Curved HDTV's.

[ZenOps]

Seems like they are entering the entry level market now with Samsungs K6250 line ($1000 or so for a 49 incher)

Worth it or shenanigans?

[rage2]

Shenanigans. Plus it looks retarded on a flat wall.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Not worth it. It's a sales gimmick they can use to jack up the price, with some fairly significant effects on image quality, especially at the tiny sizes they are sold at. The main selling point is the idea of "immersion", but unless it's so big and you're sitting so close that it starts taking up your peripheral vision, they just look completely stupid and the cons far outweigh any benefit.

Viewing angles with regard to picture quality are worse except for the person sitting perfectly square to the TV. Anyone off to the side will actually have the part of the TV closest to them facing away from them, and that area of the TV looks noticeably different with regard to brightness & contrast. Off axis viewers also get a bit of a "pinching" effect toward the center of the screen because the sides appear taller. Anyone really off to the side gets a compression effect on the side of the screen closest to them. They also exaggerate reflections, and as rage pointed out, look ridiculous on a wall aesthetically. I'm sure it's one of those things that certain people are more sensitive to than others, but IMHO it's quite noticeable. If you aren't sensitive to any of that, then buy whatever is cheaper, but I am really not a fan of curved TV's.

[Xtrema]

I like curved monitor. Curved TV, that's retarded. Hopefully they give up on that soon.

[Swank]

I wonder what's next? They don't need to get much bigger, lighter or thinner, and 4K is probably better resolution than most of our eyes can see. 3D flopped, I don't see curved screens doing much better.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by Swank
I wonder what's next? They don't need to get much bigger, lighter or thinner, and 4K is probably better resolution than most of our eyes can see. 3D flopped, I don't see curved screens doing much better.

They might have to *gasp!* start increasing the actual picture quality of lower-end TV's and increase the picture quality of higher end TV's. Crazy talk, I know!

I don't know if CNET has ever had a "perfect" TV tested, but some plasma came pretty damn close (which are no longer available FFS).

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Swank
I wonder what's next? They don't need to get much bigger, lighter or thinner, and 4K is probably better resolution than most of our eyes can see. 3D flopped, I don't see curved screens doing much better.

They have to keep coming up with ways to release new models that are different enough for people to buy, even if the fad only lasts a couple years. 3D blows on small TV's (also content was very limited from the places most people consume it), and 3D glasses added additional cost, complication, and hassle. Curved TV's will likely suffer the same death after a few years.

HDR TV's is the next thing the market is going to try (it's already started but as always content very limited). I would also expect more OLEDs (and OLED price reduction), 8K, folding/rolling displays, etc. are likely to be where things go next. You can always go bigger and cheaper - imagine being able to roll up or fold a 100" OLED and take it home with you.

Even OLEDs have a lot of room for improvement, right now Green, Red, and Yellow OLEDs have huge half lives, but Blue is only around 20,000 hours (roughly) before it reaches 50% brightness. For most people and household users that's not really an issue (4 hours per day for 13.5 years) but for business or 24hr applications its barely over 2 years.

In the projector world, 4K, HDR, and different lighting methods (LED & Laser) are just getting started as well.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Swank
I wonder what's next? They don't need to get much bigger, lighter or thinner, and 4K is probably better resolution than most of our eyes can see. 3D flopped, I don't see curved screens doing much better.

Ditch LED and go for OLED is the next big thing in display tech. So we can get the black level back like Plasma screen had.

[phreezee]

Stayed at my cousin's who had a 65" 4k curved TV and the 4k was awesome but I came to the conclusion that the curve was just a gimmick after a 1 week trial.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by HiTempguy1


They might have to *gasp!* start increasing the actual picture quality of lower-end TV's and increase the picture quality of higher end TV's. Crazy talk, I know!

I don't know if CNET has ever had a "perfect" TV tested, but some plasma came pretty damn close (which are no longer available FFS).

OLEDs should get us there. Currently even the best LCD's aren't as good as a mid-range Plasma from the good ol' days (not that it matters anymore haha), but OLED should solve that.

From the best information I have found, Samsung basically killed the Plasma, thinking they could never catch Panasonic, they invested everything in LCD/OLED and LCD's started to outsell Plasmas by 2008. LG followed suit. There was nothing stopping plasma TV's from being wafer thin 4K products (imagine how good that would have been) but the R&D was abandoned by the big players before 4K boarder-less paper-thin TV's became all the rage.

One thing about picture quality though is it's heavily influenced by the environment. Most people buying TV's put them on the wall above the fire place or something in the bright living room, and even the best TV available is going to look pretty average.

[Minimalist]

Mitsu3000gt pretty much nailed it. Fingers crossed my six-year-old plasma Panny has not been jinxed by this post.

[4runneron36s]

I bought my Panny ST60 hoping to get in on the last great plasma TV before they were discontinued and as a bridge to when OLED technology will become affordable. It's a great TV, but you have to remember to break the tv in and get it calibrated (I used setting found on BluRay Forum) or else you won't be able to get the most out of it.

[revelations]

Originally posted by Swank
I wonder what's next? They don't need to get much bigger, lighter or thinner, and 4K is probably better resolution than most of our eyes can see. 3D flopped, I don't see curved screens doing much better.

Its all about having the latest and greatest, mass consumer crazed item.

Next, they will probably have "edge-less" or "curved edge" TVs like phones ....


Having said that, my brother has the latest 65" curved Samsung and watching 60 FPS, UltraHD Youtube videos - the clarity is just stunning - but its so much better than the eye can see that it looks surreal (I have 20/15 vision already).

[thetransporter]

Curved TVs is really a gimmick.

people kept boasting about flat screens

if you want a curved TV just get a CRT TV be warned some CRTS and flat panels contain flat screens.