Philips 29PT8836/94 CRT HDTV

I love the pace at which India is getting HD savvy, but at the same time I hate the price we have to pay for technology that’s a lot cheaper everywhere else. Really, what’s with that?

Now that Xbox 360 has already made its mark in the Indian market and even the PS3 is expected to make its entry soon, gamers are looking for cheaper and more resourceful means of getting the best out of their systems than by forsaking their education funds to get a flat-panel HDTV. We at Tech2 completely identify with these gamers, and look for innovative ways to have a cheap HD setup at home as well. The Philips 29" CRT HDTV may just be the most pocket-friendly option out there.

Being a CRT TV the back is obviously a little extended. The reason I say “a little” is because the extension’s not as huge as you normally see on 29" CRTs. I guess it’s probably the new slim series of picture tubes. Still it does take up a good amount of space at the back, so don’t throw out your TV trolly just yet.

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Overall the TV does look a lot better than the cheaper and lesser functional 29-inchers you get in the market these days. It’s black body with the curved edges makes it look elite and suitable for any living room.

Though the TV has support for resolutions up to 1080p (more on that in a bit), the output it gives is still pretty much analog, because of which it doesn’t have any digital inputs like HDMI or DVI. In fact it only supports component, composite and RF inputs, which can get a bit limiting. Still, considering it has two sets of component inputs and another two sets on composite inputs, it shouldn’t be much of a problem keeping a game console, DVD player and your cable set-top box connected at the same time.
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We basically tested the TV with high definition as well as standard definition content. In standard definition, cable TV looks pretty much what it looks like on a regular CRT TV, sans the interlaced scan-lines. We connected the PS2 to it using the standard composite connection, and the picture instantly looked brighter and crisper without the scan lines. Even DVD playback looked noticeably brighter because of this.

We connected the Xbox 360 to the TV using the component cables and tried out all the resolutions. With trial and error, I believe the best resolution the TV supported with the 360 was 720p. The TV automatically adjusts the aspect ratio using scan lines on top and bottom and fits the image perfectly within the frame. Being a CRT, the colors were right with brilliant black levels. The clarity was not as much as we are used to with other HDTVs, but it’s also not bad. Considering that you should be viewing a 29 inch CRT TV at a minimum viewing distance of 6 feet, you’re not going to notice the minor details anyways.

Reading fine text was a bit of a pain in high definition mode as most fonts come out looking a bit scrambled. It’s not a problem when readign the game HUD, but little subtitles or dialog text would be an issue.

The sound output was pretty good from the Philips TV. Though not as bassy as we would ideally like, but still better than any flat panel TV alternative out there.

Still, at the end of the day, you have to remember two things — its a CRT TV, and it will cost you a lot lesser than any other hi-def alternative out there. It’s street price of Rs. 22,000 is an excellent deal for a TV that will support high definition display as well as make the saas bahu programs look good. Now that’s a family TV!