LAS VEGAS--While claims of "world's biggest" have been quite liberally applied to many products at CES 2013, here is a product that is truly big: Samsung's 110-inch 4K television.
The TV dwarfs the UN85S9 announced earlier this week, but at this stage it is only a prototype. It shares the same design elements, though, with the tilt-back easel design and relatively slim bezel. I'm not sure what it is about 110 inches -- there are a lot of products that are the same size this year -- maybe it's the biggest size that will fit in a delivery van. Or something more arcane like the metric length of Henry VIII's forearm.
As a prototype it misses out on features like an upgraded smart TV suite and all of the other Samsung goodies announced this year.
The Samsung UN85S9 will be coming online in 2013, but don't expect to see the 110-incher for a while.
Actually, you don't need to worry there's going to be plenty of 4K content soon. There's no coincidence about them picking a 4K screen (Technically it's ultra high definition, UHDTV, which is slightly lower resolution than true 4K that theaters use for digital IMAX. Just do a Google search for 4K + wiki and you will get a much better explanation than I can give you.) Google has just installed Google fiber in Kansas City and similar speeds are available widely in several places around the world; South Korea is the the first example that comes to mind. It won't be too long until all television content is streamed a la Google TV or various other content providers trying to do the same.
An additional advantage of a "4K" television is you can have two separate 1080 P images on the same screen as was demonstrated by Sony. In summary, neither LG, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, etc. are idiots. They're not going to produce such a high-resolution TV without a market. It's all just a matter of time. It took DVDs around five years to become fully accepted which is about the same timeframe that it took for flat-panel TVs to become widely adopted or the same for Blu-ray quality content to become widely available. So by the middle of Obama's third term (just having fun with a right-wing types out there ;) we will start seeing these television show up in the homes of middle class folks and not just the Mitt Romney's of the world.
The only real question is whether the future will be these large LED televisions versus OLED TVs which can be made practically any size you want, but far cheaper - in that they are literally sprayed upon whatever substrate you choose.
The TV dwarfs the UN85S9 announced earlier this week, but at this stage it is only a prototype. It shares the same design elements, though, with the tilt-back easel design and relatively slim bezel. I'm not sure what it is about 110 inches -- there are a lot of products that are the same size this year -- maybe it's the biggest size that will fit in a delivery van. Or something more arcane like the metric length of Henry VIII's forearm.
As a prototype it misses out on features like an upgraded smart TV suite and all of the other Samsung goodies announced this year.
The Samsung UN85S9 will be coming online in 2013, but don't expect to see the 110-incher for a while.
Actually, you don't need to worry there's going to be plenty of 4K content soon. There's no coincidence about them picking a 4K screen (Technically it's ultra high definition, UHDTV, which is slightly lower resolution than true 4K that theaters use for digital IMAX. Just do a Google search for 4K + wiki and you will get a much better explanation than I can give you.) Google has just installed Google fiber in Kansas City and similar speeds are available widely in several places around the world; South Korea is the the first example that comes to mind. It won't be too long until all television content is streamed a la Google TV or various other content providers trying to do the same.
An additional advantage of a "4K" television is you can have two separate 1080 P images on the same screen as was demonstrated by Sony. In summary, neither LG, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, etc. are idiots. They're not going to produce such a high-resolution TV without a market. It's all just a matter of time. It took DVDs around five years to become fully accepted which is about the same timeframe that it took for flat-panel TVs to become widely adopted or the same for Blu-ray quality content to become widely available. So by the middle of Obama's third term (just having fun with a right-wing types out there ;) we will start seeing these television show up in the homes of middle class folks and not just the Mitt Romney's of the world.
The only real question is whether the future will be these large LED televisions versus OLED TVs which can be made practically any size you want, but far cheaper - in that they are literally sprayed upon whatever substrate you choose.