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Philips 37-inch LCD TV with Ambilight

Posted by John P • April 19, 2007 • Printer-friendly • Feed •

37pf9631d front Philips 37 inch LCD TV with Ambilight

Connect is more and more becoming a hub of reviews for all kinds of products, from the latest in projectors (wink wink, nudge nudge) to the latest in personal technology like MP3 players and digital cameras. Today, we take a look at one of our second television reviews, the Philips 37" LCD TV with Ambilight.

The Philips 37PF9631D is a mid-range LCD TV with a variety of inputs including: HDMI, two component, two S-video, and last but not least, three composite jacks. The TV also includes a USB port for plugging in any USB flash drive with pictures and music stored on the drive.

The highlight of this LCD TV is the Ambilight technology, which is a built-in backlighting system that lowers eyestrain and also adds a splash of color to your room. The 37PF9631D model in particular, has one bar of fluorescent lights on the left and right side of the TV, while other models have the lights on all sides of the unit which Philips calls Ambilight Surround. We found the Ambilight feature somewhat annoying at times, and we were glad that the relaxed feature wasn't as bright, but still distracted us while watching a movie with lots of action and when the lights were constantly changing color.

In terms of performance, the 37PF9631D had a nice deep level of black and also great color. In fact, the TV was way too bright for our taste out of the box and we actually had to turn it down. One confusing feature of the TV was that when we used a HDMI to DVI cable to plug in one of our testing PCs, the resolution was only able to go up to 1024 x 768 and not the full 1366 x 768 (or 720p). We're not sure if this feature affected all panels, but there was a somewhat discomforting amount of fuzziness on the screen in darkened areas.

Overall, the 37PF9631D is a great LCD TV for people on a budget, unfortunately, the LCD TV is hard to find according to PriceGrabber and the Westinghouse 37" 1080p LCD TV may be a better choice.

Update: Looks like the model is now available from Amazon.com!

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5 stars.

Pros

  • Great color and deep level of black.
  • Ambilight can reduce strain on the eyes.

Cons

  • PC resolution limited.
  • Only 1 HDMI port.
  • Hard to find.


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