Ultrawide LCD

By Scott Wilkinson • Posted: Mar 18, 2009

If CES 2009 was any indication, it looked like Philips was getting out of the consumer-electronics business, seeing as how the company had no booth or press conference this year. We know for sure it won't be selling TVs in North America, having reached a deal whereby Japanese electronics manufacturer Funai will market Philips and Magnavox TVs in the US and Canada while Philips concentrates on Europe and key emerging countries.

So it was a bit surprising that the Dutch megacorp recently announced a stunning innovation in LCD TVs—the world's first with an aspect ratio of 21:9 (2.33:1). This nearly matches the cinematic aspect ratio of 2.35:1, allowing it to display such movies without the hated black bars above and below the image.

Dubbed the Cinema 21:9, this TV's screen measures 56 inches diagonally with a native resolution of 2560x1080. An auto-formatting function can resize 16:9 material to fill the screen, or—thankfully—this function can be disabled to display everything in its native aspect ratio, sort of like an anamorphic lens being moved into and out of position on a front projector.

The Cinema 21:9 also sports Philips' three-sided Ambilight technology that projects light on the wall behind the TV. Normally, the light changes color and intensity according to the onscreen content, which is intended to "extend the picture beyond the confines of the screen."

I find this to be very distracting, so I'm very glad that, like other Philips Ambilight TVs, this one can be set to a constant color and intensity. Why not just turn it off if it's distracting? Because setting it to a static color and intensity lets it act as a "bias light," a light behind the TV that relieves eye strain when watching a bright image in a dark room. The color should be a specific shade of white technically known as D65, and the intensity should be 10 percent of the TV's peak-white light output. Fortunately, Ambilight can be set to match these criteria, but not without the right—and expensive—test tools and training.

I've reviewed a couple of Philips flat panels over the years, and I've not been all that impressed, especially with the menu system, which was poorly organized and obscured the image I was trying to tweak. The color and grayscale accuracy were okay, but the black levels were rather high, even on a plasma TV. On the plus side, I really like the Ambilight system when it's used as a bias light.

Currently in limited distribution in select European countries for 4000 Euros (over $5000 as of this writing), the 56-inch Cinema 21:9 is not scheduled to be introduced into the North American market, though that could change if demand and availability are sufficient. In any event, it's an important statement product that could point the way toward a future with ultrawide TVs made specifically for movies.

Comments

Submitted by Paul on March 19, 2009 - 6:22am.

Do non "scope" films simply get pillar boxed like Academy films do on 16:9 displays or do they get window boxed? If the former, I think this kind of TV might find a market in North America (I'd certainly consider one) but if it is the latter, I suspect it would dampen enthusiasm for such a display.

Submitted by Fred M on March 19, 2009 - 8:35am.

Scott, I'm using a "bias" light of sorts currently with my Pioneer plasma and it really does help relieve eye strain. My light is not actually behind the plasma, it is a floor lamp with a beautiful upturned Tiffany style glass enclosure The glass pieces are ivory, rust and other warm earthy tones. It sits about 2 ft to the left edge of the TV. A side benefit is Gina, who hates watching in the dark, sticks around longer and I, who thought I hated watching in the light, don't mind :)

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on March 19, 2009 - 11:08am.

Paul, I don't know for sure if non-scope movies are pillarboxed or windowboxed; it's very difficult getting any info from Philips on this product. From what I was able to glean, it does a pillarbox (aka constant height), which I agree is definitely the way to go. Fred, well, it's ain't a true bias light, but if it relieves eye strain and brings domestic bliss, I can't argue with that!

Submitted by Roy P on March 24, 2009 - 8:04pm.

Scott, I like this wide screen idea except for the lack of program sources to match the native resolution of the screen. Lacking source programs that are properly formatted to fit the screen's resolution, the set can stretch programs to fit. So what videophile wants to watch distorted images? That's like stretching 4:3 material on a 16:9 set, which I don't like to do.

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on March 25, 2009 - 6:16pm.

You are correct, there are no sources with 2560x1080 resolution, which means 2.35:1 movies must be processed to fill the screen. But that's exactly what a front projector with an anamorphic lens does, and plenty of videophiles go for that. The image is not distorted, but it could suffer from scaling artifacts. I don't know exactly how this TV does it

Submitted by Carey on April 11, 2009 - 5:37pm.

Scott, I think this new 21:9 format will be a great thing! Since the majority of movies are done in aspect ratios between 2.35 and 2.40, It will add another dimension to viewing those ratios without seeing horizontal the black bars. My question is when will there be pdf specs on Philips website? AND when will they be sending out those invitations for the showcase events?

Submitted by alan lovedog on April 12, 2009 - 10:52am.

i see problems here - for starters you'll be scaling your discs to something other than their native 1080p - if the discs stored 2.35:1 images as 2.35:1 then maybe that would work - but they dont

Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on April 13, 2009 - 7:39pm.

Alan, you're right that this TV must do some horizontal and vertical scaling to fill the screen with a 2.35 image. How well it does this is of primary concern and can't be known until we get to look at it up close. But because it's intended for the European market, at least for now, I don't expect to have that opportunity any time soon.

Submitted by Bill on April 24, 2009 - 7:29pm.

Great, yet another TV format that doesn't match a film format, going for "close enough" and losing picture content at the same time. Why the CE companies can't just come out with a 2.40:1 set already is a question I can't answer... :-(

Submitted by Johan on August 7, 2009 - 6:21am.

Hi there, I am from Belgium, ans saw these in several places already here. I can honestly tell you this is one amazing tv! Besides the great 21:9 format, it features a 1 ms response time.. and this for an LCD tv! The plasma guys should start to get worried here... I also always have asked myself the question why the 16:9 format was brought to live and not 21:9... And now I am waiting for the 3D tv (patented by Philips about 7 years ago and will show up very soon)...