A 42″ HD Ready TV from one of the most respected brands in the flat screen world for just £650? What’s not to like, for goodness sake? Um, quite a bit, actually…
Uncertainties about the Philips 42PF5521D begin to accumulate as soon as you see it. Because while it’s not exactly ugly, there’s no doubt that the striking contrast of the jet black screen bezel with the slightly cheap-looking silver speaker area certainly lacks the refinement and build quality of many TV rivals these days. However, we reckon we can live with aesthetic compromises for £650 provided the performance quality is right.
The connections of the set are also mixed. Providing two HDMIs actually seems quite generous, but the shine is diminished by the fact that there is no dedicated analog PC interface, meaning that one of the HDMIs can be used as both a digital PC input and a socket for dual Tasks must serve HDMI video sources.
The 42PF5521D’s feature count is frankly disappointing. You get at least a built-in digital tuner – something we don’t really think you should expect on a £650, 42-inch TV. Aside from that, the only things that are even remotely interesting are a Virtual Dolby Surround audio processor, which delivers a pseudo-surround sound performance from the TV’s two speakers; a contrast enhancer; picture-in-picture options (single tuner of course); and a very limited version of Philips’ Active Control system, which analyzes incoming images and automatically adjusts one or two facets of the image to always keep the image looking its best.
You’ll find that there are two Philips features that the 42PF5521D doesn’t offer: Pixel Plus or Ambilight. In terms of the former, highly acclaimed Philips picture processing engine, the 42PF5521D doesn’t even have an old version of the technology like some of Philips’ other portable flat screen TVs. So the 42PF5521D’s images can’t take advantage of Pixel Plus’ remarkable abilities to improve image detail and color saturation. darn.
Now, in terms of Ambilight, it’s always disappointing when a Philips TV doesn’t have pools of colored light spilling from its sides. But then we suspect this really is a luxury feature that would probably never make it that far in the Philips range.
The 42PF5521D’s specs throw up a sky-high – and obviously very promising – claimed 10,000:1 contrast ratio, along with an odd-looking native resolution of 1024 x 1080.
Of course, this ratio does not mean that the TV is actually taller than it is wide! The key to the apparent mystery lies in the use of a technology called ALIS – or ‘Alternate Lighting of Surfaces’ to give it its full name – in the 42PF5521D. Without blinding you with unnecessary science, ALIS uses an extended phosphor coverage and electrodes positioned between horizontal rows of pixels, rather than directly below, to effectively double the screen’s horizontal resolution. Which would be all well and good if we hadn’t felt significantly overwhelmed by other current ALIS-based screens. We hope the 42PF5521D can restore our confidence in technology.
Unfortunately it can’t. Not for a long time.
Its images are plagued by a whole host of issues, which actually mean the £650 asking price looks anything but a bargain. For starters, the device’s black level response is strikingly poor for plasma standards. The claimed 10,000:1 contrast ratio looks nothing short of ridiculous as the dark background of the Berlin factory attack sequence disappears under a gray haze in Mission: Impossible III on HD-DVD. In fact, getting anything like a true representation of black on this TV is far more impossible than anything else in the movie!
Inevitably, this gray over parts of the image that should be black also serves to hide background detail in dark scenes, reducing their depth and sense of scale. We wouldn’t go so far as to say that turning Gears of War into a 2D scroller instead of a 3D shooter on the Xbox 360 is bad enough, but, well, you get the point.
The other really big issue with the 42PF5521D is that its color reproduction is way below average. Instead of the vibrancy we always get with LCDs, and increasingly expect from plasmas, we get a really drab palette that just doesn’t grab your attention and doesn’t pull you into the action. It also doesn’t help that many of the tones on display look far from natural. For example, actors in dark scenes mostly seem like they’re about to throw up, such is the odd pallor of their skin. Also, reds look orange and rich greens just look weird, to be honest.
And there’s more. During the battle between Smeagol and a friend for the ring in The Two Towers, distinct trembling sounds can be clearly seen across the ridges and crests of the characters’ faces. This is an old-school plasma issue that we really don’t expect to be that obvious these days.
The 42PF5521D’s final major disappointment is that its images don’t look sharp, even with HD footage. In fact, sometimes even pristine HD sources like Pirates of the Caribbean on Blu-ray look more like upscaled standard definition than true HD perfection.
With the 42PF5521D’s striking silver speakers proving to be far less powerful than they look, producing a tinny, underwhelming soundstage, is there anything good we can say about the 42PF5521D at all? Just this: it’s pretty good at upscaling standard definition sources to match the 1,024 x 1,080 resolution, making it look cleaner and smoother than usual. courting.
“‘Verdict”‘
Once upon a time, many years ago, the 42PF5521D’s performance would have been acceptable for a budget product. But today, with new plasmas from Panasonic and especially Pioneer setting new performance standards almost weekly, the 42PF5521D just isn’t good enough – at any cost. And not for the first time we think it’s high time to put ALIS on weed.
How we test televisions
We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.
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Used as the main TV during the period
Tested over a week
Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use
Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs
points in detail
value 6
image quality 4
sound quality 4