OnFriday, Mahoney and I went to Panasonic HQ to check out one of thefirst prototypes of their ludicrous 150-inch plasma TV. This thing putsthe 103-incher that I checked out last yearto shame, weighing a whopping 1700 pounds before the stand is attachedand sucking up 7kW of power while it runs. We hooked up ourenergy-efficient-in-comparison PS3 and suffered through playing a bunchof video games on it to report back to you. You're welcome! Today, ataste, with me sizing up a weighted companion cube in Portal,above, and, after the jump, seeing what a 42-inch steering wheel onGran Turismo would be like in real life and learning the ropes in Call of Duty 4. Check back tomorrow for a full report.
Howbig is too big? That's the question that you inevitably ask yourselfonce you spend any amount of time with Panasonic's new 150-inch plasmaTV prototype. We visited it in Panasonic's towering warehouse inSecaucus, New Jersey last Friday, running it through its paces with 4Kfootage, Blu-ray movies and Playstation 3 games. After spending a daywith it, was it the type of thing I honestly wanted to set up in myliving room?
Maybe. Maybe not. The standards that we use tomeasure other TVs don't apply here. Have you ever seen a TV taller thanyourself? A TV that uses more energy than your washer and dryer? A TVthat needs to be carried around on a forklift? I'm guessing youhaven't. This thing is in a category all its own.
Man, is itimpressive. If you stand within a few feet of it, it fills your entirefield of vision, quickly making you motion sick if you're playing videogames or watching a movie with lots of action. Even standing 20 feetaway, you still feel like the TV is the only thing in the room. It's a4K set, so if you've got the proper ultra-HD footage pumping into it,it makes 1080p look like a second-rate resolution, but even with 1080p,it's absolutely stunning.
IronMan looked like he was going to jump out of the TV. Robert Downey,Jr.'s baby blues were the size of watermelons in anything closer than amedium shot. Everything was just so big. Seeing a shark leap fully out of the water to devour a seal in Planet Earth becomes even more mindblowing when the shark approaches life size.
And video games? Forget about it. You haven't lived until you've played Call of Dutywith life-sized enemies. As I decimated Mahoney over and over again(note to Mahoney: you suck), I felt my hands getting slick with sweaton the controller, my head whipping back and forth to try to see himaround corners. My body felt a dissonance because I wasn't moving mylegs or having my body jolted with recoil from my automatic weapon.
I'veplayed video games on big TVs before. I visited Panasonic last year todo similar, uh, "tests" on their 103-inch plasma. And while that wasawesome, it still felt like playing games and watching movies on areally big TV. The 150 transcends regular TV to become something more.It's like something out of a sci-fi movie, a living wall, a form ofprimitive virtual reality. It's so overwhelming that you can't reallyfathom putting it in your house because you can't see it fitting intoany kind of reality you inhabit.
Inside the warehouse, we placeda 42-inch plasma next to it that looked pathetic, like something you'dput over your toilet to watch SportsCenter while you take a leak. Iwanted to put it in my pocket. Even the 103-incher looked sad and smallnext to it. And trust me, a 103-inch TV doesn't look sad or small intoo many situations.
Ifthis were a true review, I'd have to complain that, since a 4K TV doesto 1080p what your new HDTV does to standard-def, you're bound to watcha lot of crappy looking TV on this. If 1080p looks bad, think about allof the channels that come through in standard def. And if you'replanning on streaming Netflix movies via your Xbox onto this TV, beprepared for digital artifacts the size of your head.
But youknow what? This TV isn't designed for you to put in your living room.Sorry. It's a TV from the future, generously time-teleported back tothe present by our friends at Panasonic. You aren't going to hook a VCRup to this thing, and neither are they; it is designed to run withprecision-mastered footage, and our current lack of worthy videodoesn't diminish the ridiculous potency of the thing.
Believe itor not, Panasonic will begin selling the 150-inch plasma sometime nextyear, probably for about twice as much as the $70,000 103-incher. Willit be snapped up by anyone? Probably. There are always sultanates andNBA stars looking to have the biggest and most expensive TV in theworld, and this definitely fits that bill. But again I'll ask: Is itsomething normal people would benefit from having in their living room?
I'dsay no, but not out of broke resentment and the fact that this wouldquadruple my energy bill and require me to knock down most of the wallsof my home to even get it inside. I don't think people should put thisin their living rooms because, when you get down to it, this isn't aTV. I don't want to imagine people watching Two and a Half Men on it.To check the weather on The Weather Channel on this thing would be anact approaching sacrilege. It's more than a TV: it's a glimpse into thefuture, it's a brazen display of hubris and overkill, and it's avisceral, skin-searing experience. It belongs on spaceships and inmuseums, not in living rooms. It's only right.作者: maaboo 时间: 1-10-2008 11:42
这个FPS估计要晕死……作者: ranger 时间: 1-10-2008 13:02
oh my ... 作者: chenyi1976 时间: 1-10-2008 15:23
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貌似很不错的样子。
MeetDorothy. At 150 inches diagonal, she’s the world’s largest plasmascreen and the biggest direct-view TV ever made, built (and named) byPanasonic. We got to play with her recentlyand as you've seen, it was mind-meltingly awesome. Even thoughfirsthand experiences with Dorothy are akin to filling a leaf blowerwith nitrous oxide to jet-huff directly into your brain, Dorothy'sbackstory is almost as incredible, especially when it comes tomanufacturing, shipping and yes, managing all the electricity needed tofire her up. So even though you will absolutely never own one—exceptfor you Giz-reading NBA stars and platinum-selling rappers—the story ofthe world's most advanced television is a thrill, and serves as acrystal ball to the future of all TV. Come, talk to her. She'sintimidating, but it'll be good for you. Why "Dorothy"?
