owners of Philips Cinema 21:9 TVs and Philips BD players, please help

[moufriot]

I'm currently considering buying a TV from the Philips Cinema 21:9 series, and would be grateful to anyone who could help me with precise answers to the following questions:

1. In the manual, on p. 20, for the model

Philips Cinema 21:9 Platinum Series Smart LED TV with Ambilight Spectra 3 and Multi-view 147 cm (58") Ultra wide Full HD 3D Max 58PFL9956H,

it reads:

Picture format

[...]

• Unscaled
Expert mode for HD or PC input. Pixel for pixel display. Blackbars may appear with pictures from a PC.

(http://download.p4c.philips.com/file...12_dfu_eng.pdf)

Does this mean, that particular model allows for a native rendering of content fed in 720p over HDMI? (i.e., the resultant image would be windowboxed = much smaller, with black bars on all four sides)

2. How's the Ambilight for 16:9 or even 4:3 content? Since in those modes, there's a huge gap on the sides between the active picture and the casing edge where the colored Ambilight begins, what sensation does that evoke? Is it distracting, maybe even very annoying, or does it feel as natural as when watching 21:9 content?

3. Will any unusual aspect ratio work, especially, are SmileBox BDs (How the West Was Won, Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich, ...) supported, i.e. will the image be scaled correctly, without cropping anything? (see postscriptum for how a 2.37:1 screen – the Philips Cinema 21:9 TVs' actual format, despite the misleading "21:9" in the name – would, for example, properly represent a SmileBox image)

4. Does anybody know whether there's a version larger than 58'' in the works for European markets? (I do know about the Vizio XVT3D710CM 71'' 3D CinemaWide RAZOR LED Smart TV, but because of half-res 3D and for other reasons that one's not an option for me – also, that one's probably a bitch to get in Europe, anyway.) Maybe there was a recent tradeshow announcement or something?

5. I'm aware there are some BD players by Philips (such as the Philips 7000 Series Blu-ray Disc Player CinemaPerfect HD Smart TV Plus 3D BDP7700/12) that feature some sort of "auto subtitle shift", but does it check out in real-world use with 21:9 (or thereabouts) content, i.e., is the shifting responsive enough? Are the fonts retained / is readability kept intact? And, most importantly, what about BDs that have [parts of the] subtitles placed in both the lower and the upper bar, will those be displayed correctly as well? If so, what do I have to look for (logo, marketing term) to be sure the support for shifting any kind of black-bar subs is there? (It doesn't matter what region the player is sold in.)

Thanks a great bunch

PS: