Read our user comments about the Philips Cinema 21:9 58PFL9955H/12

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Ripsnorter

10:40 AM on 25 November, 2010

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This really is an amazing TV! I saw it the other day, playing Monsters Versus Aliens. I'm not such a fan of the film itself, but the colours were rich enough to make me want to lick the screen! (Sort of).

@TR: any comment on how it performs with normal, non HD, broadcasts? How does the picture look blown up or using the various framing options? Wouldn't a 16:9 TV programme get 'lost' in all the black bars?

Also, another shop was running the disaster film 2012. Again, incredible pictures. But in one scene with the foreign heads of state, the Philips didn't display the subtitles, whereas the 16:9 sets did. Does the 21:9 format get rid of subtitles altogether? (Not much fun for fans of foreign cinema) Can it be set to display them whilst keeping the 21:9 format or is a special (i.e. Philips DVD or Blu-ray player) needed?

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public:TR:72a694d54fcfe2d41c3e10680659c600

11:17 AM on 25 November, 2010

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It may seem like an odd conclusion to derive from looking at this product but I could really see myself wanting something like this as a PC monitor if they scaled it down and increased the resolution. Given that I use my desktop mostly for either browsing, writing or watching films it would be fantastic to be have room for 3 simultaneous windows so I can browse, write notes and use Word/Tweetdeck/Kindle at the same time, and then be able to use the whole screen estate for films later. Granted it's not a large market and I'd be one of a few to want it but if someone made an affordable ~27" 21:9 monitor I'd struggle to stop myself buying it.

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Keithe6e

11:22 AM on 25 November, 2010

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@Ripsmorter: But in one scene with the foreign heads of state, the Philips didn't display the subtitles

Did it have black bars down the left and right, if not then they most likely set the displaymode to zoom or something similar, this then would crop the top and bottom. With 16/9 material there is no way of displaying fullscreen without either having the black bars, or cropping, or worst of all stretching (IOW: make people look fat) :)

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simonm

11:51 AM on 25 November, 2010

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I'm surprised you don't anywhere in the review address what this TV is like with regular 16:9 programming.

Not many people would consider having both a 16:9 and 21:9 58" TV in their living rooms; and though this TV obviously targets the movie fanatic, they are still likely to watch a fair measure of regular 16:9 news, sports, drama, etc. Perhaps also to connect a games console.

Philips says, "For 16:9 we use highly advanced auto-formatting technology to stretch the 16:9 content progressively out to fill the 21:9 screen. This technology achieves this result with minimal distortion to the image."

Trusted Reviews says nothing.

So how offensive is their "highly advanced auto-formatting" when stretching 16:9 programming to fill a 21:9 display? Is it best turned off, and then is this TV really not suitable except as a dedicated movie TV?

Also, your statement about "manipulating the image's geometry at its left and right edges" when viewing 2.35:1 Blu-rays encoded as letterboxed 16:9 is surely confused. These sources will be upscaled without geometry manipulation; anything else would defeat the purpose of having a TV with a native cinema aspect ratio.

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Jones

12:34 PM on 25 November, 2010

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Apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere but is that creepy camp looking robot on the TV a slim Eric Roberts in disguise?

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Matt Ross

2:15 PM on 25 November, 2010

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Although it won't be helpful for TV broadcasted films with subtitles, some Blu-Ray/DVD players can shift the subtitles up on screen to get around the issue of them dropping off the bottom. I have an Oppo BDP-83 and it has this feature in newer firmware revisions.

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Goodmane

2:32 PM on 25 November, 2010

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No so alone a88. I would also love a (say?) 30" version as a PC monitor. It would beat using two monitors as I do now.

But, it would have to be ips, or at least va quality screen. TN sucks. Ergo not that cheap. Incidentally I have to say I'm surprised and dissappointed there's no IPS or VA screen with 3d capability.

I think in future we'll see curved oleds in this size. It makes sense to me.

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GoldenGuy

2:57 PM on 25 November, 2010

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Credit to Ripsnorter because the very worrying subtitles issue affects even those who can live without them.

Many film distributors cut down on home video costs by using prints before any text - translations, on screen place names, etc. - are part of the final image, and just have it all handled by player generated captions, rejigged appropriately for each region. That's important because unlike the original text, player-generated captions aren't just hideous to look at but are much more frequently placed in the black bar area. And obviously, the implications for anamorphic foreign films are especially bad.

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Tim

3:27 PM on 25 November, 2010

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@simonm

Yeah, I'm curious of that too. The predecessor claimed the same thing. And I'm thinking: it's either gonna be distorted like hell or you're gonna lose a lot of picture information to the left and right. Maybe they do a little of both and reviews of the former model stated that 16:9 looked okay.

Still, I actually like contemporary TV shows better than movies and they're all shot in 16:9, so I'd rather have a 65" 16:9 TV than this one. And that 65" 16:9 TV will probably be just as wide as a 58" 21:9 model, so I'd have the best of both worlds...

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Ripsnorter

3:55 PM on 25 November, 2010

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@Keith

The Philips displayed 2012 with no black bars whatsover. The 16:9 ones had them top and bottom as usual. I can't say what ratio the film had on the lu-ray that was playing.

@GoldenGuy.

Thanks. I watch a great deal of foreign cinema and will always go for subtitles because I want to hear the original language. Unlike most people (read, Americans) I've no problem watching and reading at the same time. But if the Philips cannot display subtitles in a meaningful way, either from disc or TV, then it's a complete no-deal for me. I can't believe this hasn't occurred to Philips.

