Philips makes big noise

By JUHA SAARINEN

Philips has launched a range of consumer electronics products locally, with everything from MP3 players to home theatre sound systems getting a makeover.

Projectors

On the display side, Philips showed the Bogart Matchline DLP projector, capable of 16:9 ratio widescreen, 800 ANSI lumens brightness and 1800:1 contrast ratio in a slender 1.6kg package. The price for the Bogart is somewhat heavyweight at $5000.

Television sets

A range of flat-screen televisions use LCD and gas-plasma display technologies. The top-of-the-line model is a 42-inch LCD screen, with Philips' AmbiLight (ambient lighting), Pixel2Plus image enhancement and sharpening technologies, at $15,000.

Next up, Philips will sell 50-inch and 42-inch plasma screens with similar features to the top-of-the-range LCD model, bar the sound-enhancement technology. The price for these is yet to be announced.

DVD recorders

Following up on Philips' DVD+R/+RW disc-only recorder is a hard disk-equipped model, the HDRW70. Thanks to the 80GB hard disk, Philips now has a DVD recorder which offers the time-slip feature popular with customers.

Philips expects the HDRW70 to be priced around $1600.

Personal audio

Personal audio players launched by Philips include MP3 players starting with 128-megabyte and 256-megabyte lightweight models retailing for $249 and $299 respectively.

On top of the scale was the Mini Jukebox, which fits an impressive two gigabytes of music in a tiny package. At an estimated retail price of $400 it will compete well against the mini iPod, which is yet to go on sale locally.

Hi-fi systems

Complete home entertainment systems, such as the $2000 LX9000R, were also launched. This six-speaker system delivering 75 watts RMS per channel is equipped with Dolby Digital and DTS decoders and can play back MP3 music.

Unusual features are the built-in subwoofers in the tall speakers, which require no stands for correct height positioning. The LX9000R also comes with a DVD recorder, making it a complete home entertainment solution.

For music only, Philips offers new mini and midi hi-fi systems, such as the $600 M589 with a 5-CD changer and 200-watt RMS output.

Both the M589 and its bigger brother, the $700 M779, which also has a 5-CD changer but 250-watt output, can be used to provide audio for computer and video games. Of course, they play back MP3s as well as CD music.

Streamium missing

There was no sight of the much-talked-about wireless Streamium media players, which share media across a wireless home network, connecting computers to home entertainment gear - the missing link for many users.

Philips at present has no plans to bring in the Streamium range.