Philips 21:9 3D TV: a New Range of 9000 Series Screens
3D adds another level to 21:9 TV…
At the recent IFA technology expo In Berlin. Philips unveiled the second generation of its groundbreaking 21:9 TV and a new range of 9000 series screens, all sporting3D. However, a week
before the world’s journalists clapped eyes on the products. We enjoyed an exclusive preview, getting up close and personal
to the TVs before they were packed up and shipped to the show. What became clear from our briefing was that, while Philips may have come late to the 3D party, it stilt has the technology to make quite an entrance.
For many, finding out that the Netherland’s biggest AV brand conducts its R&D in Belgium would come as a shock. But in a squat, drab building in the Industrial north of Bruges. its engineers beaver away on new display technology before the screens are assembled elsewhere.
Heading up this operation is Danny Tack, Philips enthusiastic, effervescent technical director. Tack is more than eager to show off
the new 2010 range of 3D screens, confident that his brand has outperformed the competition in what is a rapidly developing market.
What’s new and different?
Last year’s 21:9 TV was a truly innovative product, and stole the Best TV 52-inch and Over category at the HCC awards. What Is immediately apparent is that the second-generation version is much better.
Firstly. it’s bigger (a 58-inch screen rather than a 56-inch) and benefits from a far more considered design. The bezel, previously quite a thick gloss black affair, has been slimmed down and given a brushed matt finish. The low slung speakers have been hidden away,too. Finally, this is a premium product with a premium design to match.
The improvements are, of course, more than skin deep, 2010′s 21:9 uses a full array of locally dimmable LEDs to illuminate its panel, where the original was a CCFL device. And then there’s the big change: this new screen is 3D-ready.
In use, Philips extended R&D seems to have paid dividends. The Direct LEO backlight gives3D images a good level of brightness, something close to Tack’s heart. ‘If you don’t have light, you can’t make a good picture,’ he tells me. Crosstalk, too, is reduced, thanks to the localized dimming of the 21:9′s multiple LEDs and the 400Hz panel. The backlight is controlled to only illuminate areas of the picture where the pixels have settled. That’s the theory anyway; during a run through of a ToyStory 3 sequence, crosstalk was still apparent.
On the other hand, the combination of the 21:9ratio screen, four-sided Ambilight and Full HD 3D material proves so captivating that you might not even notice.
Life saving spex
The second-gen 21:9 will sell for around €4,000, with integrated 3D signal emitter and two pairs of glasses. The latter are made in consultation with Xpand. Lightweight and reasonably comfortable (we’d need to spend longer with them to see if they become tiring), their neat touch lies in the fact that there’s no on/off button. Instead, the spex take their cue from the TV: they spring into life when a 3D signal is active and shut down when the signal stops. This should reducebattery drain on the quoted 270-hour life.
Philips 3D screens at present eschew any2D-30 conversion wizardry, something that is becoming a hot topic, especially with Panasonic’s recent announcement that it is introducing conversion to its US 3D plasmas.
Tack knows this could be an issue: ‘Not to have It is a danger – it’s a good tick mark. Next year we will do it, but it has to be good quality.’
Another omission from Philips’ 21:9 and all its new 2010 panels, is their lack of Freeview HD tuners At a time when all its major rivals are packing DVB-T2 chips in their flat panels, the Philips range remains resolutely SD where broadcast TV is concerned. However, according to Tina Withington, Philips UK PR manager, this isn’t due to any hold up in the supply chain: ‘We simply underestimated the take off of Freeview HD in the UK’ Withington doubts whether many consumers really need integrated Freeview HD, pointing to the vast numbers who already have an HD broadcast source. Certainly, at the higher end of the range, we can see her point. Any buyer of the 21:9 or 9000 series would probably already be a subscriber to Sky or VirginMedia. However, at the other end of the spectrum,where Freeview HD has quickly become a major selling point, Philips’ TVs may struggle. Chips will be integrated across the range in 2011, however.
The 21:9 represents the pinnacle of Philips’ TV range, but the regularly-shaped 9000 Series will also turn heads this year. Alongside being 30 ready (Philips is adopting the external transmitter/glasses bundle approach for these screens) it boasts the new top-of-the-range Perfect Pixel HD processing engine. 400Hztechnology. 1,792 LEDs in 224 segments for local dimming. ISF calibration and a claimed 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 0.5ms response time.
Deep inside Philips’ Centre of Competence. Danny Tack gave a variety of demos with the 9000 series. He compared his flagship TV with rival models from Samsung. Sharp, LG and Sony (with the latter screen, an 803 model, only arriving at the factory the day before). Interestingly, the demos were conducted with the screens’ vivid/dynamic modes and frame rate enhancement tech activated. This is because vivid mode, according to Philips’ research, is the one consumers prefer (but certainly not us).
With his range of TVs. Tack showed off 1 the pure processing power of the 9000 series, delivering images and videos that seemed sharper, punchier and better contrasted than its rivals. However, they all looked exaggerated to some degree. When it comes to artificially tweaking colors, sharpness and frame rates, we have yet to be convinced of the benefit from a home cinema point of view.
A good example of this is what Tack refers to as Philips ‘halo-free’ Perfect Natural Motion technology. With all the screens running at their highest frame rate modes, he showed how haloing (which occurs when a fast-moving object crosses in front of a detailed background and the processing engine struggles to accurately create the detail in the artificial additional frames) blights all brands.
The 9000 was the least affected by artifacting, but it was stillnoticeable – halo-free doesn’t quite live up to itsname. Switch off Perfect Natural Motion, though, and the artrfacting disappears, only to be replacedby judder. The choice is yours.
