cisengineer wrote:Rock, flag, and eeeagle!

An IASIP quote!?! Fantastic. Great quote for the 4th!

I plan to take this TV with me to Europe next year if I buy it. Does anyone know if it can display HD content at 50 frames per second (1080/50p)? The specifications mention only 60 fps, but the manual mentions also 50.

In for -1-

mohavemarv wrote:"NOT FAIR" you say? 1st lesson in 1st grade was your mamma was right: Life is not fair.
Only Obamacrats think they can make everything fair.

I so enjoy the attitude that whatever your parents say will apply always for the world, and if you ever try to change it you're always the enemy of the person's political party.

Makes me laugh a little inside

adhbr wrote:use coupon code JULY04 for 20% off square trade warranty

Code is actually good...$60 for a 1-year warranty? Im really considering that now. Anyone have any experience (good or bad) with squaretrade? Anything would be appreciated, and soon! I need to go to bed :-)

mattmsstate wrote:Anyone have any experience with Refurbs? That word always scares the hell out of me. I have been shopping around or a flatscreen and this price is great. Tempting......

I bought this TV for $999 from Costco in 5/08, but it took over the 90 days(return policy of Costco) to find out it had some weird, fluke of a problem. The screen radiates some kind of signal blocker to screw up all remotes around it(cable, dvd, surround sound, etc...).

Philips is a crappy company when it comes to warranty. They refuse to acknowledge the problem, even though Costco has confirmed it with their repair tech. So last friday I filed in small claims court against Costco and Philips. I can't wait for my day in court.

If this refurb doesn't have the same problem as my TV had, it is an excellent price, but you've been warned.

Philips is an unethical company with no honor.

mattmsstate wrote:Anyone have any experience with Refurbs? That word always scares the hell out of me. I have been shopping around or a flatscreen and this price is great. Tempting......

I purchased the Refurbed Pioneer Inno XM Radio offerred on woot about 12-14 months ago. was a refurb but looked brand new and worked admirably for a year with no problems. just got the 8gb slacker and am much happier tho... sold the xm.
I approve the refurb purchase

Hopefully this hasn't been asked but here goes. Does this have a VGA input (for my XBox 360) I want to hook up my xbox to it like I do a computer monitor. Otherwise does it have the component (Red Green Blue)component input? I can't tell. Looking online for manuals to find out but if anyone knows please let me know!

Zephyr952 wrote:Hopefully this hasn't been asked but here goes. Does this have a VGA input (for my XBox 360) I want to hook up my xbox to it like I do a computer monitor. Otherwise does it have the component (Red Green Blue)component input? I can't tell. Looking online for manuals to find out but if anyone knows please let me know!

Hello I believe it has a vga input but I know for sure it has a component input because thats what I run from the computer to the TV

I pulled the trigger and will be buying the squaretrade warranty when I get the TV...Now Im going to bed, good night woooooters!

mattmsstate wrote:Anyone have any experience with Refurbs? That word always scares the hell out of me. I have been shopping around or a flatscreen and this price is great. Tempting......

I've had a refurbed Phillips 54" rear projection set for 5 years. Service has been excellent under service contract. Replacing it today w/this one.

pffft....

Do your research. Only 60 HZ. Refurb. $600. New 120 HZ 1080P's are at this price all the time if your patient. Simple supply and demand fellow Wooters. Don't buy and it will come down to the correct market price the next time it's offered.

EcoTony wrote:Meh....
Pony up $100 more (plus tax) and get over to Best Buy (find a coupon and maybe save the tax +).

Panasonic - VIERA 42" Class 720p 600Hz Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV
$699, new.

Plasma will blow your socks off if you think LCD's look good.

At this size, you would be hard pressed to see the difference between a 720 and 1080 set.

Actually the difference between plasma and lcd PQ is not much now (specially for a cheap plasma). And you haven't mentioned any of the drawbacks of plasma over lcd (there are quite a few). Plus there is a big difference between 720p and 1080p even at this size (unless you are viewing it from more than 10ft away). And also forget about using 720p tv as a computer monitor.

Not that I'm recommending buying this TV. But I'd stay away from Plasma (which is dying anyway in its current form) in this price range.

EcoTony wrote:Meh....
Philips are fair to poor in quality. Add that LCD's picture quality is not all that hot to begin with (especially so on the cheaper end).

Pony up $100 more (plus tax) and get over to Best Buy (find a coupon and maybe save the tax +).

Panasonic - VIERA 42" Class 720p 600Hz Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV
$699, new.

Plasma will blow your socks off if you think LCD's look good.

At this size, you would be hard pressed to see the difference between a 720 and 1080 set.

I concur, I bought one of these 2 months ago and it is super.

We've had this unit for several months now.

