VIZIO CES concept designs show a future of ultrawidescreen, ultrathin & wireless HDTVs

VIZIO's announced 2010 lineup is alright and we'll get to them in a minute, but a few slick concepts were more than enough to distract us momentarily from nearer future products. What did we get our eyes on? Check the gallery and continue our shared experience with a 1/4" thick "Blade" LCD TV, 24-inch portable wireless (WiFi) HDTV, universal touchscreen IR remote, Quad HD display, Bluetooth headphones and of course the 58-inch 21:9 ultrawidescreen beauty shown above. We wouldn't be surprised if at least some of these are closer to production than several announced products here in Vegas, so check the video & press release after the break before trawling the shelves of local Wal-marts looking for a leak.

VIZIO 2010 CES concept designs

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At CES 2010, VIZIO Goes "Beyond TV," Revealing Exciting Upcoming Technologies

- Multi-Room Wireless system powered by Celeno enables Full HDTV in any room with VIZIO Wireless HDTVs

- Active Full HD3D renders 3D images in full 1080p resolution

- 4K x 2K Quad Full HD display is the next generation of HD resolution in the home

- 58" Cinema Display has 21x9 aspect ratio for 2.35:1 Cinemascope films

- Ultra-thin ½" and ¼" Blade TVs showcase advanced industrial design

- HD Powerline networking enables Connected HDTVs and Blu-ray players to operate wirelessly without WiFi

- VIZIO enters headphone market with new concept Home Theater and Lifestyle designs

- First VIZIO universal touchscreen remote to be shown

Las Vegas, NV and Irvine, CA – January 6, 2010 -- VIZIO, America's HDTV and Consumer Electronics Company, will present its next generation HDTV and "Beyond TV" technologies during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In a private suite at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, VIZIO will demonstrate multiple new technologies. Whole-home portable TV will be shown using VIZIO's Multi-Room Wireless Full HDTV system based on Celeno's WiFi chipset. A 65" 120 Hz 3D HDTV with full 1080p resolution will be presented alongside VIZIO's first Quad Full HD 4K x 2K HDTV, which has four times the number of pixels and resolution of a 1080p display. A brand-new HDTV experience is VIZIO's Cinema Display, which has a 21x9 aspect ratio, to show "Scope" films on the entire screen area with no black bars. Also shown will be a new HDTV Powerline Networking system for the home that uses the AC power line to connect devices in the home. VIZIO's design chops are reflected in the new ultra-thin Blade TVs, which feature stunning industrial design and incredibly thin profiles as shallow as ¼". Expanding VIZIO's commitment to HD audio are new concept, high-performance Home Theater and Lifestyle headphones.

"Our CES presentation amounts to a hands-on workshop of the new technologies that will drive the HD market in 2010 and beyond," says Matthew McRae, VP of Products at VIZIO. "Our expanded R&D efforts not only involve work with the latest technologies but research into the next generation of technologies that lie just over the horizon. The entire team is driven to identify and then develop the latest and the best technologies, in order to bring them to market, resulting in an expanded and enhanced HDTV experience for the consumer."

Multi-Room Wireless Full HDTV

Wireless HDTV in any location in the home will be possible with VIZIO's Wireless HDTV based on Celeno's WiFi chipset. Viewers will be able to enjoy cable-free HDTV anywhere in the home on a Wireless VIZIO HDTV. Demonstrations will be made using a 24" VIZIO Wireless HDTV.

Celeno's 802.11 + OptimizAIR system works in the 5 GHz band and operates over 20 channels with unique redundancy to provide up to 10 times the throughput and range of standard WiFi systems. The system delivers flicker-free Full HD reception throughout the home and is able to connect up to 120 feet from the base station, even through multiple walls. Plug and play setup is easy and simple.

"Integrating Celeno carrier-grade HD video over WiFi enables VIZIO to offer their customers an ideal solution for a home HDTV distribution network," said Gilad Rozen, Celeno's CEO. "We are very pleased to be in a technology partnership with a market leader like VIZIO, allowing us to deliver this exciting capability to the widest possible number of consumers."

