Philips have announced two new additions to their range of 9000 LCD TV's: the 9704 and the 9604. I'm going to look at what, from Philips' press releases, looks to be one of the best full HD TV's to hit the market in quite some time.

Unfortunately, there are currently very few details available on the new 9700 series, but we already know that it will be one of their top end models, the inclusion of advanced LED backlighting will place a step up from the 9600 series.

So, what do we know about this new range flat panles from Philips? Rumours suggest that the Philips 9704 series (9700) will be available in 3 sizes: a 40-inch model, the Philips 40PFL9704, , a 46-inch model (46PFL9704) and, what is expected to the flaghship model, the 52-inch 52PFL9704. As yet, there has been no mention of 32 LCD models for this new range of televisions. Press release photos have been labelled as the 47PFL9704 (see photo below) but, as yet, no confrimation has been received.

Although some information is a bit thin on the ground, we do know some of the features that the 9704 will carry. The main feature of the 9704 models is Philips LED Lux. This innovative backlighting engine works by allowing independent LEDs to be dimmed to provide very high contrasts and very deep blacks. Philips are suggesting that the LCD screen is capable of a dynamic backlight value of 5,000,000:1, by far the highest seen so far.

Other features of the LED backlit 1080p LCD HDTV are 200Hz Clear LCD technology, 1ms response time, Ambilight Spectra 3, Perfect Natural Motion technology and, as with many of the more recent Philips models, the Perfect Pixel HD engine for image enhancement.

A new, and very welcome, feature of the Philips 9704 series is the built in Wi-Fi capability. This allows connection to your home network and the Internet, without the need of an Ethernet cable. Once networked, you can easily access and playback any media stored on your networked PCs via DNLA - streaming media made simple! Philips also seems intent on doing away with the need to access the internet from a PC. The Philips Net TV features allows you to access web sites and stream Internet videos direct to your television.

When designing the 9704, Philips decided to throw down the gauntlet to other LCD manufacturers: the TV's have fantastic connectivity options including 5 HDMI v1.3 inputs. Not only, as you can see from the photo, the new Philips 9700 Series looks amazing.

The Perfect Natural Motion feature gives you razor shapr images that are judder-free and are the perfect compliment when viewing 1080p/24 material.

On top of this, the 9704 will come with an integrated DVB-T/DVB-C/MPEG-4 HDTV receiver. I know that integrated receivers are pretty much standard but this looks set to the benchmark that other manufacturers need to hit.available.

Although Philips have produced yet another stunning HDTV they may not have it all their own way; companies such as Sony have a range of new LCD's that look set to go head to head with Philips.

The Sony KDL 40ZX1 and 40EX1 models not only pack a technological punch but they also look stunning. Like the 9704, they both deliver exceptionally high contrast ratios but also having matching features such as Wi-Fi connecitivity allowing to access media stored on your computer.

These full HD (1920 x 1080 resolution) Sony TV's are currently the thinnest models available on the market (the ZX1 is only 9.9mm thick although it only has four HDMI v1.3 ports) and should prove very popular with buyers. The big difference between Sony and Philips is that the 40ZX1 and 40EX1 are available to buy now so unless Philips produce something spectacular they will have an uphill battle to catch up.

We might not have a full list of the 9704's features but we do know what Sony have packed into the ZX1. Here's some specs on this model:

•  Wireless connectivity between the TV and devices such as Blu-Ray players.
• Ultra-smooth images during fast moving action thanks to MotionFlow 100Hz.
• Combination of BRAVIA Engine 2 and Advanced Contrast Enhancer deliver incredibly clear and defined pictures.
• Watch TV, movies and games in HD glory thanks to the 6.2 mega pixel resolution
• Simple TV menu navigation using the XrossMediaBar.
• Upload photos using the USB port and turn the TV it into a digital picture frame with Picture Frame Mode.
• 24p True Cinema lets you enjoy watching films how the director intended.
• BRAVIA Synch lets you control your entire home cinema set-up with a press of one button on the TV remote.
• Watch digital TV with the integrated SD digital tuner (MPEG-2, also receives analogue)

As you can see, Sony have entered the market with some impressive offerings. Can the Philips 9704 match up? Time will tell.