Video – Philips Impressive AmbiLight Aurea LCD TV in Action

In truth, when we initially came across Philips AmbiLight technology we were somewhat sceptical as to whether it would genuinely add to the viewing experience or whether their AmbiLight technology was something that, however cool and desirable (dare I say ‘trendy’?), was merely an aesthetic embellishment that, in practice, serves merely as a rather gimmicky selling point – the question is, has this video put an end to our indecisiveness?

Well, yes and no, but, were we forced to fall one one particular side of the fence then we would have to say yes – but only in that it’s reaffirmed our initial scepticism.

Whilst, as far as the technology behind AmbiLight certainly appeals to us, we have to be honest that whilst we’re impressed by the beauty of it all, we still wonder whether having a picture frame that nine times out of ten is probably a great deal more interesting that the stimulus of the resulting colour show ultimately adds to the user experience or detracts from it.

Certainly, the video below of a Philips AmbiLight 42” Aurea LCD TV in action – showing a one minute promo especially commissioned by Philips from cult director Kar Wai – is impressive. It’s just that (and perhaps its just us) if you asked us what the film consisted of we would be hard pushed to answer on account of the fact that we were so captivated by the TV frame’s 126 LED powered light show that we barely took notice of the film. And surely, this defeats the entire object as the frame really ought not to be the focus of attention.

Perhaps, in my particular case, my Fine Art background is clouding my judgement but if I found that viewers of my work were more interested in the frame than what the frame surrounds then I could only come to one of the following conclusions; either the work is of no interest whatsoever or that the frame was hopelessly overstated to the point of dominating the subject matter.

In the case of the video below, we tend towards the latter. The LED driven light show is just too over powering, too gobsmackingly gorgeous for its own good.

Yes it’s cool. Yes it’s beautiful and yes we think the technology behind it is sheer brilliance, but the point about any frame is to encompass an image (still or animated) in a fashion that is both unobtrusive and non-detracting and, as much as it pains us to say it, this is something that AmbiLight pointedly fails to achieve (albeit that it does so in such spectacular fashion).

We’re still not convinced. Are you?

[Source | Gizmodo]