Philips' Media Centre: geeky home cinema goes mainstream

By on 05 September 2005, 11:11am

Last week Crave left the torrid heat of London to hit Europe's biggest consumer electronics show -- the Berlin IFA. It's such a vast show that they only hold it once every two years, and as it's spread across 21 aircraft-hangar sized buildings, we needed the weekend to recover. It's open to the public and will continue to rock out until 7 September.

This year, the Philips stand is the must-see attraction of the show. The always-dependable Dutch company pulled out all the stops, with a gaggle of new products, concept gadgets that will hit the market in five years' time and a great look at how it envisions the future of high definition.

Crave was particularly excited to see Philips' media centre PC, as it's the first time the Dutch giant has tackled the sticky concept of a PC in the living room. Having said that, it looked similar to Hi-Grade's DMS II in design, and as it's based on Microsoft's Windows Media Center software, it will operate in a similar manner to most other models on the market.

So how does Philips plan to differentiate the MCP9350i from the many other Media Center PCs already available? Well, predictably, it's focused on the home cinema user, with dual TV tuners so you can record one channel while watching another, while also promising Digital Natural Motion processing, which will hopefully provide judder-free images. Thankfully, there's also a Scart Output, so you don't need a flat screen in order to use it.

Philips also showed off some cool tech in the form of a 3D LCD screen that made images stand out if you stood around 5m away -- the problem is that any closer and you felt like throwing up. The company also displayed its innovative electronic paper technology. Housed in a small handheld device with a small screen that rolled out sideways, it's ideal for showing Excel spreadsheets and emails. The 'Polymervision's' graphics were only basic, but the potential for those with an 'on-the-go' jones are immense. You can see a picture of a similar roll-up screen tech in News here.

The Philips stand was also a great place to see how high definition is shaping up, and how much it's all likely to cost you. The company has its own Blu-ray player already at the production stage, and paired with the new Cineos 42-inch LCD, it was more than enough to part you from your cash. With Ambilight technology (fluorescent strips that illuminate the back of the screen to make viewing easier on the eye), the 42-inch will cost you £3,800 -- expensive, but nothing compared to the investment required only a couple of years ago. If you can put up with the 32-inch model you can get one for the rather less wallet-busting figure of £2,300.

These TVs are so new that if they were children they'd still be in the maternity ward. Needless to say, Crave will be sneaking into the hospital to bring you a review soon, and we'll have more on new products from the IFA during the week. -GC