Don’t get me wrong: I saw the 108-incher when it came to Australia just after its CES showcase, and it was gorgeous. Picture quality was breathtaking. But is now the right time to be launching a TV that costs as much as a house in some parts of the country? My instinct says no, but there is still a part of me that cries out “yes!”To be fair, Sharp reckon it’s going to find a home as a digital signage screen as much as a home TV. It’s actually rated to run 24/7 without loss of vivid image quality, and pulls in just 1,130 Watts, which is awesome considering it has over 3.2 square metres of screen real estate.

The price is also subject to quotation, probably because it will cost most people more to get it through their small front doors – you’ll probably have to take off part of the roof and crane this bad boy in. But if you can afford the asking price, the cost of rebuilding part of your home isnt going to bother you…

Sharp introduces world’s largest LCD TV/monitor to Australia

Sharp Corporation has announced the launch in Australia of the world’s largest LCD TV/monitor, the massive 274cm (108 inch class) LCD model LB-1085.

Manufactured at Sharp’s state-of-the-art Kameyama Plant in Japan, the TV’s widescreen 108-inch Advanced Super View LCD panel measures 2,382mm x 1,340mm – making it the largest LCD TV/Monitor commercially available anywhere in the world.

Offering an expansive viewing area of approximately 3.2 square metres, the LB-1085 also delivers spectacular image quality featuring Full HD (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) utilising an ASV Low Reflection Black TFT LCD. The 176 degree field of vision combined with high brightness and high contrast allows images to be seen clearly from virtually any angle, even in bright environments. When it comes to colour range, the LB-1085 offers the widest colour range available on a Sharp LCD TV/Monitor, boasting a maximum colour display of approximately 758 million colours!

Other functions which help to ensure the very best viewing quality include active contrast, brightness sensor and quick shoot, a feature that improves response time during fast action sequences. Personal viewing preferences are possible via the video adjustment function which allows individual choices such as colour temperature, hue, saturation and 3D-Y/C.

The LB-1085 strengthens Sharp’s current line-ups of both LCD TVs and Professional LCD Monitors. The LB-1085 is designed with the philosophy of “built-to-last” in mind. Capable of 24/7 operation without losing any vividness of image quality, the fan-less architecture is not only super quiet but also easier to maintain, with no mechanical air ventilation components to cause dust problems. This makes the LB-1085 perfectly suited to commercial display and signage applications, as well as normal TV and large-screen display use.

Connectivity is streamlined and simple, thanks to the versatile PC and AV terminals which allow a wide range of equipment including media players, computers, HDTV recorders, and Blu-Ray players to be connected. Input terminals include HDMI x 3, DVI-I, Component x 2, S-Video, Composite video and audio. For Professional Monitor use, there is also an RS-232C input for added control such as enabling power to the LCD to be switched on and off and the input channel to be selected remotely via PC. The monitor’s output terminals include audio (RCA pin L/R) and speakers.

As applicable for Sharp’s range of Professional LCD Monitors, the LB-1085 is fully supported by Sharp’s Digital Signage Software, management software that distributes and displays programmed still images, videos and other content posted together with prescheduled data.

The LB-1085’s exceptional size and quality is backed by Sharp’s commitment to delivering superior environmental performance. This is evidenced by low power consumption of just 1,130 W, combined with RoHS compliance, the strict European requirement for significant reductions in the use of detrimental chemical substances during the manufacturing process.

Sharp sees use of the LB-1085 in a variety of applications ranging from prestige home use, to boardrooms, reception areas, showrooms and movie theatres, as well as control rooms and large public display spaces. The LB-1085 breathtaking screen size, clarity of image and 24/7 reliability further cements Sharp’s position as world leader in LCD technology.

The Sharp LB-1085 is available at the suggested selling price of $169,000 (quotation applies).

-ENDS-

[Sharp]

The top layer of autonomy is aided by GPS—following a map and relaying your position is the simplest way to stay out of too much trouble. The next layer of sensibility comes from laser range finders. These would scan everything in the road to see if it is free from obstruction. According to the Discovery story:

Video equipment would then determine if the object is a hazard, such as a rock, or not. All of the information would then be run through a computer program that would tell the robotic driver to avoid the obstacle or not and by how much.

So how come it’s “rocks” that are dangerous? And how is “man” categorised in this seemingly arbitrary catalog? I don’t think I’d want to be anywhere near that mean-looking grille when the Carnegie nerds flip the on switch. For more information that may help you survive an uprising starring the 797B (”b” for bloodthirsty, I will guess), hit both source links. [Discovery via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]

How big is too big? That’s the question that you inevitably ask yourself once you spend any amount of time with Panasonic’s new 150-inch plasma TV prototype. We visited it in Panasonic’s towering warehouse in Secaucus, New Jersey last Friday, running it through its paces with 4K footage, Blu-ray movies and Playstation 3 games. After spending a day with it, was it the type of thing I honestly wanted to set up in my living room?