Active Full HD3D TV

3D Full HDTV will be demonstrated with a 65" XVT Pro set that uses Sensio 3D technology to deliver dramatic 3D content that is viewed by using XpanD active-shutter glasses. While 3DTVs with passive technology and lenses cannot display Full HD, VIZIO's active 3D technology delivers full 1080p images to each eye, switching each lens from opaque to transparent in perfect synchronization with the images displayed on the television. This technology allows these sets to display 3D content from DVD and Blu-ray players, cable, satellite and broadcasts, as well as provide a 3D gaming experience.

Quad Full HD 4K x 2K HDTV

Another spectacular demonstration of future display technology is VIZIO's Quad 4K x 2K HDTV. With 8 megapixels, fully four times the pixels of 1080p displays, this 56" LCD concept piece boasts a resolution of 3840x2160. Exhibiting the same resolution as Digital Cinema projectors used in commercial digital theaters, this presentation will reveal the benefits of higher resolution displays for the home.

21x9 Cinema Display HDTV

Defined by its native 21x9 aspect ratio, VIZIO's Cinema Display is the ultimate HDTV for film lovers. Previously available only by using very expensive projectors with special lenses and video processing, film enthusiasts can now view 2:35:1 "Scope" films on the entire screen display area on an LED HDTV, with full resolution and no black bars. Demonstration will be on a 58" display with 2560x1080 resolution.

Ultra-Thin Blade TV

The dramatic industrial designs and ultra-thin chassis of VIZIO's upcoming Blade TV product line make a striking fashion statement and are the closest approach yet to a zero-depth display. At an incredible ¼" depth, the 42" Blade model is a 120 Hz LED with Edge illumination, Smart Dimming and a 1 Million:1 contrast ratio. The 26" model also has a .25" display and edge illumination. Both sets are 1080p Full HD.

Powerline Networking

Where WiFi is not available, VIZIO's new HDTV Powerline Networking system is the solution. Using a home base station that plugs into any convenient AC outlet, this one port Ethernet as LAN system uses the existing power circuit in the home to bridge devices and provide Internet access for VIZIO VIA Connected TVs and Blu-ray players. Home Plug 2 compliant, with 128 bit AES encryption, the system provides a robust and secure connection with easy plug and play setup.

HD Audio Home Theater and Lifestyle Headphones

Expanding VIZIO's high-performance high-value proposition on the audio side of the A/V experience, VIZIO will present three lines of new concept Home Theater and Lifestyle headphones. Bringing fashion to premium audio performance, VIZIO's multiple styles offer groundbreaking designs and the very latest in audio technology to please the most demanding audio enthusiast.

With an innovative LCD screen located on each earpiece, VIZIO's LCD Bluetooth headphones connect wirelessly to Bluetooth audio sources, and can display album cover art, a Visualizer, or other personalized images on the embedded LCD screens. The high-end home theater Europa Bluetooth wireless headphones have a wraparound style that offers a selection of textured finishes that include hand-stitched leather. For listeners on-the-go, a line of sleek earbud headphones use ultrathin cabling and can be tucked neatly away in a convenient pocket carrying case.

[statelypenguin Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:03PM]

I actually really like those headphones. You can impress/disappoint people without even talking by having the album picture on your headphones.

Also, as far as ultrawidescreen: how wide is too wide for tv?

[Eugene Action Posted Jan 9th 2010 12:32AM]

@statelypenguin

waiting for 360 to 1 myself...

[F C Posted Jan 9th 2010 6:24AM]

@statelypenguin
Will attract too much attention; they may as well display "Please snatch me" on the LCD.

As for the TV, Im not sure what to think. Is there an abundance of content at that aspect? It seems we'll face the same stretch and zoom issues.

[kenny goo Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:14PM]

Is it just me or are some of these new TVs *too* advanced for some of you guys? I don't need cinemascope widescreen, I don't need 3D, I don't need built in Wi-Fi or Ethernet, I don't need apps, I don't need USB inputs or card readers, I don't need these absurd refresh rates or contrast ratios, and I don't need a screen to be much thinner then what I have now.

At this point, I'd be happy with a 32" LCD that's native 1080p. A 120hz LED display would be nice too, but anything is an upgrade over my Audiovox 1366x768 piece of shit that has probably the worst UI I've ever seen on a piece of technology.

[danhawk911 Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:19PM]

@kenny goo
Well i guess you must be a Kmart shopper.

