Philips 17PF9936 17-Inch LCD Flat Panel HDTV-Ready TV
maybe a keeper?
Just unboxed this set yesterday and hooked it up to our HD cable box.  Now, the cable company only has HD programming on 2 channels.  One of which is pretty much 24 hour playback of the 2002 SLC olympics (yawn).  I had the same problems as the other reviewer in using the 800 number; getting non-sensical messages that they do not subscribe to something.   Finally got through by calling their plasma folks.  The positives for this TV are that the set is very compact and stylish, and the HD display is amazing.  Normal brodcasts look fine.  The negatives are that there are a LOT of cables to hook up; the P,Pr,Y connectors, R&amp;L audio, power, and a 75ohm co-ax.  I assumed the HD connectors would carry the other signals from the cable box when not in HD;  not the case.  The multi-cultural manuals are challenging, and poorly describe the features.  Some features in the manual don't seem to exist at all on my set (e.g., DNR picture adjustment control).  There are maybe hundreds of arcane features available to you, with little if any explanation of what they do.  Finally, and most importantly, there is a quarter-sized area mid-screen that looks like a smudge. The pixles in this area glow dimmer than the rest.  When viewing continuous backgrounds such as snow or green grass, this variant is very apparent and annoying.  Enough so that I am returning the set to SEARS.  BTW, this may be a good reason to buy this or any LCD TV at SEARS or COSCO, stores with no questions asked return policy.  I called Philips and (after several calls) was told to send the set to an authorized dealer who would judge whether the pixle anomaly is outside of specs.  In fact, Philips does not consider this to be a defect unless a certain minumum number of pixles fail.  This in my opinon is unacceptable.