LG announced pricing for its 2015 field of 4K UHD TVs Thursday, after their introduction at CES last month. At the top of the line in OLED TV, LG’s curved model 65EG9600 will ship in April at $8,999, while the 1080p 55EC9300 55-inch OLED TV will remain in the line at $3,499, it said. LG’s Prime UHD TV line premieres this year boasting ColorPrime technology that’s said to expand the on-screen color range by using different LED phosphor colors to create greater image depth and realism. ColorPrime sets are based on LG’s 4K IPS (In-Plane Switching) panels touting detailed images and exceptionally wide viewing angles. LG is calling out the UF9500 series for its “UltraSlim” design that measures 8.5 millimeters at the thinnest point. The series also comes with what LG calls an “auditorium” stand that adds sound by Harman Kardon. The Prime UHD TV line includes the 65-inch 65UF9500 ($4,499) and the 55-inch 55UF9500 ($3,699), which will begin shipping next month, said LG. In its UF7700 Series of LED TVs, also packing sound by Harman Kardon, LG will deliver this spring the 60-inch 60UF7700 ($2,499), 65-inch 65UF7700 ($2,999) and 70-inch 70UF7700 ($3,999) along with the 43-inch 43UF7600 ($1,399), 49-inch 49UF7600 ($1,699) and 55-inch 55UF7600 ($1,999). All new models incorporate WebOS, LG said. LG’s anticipated Prime UF9400 series of 4K TVs with quantum dot technology sourced from Dow Chemical (see 1412150034) will launch in the second half of the year, a company spokeswoman said.

DirecTV CEO Michael White thinks the “most important question” facing Ultra HD adoption is “what content's going to be available in 4K,” he said Thursday in the Q&A portion of an earnings call. DirecTV laid claim to becoming the first multichannel video programming distributor to deliver 4K VOD to customer homes when it launched Ultra HD programming mid-November (see 1411130039). DirecTV also said it plans to launch "linear" 4K TV services in 2016 (see 1411130033). There’s “a lot of ways to get there,” White said on the call about building a 4K content arsenal. “The best way is to shoot in 4K, but that's quite expensive, and that's why I don't think you see any of the guys jumping in for linear streaming. And to be honest with you, I don't expect to see linear streaming anytime soon because of the cost.” High costs for shooting content in 4K, including for Ultra HD trucks, new cameras and other expenses, are why VOD will be “the first priority from a 4K standpoint” for DirecTV, White said. “We are working on getting more content available” in 4K, White said. “We have had a number of interesting conversations with programming partners about: are there a few events we might want to partner up” on to be shot in 4K and streamed on DirecTV, he said. “The good news is with our new satellite capacity, we have the capacity to do linear channels. We have the capacity to do quite a bit more than we're doing today.” DirecTV in early December announced the successful launch of its DirecTV 14 satellite for Ultra HD delivery. DirecTV 14 will begin commercial operations in Q2, the company has said. White thinks “you'll see more 4K TV sets sold this year based on the strength of the marketing that you're seeing and lower prices from the TV set manufacturers,” he said. “But I'm not building plans around this, all of the HD channels converting to 4K anytime soon. But we'll see down the road as things evolve.”

Prices for Samsung’s latest generation SUHD 4K TVs -- launched with great fanfare during a poolside event on a chilly evening during CES (see 1501050054) -- were revealed as an "exclusive" by tech blog HD Guru Wednesday. The range runs from $2,499 for a 48-inch flat-screen model to $22,999 for a curved 88-inch TV, the website said. The 48-, 55- and 65-inch models come in both flat- and curved-screen versions, with curved screens adding a $1,000 premium, it said. SUHD technology, a combination of hardware and software, is based on Samsung’s proprietary nano-crystal semiconductors, which the company said at CES deliver the “highest color purity and light efficiency available today.” Brightness and contrast are said to be 64 times the “color expression” of conventional TVs, and SUHD sets are said to have twice the number of adjustment points for display accuracy. Samsung collaborated with 20th Century Fox to optimize content to meet premium quality SUHD standards. Samsung didn't immediately provide pricing confirmation.

