Philips 28PW9509C

The Philips 28PW9509C widescreen TV has the best image quality from all the ones on display in the local superstores, and it puts my previous 25" Sony Trinitron to shame. It also has a very sensitive tuner and picks up a much better analogue TV signal than previous Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo sets.

The PixelPlus2 gives a stunning image quality normally, but you can see what looks like a halo around moving objects - an artifact of the image processing, but a minor irritation, and it can be turned off by selecting a different option. It's not quite HDTV but it's close.

Although expensive in the high street, I managed to get a very good deal on the Philips 28PW9509C by shopping around on the net (around £650.00).

Upon arrival I was astonished by the size of the box and initially thought a larger TV had been supplied. The unit was fairly large as it turned out and heavy but, after viewing several other 28inch screen in shop windows, it would appear to be no less bulky than equivalent manufacturers TV's.

I was pleased to see 3 scart connections and 2 RF sockets to the rear of the box as well as an AV socket, an S-video output, 2 further RF sockets and headphone points conveniently situated at the right hand side. This takes care of more or less everything you may wish to connect up to the TV whether it be a Playstation, Satelite receiver or DVD player.

Programming did not take too long but I would advise spending some money on a reasonable aerial (preferably an external one) as reception can suffer - especially channel 5. Once the channels have been tuned you can then have fun selecting and deselecting the multitude of image quality options to achieve the perfect picture. It not only offers 100hz and pixel plus 2 (which creates 33% more pixels than a standard 100hz TV for a clearer image) but also standard pixel plus (Slightly smoother than 2) and a feature they have dubbed 'Double lines'. This is basically the same as pixel plus 2 but without the slightly strange (when viewing at very close range) square pixel effect and adds a headache inducing ultra-vibrancy to the screen. Once you have tweeked the settings however, the image quality is great.

I eventually ran the sound through my hi-fi but my first impression of the standard speakers was quite a good one. Although somewhat bass heavy and hard to adjust, the sound quality is reasonable and offers plenty of 3D scope for movies and gaming. For general TV viewing they would be fine.

The only down side is: I now have to sit further away from the screen than I used to. This is primarily to counter act the brighter, higher quality image that I am now presented with but also to avoid noticing the squarish pixel effect I mentioned.

The remote control is chunky and easy to use and looks very expensive. One minor niggle I have is that both ends of the remote look so similar that you can find yourself pointing the remote at your chest and turning the volume up rather than changing channel.

Overall I am very happy with the TV and it is a great improvement on the previous 50hz 21inch Philips I had. After owning a Sony and a Sanyo, I would certainly recommend Philips machines for both their features and build quality.