TCL on Friday took the wraps off an 85-inch...

TCL on Friday took the wraps off an 85-inch Ultra HD TV at the TCL-owned Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. TCL, known for uber-competitive pricing, didn’t give pricing on its 85UH9500 smart TV, but a company spokesman said TCL bowed the industry’s first sub-$1,000 UHD TV last year. Pricing for the 85UH9500, along with TCL’s full 2014 UHD TV lineup, is due later this month, he said. The 85-incher will be showing HD matches of the World Cup, which begins this week, next door in the TCL Chinese Theatre Six, the spokesman said. The company won’t say until the full launch whether the matches will be upconverted to 4K or which upscaling technology its UHD TVs will use, he said. On TCL’s plans for Dolby Vision, Chris Martin, vice president-sales and marketing, told us TCL is still studying the idea for the U.S. market but isn’t prepared to “present anything yet.” Dolby Vision “is a high-end feature and would only be used in 4K sets from TCL,” rather than supplied to TCL’s OEM customers, he said. The 85UH9500 is HDMI 2.0-compliant and has HEVC support, the spokesman said. The TV announcement coincided with the unveiling of TCL Chinese Theatre’s 25-foot LED marquees, with pixel density of 15,625 pixels per square meter and a brightness level of 8,000 nits that automatically adjusts to the time of day to save energy. TCL is bringing out an 85-inch UHD TV at a time when competitors have been trying to shed their inventories of mammoth TVs. In early June (CED June 2 p6), Amazon was offering up to $500 in rewards to consumers who bought one of some three dozen premium TV models including 84- and 85-inch first-generation UHD models from Sony and LG. NPD doesn’t break out sales for screen sizes at the upper end of the spectrum, said Stephen Baker, vice president-industry analysis, but said: “Historically sales volumes fall off pretty dramatically at 65 inches and beyond.” Size and price “share the responsibility for sales challenges in that range but I would, in general, be more inclined to blame size,” he said, since “size of the product naturally limits how many people will put it into their house.” Baker doesn’t think “that if it was substantially cheaper you would have commensurate rise in the sales volumes,” he said. That would strike many as bad news for a beleaguered TV industry that has pegged its growth hopes on the less-competitive 65-inch and-larger category.