We are very happy with it.

Good picture, hackable firmware, USB input, LOTS of HDMI inputs.. sturdy stand.

The remote kinda embrangles... but then again who uses a remote that comes with the TV anymore?

If you get it, make sure to get the firmware update.

Pretty quick bootup.

Great sound too!

shamcy wrote:I second that.

I'm in on that. Motion should be passed.

I own one of these, bought at Sam's for $900 two months ago, to replace my broken Olevia 52" that I bought from Woot last year. The Philips was worth every penny of $900. This Woot! is an awesome deal.

BTW it was assembled in Mexico, not China.

I can download a video on BitTorrent, put it on a USB thumb drive, plug it in to the TV and play it in full glory. No burning DVDs, no nothing.

Plus the same works with MP3s etc., and the sound system is quite good with the built in speakers. It also has digital output for my audio amp.

Absolutely no complaints!

Couldn't help it . . . GOT 1 for the price I would've spent on the 720p plasma at Walmart plus saved tax.

Now I can watch Lance in the Tour on 42 inches of glory.

kapiljain wrote:Actually the difference between plasma and lcd PQ is not much now (specially for a cheap plasma). And you haven't mentioned any of the drawbacks of plasma over lcd (there are quite a few). Plus there is a big difference between 720p and 1080p even at this size (unless you are viewing it from more than 10ft away). And also forget about using 720p tv as a computer monitor.

Not that I'm recommending buying this TV. But I'd stay away from Plasma (which is dying anyway in its current form) in this price range.

Just for the record the difference between 1080p and 720p is actually apparent when you are viewing from _more_ than 3x screen height away.

Sitting close to a 720p or 1080p will negate the difference in picture quality.


I definitely wouldn't woot this. I've been looking around for an LCD or Plasma 42" for a couple of weeks now, and this price isn't even close to what I expected woot would have posted.

Walmart and Sams Club have this price for NEW TV sets. (Vizio, Viore, RCA). In my opinion Vizio and RCA are much more well known for their televisions than Philips.

As a professional TV installer, I'm not a huge fan of Philips TVs...the colors are always washed out, and require a bit of work to get them fixed up (a calibration DVD is a good start, but you have to be comfortable with what you're doing to get it done right and not make your TV look like garbage) and to get the best out of them you would want a professional calibration (which at most places costs about half of the cost of this TV).

The viewing angles are usually pretty bad as well...going up and down (if you're going to mount it higher up) and extreme sides (if you have weird seating or a side room you try to watch from) usually results in all your dark colors turning an ugly shade of purple.

Also see a fair share of motion blur with fast action, even with their "120 hertz" options...they just use cheaper panels than the "big boys" that don't have those issues.

Now, this isn't the world's worst TV...just want to point out the things that tend to drive me nuts about these televisions. If you're looking for high quality picture, this isn't it, but if you want something that's "ok" for a low cost, this is a decent deal. (Kind of a "you get what you pay for" deal.)

shamcy wrote:I second that.

bad Idea, I joined the site a little over a month ago, and i haven't seen anything i wanted to buy. Why should I not be able to get a b o c?

I would have bought something from the last woot off, but i was at work, and even missed a couple items, clearly i shouldn't be allowed a b o c because of that.

First come first serve is unbiased, and should never change.

joquito wrote:Philips and Sharp LCDs are so bad, I would feel bad recommending them to the Taliban.

I have a Sharp and it's been great. My only complaint with it is the thickness, but we have an older Aquos before they got ultra thin.

Could someone please tell me what the hell a b o c is? I keep seeing it in posts here, and I'm completely lost. Thanks...

Oh, and on topic: I would jump on this if I actually had a place to put a TV this big. Our armoire is only big enough to fit a 40" with a small casing, and even then we'd only have a quarter inch clearance on either side...if we took the doors off the cabinet! *sigh*

kevout wrote:Could someone please tell me what the hell a burrito of chorizo is? I keep seeing it in posts here, and I'm completely lost. Thanks...

Oh, and on topic: I would jump on this if I actually had a place to put a TV this big. Our armoire is only big enough to fit a 40" with a small casing, and even then we'd only have a quarter inch clearance on either side...if we took the doors off the cabinet! *sigh*

It's a word filter for your favorite item with the letters b o c in it.

kapiljain wrote:Actually the difference between plasma and lcd PQ is not much now (specially for a cheap plasma). And you haven't mentioned any of the drawbacks of plasma over lcd (there are quite a few). Plus there is a big difference between 720p and 1080p even at this size (unless you are viewing it from more than 10ft away). And also forget about using 720p tv as a computer monitor.

Not that I'm recommending buying this TV. But I'd stay away from Plasma (which is dying anyway in its current form) in this price range.

