Philips 42PFL3606

After our recent look at the Philips PFL4606H, today we've got the firm's PFL3606H TV in the lab.  On paper at least, the only thing that distinguishes the two televisions in the 100 Hz mode which the latter misses out on, but let's taker a closer look to see if they put in a similar performance.

Philips' 3000 series televisions are available in five sizes, from 19'' up to 42'', but only the two largest models, the 32'' and this 42'' unit, are Full HD.  You can't, therefore, expect the same results from the smaller 19PFL3606H, the 22PFL3606H or the 26PFL3606H.

Build Quality and Design

The PFL3606H has an IPS display with a matte finish and CCFL backlighting.  It does have a built-in media player, but it's pretty disappointing.  It can decode XviD files, but not DivX.  With HD content, it can handle AVC-HD, X.264 and WMV, but struggles with container formats, only accepting MP4, MOV, MTS and M2TS with AVI and MKV unrecognised.

The exterior is the same as on the PFL4606H, and at 8.3 cm, it's one of the thickest frames we've witnessed in recent years.



The onscreen menus look broadly similar to those found on more advanced Philips TVs, but with features like NetTV and other online services removed.  The slimmer menus are also a little faster.

Ghosting and Input Lag

Responsiveness
Light Background	Dark Background	Average

Our equipment revealed a relatively unresponsive display, with a ghosting time of 15.5 ms, which still comes in at 4 ms faster than the PFL4606H.  Both findings are pretty mediocre, given that the best of the competition gets that down to below 10 ms.  The input lag is also too high for gamers at 66 ms, or four whole frames behind.

Image Quality

With the default settings, the picture is a little too striking but with broadly accurate colour reproduction.  The biggest problem is that the picture is just too bright, whether you're looking at white areas of the screen or black.


Once you switch over to 'Photo' mode, set brightness to 53, contrast to 39 and gamma to 1, and turn off all of the filters—digital crystal clear, dynamic contrast, dynamic backlighting and colour improvement—then the resulting gamma is almost perfect and the colour reproduction accurate at 2.5.


Contrast, however, was less impressive, with an average ratio of 814:1.  That's a common problem for IPS panels, and is partly compensated for by the fact the technology offers wider viewing angles than rival systems like ASV, MVA and PVA.  The fact that this TV scored 3.4 out of 5 for that particular test speaks volumes when you consider that the vast majority of its rivals come in at 0.5-2.5/5.

We suggest you leave at least one lamp on while watching a film; in a totally dark environment, darker parts of the screen will look grey instead of black.

Configured properly, the PFL3606H does a great job with HD films, but there are two small problems to point out..  Firstly, even with the sharpness set to 0, the picture can be a little too sharp.  Without a 100 Hz mode or motion interpolation filter, ghosting can be a pain with long tracking shots.  When upscaling SD sources like DVD or ordinary TV, the PFL3606H does exactly the same as other TVs, apart from one small detail: you don't need to adjust the sharpness, which does a perfect job even at 0.

Clouding

Given the low contrast ratio, clouding isn't a problem for this TV.

Audio Quality

The speakers on the PFL3606H are a little stingy, and lacking in both power and bass.  Mid-range and treble, on the other hand, are perfectly reasonable.

Energy Consumption

The energy consumption is kept in check, but some of its competitors can do better.  While switched on, the 42'' version uses 95 W, which works out at 195 W/m²; more economical TVs fall below 110 W/m².