Seoul, South Korea ― With both the IFA and CEDIA Expo shows coming in the next few weeks, LG Electronics stuck to its practice of breaking its big news early, this time officially revealing the release of the first Ultra HD OLED TVs for the consumer market.
The sets will include the 65- and 77-inch screen sizes — models 65EC9700 and 77EG9700, respectively — both offering curved-screen OLED panels in Ultra HD.
LG’s Korean press statement called the displays “4K” sets featuring 3,840 by 2,160 pixel resolution, although the U.S. marketing team was fast to clarify the terminology for U.S. audiences.
LG U.S. used the CEA’s terminology of “Ultra HD” in describing the sets’ resolution characteristics and pointed out that it plans to stick with its second half 2014 release schedule.
“Regarding the LG announcement at IFA, LG is reinforcing the commitment made at CES, and confirmed throughout the year, to bring an Ultra HD OLED TV to market in Q3/Q4 of 2014. As it pertains to the U.S. market, pricing and availability on our new 65- and 77-inch models have not yet been announced. We plan to share this information in coming weeks,” stated Tim Alessi, LG Electronics USA’s head of new product development.
LG’s U.S. office also called attention to the fact that the company has changed the model number designation for the 77-inch since its original announcement at International CES last January.
LG’s proprietary approach to OLED technology, called WRGB, uses an emissive white OLED light source behind a series of red, green and blue filters to derive color.
The approach has helped the company make great strides in improving production yields, at a time when competitors have retrenched efforts.
The Ultra HD approach to OLED produces 33 million sub-pixels to produce a wide color range and “infinite contrast ratio.”
Pictures appear richer, brighter and more natural, while the self-emitting pixels produce deeper blacks.
“LG 4K OLED TV is the pinnacle of technological achievement and a new paradigm that will change the dynamics of the next generation TV market,” stated Hyun-hwoi Ha, LG’s Home Entertainment president and CEO. “As the next evolutionary step in display technology, OLED will play a major role in reshaping our industry. I feel confident when I say that 4K OLED is a bona fide game changer.”
The sets feature a leaf-shaped stand and ultra-thin screens. Both models are also wall mountable.
For sound, LG incorporates its multi-channel Ultra Surround sound system designed in cooperation with Harman Kardon.
Smart TV technology is powered by LG’s WebOS platform offering what the company calls “simple connection, simple switching and simple discovery.”
“OLED TVs are expected to overtake LCD in sales within a few years and no company is better prepared for this than LG,” added Ha. “OLED’s benefits are obvious. There’s no deterioration in picture quality and issues such as image blurring, distortion and color leakage in curved LED units are simply non-existent on curved OLED TVs. 4K OLED TV represents superb value for the consumer in terms of color reproduction, contrast ratio, detail and viewing angles.”
LG said it will begin taking pre-orders for its 65- and 77-inch 4K OLED TVs starting in Korea this week, with availability in key markets in North America and Europe to follow soon after.
The sets will be on display at LG’s booth at IFA in Berlin, Sept. 5-10.
