LAS VEGAS – In the original Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger clicks one button on a remote control to transform the TV built into the wall of his futuristic apartment from a small-screen newscast to a huge nature landscape.
Now, 26 years later, Samsung has done something very similar. At CES 2016, the Korean electronics maker showed off a concept of a modular TV. At the Samsung booth, I watched as a roughly 50-inch screen split apart and separated into four, and then eight different displays.
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Motors in the wall moved each of the eight square-shaped screen modules inward and outward, putting passive “blank” squares in between the screens when separated. Like many demos at CES, it evoked a feeling of futuristic cool.
Samsung modular TV concept turns you wall display into a transformer. #CES2016 pic.twitter.com/FFdUU7bvbk— Pete Pachal (@petepachal) January 7, 2016
It wasn’t perfect, however. When the screens were as one, I could just barely see the seams between them if I looked closely, and they were more obvious off-angle. That wouldn’t make for a great experience if it was your main TV set, but it would be less crucial if the display were used for commercial applications like signage. Or just a wild party room.
I saw the same problem on a display across the aisle, which had just two sections. The idea was a display that could rotate the two sides of the screen to change from a 16:9 TV to a 4:3 one in seconds. That way, you could use every pixel of the set for either aspect ratio. Nice idea, but only if Samsung can fix the seam problem.
Although the seams were visible in the transforming displays, just a few feet away Samsung showed a permanent installation of the modular concept – a monstrous 170-inch TV that didn’t transform at all. I couldn’t see the seams at all in that one, and it shows what will probably be the main application of the modular tech if Samsung every brings it to market: Building ultra-gigantic wall TVs out of several smaller panels.
Not only does the modular concept let Samsung keep pushing upward the bragging rights of having the biggest TV, it helps in one of the most cumbersome aspects of being in the business of selling TVs: shipping the big ones. By breaking a huge set down into several smaller screens, a giant TV could be shipped easily. All the buyer needs is a spare wall.
The modular set is just a concept right now, so there’s no planned release -- except maybe if your last name is Schwarzenegger.
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