Philips MiraVision
The coolest use of flat panel TV yet
There was a time when it was common for people to try to hide their TV sets in their livingrooms. It was commonplace for a household to have intricate cabinets with doors that opened to a TV. Entertainment centers are another common way to hide the TV in your house along with all the other AV gear you keep near the TV. Enter the age of the floor model TV, the TV and cabinet that seemed to just forgo covering the TV set at all. But the TV itself had already become an accepted piece of furniture that dominated the rest of the family room's dcor.
Now a new method of hiding your TV is being offered by Philip Philips TVs with its MiraVision LCD panels. These are flat panel LCD displays you literally hang on the wall with a picture frame around it that you can customize to fit your environment. When the TV is on, it's a high definition LCD display. When the TV is off it's a mirror. Get it? MiraVision is the ultimate way to hide the TV in your living space.
The award winning Philips product gives you options for greater flexibility on your wall space. The TV's electronics and wires are hidden behind the set using its sleek design. The incognito mirror set with the wires hidden properly will be completely unrecognizable as a TV; you'll think it's part of the room's design. The 23 inch model will convert the entire display area from a mirror to a TV at the press of a button. The MiraVision is also available in a 30 inch landscape model. The portrait model sets give you an added dimension of flexibility; you can have only certain portions of the screen to turn into a TV but the rest stays a mirror.
The sets are fully customizable. They come with a stock frame that can be removed and easily replaced by something that fits your decor. The MiraVision LCD panels can also be used as a computer monitor. Imagine having a mirror in the office you can toss a power Point Presentation onto to show colleagues.
Features
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- 60Hz Progressive Scan
- 1280 x 768 pixel resolution
- Includes Philips' own Digital Natural Motion
- DCDi Faroudja Resolution Enhancement
Input/Output
- 2 - S-video
- 15-pin DIN (PC output)
- Component
The Mirror TVs come in 17", 23" and 30" models. So far the design is only available in LCD flat panels. In October '04 the unique Philips design won a Good Housekeeping award as a top innovative product for the home. Although it's great implementation of stealth TV technology, it's sure to have a great looking set behind it too.
The image quality is top notch by all reviews of the set and with Philips proprietary technologies smoothing the progressive scan images and Faroudja video processing it's sure to have a fantastic picture. Lack of any HDCP digital inputs might affect flexibility as a pure home entertainment system. Component video is not a knock, however; digital connectivity doesn't necessarily mean the image quality is any better. The PC input is particularly cool and might just make this a good set to have anywhere you need a graphic display as a utilitarian capacity, like weather or traffic reports fed from a channel or a PC.
