Sharp trumpets 108-inch LCD TV, world wonders why

Sharp's just gone and announced the biggest LCD TV that the world has ever seen. Yes, this even beats out that 103-inch plasma we spotted about a year ago. Why anyone even cares about this horse race, we're not really sure -- but you can bet that one of these will probably end up on a future episode of "Pimp My Ride." Nevertheless, we'll post more pictures as soon as we get 'em.

Update: Ok, we got the official word from Sharp, and this 108-incher is a real monster. It's 93.9 inches high, 52.9 inches wide and 107.8 inches on the diagonal, and shines with 2.07 million pixels (1,920 x 1,080). So to recap, this thing is 7.8 feet high. We feel very, very small now. (Yes, we realize that that dimension doesn't make much sense, but we're going off Sharp's official press release.)

[Christian @ Jan 7th 2007 3:57PM]

Why won't they increase it higher than 1080p? They're only increasing the size of the screen...

[Gary Z @ Jan 7th 2007 6:46PM]

....Because, there is only HDDVD and Bluray for 1080p, where would you get a source for anything better than that?

[Gary Z @ Jan 7th 2007 4:08PM]

Where would you get the source for this 1080p+ picture? Not HDDVD or Bluray...

[dijitul @ Jan 7th 2007 4:25PM]

I could see this in the bedroom! PlayStation will never be the same. When's the price dropping under $800???

:-)

I'm sure if the price was right, we'd all find a use for it. Needless to say, marketing promoters and military command centers will be among the first adopters!

[Paul @ Jan 7th 2007 4:46PM]

"Why won't they increase it higher than 1080p? They're only increasing the size of the screen..."

All they did for TV's in 40 years was increase the size of the screen, why should it be any different now until enough people have devices that support the existing high resolutions?

[dan davies @ Jan 7th 2007 4:59PM]

It does however weigh around 500kg..

[Rex @ Jan 7th 2007 5:00PM]

If my math is correct then each pixel is 1.24^2 mm in size. Thta is huge for a display. I know this should be across the room from you but still.

[GB @ Jan 7th 2007 9:06PM]

Pixel size is not a worry. You would need to be sitting closer than 15 feet for your eyes to even be able to resolve all of the detail.

Not sure why people are down on the size as a concept. This sort of size is basically the dream for home cinema. ie. Re-create the THX recommended field of view of 36 degrees at a viewing distance of 12 feet. That size/viewing distance combination is pretty much spot on what most people would want if they have a dedicated home theatre. Most currently have to get a front projector to achieve it now. Would be nice to have an alternative.

[Iskra @ Jan 7th 2007 6:03PM]

Lets say, your friend droped all of his life savings into this TV. Now imagine your friend's face, when your Wiimote strap breaks and the Wiimote goes "wiiiii" across the room straight into the center of the screen.

[Mr. B @ Jan 7th 2007 6:08PM]

So the real question... how do you buy this without people thinking you have a two inch penis?

[canadian.am.i @ Jan 7th 2007 6:41PM]

...which of course would look to be 2 1/2' long on that screen... !

...BTW, The specs seem to be reversed... wouldn't you think that it hould read 7.8 feeet wide rather than high?

[Steve @ Jan 7th 2007 6:43PM]

...which of course would look to be 2 1/2' long on that screen... !

...BTW, The specs seem to be reversed... wouldn't you think that it hould read 7.8 feeet wide rather than high?

[sc00ter @ Jan 7th 2007 6:44PM]

ummm i bet 480p looks great on that beast

[Lee Stretch @ Jan 7th 2007 9:43PM]

