Philips 42PFL5609 initially comes across as the 42PFL7409's poorest pal. Part of the 5 series, the build quality is okayish, with the plastics being lower grade than its higher-end sibling. The panel also appears to be suitably scaled down, and this is not to nitpick, because the display isn't bad - it's just we had the 42PFL7409 at hand, and the difference, is very noticeable. The native resolu tion for PC is set at 1360 x 768 pixels, while the display itself goes up to 1080p. Using DisplayMate, the contrast ratio is immediately noticed to be deficient. This shows up in movies, especially darker sceneshere is also a tendency to over saturate reds. Picture quality is good, but there was some minor banding noticeable and the display does not work with non-native resolutions as well on the whole, movies are fun, especially higher resolution stuff. Gaming is a little less invol ving, owing to the deficient contrast. Use on a PC should be avoided as text crispness and overall display clarity is a problem, unless you are willing to run it at 1360 x 768 pixels.
The design is curvaceous for this series, with rounded corners and glossy black finish, plus there is a plastic rim that accents the bezel around its sides. The power LED is a small simple white one on the right corner, and that is about it on the bare, shiny bezel. The stand too is similarly attired in gloss and is quite a broad and sturdy built one. There are no issues of wobbliness or dangerous acrobatics performed by the frame when nudged, it is a heavy duty fit.
The connections include 3 HDMIs, 2 component video, 2 composite Headphone out, and last but not the least a USB, that plays MPEG4 video files like DivX etc., also MPEG1 files like .dat and .mpg files, besides MP3s and JPEGs. The panel is 1920 x 1080, brightness is 500 cd/m2, response time is 5 ms, and finally DCR is 50,000:1.
The included features range from some cool proprietary Philips video processing tech, to generic de-interlacing ones like 3D comb filters and 3:2 motion pulldown. The full list of features is: Pixel Plus 2 HD (Philips' much reputed, own video engine), 3/2 - 2/2 motion pull down, 3D Combfilter, Active Control Light sensor, Color Enhancement, Dynamic contrast enhancement, Jagged Line Suppression, Sharpness Adjustment, Dynamic Noise Reduction, 2D/3D noise reduction, 1080p 24/25/30Hz processing and 1080p 50/60Hz processing.