3D adds another level to 21:9 TV…
At the recent IFA technology expo In Berlin. Philips unveiled the second generation of its groundbreaking 21:9 TV and a new range of 9000 series screens, all sporting3D. However, a week
before the world’s journalists clapped eyes on the products. We enjoyed an exclusive preview, getting up close and personal
to the TVs before they were packed up and shipped to the show. What became clear from our briefing was that, while Philips may have come late to the 3D party, it stilt has the technology to make quite an entrance.
For many, finding out that the Netherland’s biggest AV brand conducts its R&D in Belgium would come as a shock. But in a squat, drab building in the Industrial north of Bruges. its engineers beaver away on new display technology before the screens are assembled elsewhere.
Heading up this operation is Danny Tack, Philips enthusiastic, effervescent technical director. Tack is more than eager to show off
the new 2010 range of 3D screens, confident that his brand has outperformed the competition in what is a rapidly developing market.
What’s new and different?
Last year’s 21:9 TV was a truly innovative product, and stole the Best TV 52-inch and Over category at the HCC awards. What Is immediately apparent is that the second-generation version is much better.
Firstly. it’s bigger (a 58-inch screen rather than a 56-inch) and benefits from a far more considered design. The bezel, previously quite a thick gloss black affair, has been slimmed down and given a brushed matt finish. The low slung speakers have been hidden away,too. Finally, this is a premium product with a premium design to match.
The improvements are, of course, more than skin deep, 2010′s 21:9 uses a full array of locally dimmable LEDs to illuminate its panel, where the original was a CCFL device. And then there’s the big change: this new screen is 3D-ready.
In use, Philips extended R&D seems to have paid dividends. The Direct LEO backlight gives3D images a good level of brightness, something close to Tack’s heart. ‘If you don’t have light, you can’t make a good picture,’ he tells me. Crosstalk, too, is reduced, thanks to the localized dimming of the 21:9′s multiple LEDs and the 400Hz panel. The backlight is controlled to only illuminate areas of the picture where the pixels have settled. That’s the theory anyway; during a run through of a ToyStory 3 sequence, crosstalk was still apparent.
On the other hand, the combination of the 21:9ratio screen, four-sided Ambilight and Full HD 3D material proves so captivating that you might not even notice.
Life saving spex
The second-gen 21:9 will sell for around €4,000, with integrated 3D signal emitter and two pairs of glasses. The latter are made in consultation with Xpand. Lightweight and reasonably comfortable (we’d need to spend longer with them to see if they become tiring), their neat touch lies in the fact that there’s no on/off button. Instead, the spex take their cue from the TV: they spring into life when a 3D signal is active and shut down when the signal stops. This should reducebattery drain on the quoted 270-hour life.
Philips 3D screens at present eschew any2D-30 conversion wizardry, something that is becoming a hot topic, especially with Panasonic’s recent announcement that it is introducing conversion to its US 3D plasmas.
Tack knows this could be an issue: ‘Not to have It is a danger – it’s a good tick mark. Next year we will do it, but it has to be good quality.’
Another omission from Philips’ 21:9 and all its new 2010 panels, is their lack of Freeview HD tuners At a time when all its major rivals are packing DVB-T2 chips in their flat panels, the Philips range remains resolutely SD where broadcast TV is concerned. However, according to Tina Withington, Philips UK PR manager, this isn’t due to any hold up in the supply chain: ‘We simply underestimated the take off of Freeview HD in the UK’ Withington doubts whether many consumers really need integrated Freeview HD, pointing to the vast numbers who already have an HD broadcast source. Certainly, at the higher end of the range, we can see her point. Any buyer of the 21:9 or 9000 series would probably already be a subscriber to Sky or VirginMedia. However, at the other end of the spectrum,where Freeview HD has quickly become a major selling point, Philips’ TVs may struggle. Chips will be integrated across the range in 2011, however.
The 21:9 represents the pinnacle of Philips’ TV range, but the regularly-shaped 9000 Series will also turn heads this year. Alongside being 30 ready (Philips is adopting the external transmitter/glasses bundle approach for these screens) it boasts the new top-of-the-range Perfect Pixel HD processing engine. 400Hztechnology. 1,792 LEDs in 224 segments for local dimming. ISF calibration and a claimed 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 0.5ms response time.
Deep inside Philips’ Centre of Competence. Danny Tack gave a variety of demos with the 9000 series. He compared his flagship TV with rival models from Samsung. Sharp, LG and Sony (with the latter screen, an 803 model, only arriving at the factory the day before). Interestingly, the demos were conducted with the screens’ vivid/dynamic modes and frame rate enhancement tech activated. This is because vivid mode, according to Philips’ research, is the one consumers prefer (but certainly not us).
With his range of TVs. Tack showed off 1 the pure processing power of the 9000 series, delivering images and videos that seemed sharper, punchier and better contrasted than its rivals. However, they all looked exaggerated to some degree. When it comes to artificially tweaking colors, sharpness and frame rates, we have yet to be convinced of the benefit from a home cinema point of view.
A good example of this is what Tack refers to as Philips ‘halo-free’ Perfect Natural Motion technology. With all the screens running at their highest frame rate modes, he showed how haloing (which occurs when a fast-moving object crosses in front of a detailed background and the processing engine struggles to accurately create the detail in the artificial additional frames) blights all brands.
The 9000 was the least affected by artifacting, but it was stillnoticeable – halo-free doesn’t quite live up to itsname. Switch off Perfect Natural Motion, though, and the artrfacting disappears, only to be replacedby judder. The choice is yours.
