With the popularity and demand for advanced smart TV capabilities continuing to dominate home entertainment, LG will unveil its 2016 Smart TV lineup featuring the updated webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform in two weeks at CES® 2016.
“The new webOS 3.0 is a major update since this advanced TV platform technology was first introduced in 2014,” said Brian Kwon, President and CEO at LG’s Home Entertainment Company. “The webOS story of Simple Connection, Simple Switching and Simple Discovery has really connected with customers and illustrates very clearly our commitment to securing a leadership role in the smart TV market with innovation and creativity.”
LG webOS 3.0 offers three “magic” smart features: Magic Zoom, Magic Mobile Connection and an upgraded Magic Remote, taking the smart TV user experience to a whole new level.
Magic Zoom enables users to magnify objects and letters without any degradation in picture quality. With Magic Mobile Connection, users can easily connect a mobile phone to their LG Smart TV via the LG TV Plus App to display mobile apps on the big screen. The upgraded Magic Remote is designed to make controlling set-top boxes (STB) easier with the addition of set-top box “power” and “menu” buttons as well as the ability to control DVR functions, further integrating its Universal Remote capability and ensuring consumers can control their home entertainment set up with a single remote. The on-screen remote has also been redesigned to simplify the user interface for less clutter and more convenience.
Designed with the aim of providing a more streamlined way of enjoying high-quality digital content, webOS 3.0 introduces Channel Plus, a unique feature which provides a wide range of over-the-top (OTT) content in a user-friendly format. Channel Plus offers a unified channel list that combines OTT content with linear broadcast TV channels, enabling users to watch OTT content by surfing through channels in the same manner they normally would. Channel Plus can also be controlled with an app to provide program recommendations via on-screen widgets.
Through a partnership with Xumo (www.xumo.com), Channel Plus offers an abundance of high quality, free digital content from broadcasters and publications such as Bloomberg Politics, TIME Inc., Condé Nast Entertainment and The Wall Street Journal. To appeal to a larger audience, a variety of premium content such as that of BuzzFeed, PopSugar, and Mode Media, from rising Digital Networks and Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) is also available on Channel Plus as well as international channel packages.
“LG’s ability to think a step ahead of the industry when it comes to delivering premium content to their customers perfectly aligns with Xumo’s DNA,” said Colin Petrie-Norris, CEO of Xumo. “At Xumo, we bring a fresh approach to the manner in which in-demand, premium digital and broadcast content is presented to viewers. We’re excited that Xumo and LG’s joint efforts have come to fruition in Channel Plus.”
LG Smart TV with webOS 3.0 for 2016 will offer an abundance of updated features to take home viewing to a new level of entertainment:
- Channel Advisor analyzes viewing patterns and displays upcoming time slots with program information about a user’s frequently watched programs.
- Multi-view allows users to watch two different sources simultaneously – for example, two channels at the same time, or one channel and a Blu-ray movie at the same time.
- Music Player app plays music through the webOS 3.0 TV speakers, even when the TV is off.
- My Channels and Live Menus offer upgraded new sub-features to make them more useful to users, such as the ability to register up to 10 favorite channels through the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and easily check programming on other favorite channels without having to leave the screen they’re enjoying.
- IoTV app allows on-screen control of smart home appliances from LG and other manufacturers that are compatible with LG IoTV.
LG’s 2016 lineup of Smart TVs featuring webOS 3.0 will be on display in LG’s booth (LVCC Central Hall, #8204) at CES 2016 from Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas.
*Wireless Internet connection & certain subscriptions required and sold separately. Agreement to smart TV terms and conditions required to use certain smart features. Content and services vary by product and are subject to change without notice. webOS does not support Flash. In order to stream 4K content you will need a high speed internet plan capable of receiving 20Mb per second of data.
