Curved Screens to Change the World? Probably Not

Like so many Americans, I take a certain amount of pride in my status as a consumer.

Let’s face it: consumerism is more of a religion to a majority of us than any actual religion. Indeed, as the Christmas rush proves every year, the lines between consumerism and religion become more blurred with each passing holiday season.

One of the big-ticket items that’s surely going to be on many lists come this Black Friday will be the newfangled curved-screen televisions we’ve been hearing so much about in recent months.

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: They do look cool. If a futuristic theme is what you want in your home, a device like one belonging to the Samsung UNHU9000 Series is definitely going to make that point clear.

However, beyond the novelty, exactly what does this new generation of televisions do? And more to the point, why was it invented in the first place?

Well, the reason for its invention seems pretty clear to me: The television market is a tough one to crack and an even tougher one if you want to squeeze out profits.

Selling Novelty, Not Functionality

Let me explain. Today’s current generation of televisions is referred to as “4K” or “UHD” (ultra-high definition). It’s the successor to the 3D TVs that seemed space-aged just a few years back (but then, is space-aged even high tech anymore?).

These televisions boast higher resolution and faster refresh rates, but, like with many recently emerged technologies, actual content that takes full advantage of it is sparse, to say the least.

No TV channel comes close to exploiting 4K TVs — a shortcoming suffered by Blu-Ray discs as well.

If history is any indicator, the future will be in streaming.

However, as new as these TVs are, their eventual slide from the cutting edge can already be predicted.

When 3D TVs first came out, the first high-end models went for over $6,000. Now, 4Ks have hardly made an impact on the market volume-wise, and their prices are already plummeting.

Budget TV maker Vizio has already released a 60-inch 4K model costing just $1,600 — a kiss of death for the higher-end makers.

Which means premium manufacturers like Samsung need to stay ahead of the pack, developing the next coolest thing before their current coolest thing becomes too cheap to justify its production.

Enter the curved screen (which, by the way, is already dropping in price)…

IMAX for the Home? Hardly

They’re cool, but are they any better than what came before?

By most accounts, they’re not.

They boast resolution levels no higher than competing flat-screen models, and, perhaps most disappointingly, they do not provide the IMAX-style wraparound immersion effect that so many people were expecting.

To reproduce that effect, the screens have to be bigger and curve more, and anybody watching must be seated proportionately far closer than the average living room dimensions dictate.

The image below should give you an idea of what I mean:

To create an IMAX effect at home, you’d need to turn an entire wall into a screen and sit close enough so that the image completely dominates your peripheral vision.

In short, to get the IMAX experience, you need an IMAX screen.

Moreover, the curved screen actually creates natural distortions in the image — a problem you can solve only by placing yourself at the exact focal point of the curvature.

That’s a great solution, but the problem is, with a 60-inch screen, you won’t fit more than one or two people into that focal point. Everyone else will be forced to watch George Clooney’s face warping as it moves from one side of the screen to the other.

Curved screens have been reported to minimize the effects of glare from errant light sources, but, again, when viewed from an imperfect angle, that same glare can actually be magnified by the convex surface.

So what’s the deal with these futuristic displays then?

It looks likely that there isn’t much of a deal at all.

All Looks, No Personality

The technology looks great and works just as well as the previous generation of 3D TVs, and there are certainly bragging rights to be had for when you host next year’s Super Bowl party.

But other than that, the benefits are largely aesthetic and have nothing to do with added functionality.

The main problem I see isn’t in the ability of engineers to make newer and better screens but in our own physiology’s limitations.

Just how much more resolution or how much faster a refresh rate can the human eye detect?

I frankly think I hit my own physiological wall with the advent of HD TVs more than a decade ago.

The image was clear enough to show all the skin imperfections of our local news anchor, and the refresh rate was so high that Blu-Ray movies played on this screen looked far too fluid to be natural — almost like they were filmed on a camcorder.

For the younger generation, there was still room for improvement, but if huge companies like Samsung are now turning to what is essentially a nonfunctional novelty to sell their products, it makes you wonder…

Where is TV technology going these days?

Integration, Not Technical Improvement

My opinion is that it’s not going to continue along the current trajectory.

Since we’ve essentially maxed out what we can get out of the picture, the next steps will involve optimizing, standardizing, and internalizing streaming technology; making screens more lightweight and durable; and hybridizing large ones with other household devices.

All of this is already happening, which makes the prediction a safe one.

The TV already isn’t a standalone device. It’s already linked — and will become more linked, as we move forward — to the other digital devices you own.

Your phone, your tablet, and anything that shares your home Internet connection will be pulled into the system and function seamlessly with all the other components.

Of course, as that’s happening, there will always be a race for the biggest, the coolest, the brightest, and the sharpest.

Even if we’ve already crossed the finish line on some or all of those parameters, the marketers will continue to market.

Does this mean the curved screen revolution will be a flop?

That’s hard to say. They may yet become a favorite for gamers of all ages — people who are used to spending hours in a single spot, focused on a single screen.

For them, the existence of a focal point might prove to be an advantage worth paying for.

Then again, with hyper-realistic digital headsets like the Oculus Rift making big news these days, it’s possible that even this niche market will be lost before it’s ever captured.

Either way, do not expect curved TV screens to change the world.

That said, don’t expect your kids to not ask for one.

To your wealth,

Brian Hicks