Curious what the "many" drawbacks a plasma has compared to an LCD. Personally, I think Plasmas are better TVs if you need something larger. Better viewing angles (no purple blacks from the side/above or below), zero problems with fast action (unless they recorded your program with a cheap LCD camera, which isn't your TVs fault at all), and a lot of the time they're cheaper than LCD options in a larger size. Did I mention the colors are much more accurate?

The main "complaint" people have about Plasmas is glare, and it's nowhere near the issue people think it's going to be. In fact, if you're worried about glare you can't buy a Samsung LCD or LED LCD, because they will give you the same amount of glare and reflection as a plasma TV thanks to their glossy screens. There are a few situations where plasma isn't a perfect option, but I've found a lot of the time people would be better served if they have bought Plasma over LCD.

I do agree about the 1080P difference in a 42" TV, though. You need to make sure you know that you won't get 1080P picture unless you have a 1080P "source", which usually means having a Blu-ray Player, a Playstation 3, an XBox 360, or a new HD camcorder. There is a little available through DirecTV and DishNetwork (and Verizon FioS if that's available in your area), but it's mostly movie channels like HBO or an OnDemand movie. Many people in a smaller size can't see a huge difference, but that doesn't stop it from looking great.

I'm not sure why you think you can't use a 720P TV as a computer monitor though. I'm not a huge fan of using TVs as a computer monitor in the first place, but it is do-able. To get the picture to fit the screen right, you will most likely need to upgraded video card...most computers don't have the correct graphical settings on their built-in video card to match the TV's resolution. If you're using an LCD TV, you will want to use a VGA cable (as opposed to a S-VGA cable) to get the best picture quality. If you have a plasma TV (which usually don't include VGA hookups because of the old burn-in issues) you'll need to use either HDMI (if your computer has it) or DVI-to-HDMI (if your computer has a DVI connection). 1080P actually tends to be harder to use on a TV because the text gets too small for most people to read, even on a large screen.

Wow...that post got much longer than I expected it to. lol. Happy 4th Everybody!

LynkxOrion wrote:bad Idea, I joined the site a little over a month ago, and i haven't seen anything i wanted to buy. Why should I not be able to get a b o c?

Because you've only been here a month when some of us who've been here for 2 years have never gotten one? What part of "wait your turn" is unclear?

wind0023 wrote:Now I can watch Lance in the Tour on 42 inches of glory.

I'm completely with ya....except the TV will arrive about the time the Tour concludes. :-\

My experience with Philips HDTV has not been positive, unfortunately. Great price but I can understand why it had to be refurbished. I had a Philips HDTV and it lost the ability to sync the video after less than a year.

We have a Philips 42PFL5332D Ghost Backlight; lol I put a video up on YouTube of what happens but besides that we love this TV. Great color, better spreakers than most LCD screens (not that we need them) and overall we are very pleased.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYPSz0aqvOw

kevout wrote:Could someone please tell me what the hell a b o c is? I keep seeing it in posts here, and I'm completely lost. Thanks...

Oh, and on topic: I would jump on this if I actually had a place to put a TV this big. Our armoire is only big enough to fit a 40" with a small casing, and even then we'd only have a quarter inch clearance on either side...if we took the doors off the cabinet! *sigh*

Kevout, Here is what I know about B O C, but it make not be perfectly accurate since I don't come here as often as I should.

B O C (officially) is a "B-a-g of C-r-a-p", but many people use other amusing terms to fill in the B O C letters when posting here. B O C is a random assortment of odds and ends Woot sells, represented by a brown paper bag with a questions mark on it. You have no idea what you are buying, but the price is great. The "bag" may contain one, two, or three items IIRC, but my memory is dim. One is limited to a total of three B O Cs in one purchase, and one is not getting their full due unless they ask for three at once.

I think(?) it is mostly stuff that Woot does not have enough of to offer as a single one-day item. People do seem to be happy about what they get, but it's a apcray-shoot. Woot amusingly will change B O C to "burrito of chorizo" if you type the letters right together, snicker! One cannot even write b-a-g of c-r-a-p without the hyphens or it changes it to "bringing out corpses".

On the armoire, um... the simple solution is to get rid of it, like everyone else is doing that wants a bigger TV. Have you been to Craigslist and seen the multitude of entertainment centers people are selling? We bought a used modular (nice, oak, $350) one with each of the three pieces on rollers so we could put a bigger TV on the TV section. Which would you rather have? Your existing armoire or a bigger TV? If it were me, I'd vote for the TV, even though I am female and like my furniture!

$75 for just a 1yr warranty from square trade? That seems really steep. A 4-year warranty from bestbuy was $50 on my 32" LCD, maybe squaretrade realizes the philips are prone to breaking...

