Philips unveiled its new Cinema 21:9 TV today and re-affirmed its promise to keep producing top-end TVs through the recession.
Despite the popularity of its low-end Series 5 LCD TVs, the Dutch manufacturer has pressed ahead with its plans for technological innovation and products such as Ambilight rear projection are among the first fruits of that process.
When unveiling the new set, Philips showed some consumer opinion statistics it had gathered from Risc Research. Perhaps surprisingly, picture quality (75 per cent said was important) and sound quality (52 per cent) outstripped 'good value for money' (42 per cent) in the eyes of the public.
"It would be criminal to leave [innovation]" said a Philips spokesperson. "This next year will be tough, but as we've said before, we will continue all of our R&D investment. The market needs innovation, as soon as we stop it we'd be turning that tap off immediately."
Enough content
Philips will need to ensure that enough HD content adopts the 21:9 format of the new Cinema range.
"We're in talks with movie studios as we speak [over seeing more Blu-rays supplied with the necessary format]" confirmed a spokesperson. It was also pointed out that Blu-ray would be the ideal source for both 16:9 and 21:9 formats, with some discs already carrying the option.
The spokesperson agreed, stating: "We'll start further adopting the format [on other ranges] depending on uptake. We believe we'll see a shift towards 21:9 [from other brands] and we'll be the first into the market.
"We might start seeing others in Philips range [sporting the Cinema 21:9 format in the near future]".
3D TV was also mentioned, but while Philips might be one of the larger names looking into the technology, it doesn't believe it will be appearing on the 21:9 range any time soon.
And one of the best stats of the event: Male movie lovers aged 25 to 49 might be all into the latest technology, but 40 per cent still own a CRT TV.
