Philips 40PFL5605H

Philips has taken the 2010 version of its 5000 series TVs and made a few adjustments.  The IPS display has been replaced by ASV technology from Sharp (the LK400D3GA43 to be precise), which has narrower viewing angles but better contrast.  Philips has also added a filter that smooths out rapid movements and a 100 Hz mode, both of which were conspicuous by their absence on the previous models.  For everything else, though, the manufacturer has made do with the bare minimum.  Let's take a closer look ...

Build Quality and Design

Apart from the motion smoothing filters, the PFL5605H doesn't have any flashy extras.  The feature list and spec are both short and sweet, with the important points including three HDMI ports, an ambient light sensor and a USB-based media player.

The media player is compatible with devices formatted using NTFS,  but it's not as impressive as what some of Philips' Korean rivals have to offer.  It can play MKV files, but if your container has more than one audio track, it will only play the first one.  Subtitles, meanwhile, are entirely ignored, whether they're inside the container or outside.  Other than that, it can  open JPG photos, play MP3s and handle DivX5 and 6 video in both standard and high definition.  1080p DivX 6 video worked fine up to a bitrate of 38 Mbps, but beyond 42 Mbps, there was visible judder.




The onscreen menus look modern but aren't very easy to use.  The XrossMediaBar developed by Sony for the PlayStation 3 is still the leader in this field.  Our biggest criticism of Philips is the fact that its menus aren't cyclical: once you get to the bottom of a list of options, you don't jump straight back to the top butinstead have to scroll all the way back up the list.

Ghosting and Input Lag

Responsiveness
Light Background	Dark Background	Average

Using this TV as a display for PC is absolutely fine.  The 40PFL5605H has an input lag of just two frames, but the display is not as reponsive as it could be.  The ASV panel had a ghosting time of 18.5 ms, which leaves this television at the bottom of the table.

Image Quality

With the default settings, the picture is bold and striking, but the colour temperature is too low (too much blue) meaning the 40PFL5605H can't reproduce colours accurately.  That's why we suggest you switch over to the mode that's dedicated to films, where the picture remains too bright and it's still impossible to adjust the backlighting.  To fix the problem, you need to turn the contrast down to 58.


That allows the contrast ratio to climb to 3123:1, with black levels of 0.07 cd/m² against whites of 203 cd/m².  These are excellent results for contrast, but we can't say the same thing about the colour reproduction or the gamma curve.  Even if you turn the gamma correction up to maximum, the PFL5605H displays a picture that's too light, resulting in a gamma of 1.9 instead of 2.2.  Our equipment revealed a deltaE of 4.4, meaning demanding Home Cinema fans will easily be able to spot the colour reproduction problems.

Our measurements were disappointing, but the practical tests went a little better.  HD films looked absolutely fine, and although SD content lacked a little detail, that's something that's true of most TVs.  Turning the sharpness up a little notch never hurts.  But because the display isn't very responsive, it struggles to show fast-moving objects properly and they end up looking blurry.  To finish this section, we should point out that the combination of the HD Natural Motion filter and the 100 Hz mode improves the smoothness of some content.  However, they also introduce artefacts around fast-moving objects and can make films look like they've been shot on a camcorder.

Audio Quality

Unlike the previous generation of Philips TVs, the audio quality is well below average.  Given the size of the speakers (see the photo above), it's hardly surprising that the quality isn't great.  There's no bass and and the mid-range and treble quickly become saturated.  All very disappointing!

Energy Consumption

Finally, the energy consumption figures are absolutely excellent.  The 40PFL5605H only uses 0.1 W on standby, and it's just as impressive when you switch it on, requiring just 54 W with brightness of 200 cd/m².