What's the benefit of a Curved TV screen

[Farangdanny]

I guess that this is one of those items where anyone who has bought one is happy with it, and anyone who can't afford one thinks it is a useless waste of money !!

[Lannig]

Interesting point, but do you really have to post it in a big bold font to get it through? Don't think so.

[GAZZPA]

The technology used to make these very high definition screens does not allow for flat screens, they must be curved by necessity. I haven't studied the technology in detail I just know from an early tech review that was the case when these screens first popped up in the shows.

And for 3D TV (Samsung Plasma) I bought one without actually knowing it had 3D functionality until I unpacked it at home. I am very happy with the 3D and watch downloaded 3D movies on it all the time when they are released, amazing immersive experience. But the Screen has to be really big to enjoy the 3D fully, at least 54 inch.

Sorry my friend, your research on the technology is wrong. Don't know where you got the information from but they obviously had no clue about the technology.

[elgordo38]

I guess this is one of those items where anyone who has bought one is happy with it, and anyone who can't afford one thinks it is a useless waste of money !!!!

Thank you Daddy Warbucks yes we are rampant with jealousy. Could you spare a couple thousand so I can afford one.

[jeab1980]

Sister in law has one 50 inch in uk. She told me it was a complete waste of money does not give a better picture or better anything. Apparently it fell of the stand last week and they are waiting for insurance money.

[slipperylobster]

Remember.

The world was believed to be flat, until some greek guy in Egypt put a stick in the ground and plotted the path of the sun.

If the earth is curved, then your tv should be curved as well. The rest of you folks might fall off the edge.

[Scotwight]

If you get 3 or 6 of them and play a FPS game in eyefinity or vision surround I could imagine the benefit.

However it's pointless as it will probably have lots of input lag/latency V's a monitor.

I think it's a gimmick personally.

360 degree viewing buy a bunch of them and make a circle around you and buy a swivel chair.

Three of the monitor I have. I think it's cool. You can control all the screens as one or split them or split each screen.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Scotwight

[Scotwight]

Has pretty much everyone has mentioned here - curved screen TVs have very little benefit over flat-screens and it is basically just another marketing gimmick dreamt up by the big TV manufacturers. (same as 'touch-screen' PC's).

TV manufacturers will tell you that unless you are literally 'face-on' (ie; 90 degrees) to your TV, the picture quality degenerates considerably. The argument is that anyone viewing the TV from the side gets an extremely poor view and much of this is affected by external light sources, glare etc. To be honest, this problem is easily solved by simply moving further back from your TV - thereby reducing the angle to close to the optimum 90 degrees. To repeat - curved screens are just a marketing gimmick and IMHO not worth buying!

The same can be said of 4K TV - and I would seriously urge people NOT to buy these also! 4K is merely a 'stop-gap' variant of the next generation of TV's - 8K. Unfortunately, the big TV manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG etc) have not yet perfected the technology. However 8K will be a major revolution in TV development - with full 3D, HD and 'liquid capabilities' (it will be available in a 'roll-up' form, so you can literally roll it up and take it from room to room and just affix it to any flat surface!)

Some of the current 1080p flat screen TV's on the market are perfectly adequate and as they are considered as 'outdated' can be picked up at very reasonable prices. Personally, I am sticking with my SONY flat screen until 8K comes onto the market in 2-3 years time!

I had a 48 inch 1080p screen and I just switched to a Sony 55X9300D. The difference is awesome. They use a 4K Processor X1 bringing near 4K resolution picture quality to every source including TV broadcasts, Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and 4K internet videos. It's not just the original 4K content but all content is improved.

I'm an old guy and I may not be around when 8K comes out so right now I'll take the best 4K available. After picture and color quality I think the real question now is what kind of OS do you want your TV to have. If I was by myself I'd get a giant curved screen but since more than one person watches TV here I use the flat screen. A bigger question is what kind of sound system to pair with your TV as the new ones don't have adequate sound.

[HerbalEd]

I just googled "curved tv screen" and immediately got many authoritative articles on the pros and cons of curved tv screens. Or you can instead depend upon lots of opinions (including from those who've never watched curved tv), speculation, and hear-say from thaivisa.com.

[HerbalEd]

I guess this is one of those items where anyone who has bought one is happy with it, and anyone who can't afford one thinks it is a useless waste of money !!!!

Thank you Daddy Warbucks yes we are rampant with jealousy. Could you spare a couple thousand so I can afford one.

Actually your comment seems to indicate a bit of jealousy.

[HerbalEd]

Truth, very little. The screen is OLED (Organic light emitting diode), it is self illuminating and does not require CCFL or LED to back light the screen. It is the only flexible flatscreen technology today.

But it is hard to manufacture in large screen and Samsung, Sony, Panasonic (infact everyone except LG) is pulling away from it.

The smaller OLED screens used in smartphones will continue but the big boys are basically focusing on high resolution such as 8K screens (UHD is 4k resolution) for big TV screens.

My advice is buy a 4K flatscreen for way less, it will last years and years and give a great picture.

Panasonic and Sumsung are not "pulling away" from OLED. Quite the opposite.

[GAZZPA]

Truth, very little. The screen is OLED (Organic light emitting diode), it is self illuminating and does not require CCFL or LED to back light the screen. It is the only flexible flatscreen technology today.

But it is hard to manufacture in large screen and Samsung, Sony, Panasonic (infact everyone except LG) is pulling away from it.

The smaller OLED screens used in smartphones will continue but the big boys are basically focusing on high resolution such as 8K screens (UHD is 4k resolution) for big TV screens.

My advice is buy a 4K flatscreen for way less, it will last years and years and give a great picture.

Panasonic and Sumsung are not "pulling away" from OLED. Quite the opposite.

From large screen they certainly are, they made this announcement some time ago. However, not for small screens.

[lvr181]

About $AUD17,000 in Australia normal retail price! Sale prices could be substantially lower.

The advantages are surround sound? Being selfish because you get to sit in the middle for the best view?

Edited June 20, 2016 by lvr181

[Ulic]

I am sure the picture is better but at what cost. Here you are getting a fantastic deal.

260K down from 450k. Having said that you do know that if you wait another 6 months

it will be down to 130 k and 6 months after that 70k. But for those with more Baht than

brains, buy now. The same goes for 4k televisions. They is virtually no content except

for showroom demonstration DVD's and special events, Super Bowl, World Cup, and

possibly some Olympic coverage, but by all means, rush out and buy now.

[sead]

It showed it has none.

That's lasts years models. The new ones are mostly plain again

[Naam]

That's the SALE price! Look at the price on the placard upper left - 449,990.

Conclusive proof that there's a sucker born every minute.

right you are! it goes without saying that only suckers are able to shell out 449,990 Baht for a TV

Edited June 20, 2016 by Naam

[slipperylobster]

The only upgrade I need is when hologram broadcasting is available.

Basically, a plate full of lasers emanating from my ceiling.

My room would be full of dancing girls, and I would be laying on the floor.

[Naam]

The only upgrade I need is when hologram broadcasting is available.

Basically, a plate full of lasers emanating from my ceiling.

My room would be full of dancing girls, and I would be laying on the floor.

nekkid ones?

[laislica]

There is NO advantage, unless you, and you alone are the only one watching the TV and you ALWAYS sit at the focal point of the curve.

Like too many things, the curved screen is nothing more than a marketing gimmick aimed at the unwashed masses.

Sorry, I can't be bothered to read all the posts, so forgive me if someone already said this.

For a flat screen, you view it best from a reasonable distance.

The bigger the flat screen, the bigger the distance from the screen for best viewing.

The big curved screen allows you to sit much closer to the screen and get best viewing.

Try this.

Visit a store with demo TV's

Stand close to a curved screen and get the best view.

Then move much further back and note that it now looks like a flat screen.

Therefore, if you intend to sit a reasonable distance from the screen, a curved screen gives no advantage.

However, if the room is small then the big curved screen may be an advantage.

[Don Mega]

If you get 3 or 6 of them and play a FPS game in eyefinity or vision surround I could imagine the benefit.

However it's pointless as it will probably have lots of input lag/latency V's a monitor.

I think it's a gimmick personally.

360 degree viewing buy a bunch of them and make a circle around you and buy a swivel chair.

Three of the monitor I have. I think it's cool. You can control all the screens as one or split them or split each screen.

Nice setup. I currently have 2 dell 34" curved monitors. went buy a 3rd and they are out of stock with the reply of we do not know to the question when will you be getting more.

I reckon I will just bite the bullet and import myself.

[Scotwight]

I am sure the picture is better but at what cost. Here you are getting a fantastic deal.

260K down from 450k. Having said that you do know that if you wait another 6 months

it will be down to 130 k and 6 months after that 70k. But for those with more Baht than

brains, buy now. The same goes for 4k televisions. They is virtually no content except

for showroom demonstration DVD's and special events, Super Bowl, World Cup, and

possibly some Olympic coverage, but by all means, rush out and buy now.

Ultraflix offers a very impressive more than 300 hours of 4K UHD content and this means that, as Ultraflix owner Nanotech Entertainment describes it, the Ultraflix streaming collection is “the world’s largest library of 4K VOD content.

Productions kept available to subscribers of Ultraflix include a large selection of movies, concert videos, documentaries, more than 40 former IMAX theatrical titles and a pile of other special event videos. Nanotech has also made a deal with Paramount for new movies in 4K ultra HD and adding at least some 28 new titles from the Hollywood giant. All of these movies will be remastered to 4K UHD for availability to Ultraflix subscribers.

Netflix and Amazon have many titles as does Kodi.

The normal content is up-scaled on the better 4K TV's and it looks almost as good as original 4K.

Here comes more live sports in 4K UHD resolution. After breaking their franchise record for winning games for their third year in a row, the Toronto Raptors are going to be hitting the NBA Playoffs on TSN and with the added twist of a broadcast in 4K ultra HD resolution.

The amount of 4K programming has "gone up tenfold. You’ll see another tenfold this year, and you’ll see a tremendous amount of 4K content coming from the studios.

[DrDave]

Truth, very little. The screen is OLED (Organic light emitting diode), it is self illuminating and does not require CCFL or LED to back light the screen. It is the only flexible flatscreen technology today.

But it is hard to manufacture in large screen and Samsung, Sony, Panasonic (infact everyone except LG) is pulling away from it.

The smaller OLED screens used in smartphones will continue but the big boys are basically focusing on high resolution such as 8K screens (UHD is 4k resolution) for big TV screens.

My advice is buy a 4K flatscreen for way less, it will last years and years and give a great picture.

Correct - only LG is currently making OLED panels for TVs. Samsung is taking a time out while they figure out how to increase yields. They had used a different process from LG (who started later), and were not able to reach yields that allowed them to compete in the manufacture of large panels. Samsung will probably get back into the OLED TV market within the next couple of years. Meanwhile, Samsung Display produces the vast majority of Active Matrix OLED panels for smartphones, and has signed on to produce millions of panels for an upcoming iPhone with OLED display. A couple of Chinese manufacturers will most likely begin large OLED panel production within the next couple of years, and I'd expect that OLED TV prices will come down substantially as a result.

Right now, LG is focusing on UHD (4K) for their new OLED TVs. In the US, prices have dropped dramatically over the past year - I've seen 55" Full HD OLED TVs going for as little as $1300 USD, and 55" 4K OLEDS for just over $2,000 USD. As for curved versus flat, I believe that LG produces both styles for most models, and prices are nearly the same.

I would agree with the advice given above - a UHD 4K TV is the sweet spot at the present time. The bad news, though, is that TVs generally cost considerably more in Thailand than in other regions.

[slipperylobster]

Just wondered?

On a straight line....if a man in a video ran from one side of the tv to the other...on a curved screen...would it take longer than on a flat one?

Edited June 20, 2016 by slipperylobster

[Issanman]

As the screens get larger and larger, curved screens will be better for viewing.

Imagine you had a very large screen. It would certainly be better for it to be curved than flat, unless you are sitting very far away.

Otherwise you will be viewing the center part of the screen straight-on, and you would be viewing the right and left sides at extreme angles.

[Scotwight]

As the screens get larger and larger, curved screens will be better for viewing.

Imagine you had a very large screen. It would certainly be better for it to be curved than flat, unless you are sitting very far away.

Otherwise you will be viewing the center part of the screen straight-on, and you would be viewing the right and left sides at extreme angles.

