Philips 47PFL9632D Review

47in LCD Picture Sound Features Usability Value Philips have produced one of the best large screen LCD TV's. HD Ready: yes Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Rating: 91%

Reviewed: 24 December 2007

Design

Along with many other flat panel manufacturers, Philips have realised that style sells. The Philips 47PFL9632D introduces us to a subtle departure in style for the Dutch electronics manufacturer whose latest range of LCD TV's have evolved into high gloss units with slightly rounded corners.

Just as visually dramatic as previous LCD TV's, the slim outer grey 'grille-like' bezel on the 47PFL9632D along with wider inner glossy black screen frame will undoubtedly gain an instant following.

Features

The Philips 47PFL9632D is identical in terms of specification to its 52in and 37in siblings, and almost identical to the 32in model. What all of the larger screens share is a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. The screens Full HD resolution is able to map, pixel for pixel, the highest quality input onto the screen without the need for downscaling. Screens with a 1366 x 768 resolution would have to downscale a high quality input (e.g Sky's 1080i format) to fit.

	Screen: 47in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound System: Nicam Resolution: 1920 x 1080 Contrast Ratio: 8,000:1 Brightness: 550cd/m2 Other Features: Perfect Pixel Engine, HD Natural Motion, 100Hz Clear LCD. Sockets: 3 HDMI, 2 SCART, Component Video, Composite Video, PC input.

By rights, the latest incarnation of Philip's Picture Processing Engine should be Pixel Plus HD 4, but the Dutch manufacturer believes there has been enough technological development packed into this system to warrant a completely new name, 'Perfect Pixel Engine'

Perfect Pixel Engine, like previous picture processing technology from Philips, has been designed primarily to enhance picture sharpness with both High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition (SD) sources and improve natural detail and colour performance. A main element of this system, 'HD Natural Motion circuit' improves on 'Digital Natural Motion' by employing greater amounts of processing power to improve motion fluidity.

100Hz processing and 14-bit colour are the other main constituents of the new Perfect Pixel Engine. 100Hz processing inserts an extra picture frame into the equation to take the frame rate up from 50 fps (frames per second) to 100 fps, improving motion handling capabilities. 14-bit colour offers a much larger range of colours and potentially far more realistic and natural images.

The 47PFL9632 introduces a new version of Philip's acclaimed 'Ambilight' system which delivers light from the sides of the LCD screen to enhance/complement the current scene. With a fully back-lit LED (replacing the previous fluorescent source) which glows through the purpose built frame surrounding the LCD panel, with light actually shinning through the frame, Philips describes the effect as "bringing light and color to life in an unparalleled, highly visual and immersive fashion, drawing the audience into the full emotional experience".

Performance

On a larger screen, Full HD has the platform to show us what its all about. Of course, the screen itself has to be capable enough to take advantage of the configuration. With High Definition (HD) material on the 47PFL9632 we become immediately aware of its capabilities. We have come to expect excellent HD pictures on flat screens, but on the 47PFL9632 they are pristine. The quality of the screen along with Full HD produce a level and sharpness of detail not bettered by any LCD TV. Colours are superb, with a vibrancy and subtlety which makes the whole viewing experience full of realism and immensely enjoyable.

LCD Motion handling capabilities, for a long time placed firmly in the shade by Plasma screens are now giving their gas filled rivals a serious run for their money. The Philips 47PFL9632D while not a huge leap forward from the likes of Panasonic and Sony, and their take on 100Hz processing, is nevertheless a significant improvement in this respect, displaying a fluidity of motion not seen previously on an LCD TV.

Black levels are again at least a match for for the best large screen LCD TV's, and provide a platform for an incredibly rich and vibrant colour palette. 14-bit colour provides an exceptional range of colours which translate into highly realistic and wholly natural images even with tricky skin tones.

Before we get too carried away, we have to point out that black levels are still behind the best that plasma technology can offer, and motion handling capabilities, although impressive, will not appeal to everyone. Many of you out there prefer the more natural motion handling capabilities of plasma, while LCD can appear over processed and just too vivid.