All these 100+ inch screens are great, but I cant get my head round a couple things... first how the hell do you get it in the room, no door, or double doors, makes a hole that big?! Secondly, is it really better to sit further away from a bigger screen, I mean technically as far as viewing quality goes? If you imagine watching a movie close to laptop screen, or on a 40' TV from a little further back, you wud always prefer the TV, just cos its more comfortable and natural to view from that extra distance, but as big as 100 inches, this doesnt enter into it anymore! It is like the size of my bedroom wall, and yes, it is like having your own cinema... but when you go and turn your xbox 360 on, or put a bluray in, the picture will look mighty pixelated up close. I know you would view form afar, but it would be annoying seeing such a niasty pic when you go anywhere near it. So just sit closer to your 50 incher? Viewing quality wise, it is just as good (better cos u never see it as pixelated), you can get it through the door and costs no where near as much. The only place for a screen this big, and when it is advantageous in the home, is in a massive room, where a 50'' wud start to look small. I think a 60'' Samsung plasma is the best bet at the moment, that size is plenty impressive enough for any NORMAL lounge, and in full HD, is even affordable and practical!

[mike @ Jan 30th 2007 7:54AM]

Mid-range graphics cards in computers can display things at higher resolution than 1920x1080. Take for example the NEC 21.3 inch Si LCD- The max resolution that it supports is 2800x2100. It's a shame it's only available in monochrome for "practical" applications (viewing x-rays and medical imagery).

This NEC CRT can display a color resolution of 2048x1536- vertically it has 1.5x as many pixels as the 108".... it would be nice to have 2x the available real estate on a monitor that is physically 5x as big.

[Chris Merchant @ Jan 7th 2007 8:13PM]

Anyone that can afford to have a TV this big- getting it in the door is the least of their problems.

[Karl Viklund @ Jan 7th 2007 11:52PM]

Well spoken.

[GB @ Jan 8th 2007 1:33AM]

Lee, your doors are lower than 53 inches? You must be a hobbit. :-)

Sure you can sit closer to a smaller screen. It's the opposite argument. But the bigger the room, the bigger the screen can be, and the more people who can enjoy THX-at-home at once. 50" is great at 2m (7ft), but is really not home cinema at bigger distances. Also very hard to make more than four good/decent viewing positions around a 50" screen.

I agree of course that 108" is pure indulgence in this day and age. But the sooner these screens hit the market, the sooner that extravagant HT becomes affordable.

[Dan @ Jan 7th 2007 10:05PM]

Lee.... I've got a front projection screen that's 10ft (yes, I said FEET) across. Once you start watching stuff (especially HD stuff, as SD stuff looks a bit fuzzy blown up that large) on a screen that large, it gets hard to watch stuff on any 'normal' screen.

We set at a distance from the screen such that it almost fills our peripheral vision. There's no need to turn your head to see anything, like if you sit too close in a movie theater. It's a very immersing experience, and like said once you've experienced it, it's hard to go back to anything else.

[Karl Viklund @ Jan 7th 2007 11:51PM]

What??? 500KG WoW! I must have in my bed room! :D

[jamalekai @ Jan 8th 2007 12:31AM]

Shouldn't the be 93.9 Wide , 52.9 inches High instead of "93.9 inches high, 52.9 inches wide"? or perhaps they're going with a new 9:16 ratio? ;)

[Nic @ Jan 8th 2007 1:19AM]

I believe the TV is a little over 4ft HIGH, and little over 7ft WIDE.

[Iskra @ Jan 8th 2007 4:12AM]

Lets say, your friend droped all of his life savings into this TV. Now imagine your friend's face, when your Wiimote strap breaks and the Wiimote goes "wiiiii" across the room straight into the center of the screen.

[Jordan Reabold @ Jan 17th 2007 4:16AM]

Who votes Lee should shut the hell up? I do. I've got a 27" Panasonic tube that weighs a ton. But the quality just can't be beat. I think the more American approach to this whole t.v. buying extravaganza would be to buy yourself a nice 46" Samsung, and spend the rest on some cheap whores and expensive whiskey.

[muna wa wanjiru @ Feb 22nd 2007 6:28AM]

LCD Plasma Television Appear Like Works of Art Hanging in Your Living Room

If you've been shopping around for a television set in the recent past, chances are that you've been astounded by the wide array of television sets available. I'm not referring to the number of manufacturers. Apart from the brand names most of us have grown up with, most state of the art television sets today come from the Asian region, from companies in China, Korea and Japan. What I am referring to however, is the new technologies that are available. If on the one hand there are still cathode ray tube conventional televisions, on the other hand, there are innovative display systems like liquid crystal display televisions and even what is known as plasma televisions.

