LG Has A New Buzz Word in 2020 NanoCell TV’s

If you thought you were confused by 4G and Ultra High Definition terminology for the latest in TV’s LG is going to confuse you even more this year with the introduction of NanoCell Technology TV’s as they battle to set themselves apart from their competitors.

Where OLED was the big talking point last year with LG the new buzz word is LG NanoCell technology.

Currently, and because of COVID-19 Australians are hibernating at home and along the way they are buying new TV’s and sound system while chewing up millions of gigabytes of content.

LG sales of TV’s are up as a result of COVID-19 according to LG HE Marketing Manager Tony Brown who admits that a new battle is breaking out as brands such as Samsung, LG and Sony battle to get traction for their new TV’s using a new generation of display screens.

This year Korean branded TV’s from Samsung and LG and the Japanese brand Sony are set to attract the attention of consumers at the expense of Chinese brands such as Hisense and TCL according to analysts.

While the global COVID-19 lockdown has delayed soundbars for LG they are rolling out their 2020 TV’s and the model range is interesting.

Gone is the big soundbar on the bottom of their premium TV’s which in the past housed the motherboard for all TV functions. The bits that deliver a new generation of viewing experience are back built into their new premium 4K TV’s.

This year’s LG NanoCell TV’s are different from last year’s models, for example their mid-range ISP panel models are powered by a new third-generation version of LG’s Alpha 7 processor.

John Archer whose TV reviews appear in SmartHouse claims that while IPS screens deliver some benefits to viewing angles, they also make it harder to control how much light is being passed through them, leading to black level and local backlight limitations.

He recently reviewed a new LG 2020 NanoCell 65″ TV and what he observed was that it quickly became apparent, that something radically different was going on inside the TV in 2020 models.

The key to this potential sea-change in IPS fortunes driven by an apparently, new backlight control system. Or, to give it LG’s preferred name, a new Pixel Compensation system.

At its heart, this new backlight system is about power redistribution.

Namely, reducing power to dark areas of the picture to reduce the light getting through the IPS panel and so deliver deeper black levels, while simultaneously transferring the power saved in dark areas to bright areas that need it.

This isn’t a completely new concept for the LCD TV world.

It does, though, make particular sense in an IPS panel, given that these find it harder than VA panels to use the opening and closing of their LCs to control the amount of light each pixel emits.

With the Australia models that are coming this year LG went out of their way to talk up gaming and in particular the launch of the new 2020 Xbox.

Coupled with the 120Hz display capabilities of the new LG NanoCell TV’s and the use of a HDMI 2.1 cable gamers are set to get a completely new experience.

LG Australia executives showed images of the difference as per the below image.

In more gaming news, LG is the first brand we’ve seen to offer an HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) mode.

This is so that the TV can use HDR calibration data provided by gaming devices (most notably the PS4 which was not mentioned in today’s presentation) that carry HGiG set up routines as part of their System calibration options, rather than trying to apply its own dynamic tone mapping to images that have essentially already been tone mapped.

Finally, two of four HDMIs are built to the latest 2.1 specification.

And since all of these HDMI 2.1 ports, support a full 48Gbps specification, they will be able to handle the 4K at 120Hz outputs both the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Other features on the new range are, inevitably, built around LG’s webOS platform, this year consumers get access to Disney+ that already has 1.8M subscribers in Australia, also on board is Apple +.

Also built into the new premium NanoCell models is a far-field mic to support voice recognition without needing to use the remote control.

This far-field system only works with LG’s ThinQ AI system at present, though the TV does also provide support for Google Assistant and Alexa via the mic button on the remote control.

LG’s voice recognition system now covers 20 languages rather than the previous 15, and the system has been designed to deliver more ‘human’ sounding responses, to make the voice-control experience feel more natural.

You can also now use your voice to control networked Internet of Things devices via the TV.

LG claims to have improved its algorithms for recommending content based on your viewing habits, and has introduced a new Sports Alert feature that tracks your favourite teams to provide score updates and remind you when matches featuring them are being shown on TV. While they pointed out that this service is based on “northern Hemisphere” sports Tony Brown did say that they were in discussion with local codes though the COVID-19 epidemic has delayed discussions which means we most probably won’t see a local service till 2001.

Local executives in today’s briefing went out of their way to highlight Dolby Vision dynamic HDR, as well as the ‘baseline’ HDR10 format.

Dolby Vision adds greater colour refinement and extra scene by scene picture information, to help TVs show it better.

The LG TV’s are the first to a new Dolby Vision innovation: Dolby Vision IQ. This combines Dolby’s unique understanding of both Dolby Vision content and each Dolby Vision TV with a light sensor built into the TV, so that it can adjust the picture to compensate for different room conditions.

LG has also introduced Filmmaker Mode; this is designed to deliver a single picture pre-set that puts a TV’s picture settings as close as possible to those used by professional mastering monitors.

While it sounds like a fine idea in principle, the way it turns off pretty much every element of a TV’s picture processing runs the potential of being a gimmick that most average households don’t need or will ever use.