HDTVs don’t come much more eye-popping than the Philips Cinema 21:9, a an LCD that takes the concept of widescreen to truly epic proportions – and we’ve got one sitting in our living room right now! Read on for our initial impressions and a bevy of cinemascopic photos.
The first thing that struck us is, unsurprisingly, the size and shape. While the Philips Cinema 21:9 is the same height as a 42-inch HDTV, it’s a 21:9 shape rather than 16:9, so the screen actually measures 56 inches from corner to corner. There’s no TV out there like it. Oh, and it’s big and heavy.
Stick on a true widescreen film and the black bars disappear, leaving you with just the picture. This looks particularly impressive with Blu-ray movies, but also works well with DVDs and Sky HD movies. The screen can automatically reformat itself for non-21:9 content like games and TV shows, but that will lead to some distortion – so of course you can add in bars at the left and right to view the source material in its correct shape.
There’s also Ambiliight Spectra backlighting tech which helps set the mood by painting the living room walls with coloured light, as well as built-in Wi-Fi for the web browser and Net TV service, which includes services like YouTube.
Keep an eye out for a full-on review of the Philips Cinema 21:9 shortly. In the meantime, take a look at the gallery shots above.
Out now | £4,500 | Philips
