Steadily rising yields at LG’s OLED-panel manufacturing facilities enabled the company to roll out OLED TVs to more than 2,000 brick-and-mortar stores, drop prices of the four newest Ultra HD 4K models by 30 to 45 percent, and bring out a 1080p OLED display at $1,999, said Tim Alessi, head of product development at LG Electronics USA.
The first 1080p OLED TV debuted a few years ago at $15,000, he noted during the CEDIA Expo.
“By and large, dealers are pretty pleased with greater availability and sellthrough,” he told the press.
In other comments, he said LG won’t launch an Ultra HD Bu-ray player this year but said the trade “will most likely see something at CES.”
To support expanded OLED-TV availability, 4,200 displays have been set up at retail to highlight OLED TVs, and an “extensive” digital campaign is underway, Alessi said. A training and certification program has also been implemented to train sales associates on the technology’s advantages in reproducing perfect black levels and delivering high dynamic range (HDR) without high peak brightness for more comfortable viewing, he said.
OLED’s 10-bit panels deliver a color gamut exceeding current Rec. 709 standards by 13 to 15 percent but don’t reproduce DCI-P3 gamut delivered by digital cinemas. A time frame for OLED to achieve P3 gamut wasn’t available.
In other comments, Alessi noted that the company’s two EF9500 OLED 4K TVs display HDR video from their streaming-video apps and, via HDMI 2.0a, from future external sources such as 4K Blu-ray players. The company’s 9600 4K OLEDs will get a firmware update for compatibility with HDR streaming services, but their HDMI 2.0 ports aren’t upgradable to 2.0a to display content in HDR from outboard 4K sources.
