A urea TV?
are they taking the piss?
How in-your-face do you want your TV to be? Why not try one with a frame that lights up? This is not just Philips' Ambilight effect, this is second-gen Aurea, where the frame sprays multiple colours at you from the front too. So as the picture in a nature show switches from succulent leaves to a tiger’s face, so the frame …
I think they're more than a little mixed up at what "immersive" means.
Something that makes an intrusive aspect of a design less intrusive is not immersive.
"Distracting", maybe.
"Diversionary", possibly.
If there is anything "immersive" about the way this frame works it certainly doesn't come across in the review.
Mines the one with "Bravia" on the back, a Freeview HD decoder built in and lovely deep blacks without having to resort to tricks in the frame.
The ambilighting effect is one thing, love it or hate it, but the screen bezel just about making the screen look slightly bigger. Why not get a TV which has a couple of inches larger screen and a minimal amount of bezel? it will look much better and is probably cheaper than this one too.
You can easily get a 42" (or even 46") LCD TV with a great spec for a grand, from any number of reputable manufacturers.
By my reckoning that means Philips are charging about £1500 for some disco lights.
I can't imagine they'll be flying off the shelves in the middle of a global financial armageddon.
I have the first generation £3K Aurea 42" LCD hanging on my wall at home and I absolutely love it! I would never go back to a non-Ambilight TV and I only hope Philips are still producing Aurea models when I'm ready to upgrade in about 7-10 years! :) The pictures in this review don't do the Aurea justice, to be honest.
BTW I work in Financial IT (still!) :)
I have the first gen Aurea TV hanging on the wall in my living room. It's definitely a marmite like product in that it polarises opinion like no other TV. My kids (18 and 9) absolutely love it, whereas my wife is not so keen (but then she would have preferred a 14" portable tucked away in a cupboard somewhere). So admittedly, for the first few days we spent more time watching the bezel of the TV than the screen itself, but after that initial acclimatisation, the Aurea lightshow genuinely creates an immersive experience - so much so that I now find watching any other TV slightly soulless no matter how good the actual picture is (Pioneer plasmas included). I guess if you've made up your mind that the Aurea is rubbish or gimmicky then nobody is going to change your opinion, but if you're curious, I think you will be presently surprised about how good these TVs actually are.
Having said all that, £2,500 to £3,000 is way too expensive. But then again pricey and its marmite qualities means it will remain quite an exclusive product...
Oh one unexpected benefit - this year there is no need to string the Christmas lights up outside the house, instead I'll just leave the curtains open and light up the street...