SES's Ultra HD "demonstration" channel is available in the U.K. and Ireland, the company said in a news release Thursday. The channel will show animals, nature and sports to feature the clarity of Ultra HD TV, SES said. The channel can be received by connecting a standard satellite dish to an Ultra HD flat-screen TV with an integrated satellite tuner and HEVC decoder, it said.

Crestron said it will debut its DigitalMedia (DM) 3.0 distribution technology at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) event in Amsterdam, Feb. 10-12. Crestron calls DM the only end-to-end 4K-certified AV distribution solution, comprising standards for uncompressed bit-for-bit 4K/60Hz distribution and scaling, streaming AV, enterprise-class IT and end-to-end 4K-certified distribution. At ISE, Crestron will demonstrate its 4K DigitalMedia receiver and room controller/scaler that’s based on a proprietary Crestron scaler chip developed at the company’s research center. The scaler can convert any resolution and frame rate to any other resolution and frame rate up to 4096 x 2160 at 60Hz, the company said Monday. Crestron will also demonstrate its DM-powered single-gang 4K transmitter and receiver that can control many devices via HDMI, eliminating the need for serial cables or IR emitters, it said. The company will show 4K HDBaseT input and output cards for switchers that are capable for handling 4K (4096 x 2160) and Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) video. The input cards are available with a digital signal processor for stereo downmixing of multichannel input signals to enable simultaneous distribution of multichannel and two-channel audio, the company said. In addition, Crestron is showing its 1-to-2 and 1-to-4 4K HDMI distribution amplifiers that can split one 4K HDMI source to up to eight separate outputs. Crestron’s CAT7a DM Ultra Cable, which delivers error-free 4K HDMI signals via HDBaseT, is the only cable currently available that exceeds HDMI specification, allowing fewer than one pixel error per billion for HDBaseT distribution of 4K content up to 100 meters, Crestron said. The shielded twisted pair cable can deliver optimum performance for 10 gigabit ethernet, it said.

Among Broadcom’s set-top box customers, “developed markets are upgrading to new media server architectures and we're starting to see the first Ultra HD boxes roll out,” CEO Scott McGregor said Thursday on an earnings call. Operators such as Dish Network in North America, Free in France and Tata in India “have begun to offer Ultra HD set-top boxes to their subscribers,” McGregor said. “We're expecting at least 15 operators across multiple regions to launch 4K television service in 2015.” In connectivity, Broadcom is seeing “increasing adoption” of new wireless technologies such as 802.11ac that help drive up average selling prices of smartphones, he said. “We're broadening our connectivity business beyond smartphones into adjacent markets,” such as wireless home audio, and “we're powering both Denon and Harman Kardon's WiFi home audio systems,” he said. “We've also received our first design win for our wireless charging solution. We continue to diversify into new markets such as Internet of Things, automotive, wearables and small cells. In the Internet of Things market, design activity remains high with our current products and we're in the process of refreshing our portfolio with purposeful products that are optimized specifically for different market segments.” In Q&A, McGregor described smart watches as “an interesting business” that’s “hard to forecast.” He cited “some people out there who see high forecasts in that and I think we would certainly get a piece of that.” Broadcom componentry is embedded “in most of the watches that have been shipped to date and we believe we can see some position in that market," he said. "There will be different kinds of growth drivers involved and we'll just have to see how the year develops."

The UHD Alliance was formed so “content owners, tech companies and CE companies move together to create a new quality bar that will move all industries forward together,” emailed Stacy Katz, vice president-marketing and technology at Technicolor, one of the alliance’s founding members (see 1501050023). Katz declined to respond directly to remarks by technology consultant Peter Putnam on a Society of Motion Picture and TV Engineers webinar Thursday in which he said that the alliance was formed “to sell more televisions” (see 1501220052). The alliance hasn’t yet appointed an official spokesperson and its marketing committee likely won’t be formed until around March, Katz said Thursday.

