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Product DescriptionWim wenders talks with japanese fashion designer yohji yamamoto about the creative process and ponders the relationship between cities identity and the cinema in the digital age. Studio: Starz/sphe Release Date: 04/07/2009 Run time: 81 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Wim Wenders
Notebook on Cities and Clothes

Wide-boy TV stretches the boundaries

Welcome to the wonderful world of CinemaScope TV. With a good 50% of Blu-ray discs containing movies in CinemaScope 2.39:1 aspect, high-def fans still have to put up with black bars above and below the action. Until now, that is.

Philips’ Cinema 21:9 TV is not a new concept; we at Pocket-lint have been witness to many prototypes of similar ideas, but this is the first – and quite possibly the only – TV ever to go into production.

Its huge dimensions scream class, though if its unusual shape is designed primarily for Blu-ray movies and DVDs, what happens to regular TV pictures, games and movies that aren’t in 2.39:1 format? As well as being the only screen available with a 2.39:1 dimensions, the Cinema 21:9 (so called because it’s designed to be used with 2.35:1, 2.39:1 and 2.40:1 sources) proves a versatile beast with almost any video, TV or games source despite its odd 2560 x 1080 pixel resolution.

In much the same way that 4:3 material is reformatted by widescreen TVs to fit properly, so 16:9 fare is stretched to fit the Cinema 21:9. That might sound awkward, but it works really well.

Put a digital TV programme, an Xbox 360 game or a normal DVD on and the picture is stretched slightly to fit the screen. It’s done convincingly, largely because a few lines from the top and bottom of the picture are done away with. Not ideal, of course; some graphics on our Pro Evolution 2009 test game were cut-off, as were the qualifying results of the Grand Prix on BBC1. In fact, the top three names were all invisible, causing us to revert back to “16:9″ mode, though for most TV, games and particularly for movies, this slight loss of picture is worth the sacrifice.

Meanwhile, watch a 4:3 broadcast of Frasier, for example, and it’s slightly stretched to produce what seems to be a widescreen shape, with black bars on the sides.

The picture is always very high quality. It’s not quite so sharp as some of Philips’ recent offerings, but it’s darn close. Digital TV pictures are reasonably good despite the stretch, but it’s Blu-ray, not surprisingly, that proves the Cinema 21:9’s highlight. Wide shots are spectacular and detail is impressive – not bad considering the TV is effectively zooming in on the disc to remove the black bars.

The immersive experience is added to still further by Ambilight Spectra 3, which proves more effective than ever; such is the sheer size of the screen that the lights emanate from three sides of the TV.

In our test disc Che: Part One – presented in the 2.35:1 format – in a scene where Fidel Castro send Che to set-up a training camp, the contrast of bright light and darkness in the same shot see Ambilight producing green light from one side of the TV and nothing from the other. As Che sits in darkness, it’s hard to make out much detail in his clothes, though generally contrast ratio and black levels are very good.

The TV’s most impressive feature is HD Natural Motion, which combines with 200Hz to produce a fluid picture that contains almost no blur whatsoever, though there is some flicker even if it’s set to “low”.

Away from its fabulous pictures, which just stray from being reference-level when it comes to Full HD, the Cinema 21:9 proves itself very versatile.

Best of all is the sound; its huge width means bigger and more powerful speakers than almost any we’ve ever seen on a TV. Five HDMI are also nice, with Component video, a couple of RGB Scarts, a CAM slot (for adding subscription TV channels to Freeview), a coaxial digital audio output and a USB slot.

That USB slot is unusually skilled, playing MP3 and WMA music files, although the display of a graphic while music plays does cause the TV to resize constantly). On the video side, its plays DivX, AVI, MP4, and MPEG, though not HD variants of these formats. Again, there is an issue with resizing specifically with 4:3 footage, which appears in both its native shape and stretch to 16:9, depending on the TVs mood.

