In-depth review here:
http://www.televisioninfo.com/content/Philips-42PFL3704D-F7-LCD-HDTV-Review-1351.htm

They state that the base is permanently attached and that this tv cannot be wall-mounted. Can anyone confirm/deny?

Woot blows Amazon's deal of the day out of the water.

SBCJester21 wrote:The image that's chopped onto the product on the w00t.com homepage, is of people costumed as the characters from the CBS Saturday morning cartoon: "Dungeons & Dragons". It ran from 1983 thru 1985.

THANK YOU. I figured they were cosplayers at a convention like ComicCon, but I had no idea what they were dressed as. So yes, thanks for pointing out what it was from. :D

Discussion from a Previous Woot

kelseyellen wrote:... but I'm always up for a few more inches ;)

Ya, me too!

gfiebich wrote:In-depth review here:
http://www.televisioninfo.com/content/Philips-42PFL3704D-F7-LCD-HDTV-Review-1351.htm

They state that the base is permanently attached and that this tv cannot be wall-mounted. Can anyone confirm/deny?

The rear view clearly shows VESA mounting points, and the specs include "VESA wall mount compatible: 200×200 mm". Don't know about that base from personal experience, but surely there must be a way to take it off. It went on, so it must come off!

Four screws and the base comes off...it is setup for wall mount.

Bandrik wrote:THANK YOU. I figured they were cosplayers at a convention like ComicCon, but I had no idea what they were dressed as. So yes, thanks for pointing out what it was from. :D

I shouldn't admit it, but I was a huge fan of the cartoon as a kid.

The photo appears to be from:

XIII Salón Internacional del Cómic de Granada 2008

Which I think I figured out is a comic book convetion in Granada which I think I figured out is part of Spain. (It was all in Spanish, so it was difficult to figure out exactly)

here is a link to the full size photo

Interestingly, the one dressed as Diana the Acrobat, appears to be a guy in black-face!

meh, the girl dressed as Venger makes him look like a wuss!

NO DEAL FOR YOU, WOOT!

stevesds wrote:meh, the girl dressed as Venger makes him look like a wuss!

NO DEAL FOR YOU, WOOT!

I agree, she should've dressed up as Diana or Sheila.

otavalo wrote:I have a 42 inch CRT TV. It is starting to die. I am happy with its sizewhen watching movies and the news.
What size should I get with the HD letter box look? I know that bigger is better, but I prefer a bigger bank account. LED? LCD? Plasma?
Thanks

Wow, I had no idea they ever made consumer 42" CRTs. That thing must weigh a metric ton...

Seriously though, I'd get something that's been around long enough (say 6 months to a year) to prove itself. Like, say, this...

Honestly, it all depends on what you'll be doing with it. LCDs are where it's at right now. Most of the more-affordable LCDs have trouble producing a true black (noticeable during dark scenes in movies). The 60 v 120 Hz argument falls in with the response time - gaming. Of course, if you want the faster refresh (120Hz) and quicker response time (<4ms) needed for gaming, you're gonna pay a bit more for it.

Plasma screens tend to have brighter, sharper pictures, but cut deeply into your wallet, as plasma display technology has shown itself difficult (expensive) to scale up.

As for the LED backlight business, I'd wait till that tech cools down a bit before jumping in. It's still far more expensive than it should be.

If your main concern is the expense, another consideration is the (now somewhat defunct) DLP rear projection TV. Main drawback: you can't mount a DLP on a wall. My Samsung 61" DLP is absolutely amazing: sharp/bright picture, vivid colors, and it was $1600. Mitsubishi still makes DLPs and they're insanely inexpensive compared to LCDs (A 73" screen for ~$2k @ newegg). Granted, it's not the way of the future, but you get a lot of screen for the $$ (and, since it's user serviceable, it's still cheaper to replace the lamp on a DLP than the backlight on an LCD).

Hope that helps...

mrlumpy wrote:Refurbished Philips products should be avoided like the plague. Unless things have changed they will NOT take returns - they direct you to a repair shop to fix any issues. I got a LCD TV from them a few years back that was grainy as all get out, and they pretty much told me to take a hike.

So, enjoy your refurb.

allhighruler wrote:But you must remember, the broken part has been fixed and has been tested, so you know that it wont break (at least from its previous problem)!

