LG and Samsung bringing OLED TVs to the US this week

Shawn Knight

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LG and Samsung are set to battle it out for your hard earned dollars this summer with a wave of curved OLED HDTVs that have already started to find their way to US shores. LG recently announced US availability for their pricey set while Samsung is expected to do the same sometime this week.

LG’s 55-inch model is already on sale at one Best Buy retail location (the company’s flagship store in Minneapolis) but you’ll need some pretty deep pockets if you plan to take one home with you. Expect to pay around $15,000 for the state-of-the-art set that weighs just 38 pounds and measures 0.17 inches at the edges.

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The television will go on sale at other keys locations including Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle over the coming weeks before finding its way to all retail stores by the end of the summer.

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Meanwhile, Samsung’s 55-inch curved OLED TV will be available at select retailers this week for, you guessed it, $15,000. According to CNET, a high-end dealer in New York is expected to receive the first shipment of Samsung’s new set. The price tag includes calibration and delivery, we’re told.

OLED technology brings a number of improvements to the table over LED and Plasma sets including the ability to deliver the deepest shade of black of any television technology. Furthermore, OLED screens don’t need a backlight as each pixel provides its own light source. This allows the display to be extremely thin while providing better contrast, faster response times and better viewing angles while sipping less power.

A lot of time and research has gone into the curve of these sets. LG has spent the last five years working on it in an attempt to find the perfect curvature with the goal of making the entire screen surface equidistant to the viewer's eye.

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Yeah. TV's screens have gone from concave to flat to convex. This model seems to have the concave's & the convex's in all the right places.;)
 
Finally something new to the TV market. I wonder how many people they fooled touting LED as a new and improved TV technology.

Now give this a few years, and prices will be reasonable. I just hope they come out with flat models. I really don't want a crescent shaped TV hanging on my wall.
 
Finally something new to the TV market. I wonder how many people they fooled touting LED as a new and improved TV technology.

Now give this a few years, and prices will be reasonable. I just hope they come out with flat models. I really don't want a crescent shaped TV hanging on my wall.

It took a good 5 years for plasmas to be reasonable in price, and we only ever bought them because LCDs were slow to catch up with 120 hz. I don't think they fooled us with LCD, LCDs are terribly popular right now, and it's THE technology for computer monitors right now.

I have a 50 inch plasma, and while the picture is great, it uses so much power it partially heats up the room. Hopefully in 5 years when I'm ready for a new TV these will be around the $2000 mark. As soon as another manufacturer comes out with a model the price will start to drop quickly.
 
Finally something new to the TV market. I wonder how many people they fooled touting LED as a new and improved TV technology.

Now give this a few years, and prices will be reasonable. I just hope they come out with flat models. I really don't want a crescent shaped TV hanging on my wall.
My bet is that OLED will come down in price more quickly than LCD or plasma did primarily because of manufacturing technologies that utilize inkjet-like printing. Panasonic showed a 4K, 56" OLED set this year at CES that was printed, and they occasionally release a timeline of something like 2015 for that to hit the market at a reasonable price.

IMHO, the curved display is marketing bling for the uneducated but can afford almost anything market. As I see it, it is the next 3D at this point, and, I hope, will fail, but not so dismally that it will kill OLED. If I had the $$, I would buy a flat model, but not a curved one. Personally, I think it is a big gamble for them to be bringing out curved displays, and I wish they would stop pandering gimmicky technology because they think that it would not sell otherwise. My bet is that many videophiles who can afford this will shy away because it is curved.
 
Looks awesome. This is a step in the right direction. Too bad OLED TVs are so overpriced. Plus, 4K has to be the norm in order for OLED TVs to be worth it. 1080P is just not enough to justify that price tag (not saying the TVs shown in the article are 1080P).
 
They do make a 4k 30inch monitor ASUS sent out an advertisement about a month ago for $2400 for $3000
 
Just bought 3 asus screens for eyefinity aint got money to replace for 3 of them :)


They do make a 4k 30inch monitor ASUS sent out an advertisement about a month ago for $2400 for $3000
 
There is a 39 inch 4k monitor that is also a Tv for 699 on Amazon from Seiki. I think that is way better then these oled crap. Organic Tv really. Will it spoil like the fruits on the table? I need non organic that repels parasites. I need it as environmentally unfriendly as possible so no life form will dare to make it home. I don't need stuff to move in. I use my bird feeder for that to attract crawlers.
 
Now I understand why panasonic is switching from plasma to develop oled. But still if you are searching for amasing picture quality, you could still buy a high end $1,500 plasma tv with a more than incredible picture quality.
 
I don't think they fooled us with LCD, LCDs are terribly popular right now, and it's THE technology for computer monitors right now.

Milwaukeemike,

Perhaps if you took the time to actually read the comment before trying to rebut it, you would see that I never said people were being fooled by LCD. I was actually commenting on the fact that people were confused at what LED meant. As if it was a new type of display technology. When in fact it only refers to the type of back lighting on the panel. OLED is in fact a new technology in the TV market.

Im sorry you were confused by this. I guess G.E.D. requirements in reading and comprehension is getting lower by the day.
 
Don't you mean from convex (CRT) to flat (plasma/LCD/LED) to concave (OLED)?
 
Looks awesome. This is a step in the right direction. Too bad OLED TVs are so overpriced. Plus, 4K has to be the norm in order for OLED TVs to be worth it. 1080P is just not enough to justify that price tag (not saying the TVs shown in the article are 1080P).
How would you know its not enough to justify the price tag?
99% of todays movies/films are still upscaled to fit 720p and 1080p framing (last I knew anyways), nothing and I mean NOTHING is true 1080p/60. (except games maybe)
I think 'The Hobbit' was the first film to even be filmed at 48FPS. There is much more to a clear, brilliant picture then just pixels.
 
How would you know its not enough to justify the price tag?
99% of todays movies/films are still upscaled to fit 720p and 1080p framing (last I knew anyways), nothing and I mean NOTHING is true 1080p/60. (except games maybe)
I think 'The Hobbit' was the first film to even be filmed at 48FPS. There is much more to a clear, brilliant picture then just pixels.

True, but have you seen an OLED? The colors are so nice! You need a good resolution to justify the high quality screen.
 
Milwaukeemike,

Perhaps if you took the time to actually read the comment before trying to rebut it, you would see that I never said people were being fooled by LCD. I was actually commenting on the fact that people were confused at what LED meant. As if it was a new type of display technology. When in fact it only refers to the type of back lighting on the panel. OLED is in fact a new technology in the TV market.

Im sorry you were confused by this. I guess G.E.D. requirements in reading and comprehension is getting lower by the day.


Lol, You know, I had to read it like 6 times before I realized you wrote LED not LCD. Do you know how close C and E are in the alphabet? They're like right on top of each other! (And for the record, I've never passed a GED test.)

I hope I didn't upset you for the rest of the day. Try decaf tomorrow morning maybe?
 
Sounds nice, but I've released and added LCD and LED/LCD 1080p HDTVs late 2011, 2012 and 2013. Won't be buying anything new tech for another 3 to 4 years for any UHDTV. By that time 4K should be more stable and prices down then they currently are with any high tech gear introduction.

Plus right now 4K titles on disc is limited, Local Broadcast HD is 1080i and look how long that took for them to get up to speed. ABC still at 720p helps the sales of 720p HDTV sets. Some still are at 480p too. So the push for these higher sets even though they can upscale the image from low to 4K would be something to see but we already know when they did for the 720p to 1080p not huge difference up-scaling.
 
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