While our primary drool allotment will be directed at Philips' new 8mm LCD concept, Philips also has some new for-realsies LCDs here at IFA potentially worth your time. Leading off the pack is the LED-backlit 42PFL9803 FlatTV (pictured), a 42-inch set with 128 segments of LED for a purported 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio. The set runs at 100Hz, has a 17-bit "Color Booster" for a wide gamut, and even does a bit of 2nd gen Ambilight for good measure. Essence (42PES0001) is another 42-inch, 1080p display, but stakes its claim on thinness, measuring 38mm (1.5-inches) deep, and has a single cable running to a connectivity hub which doles out the audio, video and power. 100Hz and wide color gamut are all here. Finally, Philips is doing up a new generation of Aurea sets with new 37-inch and 42-inch 1080p displays, which offer up "Active Frame" transparent frames to reflect the Ambilight surrounding the set. The displays also offer 100Hz, 30,000:1 contrast ratios and 2ms response times. No word on price or availability for any of these, which is starting to sound like the official theme of IFA 2008.

One thing's for sure: DLO's pretty attached to its HomeDock brand, and evidently it could care less about just how confusing these naming schemes are to customers. Let's clear some cobwebs real quick -- this isn't the HomeDock Pro, nor is it the HomeDock HD. Rather, it's the HomeDock HD Pro, a glorious combination of the two (or something). Aimed at home theater enthusiasts and home installers alike, this upscaling iPod dock takes stored content to 720p or 1080i over HDMI, and you'll also find an HDMI extension socket, optical digital audio port, RS-232 control connector and IR output for supporting universal remotes. Expect this one to set you back $399 when it arrives this fall. Full release after the jump.

We can't say for certain that this is the Essence TV we heard rumored last week, but we wouldn't be shocked one iota if it were. The Philips 42PFL9803, which has actually be around in at least name since earlier this summer, has just been granted an EISA award. The LED-backlit 42-inch HDTV reportedly features a 2,000,000:1 (dynamic) contrast ratio, the company's own LUX LED technology and a jaw-dropping €2,999.99 ($4,407) price tag. We're hearing it's on track for a September release, but hopefully IFA will confirm / deny.

Let's be honest -- it's been quite awhile since Philips has been seen as a big-shot in the world of HDTVs. Evidently the company is aiming to change all that in just a few weeks, as a fresh rumor puts a stunning new set on display at IFA. Reportedly, the lightweight 42-inch Essence TV will boast a 38-millimeter depth and will be made for wall hanging. Regrettably, that's all the details that have seeped out thus far, but we'll be finding out just how much truth there is to all of this in a fortnight.

São Paulo, Brazil stand up, you're first in line for auto-stereoscopic (read: no glasses) 3D IPTV broadcasts courtesy of Telefónica/TVA and, we assume, that swank WOWvx-powered 1080p 52-inch Philips 3D HDTV promised to hit shelves by year end. Fortunately it now has a price, unfortunately, that price is €18,000 and requires you live in the Jardins neighborhood, hooked up to its fiber network in order to have the capacity to suck down all that 3D. Consumer accessibility is pegged at "inside three or four years", so you start saving, the SMPTE will figure out how to make it all work, and we'll sit back and remember how awesome Captain EO was that one time at Epcot Center. Everyone has to do their part.

Check it -- our brethren over at Engadget Classic wound up on an elevator heading skyward to a room filled with Philips and DLO gear. Yep, most of that new kit introduced earlier today was on hand, so head on over and take a gander at what they found.

It's right around the midway point between last CES and the one to come, and for Philips, that means it's time to dump a few new HDTVs onto the unsuspecting public. Announced today from atop a New York City hotel, the outfit got official with its 5000, 7000 and Eco series of LCD HDTVs. The 5000 FlatTV lineup includes 32- ($799), 42- ($1,799), 47- ($2,099) and 52-inch ($2,899) flavors, all of which are bathed in glossy black and feature HDMI 1.3a inputs. The Eco sets tout "several power-saving features such as a proprietary dimming technology" and arrive in 42-, 47- and 52-inch sizes ($1,099 to $2,299). Lastly, the 7000 Series ($1,699 to $2,699) -- or Ultimate TVs, as Philips likes to say -- offers up 120Hz ClearLCD / Perfect Pixel HD technology, an "invisible" speaker system and four HDMI-CEC connectors. For what it's worth, Philips is also re-introducing its Profile 1.1-compliant BDP7200 Blu-ray player, which has already been reviewed and brushed aside in anticipation of fresher Profile 2.0 decks.

Whittling down the amount of remotes in one's living room has long since been a challenge for the amateur home theater builder, and while there are some decent universal solutions on the market, the RF4CE Consortium is hoping to make things painfully simple. The group has been formed in order to "drive the adoption of an open radio frequency (RF) entertainment control specification based on IEEE 802.15.4." If you'll recall, this isn't the first time we've heard that standard called, as it's also used in MaxStream's XBee Xtender. Notably, Freescale is hoping to incorporate its Synkro technology into the specification, and in an ideal world, we'd see said protocol filter into DVD players, AV receivers, set-top-boxes and all manners of components. Let the IR-to-RF transition begin, we say.

