With its wide black bezel, silvery speakers, and semitransparent stand, the Philips 42PF9631D 42-inch plasma HDTV is a graceful and imposing presence. If you walk around the unit, you’ll find more to admire: well-chosen, easy-to-reach inputs and outputs; a lighted remote; and the unusual Ambilight backlighting panels. The most important part of any television, though, is the picture it presents on its screen, and the 42PF9631D more than holds its own on that score. And despite its good image quality and luxurious trimmings, the 42PF9631D sells for a list price of $2399–not cheap, but not the steepest we’ve seen in this size, either (and street prices are often lower than list prices).Our test jurors found the 42PF9631D’s performance pleasing on DVD and standard-definition content, but we particularly liked its high-definition TV performance for its nice balance. This Philips model also stood out in our bright lights test, in which it led the pack for retaining its color and contrast well under bright lights. We did not test this model with its Ambilight feature enabled.

This has exactly the same 1024 x 1080 plasma panel as the Hitachi 42PD9700. However, the resulting tellies are actually “like two totally unalike things in a pod,” as Blackadder once said.Philips has included its Pixel Plus 2 HD technology, as well as the eye-catching Ambilight system, and the immediate result is a TV that looks and feels more luxurious. The Ambilight bathes the wall behind the TV in a dynamic coat of colour, shifting to match the tones on screen. Meanwhile, Pixel Plus 2 HD enhances the image on the screen.Past versions of Pixel Plus have had their drawbacks, the most serious being their tendency to make the image look distractingly hyper-real, but this has now been banished. Slight ripples appear around rapidly moving objects – a caribou running from a wolf in Planet Earth, for instance – but that’s really about as far as criticisms go.Another feature that everyone should take note of, is the Ambilight technology that it supports. Ambilight mimics an ambient-backlighting feature usually seen only on high-end custom installations of televisions. Lighting panels on the back of the right and left sides change color and intensity along with the action on the screen, projecting the colored light onto the wall behind the TV. Ambilight has five settings for various moods, such as Action (for action-packed movies or games) and Relaxed (pleasant for nature shows and so forth). When you use this feature, the difference is really amazing. Philips touts research results that suggest Ambilight prevents eyestrain in darkened rooms.

The Hitachi 42PD9700 is very pleasing on the eye with the black frame and stand perfectly offset by slim silver speakers either side. While there are those of you who prefer the all black minimalist design of some of its rivals, we feel the design of the 42PD9700 will stand the test of time and look like a modern addition to your living room even in a few years time.Hitachi’s Alternating Lighting of Surfaces (AliS) technology explains why this panel is not the strange shape you would imagine it to be. ALiS extends the surface area of the phosphor inside the display, and lights the gaps between the pixels to effectively deliver the 1080 lines of horizontal resolution.Connectivity on the 42PD9700 is quite impressive with 2 HDMI inputs, 3 Scarts, component, composite and S-video inputs. In addition there is an SD card slot for amongst other things, the display of your digital still photos.

Looks fantastic and feels very well built. Picture quality in HD mode is outstanding, and far better than my old pioneer – which I thought couldn’t be bettered. Price at present is amazing, you get a 2k set for just over £800. Give this set a good SD signal and the results can be very good .The up-scaling DVD players work a treat, and SD Sky still looks better than a normal tube TV . The Hitachi also has WOW factor and looks pretty cool in your TV room.This is one of the first plasma televisions to hit the market with a 1024 x 1080 resolution screen. This means that, in theory, 1080i Hi-Def material should look better, because – in the vertical direction, at least – it matches the screen line-for-line.Although its not what we have come to know as Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) the resolution of the 42PD9700 is unusual at 1,024 x 1,080. It will be interesting to see if the 1,080 horizontal lines will make a difference to picture quality with sources such as Sky TV (1080i).

Let’s suppose you’re a City high-flyer and you want a computer for your Docklands loft. Or perhaps you’re a hip and happening teenager who wants to watch TV and use the internet in the privacy of your bedroom. Maybe you’re a student who has moved away from home and you don’t have the space to house a TV and a PC. Whichever category you fall into, a beige tower PC simply isn’t acceptable and a laptop may not have a big enough screen to watch TV on, so you need something else.

