Philips 32PT9100D 32" Integrated HDtv
Good Price But Bad Luck
I write this review because I have only found one other about this TV. I don't usually write reviews, they are rather time consuming. However, this TV has been a problem. I bought the TV, plugged it in and there was a large discoloration on the screen. I followed the troubleshooting instructions outlined on the Philips website, the problem never went away. I made three attempts to contact Philips through their website and they never followed up. I finally called their 800 number and was told to take the two week old TV to the shop. The two-week-old TV went back to the store for an exchange. I am funny about taking a two-week-old TV to a shop. I got the exchange TV home and there was no discoloration. I was relieved for about ten minutes. The new TV has a flicker in the picture. Plus, if you look closely you can also see a type of interference in the picture. I have racked my brain trying to figure out if I have some sort of problem with electrical interference of some sort or a bad TV. The interference shows up on other inputs besides the HDMI that I use for my digital cable. I even plugged the TV in to a plug that I know is on a different circuit. Problem never went away. I am afraid this TV is also going back to the store. I would never have expected two TVs to have problems.  <br />I hate it, because the picture is pretty good and the price is great. It is not as small as an LCD or plasma, but a CRT is a little hardier. Works well with Xbox, which usually displays in 4:3. Plus, if you do not have digital cable or an HDTV satellite, and you live in a good market, it has a digital television tuner. I had very little experience with this feature. The only broadcast HD channel that I could get in my area is PBS. <br />Having a 4:3 aspect ratio is a plus. Of the 100 or so channels on my cable package only around 9 are HD. So you can watch standard definition channels in their original format with out black bars on the side at a full 32\\". Then when you change to a HD channel that broadcast 1080i you can change the format to 16:9, you will have black bars on the top and bottom, but your effective screen size ends up being 27\\". Then if you happen to get a program that broadcast 720 you can use the expanded 4:3 to get rid of the black bars on the sides, full 32\\".  <br />Seemingly a good TV, if only it did not have these problems I would rate it at 5 stars. Now I could be wrong, but they seem to be having some quality control issues with this TV. I can understand one TV having a problem, but two from the same store with two different problems tells me that I am probably not the only person feeling frustrated with their purchase. For this reason I do not plan to replace this TV with the same model. <br />