Posted Thu May 21, 2015 at 02:00 PM PDT by Steven Cohen
Select OLED 4K displays will receive an HDR update.
According to a report from Forbes, LG is planning to offer a firmware upgrade for its 65EG9600 ($8,999) and 55EG9600 ($5,499) OLED Ultra HD TVs. The upcoming update will allow the TVs to display high dynamic range content.
High Dynamic Range technology provides enhanced levels of brightness and contrast, resulting in more realistic images with greater highlights and more detailed shadows. Several 2015 LCD models have been released that support the tech, including Samsung's SUHD line. With the new firmware upgrade, the EG9600 series will become the first OLED displays on the market to include HDR. With that said, though OLED displays are capable of perfect blacks, they cannot achieve the same brightness levels as LCD panels, so it remains to be seen just how well the LG OLED TVs handle high dynamic range images. Likewise, current reports indicate that the upgrade will only support streaming HDR content through the TV's internal apps or other devices through the display's IP interface. This mean that the EG9600 series likely won't support HDR content from Ultra HD Blu-rays or other HDMI 2.0a sources.
A release date for the update has not been announced yet, but LG will offer the upgrade once the UHD Alliance finalizes the HDR tech spec, ensuring compatibility with future content. Though LG has not announced HDR upgrades for the rest of its OLED lineup yet, support for more models is a possibility.
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