philips homecinema 21.9

[mgillespie05]

just been looking at the new philips 21.9 in harvey normans, castlebar, co mayo very nice and only 3799 euro and you can hagle that price comparerd to 4500 uk sterling its a steel

 

[Anonymous]

if that is true i havnt got a hat but ill run out and buy one and gladly eat it , harvey normans are the dearest shop in ireland ...

 

[Anonymous]

This TV is surely aimed at film buffs with more money than sense? All broadcast TV is in either 16:9 or 4:3, and a large number of films are made in the 1.85 aspect ratio.

I don't see the point of producing a TV that is capable of showing a scope film without black bars top and bottom when the majority of the footage you will be watching on it is going to have black bars at the side.

This TV is just an expensive gimmick, surely?

 

[Anonymous]

surely pioneer could have made one last (even better)) kuro ? , the word is they were not profitable for them , maybe not , but surely most people would have forgiven them for hiking up the prices a bit , i know oled is looming but plasma is still the best for many people , and look at what the competition are charging for lcds that dont compare to current kuros , never mind an all new model , shame ....

 

[The_Lhc]

maxflinn:surely pioneer could have made one last (even better)) kuro ? , the word is they were not profitable for them , maybe not , but surely most people would have forgiven them for hiking up the prices a bit ,

Errm, no, they wouldn't, that's exactly WHY Pioneer pulled out. My local Pioneer dealer was told by the rep that in order to be viable the 50" Kuro's would have needed to be priced at nearer £5k, rather than 2.5k and the market simply won't stand for it.

Philips won't make any money out the 21:9 TV, same way Sharp won't from their £9k TV, they're just technology demonstrators to sprinkle a little glamour on the rest of the range. Showpiece technology, they're basically saying, "look how clever we are, now go buy the other TVs, we've got more margin on those!".

 

[Anonymous]

fair enough , a big price hike was a no no , i wonder though , if they were not making money on the kuros , why ??? was it the cost of materials ?? prob not , so it must be production costs , but that dont make sense , i assume they were made on a production line , as i also assume all tvs are , so once the know how is there , and they start rolling off the line , surely the more they sell the more they make ?? , its hard to believe they got their sums wrong to the tune of £2.5k per set , maybe the chairman of pioneer had a "buggatti veryon moment " stood up at the board meeting and said , build me the best tv in the world at any cost , we will then sell them at half price .... the shareholders would love that ...

 

[The_Lhc]

Economies of scale, if you sell enough you can sell them cheaper, Pioneer only had a tiny market share though. Other companies, like B&O might sell less but they can charge more because their perceived by their customers to be a higher quality product, Pioneer don't have that image, as good as the TVs are, they simply can't charge B&O prices.

I don't think the needed 5k to break even, but to get a profit margin worth staying in the business for, well, that's another story.

I was told once, in the days of big CRTs admittedly, that most TV manufacturers lose money on their TVs, the hope being that the visual presence of the TV gets people buying their brand's other products, where it's easier to make money (although that doesn't even apply now, what with the rate that Blu-Ray players are having their prices slashed so early in the product lifecycle).

 

[Anonymous]

interesting points lhc ...

 

[Anonymous]

Back to the original post. Have you considered a projector? I'd imagine that for that price you could get a fairly decent screen, projector and any other equipment you might need. The screen would be larger and presumably (I don't have a projector, so I don't know) you could set the aspect ratio to whatever you wanted, removing any scaling, cropping issues the set might have.

 

[professorhat]

A projector is a much more sensible option, but I don't think this TV was designed for sensible people

 

[Frank Harvey]

I agree with hmtb and the prof - a projector will be cheaper and show any ratio you want far bigger. And of course you can choose how big you want it

 

[Anonymous]

Another advantage is that projectors make people smile

. Who wouldn't smile when watching a film on an 8ft screen (or bigger)? I certainly would - but I am happy with my plasma (for now).

 

[Anonymous]

Yesterday I saw that Philips... Bad viewing angle, greyish blacks, not to mention ridiculous 21:9 ratio...

its almost as stupid as 3D TVs....

 

[mgillespie05]

re,maxflinn. its very true couldnt believe it my self

 

[Anonymous]

strange , still mental money for what it is though , philips are too dear with their best tvs imo , i remember seeing some 42inch thing last year , aurea or something , ugly cream colour , gimicky lights all around the edge , 3000euros , 6 months later the same display model was on sale for 1500 , the salesman said they didnt sell one ...