TCL might be dabbling with OLED technology, but – following the tenet of ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ – is putting most of its effort into LCD TVs. How, you ask? Using QD Vision’s quantum dot (QD) optical components, aka Color IQ, which raise display colour gamuts to 100% NTSC.
Matt Mazzuchi, VP of QD Vision, was the first ever person to be featured in our new subscriber video interviews (http://tinyurl.com/ouqsrzh). These will be a recurring feature in our show reports, so watch out for more in the future. Mazzuchi shared some interesting information, particularly regarding the use of white and blue LEDs in backlights, and how these affect colour gamuts. QD Vision’s components use blue LEDs wrapped in red and green QDs.
TCL is bringing QD Vision’s technology to a 55″ model initially, which will be launched in China before being rolled out to other markets next year.
Next to the wide colour gamut TV was a high dynamic range model using Dolby Vision technology, which was also shown at CES this year. The TV appeared to show content at a much smoother rate than the ‘standard’ model, although we haven’t heard of the technology affecting framerates in this way before. Perhaps it was a perceptual ‘glitch’!
Looking to the remainder of 2014, TCL will roll out 55″ and 65″ curved TVs at the end of the year. Next year, the company plans to introduce a 110″ curved set (Samsung and LG released 105″ models at IFA, so this is mostly posturing – TA) in Q1. It is a curved version of the 110″ set, with a panel produced by ChinaStar (Display Monitor Vol 19 No 9), that TCL has shown before (Display Monitor Vol 20 No 3), although the display was better than the awful example we saw at CES 2012; there was no letterboxing, at least! An OLED TV (with an LG panel) will also be produced in the first half. The OLED set will have 1920 x 1080 resolution, cover 100% sRGB and be released in China and Europe.
New features in 2015 will include HEVC decoding, on several high-end TVs, and a game streaming app, GoLive. GoLive will be launched across Europe as part of the Netrange app portal.
