IFA 2010 and following the announcement yesterday of the  Philips 3D Cinema 21:9 Platinum T3 was lucky enough to have a look. With this set the Dutch company adds 3D to it's 21:9 flatpanel offering to create the first 21:9 3D display.

The 59-inch set itself is exceptionally thin and very attractive. It uses LED backlight technology and has a 400Hz mode. The format means you can watch movies in a more cinemalike experience, without the black letterbox effect.

Check our our exclusive hands-on pictures here.

Like the majority of other consumer 3D sets, active shutter technology means you need to use 3D glasses, fortunately these are among the most comfortable we've used and you don't even need to activate 3D, the glasses communicate with the set to do this automatically.

Philips had a couple of Blu-ray test discs playing, the first one showing aeroplanes and boats at sea, a format the 21:9 screen is the perfect for. The boat was shown lengthways filling the width of the screen and the 3D effect was really impressive, at times the nose of the plane literally loomed out of the water towards you.

The second disc showed divers off the coast of Tahiti - again the subject is perfect for the 21:9 ratio screen, filling it with marine life. 3D really brings the underwater world to life in a way 2D footage can't. At one stage a turtle swims towards the camera (and you), but it's the effect on perspective that's really effective. The widescreeen and 3D effective together provide a real sense of the ocean bed stretching out behind that you just don't get from a conventional LCD.

Direct lit LED backlighting made the image exceptionally sharp - far sharper than some rival 3D footage and colours were very bright and bold.

For movie fans 21:9 is the ultimate flatscreen format and from what've seen here, when the right 3D content is shown it looks amazing, making the experience far more cinematic. Philips autoformatting technology will also ensure TV, games and DVD fit,  by stretching the image out. But we'd be really interested to see how something like sport - which isn't a natural fit to the 21:9 format - looks in 3D. We'll bring you a full review as soon as possible.

The Philips 3D Cinema 21:9 Platinum is out in September for around £3200

Link: Phillips

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