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Vizio’s 21:9 aspect CinemaWide TV due in March at $3,499

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Just in case your widescreen, high-definition TV isn’t wide enough for you and you’ve got a few extra thousand dollars to spend, Vizio’s new 58-inch CinemaWide TV is set to hit retailers next month at a price of $3,499.

With a price that will help shed Vizio’s bargain-brand image a bit, the new set will feature a 21:9 aspect ratio that the Irvine-based electronics maker says is closer to the screen orientation found in a movie theater.

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For the last few years, nearly all TVs have a been sold with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Most TV shows and sporting events are broadcast with a 16:9 image, and most video games have been produced with that aspect ratio as well.

So if you are watching TV on a CinemaWide set, you’ll be almost guaranteed to see black bars running to the left and right of the picture, but Vizio says that screen real estate won’t go to waste.

The CinemaWide sets will be able to upscale and stretch video to fit the entirety of the 21:9 screen, or the leftover space can be used to browse the display’s VIA apps, such as Facebook and Twitter, the company said.

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And if you’re watching a widescreen movie, you might be able to watch without the ‘letterbox’ black bars above and below the image, found when watching on a 16:9 set.

Rather than the standard 16:9 high-definition resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, the CinemaWide TV will feature a 2,560 x 1,080 pixel resolution. The CinemaWide sets will also be a line of LED-backlighted, 3-D TVs with four pairs of passive glasses thrown in at no added cost.

For now, Vizio is only listing the price and release window for the 58-inch CinemaWide TV, but 50-inch and 71-inch screen sizes are planned as well.

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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Nathan Olivarez-Giles on Google+

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