Philips "Carousel" short shows what you're missing without Cinema 21:9 and Ambilight

by Richard Lawler posted Apr 16th 2009 at 1:12PM

We'll definitely be missing Philips UltraWidescreen 21:9 display with no U.S. release in the plans, but buyers world wide who need a bit of a convincer to drop the €4,000 need only check out the new Cinema "interactive movie." The 2+ minute feature takes you through a fictional movie setup with director, FX supervisor and director of photography chiming in on the importance of cinema widescreen. The interactive bit comes into play as the viewer can switch between 16:9 and turn Ambilight on and off on a simulated screen playing the flick. Cinema 21:9 launches this month in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Russia, the trailer is embedded after the break (live demo video is here), check it out and let us know if you're ready to come out of pocket for this 2560x1080p beast.

Gallery: Philips gives Cinema 21:9 HDTV a price and release date

Filed under: Displays, Philips, LCD

Tags: ambilight, cinema, cinema 219, Cinema219, lcd, philips, ultra widescreen, UltraWidescreen

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Ini @ Apr 16th 2009 2:18PM

I wouldn't mind living in that place.

Highest Ranked

S4Rs @ Apr 16th 2009 2:30PM

What kind of a jackass has a chaise for a couch?
Got neck cramps buddy?

Neutral

THizzle7XU @ Apr 16th 2009 8:10PM

It looks like he set up shop in a hallway.

Anyways, that TV does look quite nice...

Neutral

Eddie @ Apr 16th 2009 2:36PM

Where's all of the wires?

Neutral

John @ Apr 16th 2009 2:48PM

Shhhh.... they didn't want me to say anything about that but the wires are really not their. It works on the power of your imagination.

Neutral

Mike @ Apr 16th 2009 3:21PM

Obviously, the wiring is all behind the tv. That is why the sound doesn't work, but the tv does. haha!

Neutral

Jon @ Apr 16th 2009 3:00PM

Im sorry unless that TV is 100" that wide view is just to small .. To much wall around it

Neutral

phatounet @ Apr 16th 2009 3:05PM

Is that really how a 7.1 should be setup?

Neutral

soundgy @ Apr 16th 2009 3:38PM

Not at all

Neutral

zero_lift @ Apr 16th 2009 3:48PM

Here is the link to the website: www.philips.com/cinema

Neutral

Covarr @ Apr 16th 2009 3:47PM

Unless you're only ever going to watch 21:9 content, this is a bad solution. A 16:9 screen is a good compromise between 4:3 and ultra-mega-widescreen, this is not. Actually, if you're that concerned, you should have a light-controlled room, a projector and one of those projector screens that can crop the top and bottom so that no excess light reaches them.

A 21:9 TV is simply not worth it, unless you WANT 4:3 content to be super small.

Neutral

Joe T. @ Apr 17th 2009 10:05AM

This is called CIH (Constant Image Height), and it works the same as your local cineplex. That is, the picture will always be the same height regardless of aspect ratio, but the wider that source material, the wider the picture. Plenty of people have been doing them with home front projectors and anamorphic lenses. Screen masking also becomes simpler as the screen is only masked on the sides.

Neutral

Covarr @ Apr 17th 2009 12:36PM

I made a response with lots of math that explains that for the same height as a 52" diagonal 16:9 screen, a 21:9 would need to be 64". That's way more expensive, and provides no benefit for anything less wide than 16:9.

For some reason, my original reply didn't show up, and I don't feel like doing the math again. Suffice it to say that once you get into the price and horizontal size range that a screen with a 64" diagonal would be, it becomes more worth it to buy a projector instead of an ultra wide screen.

Neutral

MGD_drinker @ Apr 16th 2009 9:08PM

Checkout that Stealth Nighthawk F-117 Fighter by the back speakers. Cool.

Neutral

MGD_drinker @ Apr 16th 2009 9:10PM

Check out that Stealth Nighthawk F-117 Fighter by the rear speakers. Cool.

