Cinema screens may have your home entertainment setup beat in terms of size, but picture quality is another matter. Displays capable of 4K resolution and High Dynamic Range (HDR) are getting more common in homes, but remain relatively rare in theaters. In a bid to help get more butts in seats, Samsung has unveiled a new cinema-sized LED display that brings both 4K and HDR to the big screen.
Measuring 34 ft (10.4 m), Samsung's new Cinema Screen is a direct-lit LED display, which means the LCD panel is illuminated by rows of LEDs behind it. That makes it thicker than a display that's edge-lit (where the LEDs are arranged around the outside edge of the screen), but adds the advantages of higher peak brightness and better contrast – the hallmarks of HDR.
Peak brightness hits a high of 146 foot-lamberts (fL), which Samsung says is 10 times the level a standard cinema projector is capable of. With the backlight evenly spread out, the brightness should be uniform across the screen and not suffer from distortion or interference. On the contrast front, the company claims that settings like ultra-contrast and low tone grayscale can create a ratio of almost infinity:1 between bright colors and deep blacks.
To complement the 4K, HDR visuals, the sound quality is apparently also getting an upgrade. Although there aren't yet any details on just what that might include, Samsung's Audio Lab is working with Harman's Cinema Group to create what it calls an "innovative audio solution."
"As the popularity of advanced at-home entertainment systems and streaming platforms increases, theaters must reposition themselves as a destination for an incomparable viewing experience that consumers simply cannot encounter anywhere else," says Sang Kim, Vice President of Samsung Electronics America. "Our new Cinema Screen technology brings a more powerful and high-quality picture to the big screen, creating an environment where viewers feel as if they are part of every scene."
Samsung's Cinema Screen is currently being certified by Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) to make sure it meets the required benchmarks. While no pricing or release information has been announced yet, Samsung is exhibiting the screen in Las Vegas this week to coincide with the CinemaCon 2017 conference.
Source: Samsung
