Philips Cineos: 1080p LCD with Ambilight

(Credit: Crave UK)

Ambilight is one of those ideas that sounds like it was cooked up by a mad scientist who had a quiet week and a couple of colored LEDs lying around. The reality of it is quite different, because once you've seen Ambilight working, the scientist doesn't seem quite so mad anymore. The Philips Cineos 42PFL9632D makes him seem worthy of a Nobel prize.

If you've been living in a cave for the last couple of years, you might not know what Ambilight is--allow us to help. Simply, an Ambilight TV has a series of LEDs at the rear of the television. When you put the screen against a wall, light projected onto the wall reflects what's on screen. In addition to extending what's happening on screen into your peripheral vision, this has the added benefit of increasing the contrast ratio. The other good news is that if you do live in a cave, Ambilight will really cheer it up. Hurrah.

The 42PFL9632D has other tricks up its sleeve. Firstly, it's a "Full HD" 1080p screen. So it's well set for all the next-generation high-definition formats. It also has Perfect Pixel HD processing, which Philips claims improves the picture quality and increases sharpness. You'll also find 100Hz technology, which should help reduce film judder.

The Philips also has three HDMI sockets, a welcome sight in these days of HD. We're also pleased to see a USB connector for viewing pictures from a memory stick on your TV. Always nice for parties.

The 42PFL9632D has a recommended price of 1,799 pounds (about $3,721), but you should be able to find it for less than that if you shop around. We'll have a review of it ready very soon.

(Source: Crave UK)

[diveman32]

No, no no. All wrong. Call youself Crave ?

Crave this instead:
http://www.aurea.philips.com/

[darthgerber]

Grammar can be important.

I don't want to be too critical, but can we, the Crave-loving audience expect that this blog be gramtically correct? Please examine the following sentence and notice that it has no active verb. It is also difficult to comprehend exactly what effect the rear-facing LED's have on the wall: "When you put the screen against a wall, light projected on to the wall that reflects what's on screen."
Thank you for your time.

[MadLyb]

Disagree completely

I have indeed experienced Ambilight and it is nothing more than a distracting gimic that detracts from my enjoyment of the content.
If it were truly helpful, then they would use it in movie theatres.