Philips 26PF5520D review

Features
Philips' LCD is one of the first midrange TVs to carry the 'HD Ready' icon, which assures you it's ready for all future high-definition standards. The compatibility problem lies with Sky, which announced that its HD service (due next year) will require a TV with High Definition Content Protocol (HDCP) on board to prevent its programmes being copied. Whenever you see the 'HD Ready' logo on a TV, you know it'll accept Sky HD, and consequently it won't need upgrading for a long time to come. If you buy the Philips TV, you can avoid all this confusion, because it will accept all current and future video standards.

In addition to all this high-definition loveliness, this Philips LCD also includes a Freeview receiver. Along with the ample connectivity, it means that this TV is one of the first to tick every single box on our features wish list. It also bears the hallmarks of a second generation iDTV, with PIN code protection to restrict certain channels, and a favourites list to simply ignore those that you never watch. Uniquely, you can also tell the TV the age of your children and it will automatically block any unsuitable content. If you subscribe to the TopUp TV service, there are some adult channels available, so in this case you may want to block some channels out completely. The same is true for radio channels. If you're going away and want to make recordings from Freeview, you can set the TV to turn itself to a certain channel at a certain time.

In terms of picture quality, there's no perceivable upgrade over using a standard digital TV receiver. This is partly down to the TV's lack of advanced picture processing, something which is normally only a characteristic of more expensive TVs. You can still tailor the audio/visual just how you like it, with Soft, Multimedia, Personal, Rich and Natural all available for video and Music, Voice, Personal and Theatre on the audio side. You can change the individual parameters such as contrast, brightness and balance and then store them in the Personal settings.

Philips' LCD will also do cross-source Picture in Picture, so you can watch TV while you're typing up an AV review (but don't tell CNET.co.uk's publisher).

Performance
Given the price, the Philips 26PF5520D's picture performance is good. With Freeview, you can easily tell there isn't any picture processing going on behind the scenes. The picture is blocky and there's colour bleed, but the size of the screen limits the detrimental impact at the normal viewing distance. Screen detail is very good, making this an excellent PC monitor.

When you compare it to previous-generation LCD screens from Dell and Viewsonic, which retailed for a similar price, picture performance is much superior on the Philips. The 16ms response time is quick enough to prevent too much smearing on Freeview TV, but it can be noticeable on first-person shooter games such as Battlefield 2. For regular desktop work such as word processing and Internet browsing, it's great, and the PIP modes make this an ideal monitor replacement (as long as you can resist the allure of digital TV during work).

The speakers can reach a loud volume without distortion, making them acceptable for Freeview music channels and digital radio. The Virtual Dolby Surround mode should be avoided, and if you have an AV amplifier or home cinema system, you should hook up via the coaxial audio output.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide