Samsung's Huge MicroLED TVs Let You Watch Four Things at Once (cnet.com) 56
An anonymous reader shares a report: Samsung's MicroLED televisions like The Wall are always some of the biggest products at CES -- literally. Last year's version was a 292-inch monster composed of individual modules that required custom installation and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The 2021 version is a MicroLED TV in fixed sizes of 110, 99 and 88 inches that costs a bit less, but is still ridiculously expensive. Launched in Korea last month, the 110-inch MicroLED costs 170 million won, or around $156,000 according to ZDNet -- the same as a Bentley Bentayga. On Tuesday at its First Look event ahead of CES, the company announced two more sizes, 99 and 88 inches, all three with 4K resolution. Samsung says the TVs will arrive in other markets later this year. For comparison's sake, Samsung's puny 98-inch 8K TV costs $60,000, but it uses standard LCD-based QLED display technology, not MicroLED. [...] The 110-inch MicroLED TV is basically the size of four 55-inch TVs stuck together, and a feature called MultiView lets you connect multiple devices simultaneously and watch up to four things at once. Lucky owners can "enjoy watching news, movies and other apps simultaneously on one screen -- so they can keep up with multiple sports at once, or stream a walkthrough while playing a video game, all in stunning quality and size," according to the release. MultiView is also available on the smaller 99- and 88-inch versions.
Re: What's the point of getting a large TV... (Score:2)
Don't you mean 1984?
No, you can't turn your telescreen off. Go put a power meter and Wireshark in-between and watch.
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Each member of the family can watch something different. No more arguments!
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Or you can watch multiple programs at once, exactly what the modern scatterbrain needs.
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Watch four things at once, or just one thing surrounded by ads? [techcrunch.com] (SFW)
NFL Sunday ticket (your own mix?) (Score:2)
NFL Sunday ticket (your own mix?)
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Or the modern sports bettor, some of whom have the kind of money to justify something like this. They probably see it as consolidating the four screens in their current wall of displays into one big one.
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Each member of the family can watch something different. No more arguments!
Dont they do that already on their phone?
I didn't read the full story, but is there a way to use headphones so each picture's sound can be listened to separately? If not, then it's not that great for use in the manner you described. Besides, it's cheaper to buy multiple televisions to do the same.
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So they've replicated the functionality that security video systems have had for 30+ years, except rather than supporting 48 video streams they can do a whole 4 streams? Wow, cutting edge Samsung! [snark]
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It's an 8k display, do you can watch 8k content. Not word on what kind of 8k it supports, will be be 60 fps or 120?
Anyway, this is more of a technology demonstrator. If they can produce MicroLED panels that large it means they can make four 55" 4k displays from one of them. That's key to getting the cost down. It also means they have image processing chips capable of handling 8k.
Which is good because an affordable 55" MicroLED display could be very attractive.
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From their description it seems like they can go to 16k -- by taping together multiple fixed-sized modules of lower resolution. This is why they brag currently about wall-sized tvs.
I suppose you could make a giant 16k-ish screen from old tube tvs if you wanted to go large enough, and didn't care about bezel issues.
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If they can produce MicroLED panels that large
Making them large is easy; the hard part is making them smaller. Imagine the ridicule they'd get if they went back to selling only 2K TVs at those prices, even though hardly anyone will notice the difference. So they have to make them 4K, and 88" seems to be the smallest anyone can manage right now for microLED. It's hard to make the LEDs that small. And 88" and above really limits your market; they're too big for many people even if they were affordable.
Frank's 2000 inch TV... (Score:2)
Everybody come and see.
Re:Ironically in 1987 ... (Score:2)
... I had a 32" flat screen TV that allowed me to watch 2 channels at once in 1987 resolution. I also had a mode where it would populate the edge of the screen with smaller images of channels of interest (forget what limit was but at least a dozen). The resolution of those was much lower but still good enough to see if there was an interesting play, scene, or commercial. So besides the size, this seems like a non-event.
Their purpose is ... (Score:3)
... to make you believe their regular models are not a total rip-off of mostly profit with a slight dash of employee payment in there.
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I remember seeing a 42" (+/-) flatscreen TV in a high end AV store for $20,000. I was awed at both the technology and the price.
Now you can buy one at Walmart for $250.
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They will use it to surround the main display (Score:3)
Distraction (Score:1)
Even its ploy to confuse customers with the QLED name (looks like OLED but is really just an LED-LCD) hasn't worked out the way they planned. LG is outselling Samsung at least 2 to 1 on high-end TV's.
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Samsung can show off its humongous MicroLED at shows and such, but LG is selling OLED tv's by the boatload to customers and Samsung isn't.
It's a $150,000 TV.
To say the audience is limited, is putting it mildly. No one, is selling a "boatload" of these things.
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Right, its just a marketing stunt. You can go into any store that sells TVs today and buy an LG OLED screen.
Samsung completely failed this generation by not offering an OLED screen.
Who needs that? (Score:1)
As if misinformation and disinformation overload is not over the top with only one screen and shift-tab already.