Netflix has continued “to deliver a variety of algorithmic and data improvements that put better choices in front of members,” said CEO Reed Hastings and Chief Financial Officer David Wells Tuesday in a quarterly letter to shareholders. “We are also pioneering offering new high-quality video formats, delivering UHD-4K for House of Cards and Marco Polo.” Netflix soon will begin offering high dynamic range video, which “captures and renders pictures with more realistic peak brightness in the highlights, and may be a more significant step forward in viewing pleasure than UHD-4K,” they said. “We will start building our library to deliver in HDR as new TVs become available from several manufacturers this year.” At CES, Netflix said it would support the HDR technologies of Dolby Vision and the open HDR standards espoused by the new UHD Alliance (see 1501050023). On the issue of “strong net neutrality,” people around the world “increasingly view Internet access as a necessary utility,” the letter said. “Finland even made fast Internet access a legal right.” Recently, President Barack Obama “echoed the same themes in his call for the FCC to take bold steps to be able to ensure a low-cost high-speed Internet,” it said. “The support for strong net neutrality continues to grow.”

BBC Research and Development used London’s New Year's Eve fireworks show to test the capabilities of 4K Ultra HD and high dynamic range (HDR) technology, the U.K.’s Digital TV Group said in its Friday Bulletin email newsletter. BBC engineers worked alongside BBC One to capture the annual fireworks display across the River Thames opposite the London Eye using an HDR camera from the ARRI Group, the largest global supplier of motion picture film equipment, DTG said. HDR “is being developed as part of the move towards Ultra HD to deliver sharper, more colourful pictures, which show a greater range of difference between the brightest and darkest images,” it said. HDR is “quite common in still cameras, which can combine several shots of the same scene, but still in its infancy in cameras which require a new generation of image sensors,” it said. A fireworks show typically is “ideally suited for HDR video as it has a very wide dynamic range, from the dark details of the sky and background at night, to the super bright explosion of the fireworks themselves,” DTG quoted a BBC engineer as saying. “With HDR video we are able to capture and display potentially far more detail than would otherwise be available in a conventional camera, thereby producing significantly more realistic and vivid video, with the aim of maintaining this high level of realism all the way to the home screen." BBC “has been investigating a wide range of technologies that may feature in the next generation of broadcasting, from higher spatial resolution to wider colour gamut,” DTG said. BBC has identified HDR as one of Ultra HD’s “most noticeable improvements,” it said. “Although still under development, HDR is one of the technologies under consideration by the DTG's UK UHD Forum for future Ultra HD industry standards.”

CEA is projecting more than a fourfold increase in factory unit shipments of Ultra HD TV sets this year to 4 million, the association said in its semi-annual forecast report released Tuesday on the opening day of CES. “Larger screen sizes and innovative display features have more consumers upgrading their video experience,” CEA said. “TV sales remain critical as the industry’s third-largest contributor” to total revenue, though factory dollar sales will decline 2 percent to $18.3 billion in 2015, it said. However, dollar shipments of Ultra HD sets are projected to climb 106 percent this year to exceed $5 billion, it said. CEA thinks overall CE industry factory sales will jump 3 percent this year, reaching a record $223.2 billion, it said. Other report highlights: (1) The “wearable device revolution is a key category to watch in the coming years, and especially in 2015,” CEA said. CEA projects overall wearable factory unit sales will climb 61 percent this year to 30.9 million and generate $5.1 billion in factory revenue, a 133 percent increase, it said. (2) Unit sales of tablets are projected to reach 80.7 million this year, a 3 percent increase from 2014. However, factory dollar shipments will decline 1 percent to $24.9 billion, CEA said. (3) Unit shipments of smartphones, the CE industry’s “sales leader,” will rise 6 percent to 169.3 million, CEA said. They’re expected to generate $51.3 billion factory revenue in 2015, a 5 percent increase from last year, it said. CEA forecasts “particular growth” in smartphones with screen sizes between 5.3 inches and 6.5 inches, it said.