blog.conigs.com » philips

Marketing BS & Unwanted “Features”

conigs — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:22:42 +0000

Speaking of the Philips Cinema 21:9, Scott Simmons of Editblog fame has a post concerning, to put it bluntly, the bullshit of “picture enhancing features” on new TVs, specifically, Philps. This sums up his feelings (and mine):

I call marketing bullshit on this TV.

I couldn’t have said it better. And I won’t. Go read Scott’s take on features like Ambilight, “Perfect Natural Motion,” and “distortion free” picture resizing. The general consensus is that none of it adds to the viewing experience in a positive way.

Carousel – Amazing Frozen Time Shot

conigs — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:28:11 +0000

My feelings about the Philips Cinema 21:9 display aside, Carousel, the current promotional video they are showing, is an amazing piece of Steadicam & VFX work.

There was a lot of 3D match-move tracking, rotoscope work, and especially planning involved in this piece!

[via Mark Christiansen at ProVideo Coalition]

UPDATE: Clutter free version can be found on Beam.tv. Production was done by Stink Digital.

Philips Cinema 21:9 Display

conigs — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:21:54 +0000

Philips just announced a 21:9 display promising to “[let] you enjoy movies as you would in the cinema and just as the director intended.” This seems interesting, but none of the math works out here. According to their press release:

Cinema 21:9 boasts a 56” screen that is shaped in the 21:9 aspect ratio, so movies in the 2.39:1 format completely fill the screen – exactly as you experience at the cinema.

Now, I’ve never seen a 2.39:1 film, I’ve seen 1.33, 1.66, 1.78, 1.85, 2:1, and 2.35 (if you want to go back to Cinemascope, then also 2.66). More than that, 21:9 actually comes out to 2.33, not 2.39. Though I’d guess they were rounding since 2.35 really equates to 21.15:9.

Now, while I’m a gadget-geek and this definitely piques my interest, I really have to doubt the appeal of a 2.35 (or 2.39 or 2.33, whatever it ends up being) screen. While it is clearly aimed at the “movie lovers,” how will people feel about watching HD content pillar-boxed? What about all the content that still is 4:3? And moreover, since there is no HD standard that supports a native 2.35:1 aspect, will the device simply scale up and crop the stream (is the display actually 1920×817)? I have a feeling the display really doesn’t offer increased resolution, just a large, cropped 1080p display.

Call me a nay-sayer, but I just don’t see this catching on.

[via PromoMotion]