Philips' Aurea LCD TV Shines

Taking 'Ambilight' technology to its most advanced point yet, the Dutch electronics giant Philips has introduced us all to its 'Aurea' technology on an LCD TV.

If the marketing blurb is to be believed, Philips is in the process of creating a sea change in the experience of viewing moving pictures in your own home, with their Executive Vice-President Rudy Provost calmly stating at this years IFA technology show in Berlin that Aurea is about providing - "a totally different home entertainment experience, one that addresses a consumer's emotional wellbeing, as much as providing a great entertainment platform"

In purely technological terms, Aurea technology is a little less profound, being an LCD TV with a luminous bezel which changes colour depending on what the screen is showing, an extension of Philips' 'Ambilight' technology.

Ambilight works by emitting coloured ambient light along the sides of the panel which is reflected on to the wall behind the TV. This 'ambient' light is determined by what is on the TV at any given time and Philips claim the effect is less eye strain with improved colour, detail and contrast.

Aurea builds upon ambilight with a fully back-lit LED which glows through the purpose built frame surrounding the LCD panel. With light actually shinning through the frame, Philips describes the effect as "bringing light and color to life in an unparalleled, highly visual and immersive fashion, drawing the audience into the full emotional experience".

Philips' 42in 42PFL9900D LCD with Full 1080p resolution and 8000:1 equipped with 'Aurea' technology is now available. Early indications are that picture quality is superb, but that the constantly changing frame of light around the screen is not to everyone's tastes.

While it remains to be seen whether or not Aurea can impress in the marketplace, Philips' ambilight technology has developed a growing following with highly acclaimed implementations on many of their LCD TV's.

http://hdtvorg.co.uk/news/articles/2007122301.htm

More for less with Toshiba's 40XF355D LCD

Even at 40in, the 40XF355 sporting Toshiba's ultra-slim 'picture-frame' takes up less space than the companies own 37in C-series LCD TV's.

Certainly with one eye on the visual impact of the 40XF355, the bezel of Toshiba's ultra-slim panel measures a mere 2.3cm wide. The dimensions also have the practical advantage of tempting consumers who would not normally have considered such a large screen.

The Toshiba 40XF355D is certainly not relying on its stunning profile to make its way in the world, as the spec sheet confirms. The 40XF355D sports a 10-bit panel for a broader range of colours along with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. It is generously equipped with 3 HDMI as well as the usual component, Composite and S-video inputs.

As we expected with its similar spec, the performance of the 40XF355D is in many ways like the Toshiba 42X3030D. To get the negative out of the way, colours were often over-saturated with Standard Definition (SD) sources, and although we tweaked settings to achieve good results for any particular source, we could not find a setting we were content with in all situations.

Plug in a High Definition (HD) source however, and it becomes immediately apparent where this TV excels. HD pictures are quite sumptuous, with a sharpness and clarity that places it firmly in the leading pack of LCD TV's in this respect. Fast action sporting or movie action shows just how capable a screen this is. There is almost a total lack of motion judder, with one of the most natural looking fast action displays we have seen. Colours were deep and vibrant with a naturalism that was impressive in all situations whether the scenes were dark or bright.

http://hdtvorg.co.uk/news/articles/2007122401.htm