The HD Ready version of the PFL5603H, the PFL5403H has the same design and menus as its older sister. The spec is the same, right down to the remote that is identical for both models. Simple and good value, it happily sheds the awkward scroll you find on the more expensive Philips TVs.

A pretty good entry level model

There’s the HD compatible TNT tuner that you’ll find on other Philips models that end in “H” – as opposed to the “D” versions that have standard TNT. Basic connectivity but with a coaxial digital audio out and a USB socket for mp3s and photos.



Image quality

Unfortunately, you get the same old problems in terms of display quality, starting with the dynamic gamma curve setting. As on the PFL5603H, whether you activate the dynamic backlighting and/or the dynamic contrast or not, no luck: impossible to get a smooth gamma curve. This is something that the experienced eye will pick up on when there are variations in brightness and the TV goes from a light to a dark image, or the other way round.
This fault, together with colours that are only just about ok with a lack of precision means we can only give the 42PFL5403H a 3/5 score for image quality. Indeed, we noted that the HD Ready panel not only spoiled the precision of HD films as expected, but that it doesn’t do much better with standard definition (DVD, TNT…).


Forget the PC

To crown it all, this model is more or less unusable with your PC because of the way it resizes images and makes characters blurry. Impossible to find any setting in the different menus that can resolve this problem.


Sound is pretty much average in terms of TVs: ie. not very good but not bad compared to other models.