Read - Sony's RF4CE Consortium release
Read - Freescale's RF4CE Consortium release

It's no secret the rest of the display industry hasn't been happy with Vizio shaking up the low end with its cheap HDTVs, and now Mitsubishi and others have joined in a lawsuit accusing the manufacturer of refusing to license necessary patents. The 15 patents allegedly violated are for MPEG-2 compression that Mitsu, Sony, Samsung, Philips, Thomson, JVC and Columbia University of New York claim Vizio refuses to license. Vizio says it don't need no stinking licenses, since its suppliers already have them and it believes these licenses extend to its products. MPEG-LA also filed a similar suit against Target's TruTech house brand of televisions; while we'll have to wait for a ruling on the case to see who is right, it seems if they can't compete with these lower prices, other manufacturers will make sure cheap HDTVs cost more to make. For its part, Vizio says it does not believe this suit will have a materially adverse impact on its business, so for now, let the low-price flat screens roll.

Read - Mitsubishi, Samsung Sue Vizio Over Video Patents
Read - VIZIO Comments on MPEG-2 Lawsuit By Electronics Competitors

It's no nightmare -- 3D is officially in style. Or it's succeeding in fooling us, one or the other. Further proof that taking things to the third-dimension is all the rage has arrived courtesy of Philips, who has announced its intentions to reveal a 1080p 52-inch 3D display at InfoComm later this month. The unit will utilize the same WOWvx technology showcased a year prior in its 20-inch display, and will feature 700 cd/m2 brightness, a 2,000:1 contrast ratio and an 8-millisecond response time. The auto-stereoscopic display should be "commercially available from Q4 2008 onwards," but we haven't a clue how costly it'll be when it eventually lands.

[Via SlashGear]

Just because Philips has hit some rough water with its TV products and even handed over the US production to Funai, that doesn't mean it's given up. Getting rolled out in the UK is the Ambilight 9600-series LCD TVs. While we're not fans of the Ambilight, the other improvements to the panels sound good to us. An updated Pixel Perfect HD system promises better black levels and contrast, and 100Hz (double the UK 50Hz mains frequency) Clear LCD wizardry should help minimize motion blur; at least as much as 120Hz does here in the US. If you need even deeper blacks, the new backlight can be dialed right down to 5-percent. If sunglasses are your thing, the torch mode on the backlight has been increased by 10-percent. Sounds good, but we'd like to see Philips bring its higher end models like these to the states for our peepers. The models we've seen over here don't exactly stop us in our tracks. Available in 32, 37, 42 and 47-inch sizes for £999, £1499, £1799 and £1999, respectively.

You know what they say: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Such is the unfortunate case with Philips' 42PFL5603D, which possesses quite a stunning enclosure and an eco-friendly design, but falls short in the areas that matter most. According to a recent CNET review, this 42-incher "consumed less energy than any flat-panel TV" it had ever tested, and keeping with the positives, they found the colors to be accurate and a solid port assortment with 4 HDMI sockets. As you'll see, the cons list is quite a bit longer, as the black levels were noticeably light, darker areas tended toward blue, de-judder processing introduced "artifacts" and the off-angle viewing wasn't exactly up to snuff. In the end, it managed to garner a rather low 6.2 out of 10, and unless you're willing to put Mother Earth above image quality (no pressure or anything), we'd probably suggest looking elsewhere.

Recent activity is making 2009 look like the year when manufacturers will be leaving the plasma party en masse, for sure. Even if the number of brands on the shelves isn't greatly diminished, the number of independent manufacturers will be. Since Philips has continued to reduce its stake in the LCD production venture with LG and handed over North American production to Funai, it'd be no great surprise to see it exit the plasma biz. Just like every party, sometimes the really crazy stuff happens in the wee hours, after the initial exodus; we'll see next year if plasma goes out strong or sad.

[Via TGDaily]

It's no shock that Profile 1.1 players have lost their luster with Profile 2.0 being all the rage, but we figured it prudent to pass along CNET's recent review of the CES-announced BDP7200 just in case. Philips' BD player features a fresh, attractive design, supports Dolby TrueHD / DTS-HD Master Audio in bit-stream format and performed excellently in 1080p24. So, what's the problem, you ask? Unfortunately, there's no onboard decoding of the previously mentioned audio codecs, no Ethernet port for firmware upgrades, an inability to understand Profile 2.0 and "subpar image quality in standard 1080p mode." All in all, the 6.4 out of 10 rating screams "mixed bag" to us, and while this particular device may actually be right for some, we'd certainly take a gander at the review linked below before diving on in.