This reply appears to have been written as if to respond to someone who wrote that new Philips products should be avoided. Since the OP was recommending against refurbished Philips products, the comment that refurbished = good completely misses the point. Further, your assertion that whatever problem caused a refurbished product to be returned gets fixed before it is resold is, unfortunately, simply untrue. Sometimes a problem cannot be reproduced on the repair bench in the time allocated to the repair tech, so the unit gets certified as operational, only to fail immediately from the same problem once it's sold to the next victim. Then when you try to get it replaced, you find that the refurbisher doesn't have any more of that model, since they sold their entire stock to Woot!

Yeah, buying refurbished items is always a gamble. Some people find that they come out ahead of that gamble, some not so much. Some swear by using a Square Trade warranty to hedge their bets. YMMV and caveat emptor, I guess.

I own the 47" version of this tv and am very satisfied. My wife wanted it b/c on the wall the "frame" or "border" around the screen is small and therefore aesthetically pleasing. I only wish the speakers were a bit louder but considering that they are on the back of the tv, the sound is still fairly good.

zombiekicker wrote:...The 60 v 120 Hz argument falls in with the response time - gaming. Of course, if you want the faster refresh (120Hz) and quicker response time (<4ms) needed for gaming, you're gonna pay a bit more for it...

Never heard of 120 Hz being a gaming thing. The value of a 120 Hz set is its ability to render 24 fps content (DVD and BluRay) natively without having to do 3:2 pulldown, which can introduce visible artifacts. (120 is a multiple of 24, but 60 is not.)

SBCJester21 wrote:The image that's chopped onto the product on the w00t.com homepage, is of people costumed as the characters from the CBS Saturday morning cartoon: "Dungeons & Dragons". It ran from 1983 thru 1985.

imDb.com link

Amazon.com link

It featured the voices of:

Willie Aames (Tommy - Eight is Enough; Bibleman) as Hank the Ranger.

Donny Most (Ralph - Happy Days) as Eric the Cavalier

Adam Rich (Nicholas - Eight is Enough) as Presto the Magician.

and

Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime - Transformers cartoon AND movie; Eeyore - Winnie the Pooh cartoons)

Man, I am glad I am not the only one old enough to recognize that. LOL

901Memphis wrote:$662 new at amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-42PFL3704D-F7-42-Inch-1080p/dp/B001LP6LPG

And $600 new (plus shipping) at target.com.

lethargicmass wrote:Never heard of 120 Hz being a gaming thing. The value of a 120 Hz set is its ability to render 24 fps content (DVD and BluRay) natively without having to do 3:2 pulldown, which can introduce visible artifacts. (120 is a multiple of 24, but 60 is not.)

Ah, apologies, I was mistaken. That was the (obviously mistaken) impression I was under, but your argument makes perfect/more sense. Thanks for the lesson. ;-)

Do yourself a favor and buy anything but this TV. I have this exact TV. It has had problems since new. It turns itself off and back on spontaneously. I read many reviews with the same problem and Philips refuses to do anything about it. Now I have had it for about a year, just dealing with the power on issue. Now I have to turn it off and on several times to get the picture to come on. Support from Philips is non-existent. I will never buy a Philips product again. Find reviews and read them before buying this!

I mounted a similar 42" LCD TV up against the wall using a unique method that I haven't seen anywhere else. I purchased a foot of white link chain from Home Depot, along with two sturdy drywall-mount hooks. I put the hooks in the wall where I wanted the TV mounted. I cut two small pieces of the chain off, and attached them to the hooks. I hung the LCD on the chains using the top two mounting screws on the back of the TV. It was super easy, cost me $5, and the TV is closer to the wall than it would be with a conventional wall-mount bracket. It hangs in such a way that it tilts down slightly, which is perfect because I wanted it mounted it high so I could put a shelf under it for the bluray player, stereo receiver, cable box and slingbox. For the shelf, I used a couple of L brackets and a piece of generic white shelving ($10 total, again Home Depot) with a 1" hole drilled in it so the wires could pass through. I finished it off by putting all the wires in a white wire loom, which was only a few more bucks at Home Depot. Overall, for all the mounting stuff, shelf, and wire loom, it cost me less than $20, took about an hour for everything, and it's the cleanest looking wall-mounted LCD installation I've seen.