[RandomGuy Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:27PM]

@kenny goo Good for you in resisting the upsell, you will save some cash by getting a better price. As for the folks that either plan on using the features or merely get suckered into paying more for features they won't use, well you can thank them for driving down the price of the base models.

As for me, I wouldn;t mind a model that doesn't even have a tuner, let alone widgets if it saves me cash.

[Frith Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:55PM]

@kenny goo It's not a case of them being too advanced, it's a case of consumer electronics companies needing something new to sell. For years we've seen a gradual improvement in image quality (resolution, colour gamut, black level etc) and we've now reached a point where the image produced by a modern display is acceptable to the majority of people.

When people are happy with their current display they've got no reason to upgrade so the consumer electronics industry is desperately grasping at straws trying to come up with a new way to sell people televisions. This is coming primarily in the form of 3D but also with wireless televisions, internet ready televisions and various other things which aren't very compelling. Few people seem interested in these sorts of gimmicks and if they really want to sell more televisions they're going to have to get OLED out on the market since that provides a genuine improvement that people would pay for.

[maveric101 Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:16PM]

what the hell is the point of something that wide? if you look at the angles for the field of view for human vision, the aspect ratio is not nearly that wide. 16:9 is PLENTY wide; personally i think 16:10 is better for computer monitors.

[danhawk911 Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:26PM]

@maveric101
The point is to get rid of the bars while watching movies. At least you will get to use every inch of real-estate with these while watching a movie. These tvs are more geared to people who watch movies then regular tv.

[KillTheApex Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:56PM]

@danhawk911 Some movies will have no black bars. The problem is that there isn't really a standard to shoot movies in. some are 16:9, some are 21:9. They need to pick a damned format and run with it.

[Diryys Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:57PM]

@maveric101
21:9 is the aspect ratio that cinematic movies are filmed in. There will no longer be a need for that "this film has been changed from its original version. It has been modified to fit your screen" statement on videos anymore.

[maveric101 Posted Jan 9th 2010 12:30AM]

@maveric101

*sigh* you guys aren't getting the point. movies shouldn't be shot in 21:9 in the first place. they should be shot in 16:9.

[j3ff Posted Jan 9th 2010 4:58AM]

@maveric101 Movies should be shot in whatever aspect ratio the director wants it to be shot in.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Jan 9th 2010 10:02AM]

@maveric101

Yeah, and ruin the whole experience of immersive cinema by removing cinemascope. Personally, one of the reasons I go to the cinema is to see films fully engorge those giant screens.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Jan 9th 2010 10:14AM]

@maveric101

Plus, even if the 16:9 aspect ratio is more comparable to human vision (which is difficult to define anyway seeing as the retina is not a rectangle) that doesn't mean its better. Perhaps half of the experience of seeing movies is that you have to actively adjust your line of sight to take in the detail in the picture.

When I saw the Dark Knight in IMAX I certainly couldn't take in all the detail of the image, the screen was too big, but it made me feel like I was inside the picture and that was what made the experience so great. Common sense dictates that image size should be comparable to what the human field of vision can detect in a fixed position, but that is not necessarily true for the experience.

[maveric101 Posted Jan 9th 2010 7:55PM]

@martynmcfarquhar

*sigh* how is this so hard to understand?

aspect ratio has nothing to do with how big the screen is, or even the field of view in the film (which depends on lense angle used to record, etc). you could have a 21:9 aspect ratio 2" screen, or a 1:1 50' screen. if you want the image to be that big in the width, but it should be correspondingly taller also, to shoot your little IMAX point out of the sky: standard IMAX screens have an aspect ratio of 12.2:9, much less than 16:9.

[danhawk911 Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:17PM]

I love these ultra wide screen concepts. I wonder how till tv shows will be shot in this format. These tvs will eventually be the future standard for all tvs's just like widescreen replaced fullscreen.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:33PM]

That's cool Vizio... Wow what a concept! But let me ask you this dear Vizio, when are you going to sell those GD LED tvs you promised us??!! Where's the fn sv472xvt? Huhm?

And frankly I'm sick of the industry "STANDARDS" changing every 2 years! It's not a standard if it CHANGES all the time.

(Dam I'm getting old)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:37PM]

@(Unverified)
I just want to add that the XVT line of LED tvs were supposed to be out soon after CES 09 and kept getting pushed back. Latest I heard was March release date.

