If you’re looking to eliminate the HDMI cables leading up to your flat panel display, then you’ll want to check out the newly announced Philips Electronics Wireless HDTV Link (model SWW1800/27).

With the Wireless HDTV Link, you’ll be able to transmit full 1080p HD video wirelessly at up to distances of 75 feet without any signal loss or degradation. The HD signal is also never compressed during the wireless transmission – ensuring that all attributes are transmitted between the source to the destination.

Finally, the Wireless HDTV Link also acts as an AV switch – providing four connections in the form of two digital HDMI connections and two component connections.

Now comes the bad news. At $799, the Wireless HDTV Link isn’t cheap at all so unless you absolutely need to have wireless HDMI technology, you might want to wait a bit until the prices fall down to Earth a bit. The Wireless HDTV Link is available for purchase at Amazon.com and Dell.com. It will also be sold at Sam’s club, samsclub.com, and Costco.com beginning next month.

Technorati Tags: Philips Electronics, Wireless HDTV Link, Wireless HDMI

Remember that crazy Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV announced at the end of January? You know – the one that has an aspect ratio that closely mirrors today’s movie aspect ratios (otherwise known as anamorphic format)? Well there’s now a date and price for this display – at least for residents of the UK. According to SlashGear over the weekend, the 52 inch Cinema 21:9 will be coming out in June for a price of €4000 (£3535/$5044). That’s certainly more expensive than comparable 52 inch panels out there.. but then again, how many other panels can claim a 21:9 aspect ratio? Yeah.. none whatsoever (yet the real question is – will anyone outside of movie enthusiasts really care?)

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips, Cinema 21:9 LCD TV

So you have a standard 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV set and you’re enjoying the latest episode of American Idol in HD which nicely fills the screen from edge to edge. Then you pop in a copy of Transformers in Blu-ray and you’re bugged that the film doesn’t fill the entire display. Why?  Because Transformers is shown in anamorphic widescreen or 2.35:1 aspect ratio. So what do you do? You can always try and zoom in or scale the picture to fit the screen but you’ll either lose other data or distort the resulting picture.

Philips has a better idea – why not create a widescreen display that closely matches the anamorphic format? That’s exactly what they did in creating the new Cinema 21:9 display – a display that closely matches the 2.35:1 aspect ratio found in most movies today (it’s just slightly off). The Cinema 21:9 display measures a large 56 inches and features three-sided Ambilight Spectra technology which illuminates the background edges to match the content being displayed.

Oh and what about 4:3 and 16:9/16:10 content? According to the Philips press release, the content will be stretched or “adapted” to fill the 21:9 screen. Personally, I’d rather see it presented in the original aspect ratio and suffer through vertical black bars. Can’t win it all can we?

The Cinema 21:9 LCD TV will be available this spring.

[Check it out via CrunchGear]

Technorati Tags: Philips, Cinema 21:9 LCD TV

The Raga (pictured above) features the following:

• Flash player with 2GB/4GB storage space
• Small multi-line display
• 27 hours of battery life
• Price between $35 to $45 dollars

The Spark (pictured above) brings it up a notch by featuring:

• 1.5 inch OLED color display
• Clix-style navigation
• Support for Rhapsody
• Fullsound EQ
• Price between $50 to $60 dollars

Finally, there’s the LUXE (pictured above) which adds:

• Bluetooth connectivity
• Support for Rhapsody
• Fullsound EQ
• Pairs with your mobile phone and turns off music when incoming calls come in
• Price between $90 to $100 dollars.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips, GoGear Digital Audio Players, Raga, Spark, LUXE

Looking for a little mood lighting for a small room? You might be interested in the new mini version of the Philips LivingColors Lamp. Instead of displaying 16 million colors like the original, the mini version supports a palette of 256 colors. The mini lamp also drops the remote control. According to Gizmodiva, the mini lamp will be available in December for around $168 dollars. Should be a hit for dorms across the country!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips LivingColors Mini Lamp

Philips announced several new models to their Eco line of LCD HDTV sets today as well as a new standalone Blu-ray player. Eco HDTV sets were introduced during CES 2008 and automatically adjust their LCD backlighting according to the ambient lighting thanks to a built-in light sensor.

The new 7003 series of Eco HDTV models are the 42TA648BX, 42PFL3603, and 42PFL5603 and feature:

• New rounded design
• 120Hz panels
• Philips new Perfect Pixel HD image processing engine
• Four HDMI inputs with CEC support for automatic input switching

The 42TA648BX, 42PFL3603, and 42PFL5603 cost $1699, $1999, and $2699 respectively.

