LG Electronics Australia has unveiled the company’s 2016 line up of Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range (HDR)-enabled LG 4K UHD OLED TVs, LG 4K UHD LED/LCD TV models including the feature packed ‘SUPER UHD’ TV line up.

In addition to integrating the industry standard HDR format of HDR-10, a number of LG 4K OLED and LG SUPER UHD TVs will include Dolby Vision, providing consumers with the chance to watch further enhanced HDR content where scenes look almost real.  Also being introduced in Australia is the latest upgrade of the highly regarded LG Smart TV platform, webOS 3.0, which will make access to favourite content faster and easier than ever for LG Smart TV viewers.

LG marketing manager Grant Vandenberg said the company is proud to bring the 2016 LG TV range to Australia.

 “We are extremely excited to be launching our HDR-enabled LG TV range, especially those that also include the highly anticipated Dolby Vision,” he said.

“The technology is truly game-changing in the TV picture quality stakes, and we’re confident that once consumers experience the combination of HDR content with our new HDR-enabled TVs for themselves they‘ll find it just as breathtaking as we do.”

HDR technology is one of the best innovations to come to content in recent years. Referring to the way that content is filmed and mastered, HDR is able to render a picture that more closely resembles what the human eye can see.

In order to achieve this, HDR TV technology enables the display of greater colour and contrast range, allowing more accurate graduation of colour shades and enhanced contrast between bright and dark areas within a scene. This in turn prevents highlights from being ‘burnt out’ and details being lost in areas of shadow, ultimately resulting in picture quality that looks and feels much more lifelike.

Many recent movies and TV series have already been created with HDR filming and production technologies, plus studios are in the process of remastering older content into HDR. Through the new and improved webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform, users will also soon be able to stream HDR content through Netflix.

Hollywood Cinematographer Peter James said HDR is one of the most important recent innovations in film making because it results in a huge step-up in picture quality.

“As a director of photography, I want to be able to produce footage as close to the director’s vision as possible. What I’m looking for is to show the full tonal range of a scene, all the true variations of colour, the full contrast and the details within shadow areas,” Peter says.

“In this regard HDR is more important than resolution or simply increasing the brightness levels, and it will transform the experience of watching movies, dramas and documentaries on TV.

“From what I’ve seen HDR content combined with LG TVs with HDR technology truly takes viewing to a whole new level, especially by creating greater detail in darker scenes.”

OLED and HDR technologies work hand-in-hand. LG OLED screens already offer a greater contrast range and wider colour gamut than LED/LCD screen technology, with over a billion colours and perfect black. The unique combination of HDR and OLED in LG 4K UHD OLED TVs results in a viewing experience that no other TV can match.

Furthermore, OLED has other unique advantages for watching HDR content including vivid colours expression and smoother motion which frame rates up to 60fps.

LG has teamed up with Dolby to integrate Dolby Vision, the leading HDR technology into the company’s top-of-the-range LG 4K OLED and LG SUPER UHD TVs.

Dolby Vision, using 12-bit HDR technology, goes beyond HDR-10, the current minimum standard for HDR content. It has the ability to adjust the level of individual pixels frame-by-frame to enhance image detail, natural contrast and vivid colour.

An end-to-end solution, Dolby Laboratories works from content creation to distribution to layback solutions. Dolby Vision has already received support from most major Hollywood studios, including Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. These studios have already announced a commitment to deliver Dolby Vision content for home distribution.

Dolby has already mastered more than 100 movie titles in Dolby Vision which will be coming to viewers in the home via streaming service providers, ensuring consumers will be in for a real treat.

Grant Vandenberg says watching non-HDR content is like flying economy class.

“The introduction of HDR takes viewing into Business Class and with Dolby Vision, the experience goes even further. It’s TV viewing in First Class. With LG and Dolby Vision, we believe this is a partnership that will make a real difference. We love it, Hollywood loves it and consumers will love it.”

Expanded LG 4K UHD OLED TV Range

Debuting at CES 2016 the LG 77/ 65” LG G6 and 65/55” E6 4K UHD OLED TVs are the thinnest LG 4K UHD OLED TVs to date. The TVs will join the LG OLED TV family in Australia later this year, following on from the February launch of the first flat screen OLED TV in the county, the LG 4K UHD OLED TV (65/55”EF950T).

The LG G6 and E6 series are the first TVs from LG to feature the company’s ‘Picture-On-Glass’ design, which boasts an ultra-thin OLED panel mounted on a toughened glass back, and is only 2.57mm at its thinnest point. It also has a forward-facing sound bar speaker system with sound designed by harman/kardon and the intuitive LG webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform.

The LG G6 and E6 series have Dolby Vision integrated into the sets for a stunning viewing experience.