Screen Size Recommended Range 35" 3.5' – 5.0' (1.0 – 1.5 m) 40" 4.0' – 6.0' (1.2 – 1.8 m) 50" 5' – 7.5' (1.5 – 2.2 m) 60" 6.0' – 9.0' (1.8 – 2.7 m)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance

Edited June 20, 2016 by Scotwight

[MKAsok]

right you are! it goes without saying that only suckers are able to shell out 449,990 Baht for a TV

Nice straw man. The issue is whether or not someone who spends 450,000 Baht on a TV can be reasonably said to be acting rationally in the context of the 'TV marketplace.'

Firstly, given the fact that the cost of a decent average TV is in the region of 20,000 Baht, can it reasonably be said that the experience of watching this TV is 22 times better than watching the average TV? I understand it is subjective and thus difficult to quantify, but on any reasonable metric in my view the answer has to be no.

Secondly, the rate of depreciation on such a purchase is nothing short of horrifying. I can't think of any other consumer electronics that are comparable. I'm sure someone will come along with an example, but that does not diminish the overall point.

No-one is disputing your 'right' to spend whatever you like on a TV. But being in a position to do so doesn't make you somehow cleverer than anyone else or the decision any less idiotic.

[Berty100]

Truth, very little. The screen is OLED (Organic light emitting diode), it is self illuminating and does not require CCFL or LED to back light the screen. It is the only flexible flatscreen technology today.

But it is hard to manufacture in large screen and Samsung, Sony, Panasonic (infact everyone except LG) is pulling away from it.

The smaller OLED screens used in smartphones will continue but the big boys are basically focusing on high resolution such as 8K screens (UHD is 4k resolution) for big TV screens.

My advice is buy a 4K flatscreen for way less, it will last years and years and give a great picture.

Correct - only LG is currently making OLED panels for TVs. Samsung is taking a time out while they figure out how to increase yields. They had used a different process from LG (who started later), and were not able to reach yields that allowed them to compete in the manufacture of large panels. Samsung will probably get back into the OLED TV market within the next couple of years. Meanwhile, Samsung Display produces the vast majority of Active Matrix OLED panels for smartphones, and has signed on to produce millions of panels for an upcoming iPhone with OLED display. A couple of Chinese manufacturers will most likely begin large OLED panel production within the next couple of years, and I'd expect that OLED TV prices will come down substantially as a result.

Right now, LG is focusing on UHD (4K) for their new OLED TVs. In the US, prices have dropped dramatically over the past year - I've seen 55" Full HD OLED TVs going for as little as $1300 USD, and 55" 4K OLEDS for just over $2,000 USD. As for curved versus flat, I believe that LG produces both styles for most models, and prices are nearly the same.

I would agree with the advice given above - a UHD 4K TV is the sweet spot at the present time. The bad news, though, is that TVs generally cost considerably more in Thailand than in other regions.

I take it that those other cheaper regions don't include Europe, because when I travel to my home country I am surprised how much more the same TV cost there.

Same goes for telephones, way cheaper in Thailand.

[elgordo38]

right you are! it goes without saying that only suckers are able to shell out 449,990 Baht for a TV

Nice straw man. The issue is whether or not someone who spends 450,000 Baht on a TV can be reasonably said to be acting rationally in the context of the 'TV marketplace.'

Firstly, given the fact that the cost of a decent average TV is in the region of 20,000 Baht, can it reasonably be said that the experience of watching this TV is 22 times better than watching the average TV? I understand it is subjective and thus difficult to quantify, but on any reasonable metric in my view the answer has to be no.

Secondly, the rate of depreciation on such a purchase is nothing short of horrifying. I can't think of any other consumer electronics that are comparable. I'm sure someone will come along with an example, but that does not diminish the overall point.

No-one is disputing your 'right' to spend whatever you like on a TV. But being in a position to do so doesn't make you somehow cleverer than anyone else or the decision any less idiotic.

Touche Naam you ran him through with your rhetorical rapier.

[lemonjelly]

Surely laying down on the sofa and watching the box with progressive lens glasses is cheaper?

[tx22cb]

I fear that, in 2 years when 50" 4k TVs hit the price sweetspot of 25,000 Baht, TrueVisions will still be broadcasting 150 channels in SD-480p, 50 channels in "HD"-720p, 5 channels in HD-1080p, and zero channels in 4k.

And international internet speed to/from Thailand will still be too anaemic to stream 4k videos.