back to article Samsung to bring 55-inch MONSTER curvy-telly to the UK

If you have a bob or two going free – well, the best part of at least $9,000 – Samsung will now sell you its monumental curved OLED TV, previously only available in the US and Asia. The 54.6-inch screen, dubbed the S9C, is gently bent for what Samsung claims is a more cinematic viewing experience, though telly hardware pundits …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When you have to buy a curved television so that you can still see the edges of the screen whilst watching your favourite stop frame animation, it's time to turn the television off, step out into the big, bad world, and get yourself a life.

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      When you have the money to burn on that kind of luxury, I'll bet that when you step out into the world, it's with a glass of champaign in your hand and a beautiful creature at your arm, that you can lead to your expensive car for a (very) nice ride.

      And if you have all that, I'm pretty sure you think that you're having a pretty good life.

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        I'll bet that when you step out into the world, it's with a glass of champaign[sic] in your hand and a beautiful creature at your arm, that you can lead to your expensive car for a (very) nice ride.

        Or you're a sad geek who still lives with his Mum, and spends his money on pointless gadgets instead of a mortgage?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        When you have the money to burn on that kind of luxury, I'll bet that when you step out into the world, it's with a glass of champaign in your hand and a beautiful creature at your arm

        I like beautiful creatures as much as the next man, but I won't be lending my arm to one. I prefer to have a beautiful woman there.

        1. Ragarath

          I like beautiful creatures as much as the next man, but I won't be lending my arm to one. I prefer to have a beautiful woman there.

          Since when were Women (and Men for that matter) not creatures?

      3. TheOtherHobbes

        >And if you have all that, I'm pretty sure you think that you're having a pretty good life.

        You, sir, are utterly lacking imagination or creativity.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      96% of the population will need to build an extention to get any usability out of this TV, so in a way it may help th economy by getting house building up and running again.

      1. Shawn Grinter
        Thumb Up

        96%

        They are probably aiming at the other 4% anyway :-)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Great!

    What market or market segment is this product meant to target? And this will enhance the experience and content that's output by the less than stellar UK tv broadcasters, how, exactly?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What market or market segment is this product meant to target?

      Big TV, that'll be a benefit claimant of some kind.

    2. DrXym

      Re: Great!

      I expect they're targetting the "people with a lot of money" segment.

      Prices will come down but not for a few years yet to anything remotely comparable to LED LCD sets.

      1. Crisp

        Re: People with a lot of money don't need a 55' window on the world.

        They have actual windows that big.

        1. AndyS

          Re: People with a lot of money don't need a 55' window on the world.

          55' telly? Now that I would like to see.

          1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            Re: People with a lot of money don't need a 55' window on the world.

            55' telly? Now that I would like to see.

            From a long way off. 55' at 1920 x 1080 would give you pixels almost 8mm square!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    screen less curved than frame

    Is that the design, or is it a fault in the screen bending? Either way, who would want to pay that price and get a huge gap at both ends, looking like it isn't manufactured right?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: screen less curved than frame

      OLED = short life = screen burn = terrible colour reproduction.

      1. HMB

        Re: screen less curved than frame

        OLED has historically had a shorter life span, that's why it's taken so long to get to TV. I guess you're assuming the manufacturers are idiots and just released it when it wasn't ready for TV yet.

        Screen burn is often lumped together when it exists in both a transitory and permanent state. OLED has no transitory 'burn'. Burn in only occurs after a very long time of the same image, which is unlikely in most usage scenarios, unlike plasma. OLED long term burn is the same issue as short life.

        Terrible colour reproduction. Hmmmm... You know I feel more understanding of your point here. However it's the opposite way round. OLED has a wider colour gamut than any other consumer display technology. It's capable of showing richer colours. Sadly, this richer colour capability is often used without sufficient engineering thought or restraint, making images look "over colourful". To truly take advantage of a wider colour gamut, you need a colour gamut system (camera, format, post production and display) that is specced for it. I believe HDMI has some sort of support built into it for higher dynamic ranges.

        OLEDs are thinner and could be cheaper than LCD, they are more capable in terms of colour gamut and they have outstanding contrast that beats plasma and LCD. Longevity is the issue that must be demonstrated to have been solved, but I'd be very surprised if the Industry have ignored it and just rolled it out with longevity problems like you suggest.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          There

          Are so many Orange people on TV you probably won't notice the over saturation of the OLED screen.

      2. Frank Bough

        Re: screen less curved than frame

        Not true, but they can burn in (so can LCDs if properly abused).

        We use OLEDs now as broadcast monitors, and the grey tracking, contrast and stability are wonderful. Colour is slightly perplexing - for most purposes it looks neutral and controlled, but compared against a CRT or a plasma, there's a slight "thinness" that's difficult to define.

        One thing that's uniquely problematic is colour shift off-axis. the Sony BVM and BVM OLEDs shift to cyan as you move out of the central 70 degrees, and these are 24" units. Curving a 55" OLED seems like a sensible way to try and tackle this shift.

        I'd certainly be very keen to have a look at a 4K model, particularly now Panasonic has stooped plasma development (albeit with a wonderful final product).

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I would not want one!

    You can't wall mount it, what is the point?

  5. MJI Silver badge
    WTF?

    After getting rid of curved TVs they reappear

    Vertical curves removed in 1960s

    Horizontal curves in 1998

    Depth of TV a bit later

    Now they want to curve them again!

    1. Horridbloke
      Go

      Re: After getting rid of curved TVs they reappear

      Not at all, the screens are simply becoming more concave with time. Give it another couple of decades and we'll all have a cylindrical screen to sit inside (and shoot pretend bad guys from).

      I was treated to a very quick go in a 360 degree Immersive Combat Environment chamber a while back - it was cool, very holodeck.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, there are some actual reviews coming in this time (like http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-kn55s9c/4505-6482_7-35823374.html), so this OLED TV is not vaporware any more like the other 55" OLED TVs demoed by LG and Samsung in the past few years have been. The previously largest consumer level OLED TV you could actually buy was the 15 inch LG a few years back, so this really is the first OLED TV in a usable size. Finally.

    Oh, and according to the reviews it is the best picture quality TV yet, beating even the Kuros and Panasonic Plasmas by some amount. Not bad for a first generation product.

    So the OLED TV is here at last, it's a big milestone. In three or four years time, as prices start to fall, it may even make some financial sense to buy one if you are interested in a high end TV set.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Move the sofa....

    Looks like you will have to rearrange the sitting room to put the TV back in the corner again !

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Move the sofa....

      Never moved it to start with! 55" is a bit small however, I'm thinking 100" and more pixels instead of a projector.

  8. robert_raw

    The should peel the samsung logo off and put an Apple logo on, then it will sell in huge numbers at that price. :)

  9. Horridbloke

    Price...

    I remember seeing a big plasma widescreen for the first time back in the mid nineties. I think the asking price was about six thousand pounds, so these new-technology screens are nominally a comparable price, but taking inflation into account much cheaper. I won't be remotely surprised if they are available for a few hundred quid ten or fifteen years from now.

  10. regorama

    cant really see the point i would (given the choice) have a 55" flat tv thanks

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