Vizio CinemaWide TV set is made for watching movies

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The Vizio CinemaWide is a big-screen TV set with a simple mission: to remove the annoying black bars that come with watching, as its name suggests, widescreen cinema movies.

The CinemaWide is a 58-inch HD 3-D TV that stands out because its ultra-wide screen was specifically designed for watching movies, theater style.

It removes black bars by displaying content at a stretched 21:9 ratio, unlike most HD TV sets, which have a 16:9 ratio. The CinemaWide also has higher resolution, -- 2,560 by 1,080 -- than the typical HD TV.

The screen isn't the only big thing about this TV. The set weighs 66 pounds and is more than 4 1/2 feet wide. It also costs a hefty $1,999.99.

But if you're a big-time movie buff, it might be worth that price. I watched a couple of movies on the CinemaWide, and they were some of the most cinema-like experiences I've had with a television set.

Whether it was a Blu-Ray movie, something streaming from Netflix, or a 3-D film from Vudu, the CinemaWide performed admirably, and in each instance, the content filled up the entire screen or nearly did so without cutting anything off.

There isn't any content made specifically for this TV set, but the CinemaWide does a good job at automatically stretching content without making it look bad.

When watching a widescreen movie, the CinemaWide stretches the screen and eliminates the black bars. When I watched "The Fighter," the image filed up the entire screen, and while watching "Man on Fire," only a little bit of the black bars were left.

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