Philips 42PF9966

Can this plasma light up your life and your wall?

It's not often that we see a new twist as weird as Philips' Ambilight feature. Why so zany? Well, it consists of a pair of narrow lights that are mounted at the rear of the company's gorgeous new plasma TV (pictured right), and they're able to change colour and intensity depending on what's currently being shown on the screen. This looks pretty darn tasty when projected onto your back wall, but Ambilight is far more than a showy gimmick - it's apparently been scientifically engineered to minimise glare and on-screen reflections while maximising contrast.

As odd as it might sound, it actually works very well. A bright scene means a bright Ambilight, while dim scenes produce very little backlight at all. Apparently, it also reduces eye strain, as the peaks and troughs in the contrast are reduced and your eye doesn't have to work so hard. It's also fully adjustable, allowing you to tweak the base colour and brightness to your own preference.

But this plasma has plenty more going on besides, not least in its Pixel Plus 2 image-processing system, which scales and sharpens the picture. It works incredibly effectively at times, especially when given a high-quality source to get its teeth into: the level of detail on show with DVDs such as The Lord of the Rings is mightily impressive, and the actual processing doesn't cause too many noticeable side effects. However, when processing a lower-standard source, such as a Freeview box, Pixel Plus 2 has a tendency to enhance digital noise - so Philips has included a handy and pretty effective progressive-scan mode that you can switch to. This doesn't increase detail at all, but it does give a smoother, silkier picture.

Like most plasmas, this model isn't particularly comfortable when displaying gradual shifts in colour brightness, and a fair bit of colour banding is visible in backgrounds and - during rapid movements - in character's faces. Pixel Plus 2 sometimes seems to make the latter more noticeable, but again you have the option of switching to progressive. While we're on the subject of rapid movements, we should also mention that the screen neatly sidesteps the issue of juddering during movement thanks to Digital Natural Motion, another piece of the Dutch firm's technical wizardry. Sound from the built-in speakers isn't bad, either.

Will this plasma light up your life? Yes, actually. Though quite pricey, the neat Ambilight feature coupled with the high standard of performance means this screen stands out from the pack - and definitely deserves a place on your credit card bill.

FEATURES
42-inch 16:9 screen. 1024 x 1024 pixels. 1000:1 contrast ratio. 1000cd/m2 brightness. DVI-I (component video-compatible), 3 Scarts, S-Video inputs.