Philips has been lifting the lid on its 2016 range of TVs, as well as talking about what the future holds. And that future is apparently set to be OLED-lit.
At a recent event Philips' TV guru, Danny Tack, hinted that now is the time for the company to start getting its OLED on.
"OLED's price is coming down," Tack is reported to have said. "When you look a year back it was three times the price of an expensive, premium LED TV. Sooner or later, OLED will grab the top of the market, and HDR is one of the drivers. If we do not adapt now, we will have to do it in a year or two when others have jumped on that wagon."
At the moment only LG and Panasonic are out there making OLED TVs, but both are made using LG's own panels. Philips is set to follow that trend, as only LG has the real manufacturing chops to produce the necessary screens in the sort of size and capacity TVs need.
"It's no secret that the panels we're using are from LG," explained Tack. "There are hardly any other suppliers. Ours will be the same price as LG's – it would be stupid to go lower in price – but we will be putting our own picture processing on top of LG panels. The price will be roughly the same, but we will give people a better experience."
That's largely what Panasonic was able to do with its astounding OLED TV; taking an LG panel and using its own electronics and processing to produce a picture that was even better than LG could produce natively.
However the Panasonic TV is also incredibly expensive. If Philips can match LG's pricing, but still deliver a better viewing experience, it could have a winner on its hands.
Unlike the 2016 range of LED screens, some HD and some Ultra HD, there is no real time frame for Philips to hit the OLED trail, though we expect to see something more on this when Philips comes to show off its next-gen TVs later in the year.
3D is dead. Again.
Philips's Danny Tack has also pronounced the death of 3D.
"3D is dead," Tack is reported to have said. "There are no 3D sources and nobody really wants 3D. It also complicates your TV a lot. The consumer need simply is not there. Even LG has announced it's not doing 3D anymore. Can you imagine?"
And realistically the curve is likely to follow with only one manufacturer giving any credence to the value of curved screens. We've spoken to both Sony and Philips recently about the few curved TVs they produce and are always told that the curve only features in their ranges because they need to be seen to have that option.
But with LG focusing more on flatscreens for its next wave of OLED TVs, Philips is likely to follow suit and only bring a flatscreen version to market.
Via What HiFi?
