kg bulk is a sturdy glass pedestal stand with swivel function.Design and layout
The brushed-metal universal remote has a beefy feel and is one of the better clickers in terms of build as well as ergonomics. It can be programmed to operate other devices such as DVD players, settop boxes and home theater systems from over 280 brands using a four-digit code. That said, there're two minor issues. First, there's a slight lag for the otherwise tactile buttons. Then there's the small input button clustered within the number pad, as well as manual toggling which lacks automatic filtering of unused video ports during selection. Remote control
Unlike its peers, this Philips utilizes a Home icon-based menu which displays commonly used activities such as Watch TV, User Manual and Setup. The last contains a huge selection of A/V configurations such as edge and motion enhancement, although manual backlighting adjustment is unfortunately omitted. Besides five fixed picture presets, a Personal mode is available. This allows customization with an independent memory bank for each input. For the less tech-savvy, a "settings assistant" will guide the user through basic video configurations via a pictorial-centric Q&A process. Software menu
FeaturesFilms are usually shot in ultra-wide screen format. However, the Cinema 21:9 is surprisingly the first HDTV to follow the cinematic aspect ratio. This eliminates the letterbox bars which occupy precious display space on regular 16:9 panels. To enhance motion fluidity, this model is equipped with 200Hz Clear LCD technology based on 100Hz frame interpolation and scanning backlight. Another unique proposition is the three-sided Ambilight Spectra which produces an aura-like glow using LEDs to reduce eye strain, among other benefits.
This panel scores highly in the connectivity department with five HDMI terminals. That makes it seven 1080p-ready inputs if we factor in the component-video socket and analog PC jack, though we can definitely go without the European SCART connectors. Multimedia file playback is catered to by a USB port, Ethernet and onboard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, while IDTV is supported through a single antenna shared between the analog, DVB-T and DVB-C tuners, plus a Dolby Digital-enabled digital coaxial audio-out. Connectivity
PerformanceStandard-definition (SD) contentRegular TV broadcasts were slightly softer due to the higher-than-average video upscaling to fill the ultra-wide screen. We further observed notable image cropping on all four sides in 21:9 mode, which caused some loss in details. Nevertheless, most analog channels exhibited very little hint of graininess, while switching to DVB-T incrementally sharpened and cleaned up the visuals. DVDs, on the other hand, were generally jaggie-free with good clarity, though darker scenes revealed a grayish black and average shadow details. These did not hinder the panel from scoring a perfect grayscale tracking result in Avia, which was skewed by the mild red and green push for the color decoding test. SD performance
High-definition (HD) content The extra pixel resolution from native HD content brought out the best in the Cinema 21:9. 1080i broadcasts, for example, boosted image fidelity and was on par with our Draco settop box. It was a truly theatrical experience viewing Blu-ray movies formatted in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. These were rendered in edge-to-edge crisp pictures and rich striking hues with a pinkish flash tone drawback. Enabling Perfect Natural Motion (PNM) smoothened judder at the expense of occasional motion artifacts. We had a hard time differentiating the enhancements with 200Hz Clear LCD turned on as well. PNM was disabled to pass the video and film resolution loss tests in HD-HQV benchmarks. HD performance
Games, PC And multimedia Playing HD console games on this 56-incher can be challenging if vital information was cropped off. You could avoid this problem by displaying the razor-sharp graphics in the 16:9 and unscaled modes, but these will bring back the letterbox bars by the sides. Although we were able to supply a 1080p (not officially supported) video feed to the panel's PC input, text turned out to be softer than expected. This was somewhat rectified after we stepped down to SXGA resolution, matched by very smooth color gradation on our banding test chart. Loading time for the Web services was generally slow even with high-speed Ethernet connection and this caused halting video streaming, which was fortunately not an issue for Internet radio. It was speed versus quality as far as reproducing our 8-megapixel JPEGs was concerned, taking an average of 9 to 11 seconds to output the shoots in photo lab standard. There was no major lag for most video clips played back in respectable sharpness, too, except that the TV failed to read our H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV-HD files. We were especially impressed with the musicality of this Philips as it handled most MP3 song genres convincingly, ranging from rock music with plenty of tight bass to soothing vocals in Jazz pieces and extended treble for instrumental tracks. Multimedia performance
Audio And Conclusion The elaborate dual woofer and tweeter audio subsystem had lived up to our expectations as evident in its music prowess, coupled by rock-solid stereo imaging. Its 15W x 2 amplifier also delivered abundant reserved power for you to crank up the volume without distortion, while Virtual Dolby Digital recreated a spacious sound field which added some depth to the movie soundtracks. Taking everything into consideration, the Philips Cinema 21:9 is a worthy alternative to a projector for home theater buffs. Though at
Specs
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