32in LCD Picture Sound Features Usability Value A budget LCD from Philips with excellent all round performance. HD Ready: yes Resolution: 1366 x 768 Rating: 84%

Reviewed: 30 August 2007

Design

With an angled lower beveled edge to its frame, the 32PFL7562D is reminiscent of some of the newer LCD TV's from LG. Add a glossy black finish and very neat silver pedestal and you have a chic compact LCD panel that looks as if it belongs in an altogether higher price category.

Features

Philips have built a reputation recently for producing accomplished LCD TV's at the premium end of the market, but have struggled with producing an LCD which can cut it at the budget end of the market. With the 32PFL7562D Philips are hoping to buck this trend, and at around £500, the price of this unit is certainly right.

	Screen: 32in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound System: Nicam Resolution: 1366 x 768 Contrast Ratio: 4,000:1 (dynamic) Brightness: 550cd/m2 Other Features: Pixel Plus 2 HD, Digital Natural Motion, Active Control. Sockets: 2 HDMI, 2 SCART, Component Video, Composite Video, S-video.

 

Connectivity on the 32PFL7562D is good rather than outstanding with 2 HDMIs, 2 Scarts, Component, Composite and S-video inputs. In addition, there is a useful connection on the side of the 32PFL7562D in the shape of a USB port which plays JPEG, MP3, MP3 pro, LPCM, MPEG1 and MPEG2 files straight from a USB storage device.

One major omission however on the 32PFL7562D is the lack of D-Sub PC input, which doesn't stop you connecting a PC, but it does mean you'll have to use one of the HDMI's or the component video inputs to hook it up.

Despite the budget status, we are pleasantly surprised to see Philips' Pixel Plus 2 HD picture processing technology. Although Pixel Plus 3 HD has started to appear on premium offerings from Philips, this version has a solid reputation for its colour optimising and motion-handling abilities. Pixel Plus 2 HD as the name suggests has been designed to work specifically with High Definition (HD) as well as Standard Definition (SD) content

Digital Natural Motion is the other main technology feature of the 32PFL7562D which has been designed to eliminate the juddering effect visible with moving images.

Rounding off an impressive list of features for a budget LCD is 'Active Control' which continually makes fine adjustments to the incoming video signal which can loosely be compared to the adjustments you might make yourself when calibrating a TV.

Performance

The outstanding feature of the 32PFL7562D's is its black level performance which will embarrass many LCD TV's at twice the price. It is so refreshing to see an almost completely black canvas on an LCD TV where we are used to seeing the customary 'grey' patches on all but the most accomplished screens.

Pixel Plus 2 HD processing along with Digital Natural Motion contributes to an impressive HD performance, the 32PFL7562D demonstrating pin sharp detailing with accurate and impressively fluid pictures. The smoothness introduced with Digital Natural Motion may look a touch unnatural in certain situations, but largely eliminates the jagged effect with fast motion pictures which plagues many budget screens.

We were generally impressed with colour reproduction on the 32PFL7562D which handles even the most difficult areas such as skin tones well. Colour accuracy is not exact in all situations, but again, for a budget screen the 32PFL7562D certainly punches above its weight in this respect.

Like so many other LCD TV's, especially budget models, the achilles heel of the 32PFL7562D is its SD performance. Philips would have you believe that Pixel Plus 2 HD performs one of its intended functions by transforming SD pictures into something approaching HD. The 32PFL7562D however displays evidence of some of the problems we have come to expect from LCD. Motion smearing and video noise are not so intrusive that they spoil the viewing experience, and are no worse than any other budget offering, but they are there nevertheless.

Conclusion

With a budget price tag, the Philips 32PFL7562D offers excellent value for money with performance in many areas that competes with much more expensive screens. Its SD performance is can't compete with the latest 100hz offerings from the likes of Sony and Panasonic, but the price to performance equation is hard to beat.