Philips 42PF9630A 42 inch plasma is supposed to be a good plasma unveiled by the company. It was equipped with 2:3 pull down detection, 2 HDMI input and Ambilight - for better viewing pleasure.

Unfortunately, this set doesn’t impress us even with the above features. The fact is, the black level is not satisfying enough. The menu was annoyingly, very tricky to navigate and the price is steeper than most competitor’s.

The most worrisome thing we have about the Philips 42PF9630A is on the number of negative comments it gets from buyers from Amazon, ePinions and Cnet. Most buyers complained that the set only lasts a few months before it’s sudden death.

If you’re looking for a plasma, skip this set unless you have ample supply of headache pills at home.

Other Reviews:

Cnet Reviews:
“Yes, Philips has finally seen fit to add the important 2:3 pull-down to its video processing, which improves the 42PF9630A’s performance over that of previous models. But the Philips 42PF9630A’s image quality falls short of other plasma sets in its category. While we like the feature set, which includes two HDMI inputs, the overall package doesn’t justify a price that’s somewhat steeper than that of comparable models.”
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Review from HomeTheaterMagazine:
General consumers, however, will find a lot to like about the 42PF9630A. Ambilight is a crowd pleaser and does create an enhanced presentation. The picture quality is solid, and the multimedia feature is quite handy. By the way, those USB ports also let you upgrade the TV’s software yourself: Just go to www.philips.com/support, download the latest software upgrade, drop the file on a USB drive, and let the TV do the rest. I tried this, and it worked seamlessly, remedying a few operational glitches I had encountered.
Read full review of Philips 42PF9630A

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