The Cinema 21:9 also includes a Wi-Fi (and wired) connection to a broadband network to plug you straight into the Internet. There is a portal that gives you access to various Net TV widgets (including YouTube and the more obscure MeteoConsult weather, Tunin FM streaming radio and Netlog social networking), though the ability to browse the Internet proper is intriguing.

In practice, it’s a slightly clumsy process using the remote control, with the added problem of video file support – surf to the BBC iPlayer page and you’ll be disappointed. Nothing will play, though text or picture-based pages are impressive.

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Philips 56PFL9954H Cinema 21:9 television originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:33:22 +0100

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Or should I say watching adverts

This week I’ve found myself watching the television quite a bit. Perhaps it’s the excitement of getting cable or maybe just a way to interact with another culture.

Of course I say watching television, but in reality it really should be called watching adverts.

Wow. I’ve never seen so many adverts in such a short space of time as I have watching an evening of television in America. They seem to be every 10 minutes if not less. Even when a show claims to have less “commercials”, as they are called here, there are still plenty to be seen.

What’s even more interesting is where and when they come in the TV show. Normally you get an ad break just before the end of the show before the credits, only to get the credits, before getting another quick ad break. I finally get the end of Seinfeld now with the stand up bit after the credits.

Some channels like A&E suck you in to the next programme by forgoing that second ad so you find yourself watching the next episode before you know what’s even going on. I’ve already found myself confused asking my wife, “Is this the next show or just an ad break?” I dozed off for a moment. But not as confused as she was when the channel played the same movie again straight after – supposedly with the idea that if you missed the beginning you could catch it straight away making the film you just watched make sense. Bonkers.

With all these adverts and advert slots you would expect the adverts to be top notch, to be the best in the business.

Unfortunately they aren’t, well certainly not compared to the UK offering, which I have to say produces some of the best work in the world. Intelligent, funny, clever, and teasing. Now you could say that I am biased, as I am of course a Brit, used to watching the ad-free BBC thanks to my licence fee that I am now really grateful for having to pay, but for the most part a US advert here involves two things.

1. Shouting at you as loud as they can

2. Telling you that the competition sucks and you should buy their product.

I can see why those Seinfeld-Gates adverts didn’t work. They weren’t focused enough for an American audience, and they certainly didn’t meet the criteria above.

If you’re really lucky you get to watch a drug advert that promises to fix your ailment in a flash. The problem however is that all medical related adverts – or commercials as I should call them – have to tell you verbally what the side affects are in the advert. It’s one thing reading in the small print that taking said drug “might give you suicidal tendencies” but to have someone say it to you with a smile while doing something in a kitchen as if they are about to reach for a knife is something completely different. Frightening even.

Back to the shouting, and the best of the best is an informerical dude called Billy Mays. He will sell you anything from a bleach that cleans your clothes to probably one that cleans your teeth. His approach is to numb you into buying said product by telling you to do so about 20 times in 30 seconds. He talks so fast, so loud and so directly at you that you come away slightly blurry.

Of course when the adverts aren’t showing you do get quality American drama that we all know and love back home. Rather than only to be found on Sky One and Channel 4, every major network has an American drama about cops, doctors, or forensic scientists as they all vie for eyeballs.

Big in the US at the moment is Hawthone, True Blood, The Cleaner, and CSI featuring you guessed it doctors, vampires, addicts and cops. It’s like they can’t talk about anything else.

Of course if it’s not drama its reality TV. While Big Brother doesn’t seem to have caught on, Americans do have the usual array of I’m a celebrity get me out of here – currently with Lou Diamond Philips and the some of the Baldwin clan. Then there is So You Think You Can Dance with Kat Deeley, America’s got Talent with Simon Cowell and one that just the thought of makes us laugh – “Dance Your Ass Off” where, that’s right, a selection of fat (or should we say large) contestants have to do just that.

So what am I watching? Mostly TV back in the UK thanks to the wonders of Slingbox. It’s meant we can say tuned in to the American dramas without the American ads – a lovely premise.

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Comment: Emails from America: Watching TV originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:49:12 +0100

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