There are currently five 150-inch Panasonic plasmas in existence—and asixth for CES 2009 is currently being assembled. They’ve been named,appropriately enough, like hurricanes—starting with A and working down.Dorothy’s number 4, hence the D. Why 150 inches?
It’s all about the upper limits of the manufacturing process. Panelfactories crank out the largest single piece of “mother glass” theypossibly can, so that they can cut more large TVs per pane ofmanufactured glass. The ultimate size of a piece of mother glass islimited by the glass’s strength and uniformity—how large the thing canget without cracking. Panel makers will always be pushing thisboundary, because the more 50-inch TVs you can get out of each singleassembly-line run, the more money you can make on them even if they'reselling at lower prices in stores.
Panasonic’s previous biggest piece of mother glass was 103 inches (remember?),from which four 50-inch plasmas could be cut. Their new manufacturingplant, Amagasaki 5 in Japan, has pushed the max to 150 inches—enoughglass to birth nine 50-inch plasmas. Dorothy’s as big as sheis because she literally swallowed nine TVs. When manufacturing evolvesfurther, creating even larger panes of mother glass, you could seelarger trade-show sets, provided they fit through the convention-centerdoors.
103 inches, how quaint. And look at that lil' 42-incher, looking fit for bathroom viewing only by comparison. What’s the resolution?
Typically called 4K, it's resolution is 3996x2160. Even though youcould technically call this 2160p, it's important to recognize thatit's four times as tight as 1080p. Think four 1920x1080 panelsVoltroning together to make something that's 8 megapixels, as opposedto the best current TVs' 2 megapixels. The annoying thing is that theindustry went from measuring vertical resolution—720p and 1080p—tohorizontal resolution—2K and 4K. (More on that here.)
Asa result, watching a 1080p Blu-ray disc upscaled on Dorothy is akin towatching a standard-def DVD upscaled on your HDTV. As you can see inthe shot below, the upscaler uses two pixels to render a one-pixel wideline from a test disc. But at Dorothy’s scale, it’s less about spottingcompression artifacts, which are most visible when you’re close enoughto induce nausea anyway. It’s about getting your face blown off.
How’s it stack up to Pioneer’s Kuro, one of the top plasmas in the game?
As far as motion-resolution goes—the all-important ability to maintaincrisp images while they’re in motion on the screen—it's actuallybetter. According to HD Guru Gary Merson (who was more interested inrunning his calibration discs on the 150 than sticking with us for someCounter Strike, God bless ’im), the 150-incher, even as a prototype, scored a resolution of 920 lines on a 1080i signal. Pioneer’s ’08 Kuros,the next best, scored 900. Our bet is that Dorothy can't best the Kuroin the contrast department, but as you can see from all of our shots,it's no slouch. Check out more performance specs in Gary’s 125-TV mega-guide. Below: Gary testing motion resolution.
How much power does she suck down, and at what cost?
Dorothy is addictedto raw electricity—we’re talking two dedicated 15-amp, single-phase,208-volt lines which produce around 3,000 watts on average. Dorothypeaks at around 7,000 watts of direct consumption. Not exactlyEnergyStar.
If I plugged Dorothy in at my apartment (that is,after removing my second-floor balcony door and window and much of theexterior wall while at it, and hiring a crane to bring the TV in),Dorothy’s juice habit would run me around $1.50 per hour of use, atConEd’s current price of 22 cents per kilowatt-hour. So, after rentingthe Godfather Blu-ray set, factor in about $15 more in electricity charges for watching the whole thing. How much heat does the thing put off?
We were expecting getting close to Dorothy was going to feel likeputting our faces in a toaster oven. Even standard-size Kuros can feela little warm. But surprisingly, up front, the heat was far fromextreme. It very well could be channeled out the back, but we didn’tsee any industrial-grade heat sinks behind her, either, or hear anyfans blowing away. (Note: We're not allowed to show photographs ofDorothy's rear, though we did have a peek.) How much does she weigh?
Around 1,700 pounds not including the stand. For comparison, an actualMini Cooper with Adam in the driver’s seat weighs about 2,800 pounds. How does Dorothy get around?
With great care and difficulty. After her inception at Amagasaki 5,Dorothy and her sisters were tested then sent on the trade-showcircuit. Unlike the 103,they’re too big even for wooden crates. All that protects Dorothy andher sisters from the elements are the thin membranes of bubble wrap andStyrofoam wrapped around them, and the tarp draped over the openshipping cage. That’s all. Here's a fun fact: Only two 150-inchers canfit in a single 747 cargo hold at a time.
Although we saw a 150-incher at CES last January, Dorothy’s first trip was to IFA in Berlinthis September. Afterward, she headed for Panasonic’s North American HQin Secaucus, NJ where we got the chance to meet. She’s due to appear onWall Street today (unfortunate timing for the poor girl) for theofficial US debut, then on to trade shows in Dubai, Singapore and HongKong before returning home again to Japan. Thanks forthe facts, but what was that about a "mind-meltingly awesome"experience again? Any way to demonstrate that, say with a video of Gran Turismo 5's in-car view?
Why yes we can, and we'll throw in the 42-inch steering wheel for free:
