Slashdot Mirror
Curved TVs Nothing But a Gimmick
Lucas123 (935744) writes "Currently, the hottest trend from TV manufacturers is to offer curved panels, but analysts say it's nothing more than a ploy to pander to consumers who want the latest, coolest-looking tech in their home. In the end, the TVs don't offer better picture quality. In fact, they offer a degraded view to anyone sitting off center. Samsung and LG claim that the curve provides a cinema-like experience by offering a more balanced and uniform view so that the edges of the set don't appear further away than the middle. Paul Gray, director of European TV Research for DisplaySearch, said those claims are nothing by pseudo-science. "Curved screens are a gimmick, much along the same lines as 3D TVs are," said Paul O'Donovan, Gartner's principal analyst for consumer electronics research."
Samsung and LG claim that the curve provides a cinema-like experience
Then why are the screens in a real-life cinema flat?
The answer, of course is that the camera (either film or digital) uses a flat sensor. Taking a picture with a flat sensor, and then displaying it on a curved screen, is just distorting the image. So the consumer thinks they're cool - but in reality they are watching an inferior picture.
A few months ago I started using a 4k panel as my primary monitor. Wonderful, I absolutely love it, with one* slight annoyance - At a distance of 2ish feet (rather than TV-viewing distances of 10+ feet), the edges have enough of an angle that the foreshortening becomes distractingly noticeable.
If we could get a decently priced panel (c'mon, Big Names, Seiki has proven you can do it, quit trying to get $2500 for the same thing they list for $499!) with a slight curve to it, it would significantly improve the experience when used as a monitor. For TV, maybe not so much; but monitors, yes.
* Well, no, the biggest problem comes from the fact that in 2014, Windows still can't sanely handle displays over 96dpi. But I can't blame the display itself for that.
I wouldn't say that. Like 3D, nobody is really going to get any value for their money out of a curved TV. Like 3D, it's a desperate grasping for some way to get people to buy a new TV before the old one dies.
Color TV actually upgraded the viewing experience significantly for a lot of people.
Since 3d has come and gone as a fad multiple times, gimmick is a pretty good word for it.
If you have a glossy flat TV, then there will be one particular angle where light hitting will reflect right at you and annoy the crap out of you. For a curved TV, there the light will reflect off different parts of the screen for a wider range of angles, thus annoying you even more.
All the curved TVs on the market are OLED. They have a jaw-dropping dynamic range.
So actually aside from the shape of the panel these TVs are exactly what you want.