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TECHNOLOGYThursday 7 January 2016

Why aren’t smart TVs very clever? New TV tech promises sharper
colors, but not much to watch
ANICK JESDANUN els at this week’s CES gad- it’s playing — using a digi-
RYAN NAKASHIMA get show in Las Vegas. tal magnifying glass — to RYAN NAKASHIMA
AP Tech Writers In a way, putting brains in make out small text and AP Business Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Turns out a device that most people other details. But LG won’t LAS VEGAS (AP) — For years, TV makers have focused
that smart TVs can be, well, replace only every five to say when, if ever, older TVs on making pictures sharper by squeezing more pixels
pretty dumb. seven years isn’t the bright- will get that. onto screens. Now, their attention is shifting to improv-
Even moderately priced est idea. Chips get faster The divide between smart ing the way sets display color, with a newish technol-
sets can now connect to every year, so by the time TVs and streaming devices ogycalled HDR taking center stage.
the Internet and run Netf- you’re ready to buy a new could become even more HDR, or high dynamic range, promises brighter whites,
lix and other apps — that’s set, its brains will be really, pronounced as the devic- darker blacks, and a richer range of colors — at least
the “smart” part. Yet many really old, at least in tech- es adopt the types of app when you’re watching the few select movie titles that
people are ignoring the nology terms. stores common on phones get released in the format. Trouble is, there aren’t all
that many of those yet, and other HDR viewing op-
Joe Stinziano, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics America, stands next to Samsung tions are likely to remain scarce for the immediate
SUHD TVs during a Samsung news conference at CES Press Day at CES International, Tuesday, Jan. future.
5, 2016, in Las Vegas. Even worse, there are likely to be several different fla-
vors of HDR, just to keep TV buyers on their toes.
(AP Photo/John Locher) HDR represents the latest effort by the world’s televi-
sion makers to goose demand for new sets. Global
built-in features and turn- The software, though, can and tablets. The new Apple television shipments are expected to flatline this year,
ing to Apple TV, Roku and present an even bigger TV offers shopping, travel says research firm IHS — and that’s an improvement
other stand-alone stream- problem. Smart TVs are fre- and food-delivery apps, over 2015, when shipments fell 4 percent.
ing devices that often do a quently plagued with con- while Nvidia’s Shield An- TV makers are still touting the previous new new thing
better job. fusing interfaces, buggy droid TV device runs sophis- — 4K, or ultra high-definition, sets, which have four
In an August report, the functions and inconsistent ticated games once lim- times the pixels of current high-definition screens.
NPD Group estimates that updates. They are some- ited to game consoles and While 4K has stopped the bleeding, it hasn’t jolted the
roughly a third of smart TVs times mysteriously unable personal computers. TV industry back to life, not least because such high
in the U.S. weren’t actually to run new streaming ser- A smart TV is fine if all you’re resolution only makes sense if you sit up close and
connected to the Internet. vices and may never be doing is watching video, get a very large screen. (See our interactive guide
That’s down from about updated to add new fea- says Ali Kani, general man- to figuring whether 4K makes sense for you:http://bit.
half two years earlier, but tures to the ones they do ager for the Shield business. ly/1NnD49i .)
still not good. Researchers run. But he believes “the living HDR faces some similar challenges. As with 4K, studios
at Parks Associates found Worse, some TV makers fo- room is going to be revo- have to release movies and shows in the new format
that even as more Ameri- cus on bringing new fea- lutionized by apps. It’s not for owners to get the most out of new HDR sets. To
cans are using smart TV tures only to their latest any more just about Netflix date, there have been only a handful of releases, in-
functions, streaming de- models in an effort to per- or Hulu.” There’s also some- cluding “The Martian” and Amazon’s original series
vice usage has grown even suade people to buy new thing to be said about let- “Mozart in the Jungle.” More are coming, and Netflix
faster. “If you’re a stream- sets. Samsung’s 2016 mod- ting TV makers and tech aims to join Amazon this year in streaming some HDR
ing media box (maker), els, for instance, implicitly companies focus on what titles, but getting an HDR-ready set still mostly means
you’ve got much more inform anyone who bought each does best. In other preparing for the future.
ability to push new features last year’s sets that they’ve words, when you put your It’s the same chicken-and-the-egg problem that pre-
out into the market at an already been left behind. living room in the hands viously confronted would-be buyers of Blu-ray discs,
affordable price,” says Bar- Those earlier customers of software created by a high-definition TV, 3-D TV and most recently, 4K.
bara Kraus, Parks Associ- won’t be able to use their hardware company, you Beyond that, there’s the complicated issue of choos-
ates’ director of research. Samsung TVs to set mood may live to regret it. ing between different versions of HDR. For starters,
“They’re very stiff competi- lighting or check security “There are some TV com- your version of HDR may look better or worse de-
tion for smart TVs.” cameras in a connected panies that do a fantastic pending on the kind of set you get.
None of that is slowing home. job of creating beautiful Basically, only two types of TV screens can dis-
down TV manufacturers Among the new features sets with fantastic picture play HDR: those using organic light emitting diodes
like Samsung, though, as in LG’s 2016 models: Magic quality,” says Lloyd Klarke, (OLEDs), now built only by LG; and liquid crystal dis-
they continue to tout their Zoom, which will let view- Roku’s director of product play (LCD) panels that use quantum dots, which are
newest and smartest mod- ers zoom in on video while management. q being made by everyone else.
OLEDs are more expensive but provide higher con-
trast, with truer blacks made possible by pixels that
turn all the way off. LCDs, by contrast, will give you a
brighter image than OLEDs, but require a backlight
that limits just how black its screen can get. (A simi-
lar argument over “true” blacks and higher contrast
ratios once raged between proponents of plasma-
screen and LCD-screen TVs; LCDs won that round.)
Then comes the next wrinkle: a new proliferation of
HDR-related marketing labels. For instance, there are
actually two ways of defining “premium” HDR tech-
nology — one for OLED sets and one for LCDs. The
LCD standard allows a brighter screen with less con-
trast, but the Ultra HD Alliance of electronics manu-
facturers, studios and distributors says both deserve
the tag “Ultra HD Premium.”
At least those sets will offer better pictures when you
watch HDR-compatible programming. q