Maybe. Maybe not. The standards that we use to measure other TVs don’t apply here. Have you ever seen a TV taller than yourself? A TV that uses more energy than your washer and dryer? A TV that needs to be carried around on a forklift? I’m guessing you haven’t. This thing is in a category all its own.

Man, is it impressive. If you stand within a few feet of it, it fills your entire field of vision, quickly making you motion sick if you’re playing video games or watching a movie with lots of action. Even standing six metres away, you still feel like the TV is the only thing in the room. It’s a 4K 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.

Iron Man 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 a medium 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 Duty with life-sized enemies. As I decimated Mahoney over and over again (note to Mahoney: you suck), I felt my hands getting slick with sweat on the controller, my head whipping back and forth to try to see him around corners. My body felt a dissonance because I wasn’t moving my legs or having my body jolted with recoil from my automatic weapon.

I’ve played video games on big TVs before. I visited Panasonic last year to do similar, uh, “tests” on their 103-inch plasma. And while that was awesome, it still felt like playing games and watching movies on a really 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 of primitive virtual reality. It’s so overwhelming that you can’t really fathom putting it in your house because you can’t see it fitting into any kind of reality you inhabit.

Inside the warehouse, we placed a 42-inch plasma next to it that looked pathetic, like something you’d put over your toilet to watch SportsCenter while you take a leak. I wanted to put it in my pocket. Even the 103-incher looked sad and small next to it. And trust me, a 103-inch TV doesn’t look sad or small in too many situations.

If this were a true review, I’d have to complain that, since a 4K TV does to 1080p what your new HDTV does to standard-def, you’re bound to watch a lot of crappy looking TV on this. If 1080p looks bad, think about all of the channels that come through in standard def. And if you’re planning on streaming Netflix movies via your Xbox onto this TV, be prepared for digital artifacts the size of your head.

But you know 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 to the present by our friends at Panasonic. You aren’t going to hook a VCR up to this thing, and neither are they; it is designed to run with precision-mastered footage, and our current lack of worthy video doesn’t diminish the ridiculous potency of the thing.

Believe it or not, Panasonic will begin selling the 150-inch plasma sometime next year, probably for about twice as much as the $US70,000 103-incher. Will it be snapped up by anyone? Probably. There are always sultanates and NBA stars looking to have the biggest and most expensive TV in the world, and this definitely fits that bill. But again I’ll ask: Is it something normal people would benefit from having in their living room?

I’d say no, but not out of broke resentment and the fact that this would quadruple my energy bill and require me to knock down most of the walls of my home to even get it inside. I don’t think people should put this in their living rooms because, when you get down to it, this isn’t a TV. 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 an act approaching sacrilege. It’s more than a TV: it’s a glimpse into the future, it’s a brazen display of hubris and overkill, and it’s a visceral, skin-searing experience. It belongs on spaceships and in museums, not in living rooms. It’s only right.

The 120kg monster measures in at 197 x 96 x 135 cm and is compliant with HP’s DreamColor technology, which allows it to recreate one billion colours and if you own a HP DreamColor monitor, what you see on screen is exactly what you’ll get printed out, colour-wise.

As you can see the print outs are huge, and the quality is pretty sweet. And if you want to own one for yourself (perhaps for some form of world-domination plot), they cost about $US12,495.

Designed by Simone Giostra & Partners and Arup, the Zero Energy Media Wall is made out of 2,292 full colour LED light points, all powered by solar cells embedded in the glass themselves. The structure is multilayered, with different kind of substrates creating the full effect. It uses custom software that communicates what is happening inside the opaque entertainment centre, transforming it into a colourful “responsive environment for entertainment and public engagement.” They got me at substrates.

Now I want the Philips Magnetic LED tiles more than ever. [Greenpix]

The 810’s Marvell-designed engine seen above stitches four 1080p scalers together with DVI connections to bump any digital source from 480i to 1080p up to a full 10MP. The projector can pump out a few different aspect ratios: 4:3, 16:9 and using a CinemaScope lens, 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen that’s mostly used in old school films. It’s also got a lamp that goes up to Hollywood-reference levels of 4000 lumens and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio which is odd since their US$15K projector claims 30,000:1.

Either way, the picture projected by the 810 is pretty unreal. I stuck my nose up to the screen and couldn’t see a pixel to save my life, and Meridian says that it will project on a screen up to 25 feet (7.6 metres) wide without any pixelation. The 810 comes in short, medium, and long-throw packages, as well as a very short throw package for rear-projection. It’ll be available in September, if you can afford it. [Meridian]