The arrival of the first TV bearing Philips’ new Perfect Pixel HD Engine technology, the 32PFL9632D, has got me excited and disappointed all at the same time. Excited because I can’t wait to see how Perfect Pixel improves on Philips’ already impressive Pixel Plus 3 HD system.
Disappointed because of the TV’s 32in size – will it really be possible to appreciate everything Perfect Pixel Engine is bringing to the party on such a relatively diminutive screen?
Let’s start with a thumbs up to its aggressively glamorous design, which combines a gloss anthracite colour scheme, shiny silver trim and glass-covered pedestal stand to classic ‘boys toy’ effect. And that’s before I’ve even mentioned its ‘stereo’ Ambilight talents, whereby soothing, immersive pools of light spill from its left and right sides. Gimmick? Yes. Good? Oh yes.
Connections, meanwhile, are fulsome. Three HDMIs get the ball rolling nicely – especially as they all take HD formats up to and including the 1080p/24fps format found on most Blu-ray and HD DVD discs.
But also eye-catching are a USB port for playback of MP3, .alb slideshow, JPEG, MPEG1 and MPEG2 files; a digital audio output; and all the paraphernalia associated with a built-in digital tuner. There’s no D-Sub PC port, but the HDMIs can do PC duties.
And so I come to the Perfect Pixel HD Engine. This takes the basic building blocks of Pixel Plus 3 HD, such as advanced noise reduction, detail enhancement and colour improvements, yet ups the processing power, and slips in a few new ingredients.
One of these is judder-removing HD Natural Motion, which sports five times the processing power of Philips’ old – and rather unconvincing – Digital Natural Motion application. As part of its machinations, HD Natural motion converts 24fps signals to 48Hz for a simple, clean 2:2 pulldown process.
Perfect Pixel HD also incorporates a colour booster circuit that ups saturation levels and, courtesy of 14bit processing, generates a claimed palette of four trillion colours.
One final new factor is 100Hz, which doubles the TV’s standard scanning rate to reduce LCD’s problems with retaining clarity with moving objects. What’s more, the 100Hz system gets an extra boost from Philips’ Clear LCD system, which uses a CRT-like scanning backlight to boost response times and black levels.
The opening space battle in Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith quickly shows that Perfect Pixel HD is a substantial advance on even Pixel Plus 3.
Particularly gratifying is the 100Hz/Clear LCD combination, which helps motion look sharper, clearer and smoother – without any significant signs of the glitching and strangely processed look that characterise some rival systems, and Philips’ old Digital Natural Motion system.
Fine detail levels are nothing short of mesmerising – and that’s not something I can often say about a 32in TV. Heaven only knows how strong Perfect Pixel HD’s impact will be on a bigger screen.{mospagebreak title=page 2}
Also extremely impressive is the set’s colour handling. It delivers remarkably natural skin tones for an LCD panel, while producing blend subtleties to rival full HD screens, even though the screen’s native resolution is actually only 1366 x 768.
Wrapping up the picture talents is an impressive black level response, which helps to generate a sense of scale to the shots of outer space during our Revenge of the Sith battle sequence.
In a perfect world the black level would be deeper still, and there’s definitely room for improvement when it comes to viewing angles, as the contrast drops off dramatically if you sit too far to the side. Finally in the negative column, you might need to turn all the motion processing off during fast sports footage, as I detected occasional ghosting over, say, a speeding cricket ball.
But these are really quite small dents in the armour of a 32in TV that uses bleeding-edge tech to overcome almost entirely LCD’s traditional problems with motion – a talent which makes it our favourite 32in flat TV ever. And of course, if the impact of Perfect Pixel HD can be so high on a TV this small, it’s potential with bigger screens is simply mind-boggling…
For
* Strong connections list
* Perfect Pixel engine is superb
* Few motion issues
Against
* Narrow viewing angle
* Motion processing can struggle to keep up
Verdict
A couple of minor flaws can’t overshadow just how good this LCD is. We can’t wait to see the Perfect Pixel engine work its magic with bigger screen sizes
Specifications
Supported Format (Interlaced): 1080i, 576i, 480i (SDTV)
Supported Format (Progressive): 720p, 576p, 480p (EDTV)
Remote Control: Yes
No of Scart Sockets: 2
Connectivity: Composite Video, HDMI, Component Video
MPN: 32PFL9632D
Price at Launch: 1000 GBP
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Contrast Ratio: 8000:1
Display Size: 32 inches
Display Standard: WXGA
Display Type: LCD
Native Resolution: 1366 x 768
Screen Size: 32 inches
Viewing Angle (Horizontal): 176 Degrees (180 if CRT)
Viewing Angle (Vertical): 176 Degrees
Video Compatibility: PAL, NTSC
No of HDMI Inputs: 3
Audio Output Power: 16 w
Sound Output Modes: Nicam Stereo
Dimensions: 829 x 543 x 125 mm (w x h x d)
Weight (kg): 18.2 kg
Brightness: 550 cd/m2
Electronic Programme Guide (EPG): Yes
HD Ready: Yes
Progressive Scan: Yes
Auto-tune: Yes
Digital Text: Yes
Teletext: Yes
Tuner: Yes
Widescreen: Yes
