LG Display to Stop Making Active Shutter LCDs

LAS VEGAS -- LG Display will halt production of active-shutter 3D LCDs within six months as it throws support behind its film patterned retarder (FPR) technology, which can be paired with passive polarized glasses, CEO Kwon Young Soo told us after a news conference.

FPR, which LG began developing in 2010 based on patents issued the past several years, is being applied to 26-, 32-, 37-, 42-, 47- and 55-inch LCDs with a goal of cutting total 3D TV costs 20 percent. In LG’s spatial multiplexing approach, an FPR corresponds to an LCD’s odd and even lines and converts left or right circular polarization that, seen through polarized glasses as left and right images, produces 3D.

Unlike time multiplexing used in shutter glasses, the entire frame time generates a single frame, so lower liquid crystal images don’t produce ghosting or double images. But at least in first-generation FPR panels, 3D images appear at half-HD resolution, with 540 pixels delivered to each eye. LG owns patents covering full active HD polarization. Company officials declined to say when LG will start making panels based on the technology. Active shutter supplies full 1080p to each eye but suffers from ghosting and double images. The fact that FPR-equipped panels are displaying half-HD 3D images can’t be perceived by the typical viewer, said Tim Alessi, product marketing director at LG Electronics, which will release six, 47-65-inch FPR-based LCD TVs this year. LG’s perception finding is based on a focus group studied in the fall, he said.

FPR also increases a panel’s brightness in 3D mode, LG officials said. In a side-by-side demonstration, a 47-inch FPR model had 450 nits brightness in 2D and 170 nits in 3D, versus 450 nits and 60 nits for an active shutter panel. The FPR technology also is said to allow for $20 glasses versus the $100-$200 prices for active-shutter versions. While the total 3D TV costs will be 20 percent lower when glasses are included, the actual FPR LCD TVs will initially carry a $200 premium, because of the need for polarizing film, LG officials said. LG Display is making the FPR panels along its eighth-generation LCD lines in South Korea and will at first have monthly capacity for more than 30,000 glass substrates, Soo told us.

LG Display will initially keep the FPR intellectual property proprietary, in making panels based on it for LG Electronics, Toshiba, Vizio and six Chinese manufacturers including Skyworth, which is already selling a 47-inch set in China, LG officials said. LG won’t license the technology for at least a year, a company spokesman said. “We have certain IP and I don’t know that other manufacturers can produce FPR panels without licensing the technology,” the spokesman said.

The FPR technology also will be added to large-size active matrix OLED (AMOLED) panels, including 42- and 55-inch TVs that will be produced along an existing 4.5-generation production line in 2012, Soo said. FPRs won’t be added to the smaller, sub-5-inch OLEDs that LG will make this year for smartphones, an LG spokesman said. LG will bypass the 5.5G glass it originally planned to use for large OLEDs and move straight to 8G when it starts installing equipment in 2012, Soo said. Samsung also has said it will begin construction of an 8G AMOLED plant in 2012 (CED Sept 10 p4). FPR technology also may be deployed in front projectors, an LG spokesman said.

While LG is demonstrating at CES 31-inch OLED and 7-inch autostereoscopic LCD 3D panels that don’t require glasses, the technology is several years from being introduced, Soo said. Glasses-free 3D panels “will take a lot of time” to develop and has “a long way to go in terms of quality and price,” Soo said.

LG Electronics’ mix of FPR- and active-shutter-based TVs will be split equally this year, Alessi said. FPR will be used in most of LG’s LCD TVs with the exception of LG’s Dynamic 3D Nano System TVs that will continue with active shutter, he said. LG’s plasma TVs will continue with active shutter because of the panel’s faster, 600 Hz refresh rate, Alessi said. FPR will be included in 120 and 240 Hz LCD TVs, he said. LG will package four pairs of polarized glasses with FPR sets, Alessi said.

In addition to FPR, LG Electronics will spread its proprietary Linux-based Smart TV technology in making more than half of its 2011 lineup of 31 TVs Internet-capable, Alessi said. Smart TV will start with LG 530 CCFL backlit series of LCD TVs, providing access to video streaming service and access to a new applications store that will launch in the spring with more than 200 apps, company officials said. Besides Netflix, Vudu and CinemaNow, LG will add Amazon On Demand and Hulu Plus in the spring, Alessi said. The 5500 series of 42-, 47- and 55-inch Smart TV sets will add a specially designed “Magic Motion” remote that uses Hillcrest Labs’ technology. The step-up 6500 series of 47-, 55- and 65-inch LED-based sets will move to 240 Hz panels from 120 Hz. Topping the line, LG is reintroducing the 72-inch LCD TV first shown at the 2010 CES with a 480 Hz panel, LED backlight, Smart TV and THX certification.

In plasma, LG will carry its first 42- and 50-inch 720p 3D TVs, matching Panasonic which fielded a 50-inch 720p model at $999 in 2010. LG will have eight 3D plasma TVs in 2011 and expand last year’s NetCast IPTV platform to more models. Two top-end plasma sets in the PZ750 series will have Smart TV in addition to 1080p 3D capability. The PZ950 of 50-inch and 60-inch sets will feature the Magic Motion remote.