Panasonic's 150-inch Life Wall TV going production in 2009

Although it's impossible to tell without another object in the display box, that's Panasonic's 150-inch TV up there -- here at IFA, intimidating its neighbors. Now get this: this massive plasma sporting a 2,160 X 4,096-pixel (4 times 1080p) Advanced HD display will hit the assembly lines just as soon as Panny's newest factory comes on-line in the May 2009 timeframe. At the moment, the single 150-inch sheet of glass is hand-made and fitted into four of these behemoths currently touring the world. That means 150-inches of goodness could be yours before the year is up. College shmollege, this is quad HD!

[Ignatius @ Aug 29th 2008 12:13PM]

And the cost is probably as astronomical as the screen size.

[aardWolf @ Aug 29th 2008 12:25PM]

Yes, it's probably the price of a 1080p plasma ^ 4.

[hacker @ Sep 9th 2008 12:38PM]

this thins is gonna make some power bills go up for sure. i see my lights dimming already! and i am pretty sure the price will easily be in the thousands. like $??,000.00 that many!

[Hellaphunt @ Aug 29th 2008 12:19PM]

Will it let me into Narnia?

[Toink @ Aug 29th 2008 12:26PM]

Wow! That thing is huge! It must be a power hog!

I want one :P

[jaywontdart @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:40AM]

wow

[Jesse @ Aug 29th 2008 12:34PM]

Could you imagine the video card required to play Crysis at that resolution...

[frauhottelmann @ Aug 29th 2008 12:37PM]

Like a Crossfire rig of 4 4870X2s lol
And get some of those 16GB RAMs - like ten^^

[Jesse @ Aug 29th 2008 12:40PM]

A 10 GHz Xeon too probably..

[Alex @ Aug 29th 2008 12:41PM]

What is out there that can drive this thing? I wonder if it has 4 seperate inputs to get that resolution.

[Derk Kooi @ Aug 29th 2008 12:47PM]

Modern graphics cards can't play on that resolution and there's no connection that's capable of Quad HD. :)

[VampireHunter Z @ Aug 29th 2008 1:14PM]

@Derk Kooi
Theoretically HDMI 1.3a should be able to do this. It can do 2560x1600 @ 75fps so it should be able to do QuadHD at just over 30fps. I'm assuming it's all a bandwith issue.

[Derk Kooi @ Aug 29th 2008 1:56PM]

It's not in the spec, so there's no HDMI device supporting it.

[Ross @ Aug 29th 2008 12:27PM]

"Congrats, you just won a 150inc 'life wall' from Panasonic, how do you feel?"

Where's the new house that i'm supposed to put the bloody thing?

[Johan S @ Aug 29th 2008 12:29PM]

I deserve it.

[VampireHunter Z @ Aug 29th 2008 1:02PM]

Judging by your avatar I could tell you would love this.

[philxbefore @ Sep 5th 2008 3:38PM]

Thats a beautiful work of stained-glass but I want to see the TV.

[Encoding @ Aug 29th 2008 12:43PM]

missing a number in that first dimension? otherwise, how does a "2,160 X 4,096-pixel" display equate to 4 times 1080p (1080p being 1920 x 1080)?

[nathan @ Aug 29th 2008 12:51PM]

no, twice as many vertical, twice as many horizontal= 4x the resolution. just like qvga 'quarter vga' is 320x240 and vga is 640x480

[Derk Kooi @ Aug 29th 2008 12:51PM]

They mean 4,096 x 2,160 and that's a bit more than 4 times the amount of pixels of 1080p. It's actually four times 2048 x 1080. :)

4,096 x 2,160 = 8,847,360 pixels.
1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels.
2048 x 1080 = 2,211,840 pixels.

You know, just saying.

[EEaudio08 @ Aug 29th 2008 9:20PM]

(2160*4096) / (1920*1080) = 4.2666

[zomg0t @ Aug 29th 2008 12:54PM]

Yeah, their resolution is seriously messed up. First, let's put the number of horizontal pixels before the number of vertical pixels, as is the convention. Next, let's get the actual number of horizontal pixels correct. If this actually is 4 times 1080p (1920 x 1080), then the correct resolution would be 3840 x 2160.

[Alex @ Aug 29th 2008 12:57PM]

OK, it's just "about" 4X, since it's not 3840x2160. For the price this thing will have, they can add a few 'extra' pixels at the bottom

[VampireHunter Z @ Aug 29th 2008 12:59PM]

The aspect ratio is actually a little wider than 16:9 since half of 4096 = 2048 > 1920. So yeah it's greater than 4x and closer to a film's aspect ratio. Sweet!

[Daniel Cuneo @ Aug 30th 2008 1:29PM]

It takes four sheets of letter size paper to make a rectangle of 22"x17". Four screens to double the side's lengths, that's the concept. Quad Res! Doubled Dimensions!

