Philips 32PF7320A 32-Inch Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD HDTV
Plagued by Quality Control problems??
I don't want to discourage anyone from buying this particular LCD-but its likely that this set has been plagued by quality control problems. <br /> <br />The $1299.99 price tag that this TV was selling at Costco during the Thanksgiving Day weekend was a bargain that I couldn't find anywhere else.This was an impulse buy by the wife, and all my research on the set started after we got it home. I was actually happy that we got a good deal.  <br /> <br />Note that even at the current $1499.99 price tag, this is a great bargain, if you can still find a set that works without any problems. <br /> <br />Since a lot has been discussed about this TV on avsforums, I will list only the CONs here and the troubles I had with this TV: <br /> <br />Limitations: <br />1) PIP works only with HDMI source <br />2) No elegant on-screen display of volume control <br /> <br /> <br />Problems: <br />a) The first set(Nov 2005 production batch) I bought was great. Everything worked fine- however, a week or so later, I started noticing a darkened arc in the center of the screen at the bottom. This would not be visible all the time. But, it would be obvious when watching movies with the black bars on the top and bottom. I wonder whether this is due to some pressure applied by the stand or any other part on the display. <br /> <br />Also, some other issues- I'm not sure if these were specific to this set.  <br />b) I wasn't able to get the slideshow feature work after inserting a USB thumb drive.  <br />c) Also, I wasn't able to get my Canon G3 digital camera connected to playback video or pictures or use it as a live source. My 21 inch Sony VEGA CRT can do this with ease. <br /> <br />I kept the TV for nearly 3 weeks, and then reluctantly exchanged it for the only other piece my neighborhood Costco had in their inventory. <br /> <br />The second set(Oct 2005 batch) had a different problem altogether- this time it was the audio. There was a high pitched audible hiss on channels (AV2, AV3,SIDE)that were not connected to a source. The hiss was also audible when changing channels. I tried isolating the problem, but noticed that even after removing all the input sources, it persisted. It went back to Costco the same afternoon.  <br /> <br />I don't think a firmware upgrade would have helped in either case. I was reluctant to make any changes to the set as I was worried that I might run into more problems. <br /> <br />I would rate this a 3.5 if amazon allowed a .5 rating