LG Electronics 84-inch 4K 3D Flat Panel

Most companies place strict embargoes on any announcements they plan to make at CES, but LG is bucking this trend—and its news is huge. Not only is LG Display showing a 55-inch OLED flat panel (which I wrote about earlier this week), but LG Electronics is introducing an 84-inch "ultra-definition" LED-backlit LCD TV with a resolution of 3840x2160, providing four times as many pixels as a 1920x1080 display. And since LG uses passive-polarized glasses for 3D, each eye sees all 1080 lines of vertical resolution available on 3D Blu-rays. (I don't yet know what the TV does with all the extra horizontal resolution, but you can be sure I'll ask.)

Also interesting is something LG calls its Magic Remote navigation system, which lets you control the TV with a wheel, hand gestures, and voice recognition, no doubt inspired by Siri on Apple's iPhone 4S. Of course, it will also offer Smart TV functionality with over 1200 apps and access to a wide variety of content services, including 3D Zone for 3D movies.

COMMENTS
JustinGN's picture

That's something that's always bugged me slightly, but I think I know how they'll use it - doubling the lines in either direction. It'll simply double the Horizontal resolution of the picture by duplicating each pixel to the left. For vertical, since the lines will swap between even/odd anyway for 3D effects, that'll automatically generate a line doubling effect (duplicating each pixel downward) if the refresh rate for 3D is high enough (I'd shoot for 240Hz if I were LG, 120Hz for each eye, using a 2:2 pulldown from the original 60Hz 3D source material for each eye). It also means scaling to 4K can be done quickly and cheaply on the set itself, since a simple 2:2 line doubling is something even an old cell phone could do, though the results will be about as pleasing as original upscaling DVD players were (think jagged edges, aliasing artifacts and the like at large screen sizes).

It's a good trick, and probably the best way to do 3D on flat panels - the benefits of passive glasses, with the resolution benefits of active shutter glasses. Everybody wins!

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