The 2016 LG SUPER UHD 4K TV range

 The LG SUPER UHD 4K TV series is setting the pace for the company’s line-up of 4K UHD LED LCD TVs.  Leading the pack for this range is the 55/65” UH950T, 79UH953T, 86UH955T, 60UH850T and 75UH855T. The premium LG SUPER UHD 4K TV models offer an expanded colour reproduction gamut, advanced picture and sound-enhancing features, not to mention the TVs are HDR-enabled with Dolby Vision and come packing a very sleek Ultra Slim TV design.

Key Features – LG SUPER UHD 4K

 -LG ColourPrime: New LG ColourPrime technology delivers 20 % more colours compared to a conventional LED/LCD TV based on the sRGB colour space. The wide colour gamut technology utilises a broadened colour spectrum to render a wider range of hues and shades – creating deep reds, greens and blues for wide colour representation.

–Dolby Vision: Goes beyond HDR-10 to optimise the image dynamic range frame by frame, optimising detail in dark scenes and clarity in bright scenes to show the full tonal range of a scene, all the true variations of colour, the full contrast and the details within shadow areas.

– LG ULTRA Slim Design: The LG 65-inch UH950T was created using a new LG design concept, which makes it 6.6mm at its thinnest point. The TV was designed by reducing the gaps between the panel and back cover chassis. What’s more, the thin bezel gives the impression that the TV is almost floating.

-Anti-Reflective Coating: Ambient or room light can detract from the viewing experience by reflecting off the TV screen. With a 2 part treatment on the UH850T and 3 part treatment on the UH950T, these series include an anti-reflective coating that reduces the amount of reflected light, allowing blacker blacks and improved contrast ratio.

– Cinema 3D: Bright 3D pictures made possible by our Cinema 3D technology. You can enjoy 3D TV in your home the way 3D was meant to be, just like at the movies.

– HDR: Enhances the contrast balance between dark and bright areas of the image to enhance image contrast detail. The HDMI 2.0a ports allow connection to HDR content sources such as a UHD Blu-ray player.

 – HDR-effect: Enhances the contrast balance between dark and bright areas to give an HDR effect to non-HDR content. The HDR conversion engine allows viewers to enjoy simulated HDR content from any standard content source.

–LG ULTRA Luminance technology: LG ULTRA Luminance adjusts the backlight zones to optimise image luminance, boosting the light areas of the picture. The benefit is apparent when viewing darker scenes with bright lights, such as a city scene at night time

–Smart TV Powered by webOS 3.0: The new LG Smart TV platform with improved speed allows for faster and simpler access to content you love most.

–BT.2020 Colour Space: These TVs support the UHD TV colour standard BT.2020 look-up table. Wide colour gamut content can be displayed based on the BT.2020 colour co-ordinates.

– DPI-P3 Colour Space: The TVs support the Digital Cinema Industry colour space P3 look-up table. Wide colour gamut content can be displayed based on the DCI-P3 colour co-ordinates.

–  6-Step Upscaler: The 6-Step Upscaler helps to give content a boost and bring it closer to 4K Ultra High Definition. This also includes the ability to upscale streamed content, making it sharper and more enjoyable to watch.

 – harmon/kardon sound and new LG Magic Sound Tuning Function: LG is committed to providing quality sound alongside quality vision. The company has teamed up with harmon/kardon to provide refined sound quality to match the picture quality. In addition, the new LG Magic Sound Tuning function measures and analyses the viewer’s environment and makes adjustments to customise the sound to the room’s specific conditions.

–Quad Core Processor: Offering a noticeable increase in speed for Smart TV navigation and loading, this new technology boosts overall computing power – an important asset for Video on Demand.

New and improved Smart TV operating system with webOS 3.0

A key feature part of the new LG 2016 product range is webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform, which is an upgraded version of the company’s user-friendly, webOS 2.0 user interface. Compared to webOS 2.0, the third iteration provides a user experience that is more intuitive. The platform also offers enhanced mobile connectivity, remote features and more content options than its predecessor.

LG webOS 3.0 offers three Magic smart features: Magic Zoom, Magic Mobile Connection and an upgraded Magic Remote:

– Magic Zoom: For more intuitive navigation, Magic Zoom allows users to magnify objects and letters.

– Magic Mobile Connection: Magic Mobile Connection allows users to connect a compatible smartphone to their LG SMART TV via the LG TV Plus App in order to access mobile apps on their TV screen.

– Upgraded Magic Remote: The upgraded Magic Remote is designed to make controlling set-top boxes easy with the addition of new programmable buttons on the remote. The Screen Remote feature has also been redesigned to simplify the user interface.

Other webOS 3.0 features include:

– Channel Advisor: Displays upcoming time slots with information about frequently watched programs so that users can keep up with their favourite programs.

– Multi-view: Allows viewers to watch a TV channel and separate input simultaneously, or two different inputs at the same time.

– Music Player App: Plays music through the webOS 3.0 TV speakers, even when the TV screen is off.

– My Channels: Enables faster access to your favourite channels that might be obscure numbers to remember.