Philips TV

Philips finds a home in flat panel display

Philips has offered the public unremarkable TVs for generations never bad TVs but never exactly noteworthy. Buying a TV used to be simple. Whenever you wanted to be sure to get a great TV at an affordable price you had to go with brands like Hitachi, Mitsubishi or Sony. But if you wanted to save money you went with econ brands like Philips, Sharp, Magnavox or RCA. In the glory days of NTSC TV, if you wanted to get downright cheap you went for a Goldstar (todays LG), Lloyds or some other off brand.
But those simple days are long gone now. The recent explosion in technology means companies now get a chance to realign and re-evaluate themselves and their mission statements to their public. Sony has dipped its hands into shockingly mainstream fare and the Sony name on the front of a TV is no longer assurance of the sort of quality we used to expect. Sharp owns the LCD panel manufacturers and Hitachi is praised time and again by consumer reports for reliability, having re-branded themselves as the workhorse of TVs.

Whats up with Philips now that the TVs have flipped out in the last ten years?

Philips is a Dutch electronics company, like Thompson, that owns several brands. Philips started in 1891 when Gerard Philips first had the bright idea to start making light bulbs. The original Philips light bulb factory is today a museum tourists can visit when they go to the Netherlands. In 1939 Philips marketed their electric razor, the Philishave.

Philips is the company who gave us such remarkable devices as the compact cassette tape and laser disc. The Laserdisc didnt get far but the cassette tape eventually delivered us from 8-track and would kick around the front seats of teenagers cars through the late 70s and especially the 80s. It seemed Philips was on a roll when they developed their own standard of video cassette called the V2000, but it was destined to go nowhere. Unable to sustain itself in the face of competition from Beta and VHS, the V2000 was deemed a failure.

Phliips TVs have enjoyed renewed vitality recently. With a keen eye for innovative features and development, Philips has been placed on the forefront of the competitive flat panel TVs. Ambient light TVs are an interesting feature created by Philips, and the MiraVision TVs are the coolest new design around. Ambient Light Technology or Ambilight is a new feature found on some of Philips flat panel TVs.

The feature should help reduce eyestrain by putting a field of ambient light behind the TV. The ambient light can present similar colors to those on the display or you can set it up to display a single color of soft lighting. Its a great idea that may even be worth paying a little extra for, but how much its worth to you is a personal matter. Since you can duplicate ambient lighting easily and cost effectively inside your viewing environment, its not likely a feature that will have people breaking down the doors to their local Philips dealer.

Philips flat panel product line includes various sizes of LCD and Plasma TVs. LCD TVs range from 15 up to a hefty 42 model with all Philips unique features. For flat panel HDTV from 42 and up you get into Philips plasma line. At the top of Philips plasma sizes is a 50 monster. Philips product line follows conventional wisdom that states gains in Plasma technology really start when youre looking for a panel over 42. Sets smaller than 42 are more cost economical (being LCD) as the benefits of Plasma arent noticed any smaller. But any larger and plasmas advantages are clear. Faster pixel rise/fall among other benefits makes Plasma a superior choice.