A Television called SUPERB. Review on Philips Eye FI 29 PT 2426

Review for Philips 29PT2426

I needed to migrate to a bigger screen because of my ever growing DVD collection. I have been using a TCL 14'' television for a few years now and its been trouble free; atleast for me.

I had fixed my mind to buy a Full and Flat Square Tube Television and the best brand offering such a model was Philips with their 29PT2426. I've also been using Philips televisions right from my child hood and have become used to their natural colors and sharpness. This television may not appeal to each and everyone since its a regular screen TV and everyone seems to be moving into the Pure Flat screen range. In any case this TV's front is in typical silver (Which seems to be the norm today) and the rear cabinet in a pleasant grey color scheme. Looks attractive. There is the Power Button, Remote Sensor, Volume Control, Channel Control and Pressing the Volume or Channel ''+ and -'' together brings up the Menu. Basically you can do all settings from the TV itself.

Features are never ending on this TV. I've not checked how many channels it can store but I guess it should be around 200.3 Picture Preset Modes, A large number of Sound Preset Modes, Eye Fi, Digi Contrast, Digi Color, Digi Bass, Cinema Surround (This TV comes with Surround Speakers that are a parallel Stereo Channel of the Front main speakers and can be activated only via Remote Control), Bass, Balance and Treble Control, Personal Zapping, Intelligent Volume, ON/OFF Timers and a rather useless Game Bult in.

The sound system belts out a total of 400 Watts PMPO including the Surround Channels. The TV can also tell you the Signal Strength and the Power Consumption levels; sounds more like a marketing feature. 2 Stereo AV Inputs, 1 Stereo AV Output, S Video and Surround Speaker connectors are what are on offer under the connectivity front

Tuning was fast and the Menu Navigation is very easy. There is option to Fine Tune as well. The Eye Fi Feature is effective to some extent on improving a weak input signal from the cable operator. This feature basically plays around with the picture settings to remove all possible grains in the picture due to a weak signal. Digi Contrast is to bring in better black levels for the TV and Digi Color gives you 3 presets color modes such as DVD/VCD, Cool and Warm.

This feature is more useful while watching a DVD rather than regular broadcast. Digi Bass activates the Internal Sub Woofer that literally trasforms the sound levels to different league. Cinema Surround is to activate the Surround Speakers and this switching also changes the Picture Settings on the TV. Personal Zapping is a very useful feature wherein you have four color coded buttons on the remote and each color can store a certain number of most viewed channels.

I guess you can store around 6 channels under one color. This makes channel surfing a breeze. Since all our favourite channels are spread out across the entire TV tuner memory locating a particular channel of interest can be a serious pain; Personal Zapping comes handy here. Intelligent Volume is the same as Auto Volume Leveler; basically corrects the change in sudden volume levels across cable tv channels.

Pictures are very good for this set. Colors are well balanced, Very Good Contrast and Sharpness. Sometimes there might be a need to crank the Contrast levels all the way to Maximum levels for movie watching on DVD. I have yet to use the S Video feature and see how much improves while watching DVD.Sound is in a different league for this set and I guess this is more important a feature to take notice. You might mistake it for a good Mini or Micro Music system. It is that good.

This TV will start to distort if you push the volume levels over 70 % but till that point the Bass is tight and Treble levels are beautiful. Digi Bass activates the internal Sub Woofer and thats what brings in all the fun. The Sub Woofer is very effective for any kind of viewing material. Cinema Surround activates the surround speakers (Can be wall mounted) and to some extent panning can be felt while playing any material that contains two regular stereo channels. There is no independent volume control for the Surround Channels but Philips have set a very good volume. Overall this is a very good television and I would recommend it considering its dirt cheap pricing and fantastic performance.

Upon delivery of my TV the remote sent was the wrong unit. A replacement was sent but that turned out to be the wrong one again for the ONE feature it could not activate; Cinema Surround. It took well over a month for the correct remote to come and this was annoying.

Apart from this there have been no other issues. Its been nearly 3 months now and all is working well. Philips always make unique products.