VIZIO demonstrated their new Cinemawide Series 3D LED LCD HDTVs for the teeming throng at the CEA Line Shows in New York last week. The "Ultra-Widescreen" HDTV design offers serious movie enthusiasts a head-turning 21:9 aspect ratio, ideally suited to display films created in the CinemaScope/Panavision 2.35:1 process, across the entire screen without the usual black bars top and bottom and eliminating the need for stretching, zooming or cropping. This pure presentation is closer to what the director intended, and is superior to what many twelve-bucks-a-seat megaplex theaters are currently showing, frankly.
The standard HDTV aspect ratio of 16:9, which translates to 1.78:1, offers viewers a Full HD native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. This screen shape was chosen to be the ATSC standard as a compromise between television's original, narrower rectangle (4:3/1.33:1) and the wider 1.85:1 ratio at which many Hollywood movies are commonly shot/projected. Plenty of modern "event" films are still filmed in the wider 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 format, harkening back to the blockbusters of yore, which were shot as wide as possible as part of a movement to lure eyeballs away from their little black-and-white TVs in the 1950s. Usually these movies were shot with special anamorphic lenses which squeezed the wide image onto regular 35mm film, and projected through a similar lens to render the proper proportions once again.
The VIZIO Cinemawide HDTVs offer a 2.37:1 screen, for virtually no black-bar compromise. The accompanying resolution is a most unusual 2,560 x 1080, at 120 Hz.
Two different screen sizes have been announced for the Cinemawide line, each with an identical feature set as far as we can discern. Both the 58" Theater 3D Cinema LED LCD HDTV (model XVT3D580CM) and the 50" Theater 3D Cinema LED LCD HDTV (XVT3D500CM) offer playback of 3D content with the help of four bundled pairs of passive 3D glasses. (VIZIO is supporting passive 3D technology exclusively in their TV products moving forward.) The screen is their Razor-thin LED Edge-Lit LCD, with Smart Dimming to improve contrast. SRS StudioSound HD is built-in, for superior TV audio over just the in-cabinet speakers.
The two new models also support VIZIO Internet Apps in a new way, maintaining a 16:9 HD image on the right side of the screen while users can simultaneously browse apps on the left side of the screen, with both presented at full size and resolution. A Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard is included to further aid navigation, while the TV arrives packing Wi-Fi HD Dual-Band 802.11n high-speed internet connectivity, extremely handy features in the rapidly growing Connected TV market.
The 58-inch XVT3D580CM and the 50-inch XVT3D500CM Theater 3D Cinema LED LCD HDTVs are scheduled to go on sale this October, at retail prices to be determined.
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