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One good use of the very high density displays is to have a good 3D without any glasses. Many years ago on one of the tech exhibitions I've seen the 3D technology based on putting a special micro-lens filter on top of a traditional LCD to achieve 3D, the result was quite compelling and I like it the most of all the available ones. With this technology the higher resolution the more 3D angle viewing points one gets.
Agree about the misinformation, but that is not due to TVs, but integrity of journalists - or
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This isn't really meant for normal consumers. It's for businesses with conference and event rooms with deep pockets.
But it's also a sales tactic - you show off with things most people can only dream off to create attention, and then you direct the attention to the mass market products that are boring and look all the same, but are also the bred and butter for your business. It's a tactic as old as the consumer shows themselves.
Prior Art (Score:2)
https://backtothefuture.fandom... [fandom.com]
Nothing about this is new or innovative (Score:1)
Hardware multi-viewers that can take multiple sources and scale and display them have existed for years and years in the AV space. You can find them from dozens of vendors.
Neither is the technology of direct-view LED displays, which have also existed for decades and chances are most of us pass a billboard with it on every major highway. The fact that the pixels are small enough to used as a home display while neat is not some revolution that Samsung is selling but a natural progression of the technology.
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I had a Sony projector TV 15 years ago that could show 16 channels at once. And since I had only an antenna (no cable) I could literally watch ALL THE TV.
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MicroLED is 0.1mm or smaller [semiengineering.com].
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Well then this does not meet that definition, the last "The Wall" iteration was 0.84mm pitch, I have not seen the pitch on this new model but I have doubts they were able to bring it anywhere close to 0.1mm in a generation.
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MicroLEDs are following in the footsteps of OLEDs, which are really teeny tiny LEDs wit
Still holding out for the 2000" model (Score:1)
I hope I get it before Frank does.
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I don't care whoever gets one first, it'll allow me to watch "The Simpsons" from thirty blocks away.
4 things at once... (Score:2)
How many eyes do you need (Score:2)
... to watch 4 things at once? I only have 2, will that be enough?
The only use case I see (Score:4, Insightful)
Which means (Score:2)
You aren't watching any seriously!
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It's amazing how many people think multitasking makes them more efficient.
Mini Jumbo Tron (Score:1)
I've seen these things at tradeshows and they are cool. They are literally just LEDs grouped together like a old (low resolution) jumbotron type thing. Not LED backlit, but just straight up tiny LEDs. Some of them are flexible as well for curved walls.
BUT for the price, a commercial 8K projector with a video processor that can split up feeds or do one big picture would be cheaper. You can get them for like 50-70k. Or even a video wall and processor with several bezel-less 4k screens would be also bright an
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You're confusing regular LEDs with MicroLEDs. MicroLEDs are 0.1mm or smaller.
For that price... (Score:3)
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No no, that's a feature, all the better to make personalized offers you can't refuse.
Would've been good in the Kennedy White House (Score:1)
In the 1960s there were 3 major networks, Kennedy had an office with 3 TVs so he could watch all 3 newscasts if there was some important breaking news.
These days, what do I need to watch 4 things at a time for? Seems like all there is on TV is shopping channels, channels to shop on, and more shopping channels.
Oh wait, nevermind.
Can't every TV do that? (Score:2)
NanoLED (Score:2)
I can't wait for their nanoLED TV which will be the size of a baseball field.
Microled (Score:1)
microLED, also known as micro-LED, mLED or ÂLED, is an emerging flat-panel display technology. microLED displays consist of arrays of microscopic LEDs forming the individual pixel elements. When compared with widespread LCD technology, microLED displays offer better contrast, response times, and energy efficiency.
Along with OLEDs, microLEDs are primarily aimed at small, low-energy devices such as smartwatches and smartphones. OLED and microLED both offer greatly reduced energy requirements when compare
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Thank you, Wikipedia.
Just get more TVs instead? (Score:2)
Err... Could you do the same thing just getting multiple TVs for a heckuva lot less money?
A solution in search of a problem, maybe?
Full screen to each viewer with different video? (Score:3)
I would be more impressed by some TV or similar device that could display different content to different viewers - from the *full* screen.
Probably by having each part of the screen sending different light signals for multiple directions. Kind of like how a lighthouse project white in some directions, red or green in others. But dynamically controlled, with several LED:s per pixel, and some quite advanced optics. With narrow enough beams, this could perhaps even be used for glassless 3D.
Ideally with some software that could track the location of each viewer and calculate which sub-pixels need to transmit to reach them, even if viewers changed position. Without said tracking sensors used for any other purpose - no analyzing, no ad tracking, no DRM ...
I wonder which part is most wishful thinking - the technology or that Samsung could skip abusing it for privacy violations?
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OK, thats it. I am filing for a patent. (Score:2)
Of course the product sucks. But that is the point. Suck four beverages at the same time. Very handy to watch four video feeds at the same time.
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Professional security systems have been feeding as many as 48 feeds for most of three decades, even the nasty 9" diagonal B&W on the really old analog matrix systems would support 4 feeds at a time.
I remember this from the 80s/90s (Score:1)
I imagine the remote for this behemoth (Score:1)
is not going to confuse my wife any more than our current TV remote. She makes me control it already.
Are we going to evolve more eyes to keep up with crap?
Four things at once! (Score:1)