Philips relaunches with a chip and a 100-inch LCD

Monday, September 04, 2006

After the last quarter >plasma and LCD sales statistics were published Philips did not stand idly.

Trying to catch up the competition in both the markets the Dutch manufacturer announced recently two new products: an innovative semiconductor chip and a 100-inch HD LCD TV.

The chip, announced under the NXP (Next Experience) brand, simplifies the handling of both analog and digital signals in a single HD LCD television. This invention, available only starting from January 2007, allows the TV to easily switch automatically from one signal to the other and use just one chip.

In current generation televisions instead two different interfaces are used increasing the designing complexity. Lastly the chip (produced in Taiwan) is pin-to-pin compatible so it will also be easier for manufactures to insert the NXP product in their current designs.

Last week at the IFA technology conference in Berlin Philips also introduced a 100-inch LCD TV that includes a four-sided Ambilight technology.

The latter, invented just by the company, generates light effects around the TV to improve the viewing experience (by adapting the effects color to the image on the screen).

The CEO of Philips insisted a lot on the Ambilight feature, called Full Surround, that adds an extra dimension to the High Definition but obviously the main appeal for this LCD is the size.

While it is not the biggest TV screen (Panasonic currently holds the scepter with a 103-inch Plasma display) it is certainly impressive and it’s a pity that Philips did not reveal the launch date or the price. We can only say that latter will be quite high if we compare this display with the Panasonic Plasma (priced at $69,999).