Pricey 3D TV goes on sale
There will be no wall mounting here. The largest and likely most expensive television is about to go on sale. It is so massive you have to make sure the floor of the room you are putting it in is strong enough to handle the weight. Grace Lee reports on the next generation in 3D TV and how much it will set you back.
It is so new no one in the U.S. even has the new Bang and Olufsen 3D TV. It has an 85-inch screen and a motorized stand. How much? $85,000, the same price as a 2011 Cadillac Escalade.
"We would like to say it's a good value even at $85,000," says Dave Zapfel, Bang & Olufson.
It is a smart TV. The plasma screen has a camera that will calibrate its pixels after 100 hours of viewing to ensure perfect color coordination.
"It's an anti-aging cream for your television," says Zapfel.
It's really heavy — half a ton — about the same weight as a grand piano.
That's why Bang & Olufsen won't even sell it to you without visiting your house.
"We want to make sure the ground or the wall is strong enough," says Zean Nielson, Bang & Olufsen. "Obviously we don't want it to fall through levels of floor to the neighbors downstairs."
When you have something motorized and moving and weighs more than a thousand pounds, you want to make sure nothing gets in between whether it's the family dog or a baby. So this TV has a safety feature. The TV stops if it feels something underneath to make sure no one gets hurt.
And there's even a bigger version: A 103-inch screen will set you back $113,000, but at that size there could be challenges just getting it into your home.
"We actually had to airlift it down with a helicopter, remove the window and push the screen through the window at the client's house and put the window back on," says Nielson.
VIPs in San Francisco were the first on the West Coast to get a peek at the 3D images.
"It's fantastic, it's just like it's real," says Tina Tsao of San Francisco. "It's like you are in it."
"That's unbelievable, I have to admit," says another viewer.
She says it's worth the $85,000. "And anyone in Silicon Valley has to take a step forward because this is your big people's toy."
While most seemed impressed with the picture quality not everyone was impressed with the value.
"You could get the same equipment with similar quality, for half the money or even less," says John Tsao of San Francisco.
BTW, Bang & Olufsen likes to sell a la carte so that $85,000 does not include the active shutter or 3D glasses. Those are $149 each.
But at this point isn't that just chump change?
Photo caption: BeoVision 4 (YouTube/Bang & Olufsen)