[zomg0t @ Aug 29th 2008 1:07PM]

Is there another source that lists the resolution as 4096 x 2160? Maybe the resolution here is incorrect.

[Mr. Ford @ Aug 29th 2008 1:18PM]

You guys are forgetting overscan. The video processor in the TV knows how to handle those extra pixels. Although 1280x720 is the resolution for 720p, most tv's with the spec of 720p are really 1366x768.

[Mr. Ford @ Aug 29th 2008 1:24PM]

...not to mention that 4.2666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666... doesn't make for good advertising.

[raptor87 @ Aug 29th 2008 4:39PM]

I dont think thats because of overscan 1366x768 displays have rectangular pixels not square ones which is why they have that resolution

[saschaisking @ Sep 16th 2008 11:24AM]

thank you education system, you've failed us yet again...

[Brock @ Aug 29th 2008 12:57PM]

4K! The only TV actually capable of displaying what the Red One is capable of recording.

[nospam @ Aug 29th 2008 1:05PM]

Or you could just buy the nearest movie theater. At least that comes with a popcorn machine.

[Loban @ Aug 29th 2008 2:18PM]

Yeah, but then you're stuck with a projection screen, this is Plasma, and when given the choice Plasma FTW every time. Imagine if movie theaters starting using 100 ft plasmas, now that would be beautiful.

[cortes.john @ Aug 31st 2008 4:54AM]

@ Loban
Only if you consider everything in the room roasted beautiful ;)

[JBot @ Sep 2nd 2008 1:14PM]

I used to build stereoscopic tiled display walls in college (think a homebrew version of IMAX 3D consisting of 24 projectors to make one huge image). That display was 12'x7' and sensors tracked your position in relation with the wall. It had a total resolution of 4096x2304.

To drive this you use a cluster of PCs with advanced NVidia Quadro Cards that all sync their frame rate and gen rates (F lock and G lock)

This is especially handy for advanced data interaction for this like GIS mapping, oil drilling surveys, complex molecule structures etc.

But as far as watching a video on it, good luck, it will have to be upscaled or the solution will cost as much as the TV. But it could be used for video games, web browsing, interactive experiences, etc. The latest NVidia cards can do 3+ together via SLI which would give you enough

[SCORPION_5 @ Sep 18th 2008 11:47AM]

PLUS YOU COULD CHARGE ADDMISSION, TO RECOVER ALL THE DEAD PRESIDENTS YOU JUST BLEW!

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 2:06PM]

ok the all-caps is one thing, but we can really do away with the necrophilia, man. :/

[Michael @ Aug 29th 2008 6:13PM]

haha oh wow, good show phanbuoy

[PDBARZ @ Sep 12th 2008 9:45PM]

Now why isnt phanbuoy's comment high ranked.... i was eating a pizza hut tuscini and almost had the chicken come out my nose.. thanx for the laugh

[c. thomas @ Aug 29th 2008 1:45PM]

I think I just found my new tv for Gears 2!!

[UHUH @ Aug 29th 2008 3:50PM]

I'll get the lasertv instead

[PunkSmurph @ Aug 29th 2008 2:59PM]

Wow 3 of these and I am on my way to the perfect house out of Fahrenheit 451. My ear buds, automatic everything kitchen, and palm scanner for front door are already purchased. Thanks Ray for the great idea's.

[Sam Eastham @ Aug 30th 2008 7:56PM]

As soon as I saw the words "wall tv" my mind went to Fahrenheit 451. I love how accurate his prediction was.

[Damian @ Aug 31st 2008 2:38AM]

HAHA! I loved that book and that was the first thought that came to mind when i read the article!

[b-ri @ Sep 2nd 2008 1:33AM]

haha, I just finished writing an essay on F-451 then I saw this article and read your comment... creepy. My favorite invention from the book would have to be the mechanical hound that hunts down bad people and stabs them with a giant needle.

[SCORPION_5 @ Aug 29th 2008 3:02PM]

Sorry I should have said...Plus you could charge admission and recover all the United States currency that you just spent. Does that work better for you? %)

[phanbouy @ Aug 29th 2008 3:26PM]

hey don't mind me, i just make jokes at others' expenses

[Andrewwwww @ Sep 9th 2008 2:13PM]

Hhmmm by the time it is available, we will all be spending that new North American Union thingy... But you can use your old US currency to buf the screen...

[Daniel @ Aug 29th 2008 3:47PM]

Wow, this many comments in and not a single Back to the Future 2 reference? I'm impressed!

[Podaman @ Aug 29th 2008 4:19PM]

OK, I want channels 18, 24, 63, 109, 87 and the Weather Channel.