Although Dutch manufacturer Philips chose not to exhibit at the recent Vegas CES, the company still had a major announcement up its sleeve.
It will be the first TV maker to introduce a 21:9 ratio screen. The model will be unveiled at a media event in London on January 29, and is being heralded as 'a new TV that is genuinely different to anything you have ever seen before'.
The screen is dubbed the Philips Cinema 21:9. It's an ultra widescreen LCD model that is capable of displaying 2.35:1 movies in their native aspect ratio.
Cinema 21:9 will be available with a screen measuring 56in diagonally. It will be bolstered by a three-sided Ambilight Spectra system. Says Philips: 'Traditional LCD TVs compromise on the 2.35:1 movie experience by distorting the picture to fill the screen, losing the full scope of the original shot, or by displaying the picture in letterbox format with black bars at the top and bottom. Cinema 21:9 solves these issues to give the viewer an uncompromised and absorbing cinematic viewing experience, never before available in the home.'
Philips consumer lifestyle senior VP of television marketing, Des Power, adds: 'With our unique Cinema 21:9 we have developed a television which takes you as close to the experience that you enjoy at the cinema as you can get without buying a ticket. We believe that to really become absorbed in watching a film at home consumers are looking for a real cinematic viewing experience, so we have launched the world's first cinema-proportioned TV screen perfectly complemented by our immersive Ambilight technology.'
Philips says that 16:9 programming will be 'adapted' to fill the screen. Other details, including panel resolution, have yet to be announced.
The revolutionary set will ship in the spring, but no price information has been given. Philips has produced a dedicated website to support the launch. Visit it here.
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21:9 display
Chipmonkmrl (London) (not verified) - 16 January 2009 - 5:59amAbout a year ago, maybe even 2, JVC were rumoured to be developing this idea, after consultation. I do recall reading a lot about this at that time on the net and maybe in this very mag (I rememeber seeing a picture of a JVC lacd with scissor marks running across the panel, and then showing a cut-down example!!)... In fact, it was a seriously proposition, but I've heard/seen no more since..
I like the idea, especially if you use a display primarily to watch MOVIES.... and prefer not to go the Projection route...
Problem the manufacturers have with 21:9 display is what to do about viewing 16:9 and 4:3 material... Can you imagine those EXTRA, E X T R A W I D E side Bars? Your screen would just love that....NOT!!! Maybe they could tart-up those bars, make them a little more appealing! Or, perhaps design some custom automatic panels to cover up those bars/unused spaces???
Personally, I could easily live with a smaller 4:3 native image, and 16:9 material would look ok with just narrower side bars, or be zoomed (a practise I'm not keen on due to the reduction in quality!).
And those scope movies... would look Fantastic, but to make this worthwhile, a very large screen is needed to make this a serious option, due to the shallow height against width ratio...
50/60" should be the starting point... 70/80" would be even better, and PLASMA would be even better still!!!! At least Philips are one of the very,very few brands of LCD panels that I can watch, enjoy and appreciate what wonders they have achieved with the technology... most lcd pannels leave me cold....
Movie lovers WILL appreciate losing them black bars (with the loss of resolution that THAT entails on a 16:9 display).... and just as long people will accept the acute ratio, I think there are people who would take this.... but NOT the MASS market....
Remember them still screaming and kicking when 16:9 panels and broadcasting came along???.... My parents ARE STILL screaming!! ("What's WRONG with SQUARE tv broadcasting on 405 LINES?!!".
What a pity I have just paid for my Panasonic PRO 65VX100 !!!!
Sounds like a great idea at
YellowSphere (not verified) - 16 January 2009 - 11:02amSounds like a great idea at first, but it can't really work in reality for a number of reasons.
The main one is the panel resolution, really. To get the best out of 2.35:1 blu-ray content, it would need to be 1920 pixels across and approximately 800 pixels high. This of course would mean that you lose detail on any 1920x1080 content that's 16:9 ratio. The other resolution option would be 2520x1080, and that would mean needing to rescale 2.35:1 content, which kind of defeats the point of the display, in my opinion. Let's bear in mind that the proportion of 2.35:1 to 1.85:1 films is probably around half-and-half too (maybe two thirds in favour of 2.35:1 these days).
Other likely, although less fundamental, problems are ambilight not working properly with non-native aspect material (People familiar with Aurea will know about this) and cost. It'll most likely cost as much as something like a Panasonic PT-AE3000 projector, a motorized 2.35:1 screen and a decent installation job. I know which I'd rather have.
Still admire Philips for actually having the balls to do it though.
Aren't they forgetting...
cerebros - 16 January 2009 - 9:40pmThat some films are wider still than 2.35:1? Haven't quite a few of Ridley Scott's recent films been 2.40:1? So you'd still get some black bars above and below.
16:9 is a good compromise between 4:3, 16:9 and the wider ratios. Apart from for people who watch only the wider ratio films I can't see this being of any interest.
Does this have a future?
Anonymous (not verified) - 16 January 2009 - 9:47pmI'm surprised at this, especially as Phillips have stopped selling TVs in the 'States. And didn't they have some consultants in a few years ago who advised them to pull out of the consumer market altogether as it was too competitive?
If this had come out a few years ago, it might have made an impact. Maybe they only expect to sell it in small numbers to people who just cannot stand black bars above/below the picture!
Or for profession use.
Love the idea. I'm guessing
Anonymous (not verified) - 17 January 2009 - 10:54amLove the idea.
I'm guessing the resolution will be pretty high ... 2560x something or maybe even 3840x1600. A companies have shown 3840 quad HD screen already (and I think they are on sale in the US??)
The other thing to remember is the screen will be LCD backlit ... the side black bars when showing 16:9 (or even 4:3) will be completely black and so this will work great in a darkened room.
The missus and I watch probably 75% movies - TV, and most of the films are 2.35. Plus, it's a newgadget, so therefore I must have this :D
Thanks Phillips
FM (not verified) - 17 January 2009 - 3:56pmFinally!!
This is the future, if you're into Blu-ray, you should also be excited about this.
Thank you Phillips for being the first to release this, hopefully other manufacturers will quickly follow in your shadow. (We need this in North America, sooner than later.)
What's the point? Unless all
Anonymous (not verified) - 20 January 2009 - 2:03pmWhat's the point?
Unless all you ever watch is 2.35:1 films and nothing less then you've nothing to gain from this. Even then you will still lose out in detail.
Definitely NOT the future and if like me you have blu ray then stick with 16:9, a much better 'one size fits' all' option.