I’m currently in the midst’s of a house move, one of the great benefits of which is I’ve been given “permission” to kit out the living room as a home cinema. From a gadget point of view this is great as it means I’ll need to get a load of new kit including:

• Flat Panel TV (Plasma or LCD, not sure which yet)
• New surround sound system
• Media PC (I’ll probably reuse an old one for this but Mac Minis do look cool)

Philips have some very nice looking LCD and plasma TVs that incorporate ambient light technology. I reckon any screen I go for will have to include this technology as it sounds (and looks) really cool:

Ambilight 4 makes an impressive contribution to the overall viewing experience and the design of the TV. It produces a fully surrounding glow of light that complements the colours and light intensity on all four sides of the image and with the unique design creates a ‘floating display’.

One of the models I’m considering is the Philips 42PF9831D/10, with it’s 42″ of viewing pleasure. I’ve checked out prices at both Currys and Dixons, with startling results:
Dixons: £2,489.86
Currys: £3,499.00
How Curry’s can charge an extra £1,009.14 (40%) for exactly the same model is mind boggling, so it’s certainly going to pay to shop around.

If any manufacturers or suppliers would like me to do an indepth review of their kit (which would include a couple of years worth of testing) please get in touch :).