Philips' 56" Cinema 21:9 LCD HDTV Looks To Be the Real Deal

Do you hate how your HDTV creates upper and lower black space on your screen as it letter boxes content to approximate the aspect ratio of a wide-screen film? Myself, no. There are plenty of viewing option on most 16:9 HDTVs to deal with this. But then again I didn't know that I had a choice in the matter. With the increasing information coming out about Philips' 56" Cinema 21:9 LCD HDTV it would seem that the recent skepticism around the new unit can more or less be laid to rest, and choice is at hand.

The Cinema 21:9 is the world’s first cinema-proportioned LCD television and as such allows you to watch movies at home at the exact proportions as you would if you were sitting in a movie theater. Also, according to a press release, which is pretty much all the manufacturer supplied information available at the product website, the TVs formatting technology ensures that regular 16:9 content from sources such as TV broadcasts and games consoles are also adapted to fill the 21:9 screen. If there is no stretching involved that would be pretty slick and at 56" that should make for quite the viewing experience. The video below taken at the London-based launching does add a few details like the TV's 5 HDMI inputs, a tentative spring '09 release date and a price estimated at about 3,000 GBP, so just a little over $4,200. Beyond that we'll just have to see what we are getting beyond a different aspect ratio.

--Tom Milnes