Since the quality of the picture depends heavily on the viewing angle, the supplied swivel stand is an extremely useful asset when positioning the set to suit the viewing environment.

The screen menus, which are excessively complex and nested, sprawl across nearly the whole viewing area. The exact function of the various picture and sound settings is not as clear as its accompanying description suggests. For example "Tint" is the Philips classification for the color temperature.

Luckily, the concept behind the keypad area of the ergonomic remote control is much better and more understandable. Setting up the individual program channels is simple, and the time taken to switch between analog TV channels is remarkably fast at just under a second.

Teletext decoding is performed according to the more appealing level 2.5 with its associated graphical user interface. As an option, the set can display this text next to the picture of the current channel being viewed.

Viewing the set away from the perpendicular will result in a drastic reduction in both picture saturation and contrast which, even at relatively short viewing distances, is apparent in the set's extremities - the corners.

The contrast control regulates the backlight brightness of the Cineos 52 PFL 9632 D/10. Above a contrast setting of 71, the backlight will become noticeably brighter up to the maximum contrast value of 100. The set is therefore ideally suited for viewing in brightly lit rooms.

Where many TVs falter, the Philips excels; its anti-reflective matt screen successfully reduces reflections, particularly when it comes to viewing in bright environments. TV pictures come across very naturally with the standard "Movie" setting, and are accompanied with very little noise.

Contours are rendered far more precisely on stock market tickers, for example, with the "100 Hz Clear LCD" mode activated, when compared with older liquid crystal displays. However, this mode's effect is not as pronounced as with the 100 Hz technology available on other manufacturers' sets which, unlike the Philips, do not introduce between frame imagery, but disable the backlight between frames instead.

Our Opinion:
The opinion of our testers at Televisions.com is that this latter method is more effective as it better overcomes the sluggishness inherent with LCD technology. Even the noise from analog sources is sluggishly suppressed through the permanently-active noise filter. Good quality plasma sets, by comparison, reproduce the picture faster and fine grained noise, although more visible, comes across more naturally.

Picture Quality:
Scoring highly is the set's ability to display pure luminous white and deliver pictures with well-defined contrast. Without a single hint of color casting, white fonts appear natural on the screen as do delicate skin tones. The Philips can do nothing against the obvious MPEG artifacts or residue of DVB-T material as quite simply, the physical limits of this transmission medium have been reached. The Cineos 52 PFL 9632 D/10 converts TV material perfectly to progressive imagery with clean picture edges.

DVD material played back through the RGB Scart socket is a tad crisper and appears more refined. The set is also very successful at displaying progressive content from movie material. DVD imagery is reproduced in an even more refined manner when the player itself converts the content to full-frames on-the-fly, and transfers it to the Philips through one of the HDMI interfaces.

"Unscaled" Mode:
The 52 PFL 9632 D/10 enables the option "Unscaled" to be activated with HDTV picture formats larger than 720p. The set then switches off overscan in this mode, which is a picture cropping method related to older TV technology.

Even with an "Unscaled" picture, the Cineos, on request, activates the "HD Natural Motion" function. By doing so, the Cineos smoothes animated movie content such as "Toy Story 2" or the camera journey in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy through gradual transitions without any of the usual associated judder. Anyone unaccustomed to this kind of movie film transition can always deactivate the feature.

Impressive Contrast Range:

The almost 3D picture representation and incredible depth of focus which the Philips impressively creates can be attributed, for the main part, to the set's record-breaking contrast. Even without the dynamic backlight control active, this value is extremely good at 2,000:1. In "Dynamic Contrast" mode, i.e. with the backlight being dynamically controlled by the picture content, this value increases to a whopping 5,500:1. A precondition though is that the picture is viewed exactly perpendicularly.

The Blu-ray edition of the Bond film "Casino Royale" is a tough nut for HD televisions. With "HD Natural Motion" deactivated, the rotating roulette wheel and red checker patterns that float through the opening sequence stand testament to the set's accurate 24p reproduction. However, a dark shadow accompanies and follows this red checkering, and moving colored patterns lightly fray out across the screen. Vertical lines noticeably flicker which, for progressive playback just should not be the case.

"HD Natural Motion", which can be activated for all HDTV signals, including 1080/24p, actually enhances small picture errors. In its "Maximum" setting, the pictures associated with Bond's car journey to the casino alternate continuously between smooth and jerky, and the overall picture is rather shaky. Small artifacts are still present even at its 'Minimum' setting, which does, however, give a more natural appearing picture.

HD television sport images (football) from pay-TV broadcasting stations such as "Premiere" are transmitted in interlaced format. Unfortunately, the 52 PFL 9632 D/10 can't convert them perfectly to full-frame images - line flicker is the consequence. The Philips occasionally scales sharp edging and colored or gray picture areas rather coarsely.

The best HD picture that the set is capable of displaying is from material in the 1080/60p format with the "HD Natural Motion" deactivated. When viewing movie material, the audience will have to put up with more judder (3:2 pulldown) than they are perhaps accustomed to at the theater.

Photos played back through the USB interface do come across extremely clearly. Despite their large file sizes and varying resolutions, they are still rendered crisply and in impeccable detail on the screen.

During audio testing, the Cineos 52 PFL 9632 D/10 gave a passable performance, and did not buckle or falter even with the volume turned right up. Movie soundtracks and music lack bass, but speech is clear and understandable. The high notes could also benefit from being a little clearer.

Standard Setting: Movie

Contrast: 82

Brightness: 52

Color: 66

Sharpness: 3

Tint: Warm

Perfect Pixel HD: On

HD Natural Motion: Off

Picture Format: Unscaled

Active Control: Off

Dynamic Contrast: Minimum

Noise Reduction: Off

MPEG Artifact Reduction: Off

* applied to realistic playback from HD DVD/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations may necessitate slight adjustment.

The wide frame accommodates all 18 LEDs that surround the screen to create "Ambilight", making the overall size of the screen appear even larger.

The swivel pedestal permits easy access to all three HDMI inputs on the rear-panel. Searching here for an analog VGA interface for PC operation will be in vain.

An integrated USB port for MP3 music playback or photo slideshow sits alongside the headphone jack and AV inputs for S-Video and composite video.

The operation of the nicely compact remote control is hampered somewhat by the unnecessarily complex and nested screen menus.

With an optimum gamma value of 2.2, the set is ideal for viewing in environments with some ambient lighting.

Neat: The color temperature is almost perfectly targeted, and its color space is also approximately correct.