johnnyschmitz wrote:Do yourself a favor and buy anything but this TV. I have this exact TV. It has had problems since new. It turns itself off and back on spontaneously. I read many reviews with the same problem and Philips refuses to do anything about it. Now I have had it for about a year, just dealing with the power on issue. Now I have to turn it off and on several times to get the picture to come on. Support from Philips is non-existent. I will never buy a Philips product again. Find reviews and read them before buying this!

computer monitors do that, it's most likely a blown fuse, or the CCFL converter is going out, and the power it's pushing isn't enough, so the CCFL's flicker/turn off, and if that amperage is high enough, it will turn the whole unit off.

mrlumpy wrote:Refurbished Philips products should be avoided like the plague. Unless things have changed they will NOT take returns - they direct you to a repair shop to fix any issues. I got a LCD TV from them a few years back that was grainy as all get out, and they pretty much told me to take a hike.

So, enjoy your refurb.

We bought a refurbished Philips LCD TV from Woot just before Funai bought Philips. It has been a fantastic set, great picture, good sound, trouble-free. It arrived with the name of the serviceman who refurbished it and his contact information!

kelseyellen wrote:I have a 37" right now... but I'm always up for a few more inches ;)

Gigiddy...

every philips i've had burnt out in 3 years...dunno bout this

I've owned this Tv before, very nice but it tends to get very hot.

I really don't have the money for this right now... although I almost bought it. I have to give kudos to the description writers. That was a beautiful bit of writing. The kind of speech-writing that politicians kill for. If not for a complete lack of funds I would have bought it after having read the description, bad reviews or no bad reviews!

LCD TV's in General have two and some times Three circuit boards,LCD Panel and a interconnect wire harness.
The repair process is isolate the problem to the bad board,replace it,retest and send it back out. In many cases the bad boards are just thrown away, The boards are so cheap to produce in over seas manufacturing plants that It's not cost effective to waste time and money isolating board failures and repairing.
These TV's run hot and many fail within the first year.
Most are repaired in the owners Home when this happens under warranty.
These are most likely retailer return units. Units that failed right out of the box or units that were returned to the retailer during the allowed return period. With Costco you can return within 90 days. models that the membership clubs sell often are available as refurbished units for this very reason.
The refurbisher knows some are retuned due to buyer remorse so when they test the TV and it meets specs it gets boxed back up.
Intermittent problems can and do slip thru during the refurbish test process.
Bad boards or Panel on others are replaced.
The replaced part and the originals that have not been replaced have just as much chanch as new to fail in the future.
The Problem with refurbished is the 90 day warranty. If it fails after the 90 day warranty it will cost you atleast 50% of the purchase price to repair and many cases more.
In That situation you will likely end up paying more to purchase and repair than the TV is worth.
Their will be winners and losers in this equation.
If you feel the savings buying refurbished over new with full warranty is worth the Risk then go refurbished.

My advise if this is anything but a disposable purchase for you is to buy New with Full warranty.
Use a credit card that doubles the manufactures warranty and save your receipt and credit card statement showing the purchase.
Buy new from a warehouse club like Costco that allows 90 day returns and doubles the manufactures warranty to Two years. use the Credit card that adds 1 year to the warranty and you have a 3 year warranty.

NightGhost wrote:Woot blows Amazon's deal of the day out of the water.

Did you check the date?
That was Amazons deal of the day back on Feb 1
and was for a New TV with full warranty for $619.98

Just bought this same model at Walmart on-sale for 499.99 was regularly 659.99. Awesome TV/computer monitor.only bad thing is that the remote is picky you have to have it pointed pretty much right at the bottom right of tv, unlike my old one.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001LP6LPG/ref=pd_luc_mri?ie=UTF8&m=A2OZYZ8487VWZF

499$

Is the guy lying down in the middle in "black" face? If so, I find it offensive and would appreciate that image being removed.

Apparently woot forgot about Breaking Bad, the best show on television since The Wire.

If I'm going to get a new tv at this point, I think I have to go 52" or greater. Talk about American excess.

I bought the 22" Philips 720p TV during a Woot-off in March, haven't had any problems yet. I'd definitely snag this if I had $500 to spare; we have one tube left in the house that could be replaced.

