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LG announces flagship 4K LCD display

LG will be displaying its flagship 4K LCD television -- the UB9800 series -- in four sizes that top out at a massive 98 inches at this week’s CES in Las Vegas.

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Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
2 min read
LG

LG will be displaying its flagship 4K LCD television -- the UB9800 series -- in four sizes up to a massive 98-inches at this week’s CES in Las Vegas.

The series consists of 65-inch, 79-inch, 84-inch, and 98-inch models and includes features such as 4K upscaling, Harman Kardon sound, and what promises to be passive, full-1080p 3D.

Like all manufacturers with 4K televisions, LG has an upscaling engine which in this case it calls Tru-Ultra HD Engine Pro, but it claims only to make HD and lesser quality sources "near-Ultra HD quality." Given the softness of most upscalers so far, this is probably the most honest marketing seen yet. The TV also features a motion compensation engine designed to eliminate judder from 4K material.

HEVC is a new broadcast format which is seen by the industry as the simplest way to deliver 4K signals, and LG has announced that the UB9800 will feature a dedicated 60Hz HEVC decoder.

The new models also feature LG’s Ultra HD Cinema 3D system which promises passive glasses for considerably reduced cross-talk. This series also features improved sound with the collaboration with Harman Kardon. The company has also announced two additional LED series including the UB9500, available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, and the UB8500, available in 49-inch and 55-inch class sizes. Little is known about these two series although an LG spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company plans to offer cheaper 4K displays which "cut back on attributes like brightness, contrast ratio and refresh rate". In essence LG could potentially sacrifice picture quality in order to hit the specified resolution for a cheaper price.

Pricing and availability is yet to be announced.