REVIEW: Philips 42PFL8404H/12 Part 6

Equippment used for testing

Hardware

Eye One Display 2 colorimeter - sensor
Sony PS3 Blu-ray player and gaming console
HP-20S Blu-ray-Player
CRT monitor / TV
Laptop/PC/HTPC
Wattmeter for measuring energy demand
Camera with the option for High Speed shooting
Scythe wireless temperature meter
HDMI cables and DVI-VGA adapters for the CRT monitor.

Software

HCFR ver 2.1
HCFR DVD with samples
AVCHD - v1.2b Test Patterns for the Blu-ray players
FPD Benchmark for professionals
HQV Silicon Optix Benchmark Blu-ray

Movies

Batman: The Dark Knight (Blu-ray)
Lady in the Water (Blu-ray)
Transformers (DVD)
WALL-E (DVD)
Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (720p MKV file)

Note: MKV movies are encoded by the HD television team from the original Blu-ray discs for the purpose of testing the 720p signal. HDTV versions were recorded with the HD channels for the purpose of testing the 720p signal.

Games

Guild Wars (PC)
Ghostbusters (PS3)

Measurement and calibration

The Philips 42PFL8404H comes with very good image quality that will satisfy most of its customers. Here we primarily focused on the movie mode, the results of which we will show in "after calibration" images, given that TV does not have gamma or RGB control (white balance). We did however tweak some of the options, so we strongly suggest that you check out our "Recommended settings by HD Television" section. Below you will see the difference between the "Normal" and the calibrated "Movie" mode.

Black level

Our Eye One Display 2 measured the lowest black level 0:06 cd/m2 or 0,018 FTL (Foot Lambert) in "standard" mode when the dynamic contrast was turned on. After calibration in the "movie" mode black level was increased to 0:19 cd/m2 or 0.057 FTL (Foot Lambert) which is in line with the LCD nature as opposed to the plasma screens. Movie mode resulted in much lower values of delta E values (better), as you can see below.

The lowest measured level of black colour with dynamic contrast turned on after calibration "film" modes is 0,19.

Grayscale

Table before calibration

Table after calibration

Due to the omission of white balance and gamma control on the Philips 42PFL8404H, we calibrated it by tweaking settings in the "movie" mode, which in the end showed the best results. The calibration graph before (in "normal" mode) indicates red at 87%, green at 98% (closest to the ideal value), and blue at 143% at 70% brightness. After calibration, we got much more even colours, red got to 98%, green to 100% (ideal) and blue to 103%.

The D65 reference point that we want to reach is on this location: x = 0.313 y = 0,329. Calibration files before show that the value is at x = 0,281 y = 0,288 with 70 IRE lighting. After calibrating the value went to x = 0,310 y = 0,326 which is much closer to the centre of D65. Many reviewers take 100 IRE, which simply is not good and does not mean anything because the majority of the content we watch on the screen is between 50 and 80 IRE.

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