The Philips 56PFL9954H is a UFU floating among LCD TVs. With its 21/9 format that breaks with the standard 16/9 screens, it offers new possibilities for home cinema enthusiasts; it also causes confusion among customers not used to all these different formats. This test will also be an opportunity for us to review the main video ratios.

The kit

In the meantime, as usual, we begin our test with a little tour of the grounds. There are no less than 5 HDMI sockets on the back and side of this TV. There are also the usual USB and Ethernet sockets. The Ethernet is compatible with DLNA networks so it can be connected to a home network. It offers access to the Philips Net TV service to gain access to internet content (videos, news and so on). The 56PFL9954H also has a wi-fi connection.

The remote is nicely finished but it is a shame that it isn’t backlit as it is aimed at home cinema enthusiasts.


Of course Ambilight “spectra 3” version is included. There are 3 bars of diodes situated behind the TV (at the top and on the sides) that light up the wall behind with colours that vary with the image on display. The effect is nice for those who don’t like to watch films in darkness. Moreover, this deepens the blacks that tend a little too much to grey.

Image quality

For this section on image quality we want to do a little recap on the different ratios used in films and programmes.

• 4/3 is the rectangular format, almost square, that has been in use since the first TVs appeared. You can also speak about the 1.33 ratio (ie 4 over 3). This format is gradually being phased out and is hardly used at all in films.

• 16/9 is a format that has been in use since the appearance of wide cathode ray screens. It’s the format that is used for the vast majority of LCD TVs. You can also call it a 1.77 or 1.78 ratio, depending on how you round up or down 16 over 9. Films are very occasionally filmed in this format. TNT channels are also gradually moving over to this format, and it is the format for TNT HD.

• 1.85 is the intermediary format between 1.77 and 2.35.

• 2.35 is the cinemascope format used in the majority of films. Of course it is wider than it is tall, which explains why a film in 2.35 has black lines at the top and bottom of the image when viewed on a 16/9 screen.

This is where Philips comes in with its 56PFL9954H that has been specifically designed for films in 2.35. Its ratio is almost exactly the same as films in 2.35 and means you can use the whole panel when watching a cinemascope film – there is no longer a black band above and below.

Although it is a good idea, it hasn’t been well implemented. Philips have gone for a 2560x1080 pixel panel. However HD films are encoded at 1920x1080 pixels. In the case of a 2.35 film, only 1920x817 pixels are used, the rest being taken up by black bands. The TV therefore resizes this image to fit it to 2560x1080 pixels in the display, loosing the precision of the original signal along the way. The ideal solution would be a 1920x817 panel. This would have optimized the TV for 2.35 films.


In fact, Philips wanted to play several cards at one time with this screen and not offer something with a lower resolution than the 1920x1080 pixels of the competition. More of a sales argument this screen then, as in the heads of many people, the more pixels there are the better the image. Which isn’t true. It’s better to get the best fit for the resolution of video sources than to resize them.

Another argument is that the 2560x1080 screen menas you can display 1920x1080 – HD that is – in its original format, simply by adding black bands on the sides. Of course you can use the whole panel to display HD, but this is to the detriment of the aspect ratio. The film is then gradually stretched wider giving the impression of Fisheye filming.


Films such as ''Batman – The Dark Night'' are in fact a problem on this TV as they alternate between scenes filmed in 1.77 and 2.35. You therefore get alternate scenes, some in the right ratio but resized and some deformed by “Super Zoom” mode when the TV detects a change to 1.77.

The problem comes of course from the fact that different ratios are mixed in a single film. With more conventional films it is possible to choose whether you want to display 1.77 on the full screen with deformations or without deformations but black bands on the sides. This is of course the case for all sources (SD and HD).

When faced with all these compromises it’s hard to be fully convinced: upscaled 2.35 images that lose sharpness, 1.77, 1.85 and 1.33 images that are deformed or displayed with black bands on the sides… It’s as if there aren’t any films that can be shown in their full potential on this screen. Films in 2.35 though will be displayed very large and this will interest those who are looking for the largest possible screen. You do wonder all the same if it wouldn’t be better to go for a model such as the Samsung PS58B850, whose display of films in 2.35 is not much smaller than on this 56PFL9954H. It displays an HD image – whatever its ratio – that retains its original format and which isn’t stretched.

For the rest, you get fairly average black levels, 0.32 cd/m² with a contrast of 1046:1. This is ok but far from the best currently available that are rather at 0.06 cd/m² and over 3000:1. The gamma curve of 2.67 makes the image a bit hard and the deltaE at 6.5 means colours are just about ok. Note that you cannot adjust the backlighting but it can be adjusted with different display profiles (bright, cinema and so on). We would like to see the three settings appear at the same time: contrast, brightness and backlighting. Backlighting is still unfortunately absent from the Philips menu.

When HDNM 200 Hz is activated it produces a very fluid image but with a lot of artifacts around objects in fast movement. This was however with this filter on minimum setting. At least, thanks to 200 Hz, ghosting is almost completely absent from the image and movements are very clean.

The angles of vision are quite wide and, something that is rate on LCD screens, give a good image right up to 90°.

The PC mode does not take anything off the image and works perfectly. It is however limited to 1920x1080. Moreover the most demanding gamers will be disappointed to learn that the input lag is at 66 ms.

Although a 3 star score may seem harsh, you should know that the 56PFL9954H is only just off getting a fourth star. Although the 2.35 format is good, the way it has been implemented means we can’t stretch to a fourth.

Sound quality

As usual, Philips has given us a TV with much better sound that most of the competition, though not what you’d get from a home cinema kit. We only wish other manufacturers would follow suit.

Energy consumption

The 56PFL9954H is not the most economical of TVs. It has an impressive average brightness of 333 cd/m² that doesn’t help to reduce energy consumption. Don’t hold back on using Ambitlight however as it doesn’t use more than 10 W. What’s more, standby consumes hardly anything (less than 0.1 by our reading).