[David Susilo Posted Jan 9th 2010 2:43PM]

@(Unverified)

What do you mean the standard is changed every 2 years? My first 16:9 TV was a Toshiba I purchased way back in 1994. The 16:9 TV, at the time, have been around for at leasy about 4 years. Therefore in total, 16:9 TV have been around for the last 20 years!

[zim2411 Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:39PM]

Too bad there aren't any anamorphic Blu-ray's to take advantage of these super widescreen TV's increased resolution...

[rx785guy Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:55PM]

@zim2411

Exactly, this is useless without 21:9 source material that doesn't exist, and probably never will.

[danielsloan Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:59PM]

@zim2411
what? All it takes is a movie with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 or 2.40:1, and the screen would be perfect. I'd guess at least half of all movies made in the last 30-40 years have this aspect ratio.

[zim2411 Posted Jan 9th 2010 12:38AM]

@danielsloan No no, I know that. I mean Blu-rays are encoded with black bars intact. That's just useless information really. If they were encoded anamorphically like DVDs, you could have more vertical detail.

If the video file was viewed directly than it is technically squashed in aspect ratio, so BD players would have to stretch it to the appropriate aspect ratio. My guess is they wanted to avoid having players do that though, so they opted for a square pixel aspect ratio for Blu-rays.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Jan 9th 2010 10:16AM]

@zim2411

Surely it couldn't be much more effort to encode a film on Blu-ray at in its original aspect ratio? Maybe companies could start putting both on a disc so you have the option depending on your setup.

[John H Posted Jan 9th 2010 12:47PM]

@martynmcfarquhar

It would require a revision to the spec. The BDA would either have to allow anamorphic encoding like DVDs have, or include support for a new resolution: 2538x1080, perhaps called "1080p CinemaScope" in marketing parlance to help average consumers differentiate. The latter option would be preferable because you get more resolution than an anamorphic encode, which sacrifies some horizontal resolution to maximize vertical resolution (which is the lesser of two evils since human eyes are more sensitive to vertical resolution). But yes I'm hoping that one way or another this happens and BDs start saying "Optimized for 21x9 TVs" the way current DVDs say "Optimized for 16x9 TVs".

[JonObea Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:47PM]

Why didnt they make ultra-wide screens from the get-go?


Seems like they released these wide screens (even though they knew they weren't wide enough to completely show a movie w/o black bars) just to sell us a wider screen later.

[rx785guy Posted Jan 8th 2010 11:56PM]

@(Unverified)
Personally, that ratio is just too wide for a tv. It works well in a movie theater where the screen is that much bigger.

[David Susilo Posted Jan 12th 2010 3:19PM]

@(Unverified)

16:9 TVs have been around for a very long time during the curved CRT days (before CRT had flat surface). It was impossible at the time to make a 21:9 screen using CRT without making it look more like a third of a ball.

[reallynotnick Posted Jan 9th 2010 1:19AM]

How about just improve contrast ratios to the point where I can't tell that there are black bars?
But I guess I understand the disappointment when your normal TV shows fill up more of your screen then movies, but when has it not been that way?

[danhawk911 Posted Jan 9th 2010 2:41AM]

@reallynotnick back when everyone watched movies in full screen.

[pleasantcrew Posted Jan 9th 2010 1:29AM]

if i walked around uptown ny, these might get yanked off my head

[TareG Posted Jan 9th 2010 7:53AM]

The perfect gift for a jerk who you want to see get beaten up.

[Philip Han Posted Jan 9th 2010 12:40PM]

I CALL BULLSHIT!!!

Philips has had a 21:9 TV for over a year now!

[David Susilo Posted Jan 9th 2010 2:49PM]

why any movie should not be shot in 21:9? Are you the movie producer? The Monalisa should be painted in 16:9? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel should be painted in 16:9?

To get the immersive experience, any movie should be watched no further away than 2x the image height. If you're watching any movie further away than that, you won't get the full experience.

[David Susilo Posted Jan 9th 2010 2:51PM]

Most blockbuster movies were shot in 21:9, so it's fitting to have 21:9 display.

With Pioneer Kuro you don't really need 21:9 because the black bars are just that... black so you don't see the bars.