Exclusive: Perfect Pixel HD Engine

Perfect Pixel HD Engine is the follow up of Pixel Plus HD, another patented technique of Philips in terms of pixel improvement which results in better image and even more natural.

Each pixel on the screen will be adjusted to the surrounding pixels, which make the image of the screen more natural. Also the 'noise' of the pixels will decrease, which makes the image sharper. Not many models have this feature, it is still in the introduction phase. Below is a video with a Philips expert explaining this unique feature.

General Feature: HD Ready & Full HD

When you look at different TVs that stores are selling, they have either HD-Ready or Full HD. But what is the difference and when can it be used?

High Definition TVs are televisions that can broadcast higher resolutions then standard TV (SDTV). It was researched by Japan in 1970 but it was the United States that made the first introduction of HDTV in 1981. Then in 1991, Japan had its first HD Channel. After more than 35 years of development, HDTV has two different forms: Full HD & HD Ready. People that buy TVs with one of the two forms of High Definition have the following benefits:

- Better image quality
- Sharper image
- More full colours

When do you get High Definition on your TV?

- Satellite & Cable. More and more channals are nowadays broadcasted with higher resolution, leading to better image. Here in the Netherlands (also the rest of Europe), it was introduced in 2004. Quite late compared to USA & Japan. It will cost some time before HD becomes a standard.

- Blue Ray disc, The follow up of the DVD disc. While the invention of DVD already made a big contribution to high image quality, Blue Ray discs are even better with the best image and superior sound.

In order to have HD quality image on your tv screen, you need a HDMI cable (left side) a follow of the traditional SCART cable (right side), plugging from the Receiver / Blue Ray player to the TV in order to get get real HD image.



What is the difference between Full HD & HD Ready?
To explain better about the difference between HD Ready TVs and Full HD TVs below is picture with all the possible image resolutions.

TVs that have HD ready can only show up to 1280 / 720 p (green part of the picture), which is the minumum requirement of in order to watch HD. Therefore, the price of those TVs are cheaper. Suitable for people who are in the average watching group. If you want to use the fullest potential image quality on your TV when you are watching a movie or tv channels, the Full HD is recommended TVs with Full HD can show up to 1080 / 1920 (blue part of the picture). The bigger the TV, the more Full HD is recommended. The reason because when you are watching a big TV with the same resolution as a small tv, then obviously the small one has better image quality.

Other: LCD vs Plasma

LCD & Plasma are quite similar, so what is the difference between these two? In this part, we will not look to much in the technical features, but more on the benefits. When do you need to buy Plasma and when is it better to buy LCD?

What is the lifetime difference between LCD & Plasma?
There was some discussion going that the Plasma TV would have a shorter lifetime compared to LCDs. However, times have changed and nowadays, the lifetime of Plasma & LCD are equal to each other (60.000 hours)

Brightness & Resolution
In terms of brightness, LCD is slighly better. This can be used very well in rooms with strong lighting, the LCD has less lighting reflection compared to Plasma.
For resolution, LCD has more options especially with the smaller ones.

Contrast, Colourness, responsetime
In this part, plasma tv's score better. Black pixels are shown more realistic and movement is shown more smoother than in LCDs. The reason for that is because the LCD is created for static, not for movement. Also with a Plasma, the image is good from each view angle. In contrast, LCD image is only perfect when you watch it in front straight (within an angle of 30 degrees). So for people who are really critical about the overall image, Plasma is a better option.

Energy
There was also some discussion going on in terms of energy. Plasma tv would use more energy than LCD. But also this one is not applicable anymore. Both are now very close to each other.

Conclusion
Plasma:
+ higher contrast
+ wider range of view angles
+ moving pictures
+ recommended for watching movies in a dark room
+ variety of lighting of colours from dark to light, plasma scores better.

Lcd-tv
+ better performance in rooms that are bright.
+ higher resolution, especially the smaller tv's

source: http://www.elektrozine.be/ez/artikeldetail.php?artid=2650

New products: Philips Tvs 2009 - 2010 part 2: Aurea 9000 series

The second part of the new product series will be about serie that is suitable for people who want a better television experience and can afford it.



The most important feature that has to be mentioned in this model is Aurea, this is actually the successor of ambilight. But now instead of only background lighting, the lighting on the frame also adjusts on the colours of the screen. Also the background lighting is improved by using LED, more energy saving.
Another feature that is worth mentioning is NetTV (available since April 2009), internet on your own TV. With Net TV, you can watch internet pages that are adjusted for watching on Television such as youtube.com.


List of specifications:
• Ambilight Active Frame
• Perfect Pixel HD.
• Net TV via UTP en WiFi 802.11g network, DLNA 1.0 certified.
• 2250 billion colours.
• Dynamic contrast 500.000:1.
• 1 ms responsetime (200Hz Clear LCD).
• LED backlight
• DVB-T / C receiver with MPEG 2 en MPEG 4.

Exclusive: Ambilight

Ambilight is another exclusive feature that improves the experience of watching television. The background lighting of the TV adjusts on the colours of the movie that you are watching. For example the picture shows blue and orange/brown colour on the screen, so the background lighting is also blue and orange/brown. Next the experience improvement, Ambilight also reduces eye strain of the viewer.

Here is a short video to demonstrate this unique feature:

New products: Philips TVs 2009 - 2010 part 1 - 3000-serie

Philips has a wide range of TVs that are suitable for all types of viewers. In this very first part, the LCDs are very simple.



3000-serie

Main features:
- Widescreen
- Digital Crystal Clear
- 28.9 billion colours
- 5 ms response time.
- No pixel plus
- Sizes from 19 till 42 inch

General feature: Widescreen

Over the past years, widescreen image has become a standard for movies. Also tv channels are changing their image into widescreen. But why is that?

History of widescreen
Widescreen is established by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1931. First, it was only covering the top and the bottom of a standard tv image (4:3). It was the 50s that widescreen started to become a standard for mainstream movies because in that time, that was the beginning of TV competition. In 1952, 20'th Century Fox, a famous movie company has acquired the rights of using widescreen in their movies.

From the 50s, it was only possible to watch widescreen at cinema since the TV was still in the developing. Starting from the 90s, widescreen televisions are created.
Nowadays, most of the tv and computer monitors that are offered are widescreen.

How will the future widescreen TV look like?

First we had the standard tv image (4:3), later on we moved to (16:9). Home entertainment is growing and when we are watching a movie at home, we want to have the same experience as in the cinema. The future widescreen will then be 21:9. This is the image ratio that cinema's are using now.

Here is a video to give you a better impression of the future widescreen tvs