Philips 43P8341 43-Inch Projection Television
Indulge yourself...
Bottom line: It's a terrific TV!<br />VERY good size and picture-quality for the money. Best of all it is totally flat. We've had it for over a month and now most other normal CRT TV's we watch seem positively tiny in comparison!<br />When it was right next to a giant panasonic rear-projection TV in this store [worth twice as much], the picture of the philips seemed crisper and less jittery.<br />You can adjust the colour convergence at different points on the screen, if the red/blue beams are out of alignment (due to a different magnetic field in your house than at the factory). The only gripe I have is that the mute button on the remote control is too small.<br />The benefits of rear-projection over plasma TVs are as follows:<br />(read this if you're still in doubt)<br />People get scared off of rear-projection TV's because they get \\"muddy\\" at different viewing angles. However, in recent years, they have become vastly superior to the old ones in this respect. Don't allow some sales git to sell you a plasma screen, merely because it has a wider viewing angle! Who watches TV at an angle of over 45degrees from the center? If you're spending a fair bit of money on a telly, you're NOT going to stand at this oblique angle watching your favourite show, are you? Not with ANY set. Let me dispel a myth: with this set, you /can/ see the picture no matter what angle you're standing at, albeit at slightly reduced contrast beyond about 45 degrees. It's not as if it totally blanks out or anything past this point - which is handy if you're getting a snack from an adjoining room and don't want to miss anything.<br />A decent rear-projection set has a HIGHER resolution than some of the cheap plasma screens. I don't even think the cheaper brands bother making rear-projection TV's.<br />Plasma TV's also suffer from pixel drop-out, which means that a few pixels can sometimes become permanently switched on or off. This might not come under the warranty if there is less than a certain number of them, so if the thought of putting up with this bothers you, don't buy a plasma! Also the price of this philips set is, what, about a quarter of what a plasma costs? At that price, plasma's just not worth considering.<br />Remember though: DON'T buy a set without at least looking at the picture quality. It's amazing how much they vary.<br />WIDESCREEN?<br />We thought about getting a dedicated widescreen (16:9) television, but then if you're watching standard TV 4:3 format, the extra width (which you're paying a premium for) becomes black bars at the sides of your screen. Not good. So the picture you're now watching reverts to the equivalent size as what a TV approximately *half* the cost would have given you.<br />On the other hand, if you happen to be watching a 16:9 widescreen image on THIS philips 109cm (43\\") TV, you get black bars at the top and bottom, sure, but it is still now equivalent to a 100cm (39\\") television!!! WOW. In other words, because of its huge size you won't even care if there are black bars displayed - there is that much screen size to play with! For the price you simply can't do any better - you're laughing!<br />SIZE:<br />One last thing, I've also seen *normal* CRT TV's, faaar smaller than this one - but costing twice as much!! If you're still considering anything else, then consider this: SIZE DOES MATTER! Unless of course you've got a small to average sized room, in which case a big TV like this will dwarf everything else in it. Having said that, for the size this one does have a small footprint- the TV is not very deep at all (look at the specifications) so it won't stick out much from the wall. Plus it isn't any wider than it has to be.er of them, so if the thought of putting up with this bothers you, don't buy a plasma! Also the price of this philips set is, what, about a quarter of what a plasma costs? At that price, plasma's just not worth considering.<br />Remember though: DON'T buy a set without at least looking at the picture quality. It's amazing how much they vary.<br />WIDESCREEN?<BR>We thought about getting a dedicated widescreen (16:9) television, but then if you're watching standard TV 4:3 format, the extra width (which you're paying a premium for) becomes black bars at the sides of your screen. Not good. So the picture you're now watching reverts to the equivalent size as what a TV approximately *half* the cost would have given you.<br />On the other hand, if you happen to be watching a 16:9 widescreen image on THIS philips 109cm (43\\") TV, you get black bars at the top and bottom, sure, but it is still now equivalent to a 100cm (39\\") television!!! WOW. In other words, because of its huge size you won't even care if there are black bars displayed - there is that much screen size to play with! For the price you simply can't do any better - you're laughing!<br />SIZE:<BR>One last thing, I've also seen *normal* CRT TV's, faaar smaller than this one - but costing twice as much!! If you're still considering anything else, then consider this: SIZE DOES MATTER! Unless of course you've got a small to average sized room, in which case a big TV like this will dwarf everything else in it. Having said that, for the size this one does have a small footprint- the TV is not very deep at all (look at the specifications) so it won't stick out much from the wall. Plus it isn't any wider than it has to be.