On the slightly lower end, Philips has four new models ranging in sizes from 32 inches (at $799), 42 inches ($1799), 47 inches ($2099), and 52 inches ($2899). These models feature the Pixel Plus 3 HD image engine and come with 60Hz panels instead of the 120Hz panels from above.

Finally on the Blu-ray front, Philips announced their second generation standalone Blu-ray player – the BDP7200. Features of this player include:

• Support for Blu-ray Profile 1.1’s Picture-in-Picture commentary feature
• CEC aware HDMI
• 1080p upscaling of DVDs
• MSRP of $399

[Check it out via Ubergizmo]

Technorati Tags: Philips, Eco TV, Blu-ray, BDP7200, LCD TV

After having announced a 52 inch 3D Display earlier in the week, Philips has gone ahead and introduced a smaller model – a 22 inch 3D display which they will showcase at InfoComm 2008 running from June 18th till June 20th. The 22 inch display is ideal for use cases such as digital signage for retail fronts, point-of-sale advertising, gaming applications in casinos, games, and 3D visualizations. Like the larger display, the 22 inch 3D Display utilizes WOWvx technology which does not require special viewing glasses.

The 22 inch model has the following features:

• Auto-stereoscopic
• WSXGA resolution (1680 x 1050)
• 16:10 aspect ratio
• 300cd/m2 brightness
• 1000:1 contrast ratio
• 5 ms response time

The display will be available commercially during the fourth quarter of this year.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips, 22 inch 3D Display

Philips announced that they would be introducing their new 52 inch auto-stereoscopic 3D display at the upcoming InfoComm 2008 conference. The new display utilizes WOWvx technology and does not require special viewing glasses. The display provides full HD resolutions (1920 x 1080), delivers 700 cd/m2 brightness, has a response time of 8ms, and a contrast ratio of 2000:1. Philips plans on selling the display during the fourth quarter of 2008.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips, 3D Display, WOWvx Technology

Philips has announced two bare-bones mobile phones in the form of the Philips 198 and Philips 199 handsets. These handsets perform just the bare necessities – a.k.a. making/receiving phone calls and sending/receiving text messages. The 199 one ups the 198 by including an FM radio tuner. Other specs to the handsets are:

• 4-way navigation keypad
• mini-USB connectivity
• 3 embedded games
• Measures 99 x 42 x 13.5 mm and weighs 65 grams

These new models will be coming to Europe and Asia in the next few months for a price of around $62 (pretty much free after the carriers get a hold of them)

[Check it out via NewLaunches]

Technorati Tags: Philips, 198, 199

Congratulations to Philips – they’ve won the the overall “Best in Show” award from CNET’s “Best of CES” awards for their Eco TV (model 42PFL5603D) product.  The Eco TV is a high definition LCD television set with an eye towards saving energy as well as saving the environment. Features of the Eco TV set include the following:

• Proprietary dimming technology designed to lower the LCD panel backlight to reduce power consumption without compromising picture quality
• Built in light sensor automatically measures the viewing room’s ambient lighting and adjusts the television’s backlight for power efficiency
• Incorporates lead-free components and flame-retardant materials
• Packaging box and user manuals are made of recycled materials

The Philips Eco TV will be available in March and will have an MSRP of $1399.

Technorati Tags: Philips, Eco TV, 42PFL5603D, Best in Show, Best of CES, CNET

Digital Trends has published a review of the Philips HTS8100 SoundBar DVD Home Theater here on their website. The HTS8100 is a full multi-channel surround sound system with an integrated 1080p video upscaling DVD player all combined into a single unit. Features of the HTS8100 include:

• Support for up to 1080p and Faroudja DCDi
• Support for Ambisound , Dolby Digital , DTS , Dolby Prologic II , Stereo
• Speaker Drivers: 2 x 1″ Soft Dome tweeters , 6 x 2.5″ Full Range woofers
• Subwoofer: 1 x 6.5″ Long Throw woofer
• Support for video compression formats: DivX 3.11 , DivX 4.x , DivX 5.x , DivX 6.0 , DivX Ultra , MPEG1 , MPEG2
• Plays back DVD-Video , DVD+R/+RW , DVD-R/-RW , Video CD/SVCD , CD-R/CD-RW

Here’s the verdict:

The HTS8100 is a solid performer and the surround technology does its job in a straightforward fashion that doesn’t require any learning curve in order to get it to work. This unit makes for a welcome addition where all the accouterments of a home theater are desired, but the room for including all the conventional components is not.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Philips, HTS8100 SoundBar DVD Home Theater, Digital Trends, Review