At CES earlier this month, Philips announced its new Eco TV.  What’s so interesting about another 42 inch flat-panel LCD you ask? This new television has the capability to dim its backlight by up to five times the maximum brightness when programming turns darker.  This features both saves power consumption and improves the black-level performance.  Imagine cleaner, crisper dark scene images and cost saving power levels.  Additionally the backlight can be dimmed by a room lighting sensor.  Overall, the dimming features in the Eco TV reduce the power usage to 75 watts, around 30 watts less than a standard 42” LCD. 

These dimming features can all be turned on and off, as the owner chooses so don’t flip out if you hate the idea of losing some of the image quality due to the black-level fluctuation. 

It is unclear how much money that will save the average consumer on their electric bill each month – it may just be $50 or so dollars. But in this time of economic fluctuation, every penny counts.

 For more on LCD flat panel televisions, read “LCD Flat Panel Televisions“