Philips doubles up with both passive & active 3D TVs, new Blu-ray players in Europe
We got a peek at what the Philips/Funai combo has in store for North America during CES, but at today's Philips Pulse event in Barcelona it showed off even more of its 2011 plans. Most distinctively, while it's using FPR passive 3D glasses technology (calling it Easy 3D) in some of its new TVs just like LG & Vizio, it will break from those two by continuing to offer active shutter displays as well, branded 3D Max. If your main interest is one of those sweet 21:9 ultrawidescreen displays (pictured above) you can get it either way as a Gold or Platinum series product while the regular 16:9 sets are divided with the 7000 series featuring Easy 3D and 3D Max slotted for higher end 8000 and 9000 series products. All of the TVs mentioned here and higher end (7000, 5000 series) Blu-ray players include Smart TV features which means Net TV apps including catch-up TV where applicable, recording to USB, sharing from media from WiFi-connected devices and the ability to control the device with a Philips app on your iOS or Android phone. Check the press site for more details, model numbers and the like, but there's no word yet on pricing or availability.
