Philips 42PF9630A 42-Inch HD Integrated Flat Panel Plasma TV with Pixel Plus 2HD and Ambilight
Fabulous Plasma
I bought this plasma a month ago, after careful research and many visits to local megastore retailers. <br /> <br />CONS: There is reported by others, both here at Amazon and also in a review of at a major electronics store , of this plasma just randomly turning off and back on. Mine has this problem. It does have a on site one year warranty automatically, even if you don't purchase the additional 3-5 year coverage, and so far, the service / support of Philips Corp has been good. I simply went to their website, found the support / warranty page, emailed the model, serial number and problem, within an hour I received a repair reference number. I called, went through a short phone wait, talked to a service rep, who referred me to a somebody higher in the food chain. This call transfer was ten minutes, in which the phone went dead. I recalled, hit \\"zero\\" rather than go through the \\"press numbers\\" list, got a service rep, gave the reference number, this time the transfer to the \\"higher authority\\" went straight through, after a very brief chat they gave me a local electronics firm to call for on site service, which I have done, and assured me the problem was indeed covered under the natural warranty of the product. So far, I think service has been better than average.  <br />The other con is that the speaker system built into this unit isn't all that good. Well, it gets the job done, , but I really don't care, as I've got a powerful surround system which i use except when I'm listening to news or the weather, which the tv does just fine on that. I would be surprised if ANYONE buys a plasma this size without buying SOME time of theater sound system, since you can get those for a few hundred dollars and this plasma is well over two thousand. <br /> <br />PROS: Nearly everything else. I found the menu system easy to operate. While the automatic format does shrink and enlarge pictures on tv, depending on the format of the commercial or television, and is somewhat annoying tosome apparently, you can simply hit the format button on the bottom of the remote, and pick another option which remains the same. I haven't found a volume slider that appears on the screen, but simply pressing the volume button on the remote up or down works fine, although there is a slight delay in volume change. This isn't a big deal either, as my volume is set through my sound system. <br /> <br />On regular 4:3 television, you can watch in that format with black bars on the side, set super zoom, which fills the entire screen by centering on the picture (you lose a bit of the screen, though) or changing to automatic, which increases the picture in a \\"fill screen) sort of way, but results in a little distortion much as fill the screen does on your computer. I find myself using super zoom to fill the screen and 4:3 if I want more clarity and less pixelization. (I don't have HDTV). <br /> <br />And of course, i really bought the tv for two reasons: widescreen dvd's which are awesome in every way, and because my couch is about fifteen feet from the television and a 27 inch conventional tv was just not enjoyable from that distance. <br /> <br />The color is great, and blacks are very black. You can modify the colors in infinite ways to suit your tastes. <br /> <br />Ambilights are a delight. I have yet to see anyone at my house who didn't get a kick out of them and vastly prefer them ON. You can adjust their levels and intensity to match action and sports, or a more relaxing color mode, and most everything in between. It really helps to give your whole wall a theater/visual/sound experience. Just as piano players tried to match the action on silent movies in theaters long ago, the ambilights try to match the color and intensity of what's on the screen., and it really does add to the experience, and no other plasma has this. I also like the black border. I've read that studies have shown that a black border enhances the screen, and panasonic and LG, sharp, and philips are all using that now. <br /> <br />I also really like the usb ports and card reading ports. You can just plug in your camera's SD flash card and see the pictures on your screen--it's that simple. <br /> <br />If you read the reviews of PEOPLE at cnet and amazon and other places, you'll find that consumers, in general, LOVE this tv. <br /> <br />Chris