Leveraging Quantum-Dot technology, Samsung is introducing three new Ultra HD televisions and ushering in a new term – SUHD (Super Ultra HD?). First up is the UN65JS9500.
This 65-inch curved display uses a Quantum Dot layer for greater dynamic range and a wider color gamut. With a 10-bit signal path for fewer banding artifacts, the JS9500 covers 92 percent of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) color gamut. Considering OLED panels can only render 85 percent of DCI, this is a major breakthrough in gamut size when compared to other flat-panel technologies. Hopefully, there will be a Rec.709 color preset to match all currently available content. DCI hasn't made it beyond the commercial cinema yet, so it's important for wide-gamut displays to support today's standards as well as tomorrow's.
We've been following the Quantum Dot story for quite a while now, and this is the first time we've seen the tech used in a shipping product. Quantum Dots are self-illuminating like the phosphors on a CRT or the cells in a plasma panel. Their big advantage over plasma is that they can be turned completely off (like OLED) resulting in a potentially infinite contrast ratio. Poor dynamic range has always been the bane of LCD panels which to this day lag far behind legacy CRT screens and now-dead plasma technology. OLED has held promise for years, but poor manufacturing yields have priced it out of most consumers' budgets.
We don't know what the future holds for Quantum Dots, but hopefully, it means we will be seeing more colors and better contrast in televisions (and monitors) from all manufacturers.
The UN65JS9500 will be available in Q1 2015 at an as-yet undisclosed price.
For one-percenters looking for their next great conversation piece, we present the UN105S9B.
This 105-inch panel comes in a 21:9 aspect ratio, uses the same Quantum Dot technology we spoke of above and get this – it's bendable. You can control the curvature to your liking by simply pressing a button on the remote. A special high-torque gearbox automatically expands or contract a sliding panel to keep the picture uniform even during the bending process.
Samsung has not announced a ship date, and you can be sure the price will exceed that of most automobiles.
Making do with just a plain-old LCD/LED panel is the UN78JU7500 Ultra HD TV.
This 78-inch curved display sports 3840 x 2160 resolution with a curvature radius of 4200 mm to help increase the viewer's sense of immersion. You also get 3D capability and a new faster quad-core processor to manage the SmartTV streaming and app functions. The panel runs at a native refresh rate of 240 Hz which helps to reduce motion-blur and offers maximum flexibility when processing different film and video framerates. Also included is Samsung's Clear Motion. This technology employs black frame insertion and backlight scanning to reduce motion blur even further.
Samsung did not provide any ship date or pricing information by press time.