Switch to Standard Definition (SD) material and the 47PFL9632 is a very competent rather than an outstanding performer. It is a mark of how far flat panel technology has come that we were not overly impressed with SD on this panel. The performance in this respect does not encroach to any great degree on the viewing experience, but pictures to show the odd signs of video noise especially with lower quality Freeview material. The best SD performers of course are more expensive, and the 47PFL9632D while not falling into the budget category of LCD TV is one of the best SD performers for its price.

Conclusion

The 47PFL9632D is not perfect, but is arguably good enough to be at the head of an elite leading pack of 40in + LCD TV's.

http://www.hdtvorg.co.uk/reviews/lcd/philips_47pfl9632d.htm

DNA origami

Nanoscale folding of DNA, also known as DNA origami, was pioneered by Paul Rothemund at California Institute of Technology. The process allows researchers to create arbitrary two-dimensional shapes at the nanoscale using DNA. Novel designs have included the smiley face and a coarse map of North America. DNA origami was the cover story of Nature on March 15, 2006.

Rothemund's process involves the folding of a single long strand of viral DNA aided by several smaller "staple" strands. These strands serve to provide structural support for the larger design. To be used in DNA origami, images must be able to be drawn using a single long DNA molecule. The design is then fed into a computer program, which calculates the placement of individual staple strands. Each staple binds to a specific region of the DNA template, conferring the property of self-asssmbly to the process.

The output of the process is an image composed of pixels roughly 6nm in size. Designs are directly observable via atomic force microscopy.

In his paper, Rothemund conjectures that it may be possible to extend his raster-filling layer process to three dimensions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_origami

DNA nanotechnology

DNA nanotechnology is a subfield of nanotechnology which seeks to use the unique molecular recognition properties of DNA and other nucleic acids to create novel, controllable structures out of DNA. The DNA is thus used as a structural material rather than as a carrier of biological information, making it an example of bionanotechnology. This has possible applications in molecular self-assembly and in DNA computing.

Introduction: DNA crossover molecules

Structure of the 4-arm junction.
Left: A schematic. Right: A more realistic model.^[1]
Each of the four separate DNA single strands are shown in different colors.

A double-crossover (DX) molecule. This molecule consists of five DNA single strands which form two antiparallel double-helical domains, on the left and the right in this image. There are two crossover points where the strands cross from one domain into the other. Image from Mao, 2004. [1]

DNA nanotechnology makes use of branched DNA structures to create DNA complexes with useful properties. DNA is normally a linear molecule, in that its axis is unbranched. However, DNA molecules containing junctions can also be made. For example, a four-arm junction can be made using four individual DNA strands which are complementary to each other in the correct pattern. Due to Watson-Crick base pairing, only portions of the strands which are complementary to each other will attach to each other to form duplex DNA. This four-arm junction is an immoble form of a Holliday junction.

Junctions can be used in more complex molecules. The most important of these is the "double-crossover" or DX motif. Here, two antiparallel DNA duplexes lie next to each other, and share two junction points where strands cross from one duplex into the other. This molecule has the advantage that the junction points are now constrained to a single orientation as opposed to being flexible as in the four-arm junction. This makes the DX motif suitible as a structural building block for larger DNA complexes.^[2]

Tile-based arrays

Assembly of a DX array. Each bar represents a double-helical domain of DNA, with the shapes representing comlimentary sticky ends. The DX molecule at top will combine into the two-dimensional DNA array shown at bottom. Image from Mao, 2004. [2]

DX arrays

DX molecules can be equipped with sticky ends in order to combine them into a two-dimenstional periodic lattice. Each DX molecule has four termini, one at each end of the two double-helical domains, and these can be equipped with sticky ends that program them to combine into a specific pattern. More than one type of DX can be used which can be made to arrange in rows or any other tessellated pattern. They thus form extended flat sheets which are essentiallt two-dimensional crystals of DNA.^[3]

DNA nanotubes

In addition to flat sheets, DX arrays have been made to form hollow tubes of 4-20 nm diameter. These have been dubbed DNA nanotubes by analogy with the similarly-shaped carbon nanotubes.^[4]

Other tile arrays

Two-dimensional arrays have been made out of other motifs as well, including the Holliday junction rhombus array as well as various DX-based arrays in the shapes of triangles and hexagons.^[5] Another motif, the six-helix bundle, has the ability to form three-dimensional DNA arrays as well.^[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_nanotechnology