LCD TV panel prices keep rising “with no end in sight,” reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Strong demand for LCD products is combining with industry worries about components shortages to push panel prices “to their most significant increases ever on a percentage basis, and prices show no signs of slowing down in Q2,” it said. DSCC previously predicted a Q2 slowdown in rising prices, “but we now see price increases accelerating compared to Q1,” it said. Q4 pricing increased 27% from Q3 and were up 14.5% in Q1 from Q4, “but our current estimate is that average LCD TV panel prices in Q2 2021 will increase by another 17%,” it said. “We now expect prices to peak sometime in Q3 2021.”

TCL launched the 4K 85R745 QLED ($2,999) TV Tuesday with Dolby Atmos and Vision, HDR10 and hybrid log gamma HDR. It has THX-certified game mode, variable refresh rate and auto game mode, said the company. An 8K mini-LED model is due out later this year. Sets with 85-inch screens in the XL collection will be TCL's largest TVs and the biggest TCL Roku TV models available to consumers globally, said the company.

Strong flat-panel display demand and a “dramatic increase” in panel prices will spur a 28% year-over-year increase in global industry revenue to a record $151 billion in 2021, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Though the revenue surge likely won’t be repeated beyond 2021, industry revenue “will settle at a new, higher plateau, allowing better profitability for the entire display supply chain,” it said. It’s forecasting revenue will exceed $140 billion in the three years through 2024. TV applications dominate flat-panel display shipments on an area basis due to their large average screen sizes and are expected to continue doing so through 2024, but DSCC expects TV panel unit growth will be “close to flat” throughout the forecast period, it said.

TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony netted top Consumer Reports scores in TV ratings in the three years ending March, CR said Friday. Test reports compare attributes including resolution, color accuracy and features such as high dynamic range, it said. RCA and Westinghouse, once prominent names in TV, trailed -- along with Element -- other TV brands in quality and price in some categories, said the article, titled, “Why It Doesn’t Always Pay to Buy a Cheap TV.” CR statisticians looked at prices and test results from March 2018-March 2021 showing TVs from LG, Samsung and Sony generally cost more than competitors’ TVs, and they earned top scores in almost every price range. Its takeaway: “Though it’s tempting to buy a much cheaper TV from a smaller brand, especially during big sales events, you could be accepting a trade-off in quality. You might not have to pay much more -- or even any more -- to get a better television.” CR also noted brands evolve over time, citing Hisense and TCL as having improved in quality recently. “But typically,” it said, “we see that better performance only in the upper-tier models from these brands; often models in their entry-level series earn significantly lower scores.” Other brands ranked were Insignia, Philips, Sharp and Toshiba. Element, RCA and Westinghouse didn’t respond to questions.

Taiwan’s CM Visual Technology and its majority owner Himax Technologies announced the joint development of a “microstructure” optical film, trademarked Omniwide, for “resolving optical display performance challenges in certain types of display panel applications.” Omniwide films laminated to the in-plane-switching LCD panels that are widely adopted in automotive displays “can eliminate the light leakage issue under oblique viewing angles” that’s common to IPS displays without the laminate, said the companies Monday. “These results outperform optical compensation film solutions from rivals while also meeting performance requirements from automotive customers.”

Augmented and virtual reality will become a multibillion-dollar business opportunity for display makers over the next five years, reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. It forecast annual revenue for AR and VR displays will grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate, reaching $4.2 billion globally in 2026. “Major brands with strong ecosystems like Apple and Sony are planning to release new headsets,” said DSCC analyst Guillaume Chansin. “There are now better components designed specifically for head-worn devices instead of smartphones,” and the rollout of 5G should enable more AR and VR content to be delivered, he said. “Investment in new display technologies will lead to a new generation of headsets with compelling visual performance and more compact form factors.”

Whether Micro-LED displays can eventually replace OLED depends on the application in the near- to mid-term, said a Friday IDTechEx report. Many industry watchers have positioned the displays to succeed OLED, which is dominated by Samsung Display and LG Display with their production capacity, mature technology upstream materials and equipment, downstream application and complete supply chains, said the researcher. Samsung applies its small- to mid-sized OLED panels to Samsung smartphones first, and LG supplies its large panels first to LG TVs. Quantum dot technology, which improves color gamut by applying QD films in the LCD structure, is “catching up.” Micro-LED displays offer upsides in wide color gamut, high luminance, low power consumption, stability and lifetime, long lifetime, wide viewing angle, high dynamic range, high contrast, fast refresh rate, transparency, seamless connection, and sensor integration capability, but not all the benefits can be realized due to technology maturity and cost, it said. Smartphone users, for instance, may change their phone every two to three years, “making the long lifetime less attractive considering the costs.”

Sony began taking preorders Monday for the 65-inch Bravia XR A80J 4K HDR OLED TV. Suggested retail price of the Google TV, with HDMI 2.1, is $2,799. B&H Photo, selling it for $2,798, showed expected availability as July 1.

LG expanded the Ergo design used in its UltraFine series monitors to the UltraWide (34WN780, $599) and UltraGear series (27GN880, $599), it said Wednesday. The swiveling Ergo monitors can be positioned close to the wall, extended outward and moved up and down to accommodate different eye levels, it said. Ergo replaces a conventional monitor stand with a desk clamp to free up more room.

LCD TV panel prices keep rising, and the price hikes “show no signs of slowing down in Q2,” reported Display Supply Chain Consultants Monday. Widespread shortages in the supply of display driver chips “add to the general logistics problems to create an atmosphere where price increases appear to be not only accepted but expected,” it said. Panel prices increased more than 20% for some TV sizes in Q3 from Q2 and by 27% in Q4 from Q3, it said. DSCC estimated that average LCD TV panel prices in Q1 will increase 14.5% from Q4 and will rise an additional 12% in Q2 from Q1, it said.