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Philips 46PFL6605D LCD TV - Pretty as a Picture

By Andy Sim - 8 Dec 2010

DisplayMate & HQV Tests

Calibration - Spyder3TV Report

To maintain a display standard across our review units, we calibrated the Philips 6605 with the Spyder3TV Home Theater Color Calibration kit prior to our visual tests. This is to ensure we assess the HDTV based on optimal display settings, and not purely on visual estimation alone. At this point, we've also disabled all the necessary boosters such as color and edge enhancement features. After the calibration process, optimized values were as recorded as such: Brightness at 51, Contrast at 98, and Color at 75. We were unable to calibrate the Tint option since the TV's adjustments differ to that of Spyder's. Black and white luminance readings were measured as 0.25 cd/m2 and 335.912 cd/m2 respectively. To be honest, we were a little surprised with the calibrated results. Brightness and contrast levels were fine. However, the relatively high recommended color setting hinted at a weaker color space at mid range, possibly due to the intense LED backlights. We will work the Pixel Precise HD components to see how it impacts the TV's performance later on. The 6605 demonstrated confident white luminance levels, although its black luminance is nowhere near, say, a PDP like Panasonic's VIERA TH-P50VT20S with a lower 0.020 cd/m2 reading.     

Spyder3TV returned optimized display values as follows: Brightness at 51, Contrast at 98 and Color at 75. The only anomaly here is the color setting, which is higher than usual. Typical calibrated readings has a value of 50 on average. 

 

DisplayMate Tests

DisplayMate is an application which generates a sequence of test patterns to determine the capabilities of imaging devices like color and gray-scale accuracies for example. For our tests, we've hooked up the Philips 6605 to our display test-bed PC via its HDMI connection. To be fair across the board, we have also disabled all visual enhancements on the TV in order to reduce the variables involved. Here are some findings based on the relevant and critical test patterns:-

Screen Uniformity
Typically, Full LED models tend to fare better than Edge-lit variants on this test, and this observation was reinforced with the 6605. There weren't any distinct backlight bleeds around the edges, although contrast levels were mildly uneven in the middle space, more so with the darker test patterns. Things were quite different with lighter hues, however. The panel proudly delivered clean whites without irregularities across the display. 

Dark Gray Scale
Overcompensation from aggressive backlights resulted in slightly washed-out contrasts. Lighter gray tones were satisfactorily reproduced, but black boxes appeared more gray than black. To improve the situation, you may either reduce the HDTV's brightness, or enable its Dynamic Backlights (for Best Picture) to deepen black levels by a notch.     

Color Scales
The 6605 clinched top grades for accurate hues, vibrant colors and gradual gradients. That is, before the darker band "jumped" abruptly to black towards the end of the test pattern. Barring that minor glitch, Philips' 6000 series also impressed with its wide viewing angle on the horizontal plane.   

256-Intensity Level Color Ramp
Most LCD displays hardly get through this test unscathed. We would say likewise for the 6605, although it ranks up there with the quality screens. The white, red and green strips were free of artifacts, except for a mild compression noted on the blue band. Give yourself a pat on the back, Philips.

DisplayMate's 256-Intensity Level Color Ramp Test: Compression artifacts towards the darker ends tend to show up on many LCD TVs. Good news is the Philips 6000 series didn't display the same chink, save for a mild compression seen on the blue strip.

 

IDT HQV Tests

IDT's HQV Tests are designed to assess image quality and the handling of digital displays and players through a variety of video signal processing tasks which includes decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction and film cadence detection. We've programmed the Blu-ray player to playback in 1080i in order to stress the TV's video processor. This compels the TV's processor to convert interlaced signals into progressive to accommodate the HDTV's panel. Here are the results we noted on a few of the most crucial tests:-

Digital Noise Filtering
The 6605's video processor comes with a single noise filter, found under the "Picture" tab. We would say its noise filtering algorithm is average at best since a sizable degree of noise remained even after pumping its filter to the max. 

Diagonal Filter Test
Philips' Pixel Precise HD engine had no trouble processing moving interlaced images. Hardly any "jaggies" were visible on the rotating bar even as it meandered the tricky 20 to 45-degree angles. Enabling "HD Natural Motion" at this point did not produce any visible artifacts, but nor did it make the bar spin more fluidly either. 

Film Resolution Loss Test
We did not find any "24p" feature on the 6605. As such, we assumed the video processor either did not support film cadence decoding, or it processes HD 2:3 inverse telecine natively. When tested on a SMPTE test pattern originally recorded at 24 frames per second, it is obvious the HDTV is well equipped to decode 1080i60 to 1080p24 content with almost zero "strobes" detected on the horizontal lines. 

HQV's Film Resolution Loss Test: The 6605 did not excel in the Noise Filtering test, but it sure showed its mettle with the Diagonal Filtering and Film Resolution Loss evaluations. Hardly any "strobes" were detected on the striped boxes shown on the test pattern above.

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9.0
  • Design 9
  • HD Performance 9
  • SD Performance 9
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 8.5
The Good
Vibrant Colors
Impressive HD & SD Visuals
Useful Ambilights
The Bad
Dependent on Manual Picture Adjustments
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