Philips 42PF9831 HD-ready LCD TV

Philips' Ambilight range goes supersized.

Philips' mammoth new 42-inch LCD telly can stream video and music directly from your PC. It's also the first TV to incorporate Ambilight Full Surround and ClearLCD technology.

A network port lets you zap DivX and XviD movies, photos and music from your PC to the TV - you can even do it wirelessly with an extra adapter, and it works very well.

Ambilight splits opinions in the T3 office. On this Full Surround model, a backlight on each edge of the screen shines onto the white backing board behind the TV (and your wall, if it's wall-mounted). It's a matter of personal taste whether you find it really enhances the experience or is just gimmickry, and there's no doubt that the backing board gives the set an odd appearance overall.

While its predecessor had 1,920 x 1,080 panels, this one reverts to a lower resolution (1,366 x 768), but the picture is actually markedly better than before.

ClearLCD technology uses a scanning backlight to kill motion blur stone dead, producing incredibly smooth pictures. We've never seen the final battle in Return of the King look as fantastic as it does here in upscaled DVD. The black levels are amazing for an LCD screen, and speckles of background noise are eliminated.

ClearLCD doesn't work on Hi-Def material because it's currently too processor-intensive. It still looks gorgeous anyway, but the mind boggles at what a ClearLCD HD picture could look like.

That can wait for the next generation of Philips screens; for now, this is the best humungo-screen LCD around. Can Sony's forthcoming X-series - which is capable of full 1080p video - possibly outdo it? Watch this space.