TCL announced at IFA Wednesday a 55-inch 4K Ultra...

TCL announced at IFA Wednesday a 55-inch 4K Ultra HD TV that delivers full NTSC color gamut performance from an LCD TV at one-third the cost of OLED TVs. The TCL TV, launching first in China before rolling out to other markets, uses Color IQ quantum dot (QD) technology from Lexington, Massachusetts-based QD Vision that’s said to provide deeper, sharper and more natural color than standard LCD TVs. The QD plus LED TV “shatters the prohibitively high price barrier of OLED TVs,” the “only other technology to provide consumers with the richness of a full-gamut color viewing experience,” the companies said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lzodez). QD Vision describes Color IQ as semiconductor nanocrystal technology that enables a liquid crystal display to achieve 100 percent NTSC color performance. The company can achieve full-gamut color in LCD TVs due to its in-house, “high-volume manufacturing operations,” it said. The company cited research indicating that “colorfulness” is the most important perceptual factor in viewers’ judgment of picture quality. Most mainstream LCD TV designs have had to sacrifice color quality, achieving typically 60-70 percent of the NTSC color gamut standard, the companies said. Color IQ can deliver 100 percent of the NTSC color gamut, and it works with all major LCD applications, QD Vision said, providing “superior color performance and high system efficiency.” The ability to deliver vibrant and accurate color using a cost-effective technology makes quantum dot technology “poised for universal adoption in the coming years,” QD Vision said. Adding full-gamut color at an affordable price “creates a really strong differentiator,” for TCL, said QD Vision CEO Jason Carlson. On a retail show floor, TVs with full-gamut color stand out, and “customers can easily tell the difference in performance,” he said. Carlson called the TCL TV a “world-class system that sets a high bar for the rest of the industry.” The addition of QD technology to TCL’s 4K TV lineup will offer “great value to consumers who want to enjoy the advanced picture quality with vivid colors and sharper images,” said E. Hao, CEO, TCL Multimedia. Price and availability weren’t given. Queries to U.S. tier-one TV makers about plans for quantum dot technology weren’t immediately answered.