Neutral

tothamax @ Apr 16th 2009 9:19PM

Barely anyone in America would want that thing in their house. When 16:9 HDTVs are flourishing, Philips rolls out with this and says, "Hey your HDTV just isn't wide enough. You need a wider TV!" Big deal! Europe can keep that stupid TV as it's not going in my bedroom! Soon Philips will make an even wider TV that'll go on the wall or sit on the shelf of any room wide enough.

Neutral

Daimyo Nintendo @ Apr 16th 2009 11:33PM

Yea but for 16:9 you will have black bars on the side. Its a nice TV but after forcing people to go from 4:3 to 16:9 you want us to make a jump to 21:9!? Not going to happen until ALL MOVIES are filmed in 21:9. Some of my widescreen movies have black bars, some don't and the ones that don't fit so nice on the 16:9 screen. Personally I think the 21:9 TV is too narrow as the 4:3 TV was too square, the 16:9 TV offers wide screen and size. Again we have widescreen, anamorphic widescreen, letterbox, its annoying, I would like Hollywood or the world organization of motion pictures or whatever the hell its called to work in tandem with Television companies and decide on one freaking format for the next 100 years lol. Resolution can go up, but keep the damed size the same. I do prefer the 21:9 but no not yet, I am not sold. But I would be sold on 21:9 way before I am sold on 3D TV's and movies, I don't want to wear glasses just to watch a 3D movie, 3D is not that important to me.

Neutral

Covarr @ Apr 17th 2009 10:52AM

Movie directors intentionally choose different aspect ratios. This allows much more room for creative choices. It would not be a good thing to make them all use the same aspect ratio. Take a film class, and maybe you'll understand.

Neutral

Information Central @ Apr 17th 2009 12:59AM

What a pointless product. There isn't a consumer delivery medium that supports this aspect ratio, so there's nothing to play on it. Even if you had a widescreen movie in a 16:9 letterbox, you'd have to blow it up to fill this screen, and that's going to look like crap.

Unbelievable.

Neutral

John @ Apr 19th 2009 9:26PM

Actually, 21:9 is equivalent to 2.35:1 aspect ratio that many movies are shot in.

Neutral

Information Central @ Apr 20th 2009 3:06AM

Yes, the movies are shot in that aspect ratio. But they aren't delivered that way on any consumer format. At best, they're letterboxed in a 16:9 frame, which, again, would require zooming in and losing a lot of resolution.

Neutral

Joseph @ Apr 17th 2009 2:39AM

The web demo provides these details:

"Coming soon, the world’s first truly cinematic TV that perfectly matches the original 2.39:1 movie format used by directors. Over 60% of DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies support the 2.39:1 movie format. That means no more annoying black bars on this ultra widescreen TV. No picture loss. Just movies the way the director wanted you to see them. As our top of the range TV, Cinema 21:9 offers a 56 inch ultra wide screen with Ambilight Spectra 3 and Perfect Pixel HD Engine to maximize the cinematic feeling. Plus with Net TV you can enjoy some of the best websites tailored to fit your TV."

This would be a nice feature... for plasma! LCD picture quality is still not up to plasma, so I would not be interested in the set unless Philips (or someone else) were to produce a 21:9 plasma model.

Neutral

Covarr @ Apr 17th 2009 10:54AM

Their biggest 21:9 TV is less tall than a 52" 16:9 TV. That means that everything except super wide content is going to be SMALLER than on quite a few 16:9 TVs.

Neutral

ian9outof10 @ Apr 17th 2009 6:20AM

Wow, their own advert shows how idiotic their decision not to include a bottom mounted ambilight is.

Highly Ranked

El Capitaine @ Apr 19th 2009 10:36PM

I just want to see an idiot throw some 4:3 content on there and use stretch.

Neutral

Jan @ Apr 22nd 2009 12:07PM

Having seen it at a Philips dealer training I do have to say it's impressive with Blu-ray. It looked far less interesting with an Xbox 360 playing some games.

However, 4:3 images are stretched to 16:9, so you have a two nice black bars to the sides when watching 4:3 images. 16:9 ofcourse is stretched to 21:9, which looked very odd.

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