CES 2014: How Curved UHD Televisions will Change your Living Room

CES 2014 nearly had more German sales reps than televisions…Nearly. But whether you like it or not, this year was yet again about televisions. The mind-blowing innovations coming down the pipeline for consumer television are beyond hyper-realistic. Curved screens are the game and Samsung, LG, and Vizio are some of the names blowing it away with 4K resolution. They have dozens of different sizes and technologies featuring the visual panorama screens, drawing the viewer into beautiful places out of this world. While last year was the beginning, manufacturers have reached firsts in size (i.e. Samsung’s 110-inch UHD television, VIzio’s 120-inch, though still flat) and quality previously unseen at CES.

Personally, I think the curved idea is brilliant and obvious. All this time television manufacturers have been trying to replicate the theatrical experience for consumers at home, but they didn’t go after the BEST theater experience in existence: curved, Panoramic IMAX film experiences. The high-resolution film has been around forever, bringing the viewer closer to cinematic entertainment than we have ever been. Now imagine that in your living room. It’s coming. And it’s absolutely stunning in person.

Take the LG’s 77″ Curved 4K OLED television, a CES 2014 darling. Seriously, it won Best of Innovations for Video Displays. LG put on a show with amazing clips of opera houses and floating dresses. Silly and random as the visuals may have been, I found it hard to step away from the gorgeous screen, wanting to take it home then and there.

Samsung had some equal talent at their own booth this year, featuring their oversized 110″ (as mentioned), but more impressively their grand lineup of curved UHD televisions. I was particularly partial to their 55″ and 65″ models, the perfect size for your living room. The colors were fantastically vibrant and  had decent arc with amazingly real and bright perspective from all angles, which is really the best part of curved televisions.

Samsung 65" UHD Curved TV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, Samsung was clear to point out their larger than life 105″ UHD Curved LED television, a stunning depiction of America’s overconsumption of media. It felt a bit absurd, especially considering its viewing aspect ratio is 21 x 9, wider than nearly all standard video content available in the universe. While letterbox will shine, distortion in pixels is going to be more than evident on this monster. Samsung claims they’ll actually be shipping this to consumers later this year. No prices set on these as usual with CES, but it’s certainly a sneak peak of the company’s current capabilities and the future of your home theater.

Samsung 105" Curved LED TV