This isn't that great of a deal. You can get an LCD with the same specs from the Best Buy brand new for $600 (Insignia). You can also get a plasma version for $700.

mf193 wrote:No you won't; get past your decade old notions. I've had my PS3 and Xbox hooked up to my Viera for over 2 years now and no burn in. It'd only happen if you're a moron and leave a game paused for a few hours.

Otherwise the pixel shifting takes care of it. Maybe 5 minutes of IR at most...well worth the superior picture.

Burn-in only happens on Plasmas and old/cheap rear projection TV's. I've never seen an LCD afflicted with burn-in. Hell, my Samsung 480p CRT TV has a screen saver that can be triggered by a device hooked to it, like a regular computer monitor. I use that 7 year old tv everyday and have no issues with it. I have a computer hooked to it via component cables.

When it comes time to replace that TV -- and it is very close to being that time -- I will probably go for a Samsung. The color is crisp and vibrant. Picture is bright and clear. I had an issue with my Samsung 21" widescreen multifunction LCD, had to send it back under warranty. They shipped a new one from the factory, I picked up it at UPS and gave them the old one. UPS shipped it back in the same box.

Now that's customer service.

Oh, right - and I would never buy a TV from Woot.

As for the refurb problem others mentioned, I've bought 3 refurb'd mp3 players through woot. All Sansas. Two were the small 1GB ones. The other was a 4GB one, bigger screen, bigger controls. I gave them away as gifts. One died, but I think he screwed it up himself.

meadowlark wrote:Kevout, Here is what I know about B O C, but it make not be perfectly accurate since I don't come here as often as I should.

B O C (officially) is a "B-a-g of C-r-a-p", but many people use other amusing terms to fill in the B O C letters when posting here. B O C is a random assortment of odds and ends Woot sells, represented by a brown paper bag with a questions mark on it. You have no idea what you are buying, but the price is great. The "bag" may contain one, two, or three items IIRC, but my memory is dim. One is limited to a total of three B O Cs in one purchase, and one is not getting their full due unless they ask for three at once.

I think(?) it is mostly stuff that Woot does not have enough of to offer as a single one-day item. People do seem to be happy about what they get, but it's a apcray-shoot. Woot amusingly will change B O C to "burrito of chorizo" if you type the letters right together, snicker! One cannot even write b-a-g of c-r-a-p without the hyphens or it changes it to "bringing out corpses".

On the armoire, um... the simple solution is to get rid of it, like everyone else is doing that wants a bigger TV. Have you been to Craigslist and seen the multitude of entertainment centers people are selling? We bought a used modular (nice, oak, $350) one with each of the three pieces on rollers so we could put a bigger TV on the TV section. Which would you rather have? Your existing armoire or a bigger TV? If it were me, I'd vote for the TV, even though I am female and like my furniture!

Ah, thanks for the clarification! Re: furniture. Getting rid of it is not an option. It's an incredibly well made piece that we got a freakishly good deal on at an estate sale, and we ended up buying and staining two large bookshelves to match it. We've invested too much time and effort to have to start over again just for a bigger TV, sadly. Besides, 40" is plenty big for me, so when the right deal comes along on one of those, we'll be all set.

gslander wrote:you are correct also this one of the few models left that are even manufactered by philips, the new oem for the philips brand is our old pal FUNAI who makes the Sylvania's and Emersons

Funai does not manufacture this TV. Some of the current models are manuf. by Funai by not all. A lot of the 32" and above are manuf. by Philips contracted factories as before.

I have a Vizio 32" that I bought from woot awhile back... does anybody think that this would be a good upgrade from that product? I know Vizio is pretty good, but how does it compare to Philips? Also, will I notice a huge difference from the 32" to the 42" or is the price to size difference not worth it?

I would end up putting the 32" in the bedroom if I got this, but I want to know if it would be worth it or if I would be disappointed upon receiving this.

Or should I pay an extra 150 and get the Panasonic Viera from BestBuy? It would really be 200 extra with the sales tax.

MATTC119 wrote:SPDIF is a digital audio connection founded by Sony and Philips. It will give you digital surround as opposed to analog stereo with red/white. As far as SERV.U goes... i have no idea, but i think it has something to do with internet?

SERV.U is a service port. Technicians use it to tweak certain areas.

One can get a much better television than this for just as cheap. Television prices have dropped to where the typical 42" is $700 now, so an awful one for $600 is still a bad deal. Just follow slickdeals.net or something.

Bought this same TV from here about half a year ago. It was easy to set up and still works great, even as a refurb.


If you just want a decent 42" TV, it's a good deal. But the speakers are in the back, so it's a little quiet.

Price is OK, but nothing special ... have seen it new for about $100-125 more (of course you then have to pay more for tax and/or shipping).