Tag: 4K TVs

LG Offering New LG 4K Smart-TV Owners Free Priority Membership to Nvidia Cloud Gaming Service

LG Electronics is offering new LG 2021 4K Smart TV owners in select markets free priority membership to cloud gaming service Nvidia GeForce Now for six months.

The promotion kicks off as GeForce Now moves out of beta on LG TVs in 80 markets, providing users worldwide with Nvidia’s cloud gaming service.

GeForce Now allows users to stream free-to-play games purchased from online stores such as Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect and Origin. Priority membership provides faster access to Nvidia’s servers, extended session times, ray-traced graphics with RTX On and high-res gameplay at up to 60 frames per second.

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GeForce Now priority membership is open to all customers who purchase an applicable LG 2021 4K Smart TV model during the promotion period in participating markets. The limited-time offer will run in the United States from Feb. 1 to March 20 and will require LG TV customers to download and install GeForce Now on their new LG TVs.

With no additional hardware requirement outside of a compatible controller, LG TV users can play supported games they already own or free-to-play titles available on GeForce Now, including Rocket League and Destiny 2, as well as titles such as Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Crysis Remastered Trilogy. 

UHD Alliance Expanding Consumer Education About Filmmaker Mode

Filmmaker Mode — an Ultra HD TV setting designed to reproduce movie and TV content the way the creator intended — will get a new consumer education push in 2022, according to UHD Alliance president Michael Zink.

Introduced by the UHD Alliance in August 2019, Filmmaker Mode allows viewers to enjoy a more cinematic experience on their UHD TVs when watching content by disabling all post-processing (e.g. motion smoothing, etc.) so a movie or television show is displayed as it was intended by the filmmaker, preserving the correct aspect ratios, colors and frame rates. Among its supporters are Hisense (which highlighted the feature at CES), Panasonic (which also highlighted the feature on its flagship OLED TV), Samsung, LG, Skyworth, BenQ, Kaleidescape, Philips/TP Vision, and Amazon Prime Video, which was the first streaming service to announce support for Filmmaker Mode in 2020 and was the first streaming service to implement automatic switching to the Mode on all LG Smart TVs.

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Filmmaker Mode is also supported by the Director’s Guild of America, the American Society of Cinematographers, the International Cinematographers Guild, the Film Foundation, and several top Hollywood directors, including Martin Scorsese.

“We are in this unique position of having a relatively comprehensive ecosystem,” Zink said.

The concurrent theatrical and streaming release of many films during the pandemic has increased creative support for Filmmaker Mode, he noted.

As part of the new focus on education, the UHD Alliance recently got a video assist from Dune director Denis Villeneuve, who discussed Filmmaker Mode as the best way to view the film in the home. Due to the pandemic, Dune was released concurrently in late October in theaters and on HBO Max, where a large audience would see the film for the first time streamed at home. The Alliance pushed the filmmaker’s video on social media in October in concert with the WarnerMedia, HBO Max and Dune promotional teams.

In another online education move, the Alliance enlisted professional TV calibration expert Vincent Teoh to release a YouTube video called “5 TV Settings That Should Be Illegal,” explaining the downsides of TV settings that harm picture quality and emphasizing the benefits of Filmmaker Mode. The YouTube video was viewed more than 800,000 times in two weeks, Zink said.

 

Meanwhile, the UHD Alliance continues to enlist more companies to adopt Filmmaker Mode. In recent developments, MediaTek will support Filmmaker Mode auto-switching (which employs the setting automatically on applicable content) on its chipsets. This makes it easier for manufacturers using the chipsets to implement the feature, so they “don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Zink said.

Also, the new specification from APEX (the Airline Passenger Entertainment eXperience Association) was approved in 2021 with Filmmaker Mode as a mandatory requirement for in flight entertainment systems, meaning new systems on planes will offer flyers the setting on movies and TV shows viewed on flights. American Airlines in December 2021 announced implementation of the new system on transcontinental and international flights in 2023.

The UHD Alliance is continuing to work on expanding the Filmmaker Mode ecosystem.

“We’re talking to a number of other OTT services [to enlist support],” Zink said.

Also on the Alliance’s plate for the future are further interoperability testing and ambient light recommendations for Filmmaker Mode to offer the best picture in different viewing situations.

New HDR10+ Feature Optimizes Picture for Ambient Light

HDR10+ Technologies, a consortium led by Panasonic Corp. and Samsung Electronics, has announced the specifications for a new feature called HDR10+ Adaptive, designed to optimize HDR10+ content for a more consistent viewing experience in various environments.

HDR10+ is an enhanced version of HDR10 that leverages dynamic metadata to maximize the black level and peak brightness of every scene and frame on displays.

HDR (high dynamic range) reference material is typically produced in dark rooms at mastering houses or production studios, while content viewing conditions at home range from well-lit family rooms to totally dark home theaters. As a result, ambient and stray light can affect the amount of image detail and contrast the human eye perceives, according to the group.

HDR10+ Adaptive, using HDR10+ dynamic metadata, in conjunction with real-time ambient-light information, allows compatible displays to automatically optimize brightness levels, on a scene-by-scene basis, to ensure that the creator’s intent is fully realized, under a variety of viewing conditions, according to the group.

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It is expected that televisions with HDR10+ Adaptive capability will be introduced this year by companies such as Panasonic, Samsung and others, the group reported.

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In addition to a number of Blu-ray Discs available that utilize HDR10+ technology, including the Academy Award-winning Best Picture Parasite, distributed by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, the group announced that a number of companies have recently released products that support HDR10+, including:

  • Qualcomm, which announced that their latest flagship smartphone processor (Snapdragon 888) now incorporates HDR10+ as part of its 5G Mobile Platform;
  • Realtek Semiconductor Corp., which debuted a series of HDR10+ compatible SOC’s (System On Chips) for use in 4K UHD set-top boxes from Android TV and RDK;
  • Denon and Marantz, which have introduced 13 HDR10+ compatible AV receivers to date;
  • and Magenta TV in Germany and Watcha in Korea, which now deliver HDR10+ programming in their respective regions.

LG to Bow QNED Mini LED TVs at Virtual CES

LG Electronics will introduce its first-ever QNED Mini LED TVs at the virtual CES 2021 as part of its 2021 premium LCD TV lineup.

The 2021 lineup includes 10 new 4K and 8K models covering screen sizes of up to 86 inches.

“As the first TVs to combine quantum dot and NanoCell technology in one product, LG QNED Mini LED TVs produce incredibly accurate colors while the advanced LED backlight offers better contrast and deeper blacks for images of exceptional vibrancy and realism,” according to the press release.

The TVs have a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, according to the company.

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LG’s Mini LED backlighting comprises up to almost 30,000 tiny LEDs that produce a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 when paired with up to 2,500 dimming zones and advanced local dimming technology for the 86-inch 8K QNED.

“Our new QNED Mini LED series is a premium home entertainment option that expands and improves the LCD TV space and gives consumers another terrific viewing choice,” Nam Ho-jun, SVP of R&D at LG’s Home Entertainment Company, said in a statement. “These TVs deliver an experience that set them apart from other LCD TVs and speak to our commitment to innovation and pushing the standard forward.”

LG’s 86-inch 8K QNED TV will be on display in LG’s virtual exhibition booth during CES 2021 starting Jan. 11.