A few days ago we told you of Philips' plans to unveil a new CinemaScope TV – that is, a TV with a much wider aspect ratio than the usual 16:9 ratio employed by most widescreen TVs.

Well, the unveiling has now happened. And now that the dust has settled, we've got a few things to get off our chests.

First, some facts. Starting with its official name: the Philips Cinema 21:9. Then there's the fact that it's 56in from one side to the other, but stands no higher than a normal 42in screen.

Its native resolution, meanwhile, is 2560 x 1080 – making it a full HD Cinemascope screen. It will also have five HDMIs, DNLA and Wi-fi capabilities for accessing files on your PC, a three-sided version of Philips' Ambilight technology, and the latest version of Philips Perfect Pixel technology.

Wide and wonderful

So far, so good. And having seen the thing, there's no doubt that it's a splendid, nay, spectacular-looking beast of a TV that certainly won't have any trouble standing out from the crowd.

Philips did a decent job of making us think the TV is necessary too, pointing out that 65% of all DVD and Blu-ray movies are shot and presented in the 2.39:1 Cinemascope ratio the TV's 21:9 design is based on.

In fact, of the DVD and Blu-rays sold on Amazon, apparently a massive 90% employ the 2.39:1 ratio. (And no, we don't understand why Amazon should be so 2.39:1 ratio obsessed either!)

Reality schmeality

On paper, then, the Cinema 21:9 sounds like the answer to a movie fan's prayers. It's just a shame that the real world doesn't always follow 'on paper' rules.

The biggest single problem for the TV is that the vast majority of widescreen broadcasts are made to the 16:9 ratio used by current widescreen TVs, not the wider ratio of the Cinema 21:9.

What's more, even films broadcast or mastered onto Blu-ray or DVD that retain their 2.39:1 aspect ratio are actually 'packaged' in a 16:9 format. Which is to say that the black bars that appear above Cinemascope films even if you watch them on a widescreen TV are included in the picture information encoded onto the disc or into the broadcast.

In other words, in making such 16:9-packaged Cinemascope films fit perfectly into its 21:9 body, the new Philips TV has to expand the picture vertically to push the black bars off the screen. Which in turn means that it has to push the left and right edges of the picture off the screen as well.

Or rather, that would be the case if Philips hadn't sensibly decided instead to use processing – pixel interpolation, to be precise – to ensure that the image is subtly rebuilt (not distorted, honest!) so that you don't actually lose any of the original image information off the left and right sides.

Tinkering doesn't pay

Which is fine, except that it kind of flies in the face of the one thing we know real movie buffs love: namely that pictures appear exactly as they were created at the mastering stage – ideally using a direct pixel for pixel presentation on a full HD screen.

The very last thing movie buffs like is any third-party processing mucking around with their precious movie sources before presenting them on screen. Hmm.

Obviously the processing needs to come in, too, when making 16:9 pictures fill the 21:9 screen, sneaking in extra pixels to expand the image's width without making it look stretched. Though here, at least, image purists can choose to stick with the original 16:9 shape and have black bars to left and right.

It's possible, of course, that movie enthusiasts will be so taken by the extra immersion afforded by the wider screen area that they'll forgive the image scaling that has to go on. Especially as if any brand has the processing power to handle all the image scaling it's Philips.

One giant step for TV kind

Philips also argues, with engaging optimism, that once they've started the 21:9 TV ball rolling, proper 21:9 sources (as in, Cinemascope movies that can precisely and natively match the resolution of a 21:9 screen rather than being packaged inside 16:9 black bars) will become more common.

Certainly Blu-ray includes within its spec the opportunity to encode true 21:9 presentations onto discs alongside more conventional 16:9 packages. In fact, there are even one or two Blu-rays out there already that deliver on this promise – Iron Man being one of them.

However, while we admire Philips' bravery in trying to lead a new TV category, and as movie buffs love the 21:9 concept to death, we can't help but wonder if the world at large really is ready for what the Cinema 21:9 is trying to do.

After all, to fully understand what the TV does, Joe Public needs to get his collective head around the endlessly complex world of aspect ratios – not an easy sell.

Come on Hollywood, you know you want it

And as for the movie aficianados the TV is really aimed at, as we said earlier, if Hollywood doesn't start supporting the 21:9 TV concept fast by releasing loads of true 21:9 Blu-rays, we're not at all sure the buffs will be keen on all the image processing the TV will have to employ to make its 21:9 ratio work. Especially considering how much the TV is likely to cost...

The Cinema 21:9 is due to launch in the second quarter of this year. So at least you won't have to wait too long to find out how well the set answers those nagging video processing and lack of 21:9 source questions. Here's hoping it makes us eat our poxy doubts for breakfast.