Ugh Philips. I had an HP Plasma with Philips guts and it had really bad audio-video sync problems where the audio could be heard before seen...imagine hearing the crack of the baseball bat and then seeing the batter swing! I saw similar problems on Philips TVs in hotel rooms so I blame it on the Philips video processing. Maybe it's improved a lot since then, but I've gone back to Sony and never regretted it.

jtravel wrote:LCD TV's in General have two and some times Three circuit boards,LCD Panel and a interconnect wire harness.
The repair process is isolate the problem to the bad board,replace it,retest and send it back out. In many cases the bad boards are just thrown away, The boards are so cheap to produce in over seas manufacturing plants that It's not cost effective to waste time and money isolating board failures and repairing.
These TV's run hot and many fail within the first year.
Most are repaired in the owners Home when this happens under warranty.
These are most likely retailer return units. Units that failed right out of the box or units that were returned to the retailer during the allowed return period. With Costco you can return within 90 days. models that the membership clubs sell often are available as refurbished units for this very reason.
The refurbisher knows some are retuned due to buyer remorse so when they test the TV and it meets specs it gets boxed back up.
Intermittent problems can and do slip thru during the refurbish test process.
Bad boards or Panel on others are replaced.
The replaced part and the originals that have not been replaced have just as much chanch as new to fail in the future.
The Problem with refurbished is the 90 day warranty. If it fails after the 90 day warranty it will cost you atleast 50% of the purchase price to repair and many cases more.
In That situation you will likely end up paying more to purchase and repair than the TV is worth.
Their will be winners and losers in this equation.
If you feel the savings buying refurbished over new with full warranty is worth the Risk then go refurbished.

My advise if this is anything but a disposable purchase for you is to buy New with Full warranty.
Use a credit card that doubles the manufactures warranty and save your receipt and credit card statement showing the purchase.
Buy new from a warehouse club like Costco that allows 90 day returns and doubles the manufactures warranty to Two years. use the Credit card that adds 1 year to the warranty and you have a 3 year warranty.

Now this is what I would call a quality post. It makes some of the points I was trying to make (and then some) in a way that I think is probably easy to understand for anyone.

SBCJester21 wrote:The image that's chopped onto the product on the w00t.com homepage, is of people costumed as the characters from the CBS Saturday morning cartoon: "Dungeons & Dragons". It ran from 1983 thru 1985.

imDb.com link

Amazon.com link

It featured the voices of:

Willie Aames (Tommy - Eight is Enough; Bibleman) as Hank the Ranger.

Donny Most (Ralph - Happy Days) as Eric the Cavalier

Adam Rich (Nicholas - Eight is Enough) as Presto the Magician.

and

Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime - Transformers cartoon AND movie; Eeyore - Winnie the Pooh cartoons)

Great show! Thanks woot for posting the picture.

90 day warranty?...no thx

I have this exact same TV. Bought it about a month ago at walmart for $498 on clearance. So far, so good the only issue I've had is that for like a day the HDMI was cutting out when hooked up to my laptop, but I think this was just due to a cheap old HDMI cable. I got a new cable and things have worked well since then. That said, I got this new at walmart for $498 and added a 2 year warranty for $29 after the manufacturer's warranty runs out, so I'm not sure a refurb for $500 is the way to go. One other thing, the USB port only displays pictures & plays mp3s -- not movies, which is fairly disappointing. In my dreams they put out a firmware upgrade that allows it to play mkv files but I doubt something like this will ever happen in real life.

nchamp wrote:Is the guy lying down in the middle in "black" face? If so, I find it offensive and would appreciate that image being removed.

YGBSM

lethargicmass wrote:Now this is what I would call a quality post. It makes some of the points I was trying to make (and then some) in a way that I think is probably easy to understand for anyone.

I wouldn't go near a 60hz TV for any kind of viewing. Go watch a wall of demos and whenever there is a pan action, you'll see the 60hz sets stutter. 120hz is minimum, and 240 is smooth. Not just for gaming, but watching Two and a half men as well.

jtravel wrote:Did you check the date?
That was Amazons deal of the day back on Feb 1
and was for a New TV with full warranty for $619.98

Yes I saw the date, but I thought I'd mention it since the price difference is so big.