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simonm

4:49 PM on 25 November, 2010

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@Jones - Ever tried tineye.com reverse image lookup? It's interesting technology. And it does resolve the burning Eric Roberts question! (It's a short called "The Gift" commissioned by Philips to promote the 21:9 aspect ratio... there is some talk it might get picked up by a studio and made into a feature.)

@Tim - Yup, that's my concern.

I bought my last large TV on the basis my viewing would be almost all movies. But the idea that I'd watch a few good films a week fizzled out when I'd run through the classics and acquainted myself with the waste-of-space quality of much of what's being released now.

And at the same time there is some quite well-crafted TV out there, so the balance of my viewing didn't end up as I expected.

And if the Philips 21:9 is really only suitable for movies, I'd be tempted to get a ceiling-mounted projector instead and stick with a regular 16:9 TV.

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haim

5:49 PM on 25 November, 2010

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@Ripsnorter : bit harsh there mate. One should note that the germans and the spanish dub all their foreign tv and movies, whereas the portuguese and scandinavians do not. And they all watch stacks of foreign language (in this case english) films. I don't know about the yanks, but as a kid to now I've noticed things have moved away from dubbing in the english speaking world, I could be wrong, but I doubt the americans are dubbing any foreign movies now.....anyone actually know this?

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Ripsnorter

7:05 PM on 25 November, 2010

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@Haim

Not really. If a film is made in German or Spanish or whatever, I want to have the original soundtrack and read subtitles. Dubbing can be done well (the German 'Bruce Willis' is excellent, for example), but someone has translated the script, adapted it because some things don't work in the new language (such as wordplay) and then it's revoiced in a studio. Often, due to pressure of release dates, the voiceover artists, many of whom are jobbing actors, don't even get to see the film as they dub. Also, to save money in the dubbing territories it is conveyor belt work, often done in one take with the dubbing studios competing on the basis of lowest price wins because the distributors don't want to pay a penny more than they have to.

Dubbing is a cultural thing. It was introduced in Germany after the last war by the Americans who wanted to get their films out, and also to counter the Russian films in the eastern zone.

Foreign films get very little play in the US. In the major cities, in some arthouse cinemas, perhaps they have a chance. But mainstream? Not a chance! Let The Right One In, the Scandinavian vampire film, for example, managed to get a lot of publicity and did very well, but actual viewing figures were low. The Americans much prefer to remake a successful (in its own territory) foreign film and then sell it back to us.

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AJ

9:43 AM on 26 November, 2010

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Well last year these sets were £4k at launch. A month / two ago they were £1600 in Richer sounds. So if you really like the idea, but aren't too sure then wait a while and pickup a bargain later.

Besides it's CES soon and then we get to find out about all the new toys for next year.

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WyWyWyWy

11:57 AM on 26 November, 2010

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Hi all. Just a couple of questions before I start looking for the best deals.

1. Can you feed in native resolution (2560 x 1080) through HDMI from a PC?

2. What is the input lag like? With and without PC Mode enabled.

Thanks!

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Ripsnorter

2:19 PM on 26 November, 2010

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@John Archer / TR

Given there are some very relevant questions being asked in this thread (and not just and issues raised, would it be possible for you or someone else to revist this set or comment as best you can?

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Jan Andersen

11:29 PM on 19 December, 2010

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@John Archer

Well thanks for taking your time to review the 58PFL995. Perhaps it would have been better to not, if you realy make a review, I think it should be done trustworthy and usefull, else dont.

The review dosnt mention a word on key issues - its a long jolly good story.

1) How does it perform detecting the film formats ?

2) How long time to detech a 21:9 movie ?

3) What happens if a 16:9 commercial cuts in ?

4) Can it detect a 21:9 movie even there is a channel logo etc overlapping ?

5) How does it perform on DVD / DVB-T 21:9 movies ????

Those questions are key.

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Jan Andersen

11:47 AM on 26 December, 2010

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Subtitles:

Aparantly the new 58PFL9955 has a menu for moving the subtitles. Check theese 29 pictures on a Vorwegian test, among one ( column 1, row 3 ) with the menu for moving the subtitles. "Flytting av undertext" = "Move subtitles". I suppose there should be a picture of this in the manual.

http://www.dinside.no/858301/test-philips-cinema-219-58pfl9955

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fffrankie

10:54 AM on 7 February, 2011

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How Philips communicates about the Philips Cinema 21:9 58PFL9955H

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf2TE0LypjE

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More Photos

Film lovers will get a thrill from this 58in widescreen telly with its amazing picture and sound quality. Its sharpness with both HD and standard definition sources is terrific. One of our minor gripes is the lack of a Freeview HD tuner. Read full review

Overall

9/10

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By John Archer
Reviewed 25 November 2010
Updated 06 February 2011

Price as reviewed

£3,999.00

Awards

Philips Cinema 21:9 58PFL9955H/12 details

2D Picture Quality: 10/10
3D Picture Quality: 8/10
Design: 10/10
Features: 9/10
Sound Quality: 9/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

Pros & Cons

Pros

Vibrant and well saturated colours
Excellent sound quality
Amazing picture quality

Cons

No Freeview HD tuner
Crosstalk with 3D
Slight haloing during off-axis viewing

Manufacturer

Philips

Comments on Philips Cinema 21:9 58PFL9955H/12

Overall

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Awards

Philips Cinema 21:9 58PFL9955H/12 details

Pros & Cons

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Cons

Price as reviewed

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