Take a 19in TFT with a widescreen 1,680 x 1,050 aspect ratio and build a load of laptop technology into the casing. Add wireless controllers so you can control the Media Center PC as you lounge in your La-Z-Boy chair – that’s the Docklands options – or slump on your bed – teenagers, naturally. Sprinkle the package with some Sony styling and you’re good to go.Usability is a slightly different matter as the screen is rather on the small side for TV duties unless you’re sat quite close. Sony has installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002 SP2 which is entirely appropriate in this application, but there’s no avoiding the fact that the MCE remote control is intended for use with Microsoft’s 10ft interface. We found it necessary to be considerably closer to get the full benefit of the picture. Plonk the LA1 on your coffee table and you’ll find that it looks great but then we come to another annoyance: the optical mouse and keyboard, both wireless. These both look the part but we found the mouse was horribly erratic on anything but the smoothest surface. And we’ve no idea how you’d use it as you lounge in your armchair. The LA1 is crying out for a wireless keyboard with a trackball or touchpad, rather than a separate mouse.At its heart, there’s a fittingly powerful mobile Core 2 Duo T5600, with each core running at 1.83GHz. Backed by 1GB of RAM, it scored 1.08 in our benchmarks – easily enough to stream a video feed or two while editing images and recording TV in the background. It’s even possible to indulge in a spot of gaming – the Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 laptop part returned almost-playable scores of 15fps and 16fps in our demanding Far Cry and Call of Duty 2 tests. Yet another plus is the 802.11a/b/g WLAN.

The LA1 is clearly designed for buyers more concerned with what their PC will do right now rather than its potential as a hobby-box. Opening the system is a task in itself, with a dozen or so screws meaning the job takes around 15 minutes, and once the back is off you’re seriously limited in terms of upgrades. The hard disk is in a custom enclosure, secured with yet more screws, and the laptop-style optical drive is almost impossible to remove. The SODIMM RAM can be upgraded without taking off the rear panel, but both slots are already occupied.

ViewSonic VA1912WB is a 19? widescreen LCD with 16:10 wide-screen aspect ratio and ViewSonic Dynamic Structure technology accelerates video response for better video quality. Other specification include ClearMotiv fast 8ms video response, 300 nits of brightness, 500:1 contrast ratio, and 1440×900 optimum resolution which is perfect ideal match with Apple new MacBook Pro.
Sci-Tech Today reviewed ViewSonic VA1912WB and gave rating of 4 out of 5. Conclusion is that the ViewSonic VA1912WB can be a good choice for the right computer. The tilt screen, integrated stereo speakers, and digital circuitry provide the latest technology. If you are upgrading to a larger monitor or want to experience widescreen computing, this model is certainly worth checking out.

The ViewSonic VA1912 19″ LCD will impress you with its generous feature set and its budget friendly price. The 16:10 wide-screen aspect ratio provides more productive space for multiple windows, HD-format video and immersive gaming action. ViewSonic’s innovative Dynamic Structure technology accelerates video response for broadcast quality, seamless video.

VIEWSONIC Monitors: VA1912W 19″W/8MS/500: 1/DVI/VGA/SPK

VA1912W

ViewSonic

Category:

VIEWSONIC – LCD Monitors – Audio/Visual – Monitors

Our Part No.: VIE3128

Supplier Part No.: VA1912W

Product ID: 7007134

Product Name:

VA1912W 19″W/8MS/500: 1/DVI/VGA/SPK

Product Description:

VA1912W 19″W/8MS/500: 1/DVI/VGA/SPK.

19″ widescreen, silver/black, 1440×900 res, .

300cd/m2, 500: 1 contrast ratio, 8ms response rate.

analog, 1Wx2 speakers, 3 years warranty.

Samsung is showing off their LED-backlit LCD panel for European markets at IFA 2006. The LE40M91 40-inch 720p LCD has a 146% color gamut, 10,000:1 contrast ratio and 450 cd/m2 brightness rating. LED backlighting has been available in Sony’s Qualia line, but remained out of reach for most buyers due to its high price. Although Samsung didn’t release any pricing information earlier reports pegged the 40-inch LCD at about $3,000.

This TV also features Samsung’s 100hz technology, while inserting a frame between other two frames, they claim their motion adaptive technology helps reduce blurring without reducing brightness, clarity or color. They showed off two other new LCDs, a 40- and 46-inch (LE40F7/LE46F7) that don’t feature the LED backlighting or 100hz technology, but do have 1080p resolution, 6,000:1 contrast ratio,127% of the NTSC color gamut and 450 cd/m2 brightness, much like the upcoming 52-inch LN-S5296D. All three screens feature Samsung’s Wiselink “10-in-3″ technology which apparently allows for USB, memory card, printer and dual-HDMI connection.