Philips is no stranger to producing unique TVs, with its Cinema 21:9 being a prime example, and it's today unveiling its dazzling 2009 Aurea - a set that promises to look beautiful, whether switched on or off.
The LCD TV, pictured below, features all of the signature features of the Aurea line - including a transparent Active Frame with Ambilight Spectra, a full-glass front, and a distinctive design.
In an effort to enhance the Ambilight experience, Philips has equipped the set with 250 LEDs. We're told that the 2009 Aurea can now provide "exact colour matching between the image on screen and the Active Frame", and the use of LEDs makes the screen slimmer than ever before. Despite the slim design, users will find a pair of front-firing dome tweeters mounted in the front of the display.
Elsewhere, Philips has removed the TV's control buttons to the front of the frame - and they're now both touch and motion sensitive. As for the display itself, it's a 42in full-HD (1,920x1080) LCD with a 100Hz refresh rate and a 80:000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. Philips is touting a response time of two milliseconds, and the display's equipped with a host of proprietary processing technologies - including Perfect Pixel HD, Perfect Colours and Perfect Natural Motion.
Picture quality should be more than decent, then, and the 2009 Aurea also sports a feature dubbed Net TV, allowing users to access popular websites direct from their TV. There's a integrated DVB-T/DVB-C/CI+ HDTV receiver, and the display provides five HDMI outputs as well as Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity.
But it wouldn't be complete without a gorgeous remote, too, so Philips is bundling the 2009 Aurea with a pearl remote that features a slider and backlit keys.
Here's an author who opted for the renowned image quality of a Pioneer Kuro, but I'll be first to admit that the 2009 Aurea is gorgeous.