In the tried and tested conventional televisions that most of us have grown up with, the technology used is known as the cathode ray tube technology. A cathode gun fires electrons, which, when charged and excited, tend to form an image on a glass screen. These images form as pixels in the three basic colors, which when combined can produce millions of colors. While the technology itself has been fine tuned and developed through the ages to give us great television monitors, there are certain limitations to what the conventional cathode ray tube television can do.

For one thing, being built of glass, the screen of the cathode ray tube or conventional television has a size limitation. Most conventional televisions which use the cathode ray tube technology are less than 42 inches in size. This size is not the height or width of the television, but the diagonal distance between one end and the other. So, the biggest conventional television you can have is around 42 inches. Conventional televisions are bulky, restricted in image size and confined to the limitations of the box they are built in. This makes them big, and in some cases impossible to fit into your living room.

This is where newer display technologies have resulted in better, modern televisions like the plasma television. In a plasma television, the older cathode ray tube technology is left behind in favor of an atomic technology. Our ability to manipulate and control the behavior of atomic particles has also enables us to enhance our viewing experience. This is the technology that a plasma television uses. A plasma, is a gas that contains freely flowing ions and electrons. When an electric charge is passed through this plasma, photons are released, which then provide illumination. The rest of the technology in plasma televisions is concentrated on using this illumination to create the three primary colors and to display them as images. Just as the cathode ray tube televisions use different intensities of particles to produce differing colors, the plasma television also varies the intensity of the illumination to produce color changes. Which is why, while using a plasma television, more numbers of colors can be seen.

The plasma television removes or negates most of the drawbacks of the conventional television. For one thing, size is no longer a restriction, as the bulky cathode ray tube has been done away with. For another, bulky boxes are not required and the plasma television can be as thin as you could have imagined it. Most plasma televisions nowadays appear more or less like works of art hanging in your living room. So adopt the plasma television today and see how innovations in display have enhanced the quality of our entertainment!


Muna wa Wanjiru has been researching and reporting on Internet Marketing for years. For more information on HDTV LCD TV visit his site at HDTV LCD TV

[PLAYB3OND @ May 6th 2007 6:30PM]

HOW MUCH IS THIS THING I SEE THAT A 70" IS 32 GRAND

[Ampman @ May 26th 2007 9:57PM]

Unless you live in a glass house.....buy a projector!! The only thing this is good for is a HOME THEATER. But most of us can't afford this thing. So buy a $2000 projector (Panasonic pt-ae900u) and some blinds for your windows like I did!!

[Home Viewer @ Feb 25th 2008 4:41PM]

I have a 10ft screen also and I use it for more than just a home theater. It is used for my regular viewing pleasure for regular tv viewing.

[Ricky Gantuangco @ May 18th 2008 3:12AM]

Gentlemen, please correct and try to review your info:

Height: 93.9 inches (7.8ft)
Width: 52.9 inches (4.4ft)

Do you think in television width is shorter than height. . You will be straining your neck gentlemen. . Please give accurate info. It is quite misleading. .

Another point, a guy (Christian) commented that why not increase it higher to more than 1080P lines. This guy is also right. A 35mm film is equivalent to 6,000 scanning lines. Meaning that 1080P scanning lines is also an intermmediate technology. The reason for this is that, television manufacturers want to make big money first.. If they jump immediately to 6000 lines, they cannot drain the pocket of the consumers. . Like computer processors and harddisk, it is always increasing. . GOT MY POINT GUYS. . The technology is achievable but they want to make money first. . In the near future expect a 250-inch LCD television with 6,000P scanning lines and 12 million megapixels resolution.. .

[Alex @ May 28th 2008 1:16AM]

Can anyone tells me what is the price of SHARP 108" LCD display?

Thanks so much.

[forgetaboutit @ Jun 19th 2008 11:14PM]

I just settled a lawsuit, when can I buy the 250 inch??? what are the prices going for, anyone have any ideas?