Samsung Announces UHD Blu-ray, 'Ultra HD Premium' TVs

Like some of its competition, Samsung feels compelled to load up its dance card with all the technology it can muster—and does an admirable job with all of it. But with the need to cover kitchen and laundry appliances, blenders, smart phones, wearables, smart homes, audio, virtual reality, and tablets, there’s not much time left in a 45-minute press event to go into depth on the company’s expansive new line of TVs, particularly its SUHD sets.

But by far the most exciting news was Samsung’s announcement that its first Ultra HD Blu-ray player is set to ship in March at a price yet to be disclosed. (Hopefully there will be at least a few Ultra HD Blu-ray discs available at the same time!)

What we do know is that the company’s best SUHD sets will all carry the Ultra HD Premium imprimatur on their resume, with Quantum Dots, 10-bit color, 1000 nits peak HDR, and some with bezel-free curved screens. (Can we hear a cheer from the curved TV crowd before the curved haters join in the ruckus!) The sets are also capable of connecting to and controlling a wide range of compatible smart devices around the house (which we all hope will work better than the industry’s HDMI CEC initiative).

Samsung also announced that it is showing an 8K TV on the show floor, which we’ll be sure to check out.

Well have more to say in the next day or so after we’ve had a chance to survey Samsung’s sprawling exhibit, so keep an eye on our homepage. Addendum: While my notes for the press conference indicate that the 2016 Samsung HDR sets will support both of the most prominent HDR formats (HDR10 and Dolby Vision) neither of the two Samsung reps I asked at Samsung's show floor HDR demo could confirm that they would support Dolby Vision. More to come as we get further information.

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