Philips 42 TA2800

Performance
Finally we get to the meat of the sandwich, the time to check whether looks can be deceiving or Philips indeed delivers a full package. I slipped in a test disc to calibrate the TV, and basically dissect the claims, only to realize that I would be fidgeting with the remote for a while. This is because each setting, from contrast to brightness to sharpness, needed to be jolted here and there to get a satisfactory image. At the end of it all it was decent, though not spectacular. Color levels had a little bleed associated with it, while the contrast displayed nice black level content though not as deep as I’ve seen elsewhere. The detail in the picture was better, borders seemed crisp and motion scenes were also appreciable. Of course, Jaggie lines were visible, I’ve yet to see a TV that ignores them, but overall sharpness in the images was not bad.

We changed to a film DVD, namely ‘The Incredibles’, for further testing. In the film domain I found the image still hovering around the ‘OK’ mark, though this time, since it was an animated flick, the colours seemed a little better. Next in was ‘Matrix Revolution’ DVD. We were watching the DVD in 720p, widescreen mode, and this proved to be the best resolution the TV could belt out successfully. This movie has some really heavy black content, with subtle variation in the dark hues, due to its somber green filter. Our Philips did a decent job of depicting the same, but greedy as we all are, I want more!

Along with the TV we received a single speaker panel, that needs to be attached to bottom edge, and plugged in via the speaker ins at the connection rack at the back. This is capable of stereo and virtual surround mode, all switchable easily through the remote. Speaking of sound quality, we can conclude that the sound is way better than the pathetic TV speakers attached generally, the ones with 5 watts power. Our panel belted out nice, clear and loud sound, but lacked in bass. Bass is important.

In conclusion one can safely bet that this TV will dwell in perfectly due to its brilliant aesthetics. The picture quality is good, but not the best. The detail and sharpness is the better factor of the TVs offerings, probably the saving grace I would say. At Rs.1,29,990, it can’t be termed as cheap, but large screen LCDs aren’t anyways.