The smart TV industry has always been a field where technology is king. Unlike the smart phone industry, the smart TV industry is a relatively high barrier to entry. In this field, although the marketing of Internet thinking has a certain effect, the creation of a content ecology It is also an indispensable part, but basic technological innovation plays a role in the bottom layer.
Judging from CES 2016 and the Samsung FORUM 2016 forum, the 2016 smart TV industry is making in-depth progress toward screen technology, product form, and software ecosystem. Although there are major breakthroughs in both hardware and software, relevant policies have always been the most uncertain factor in the smart TV industry. New technologies and new challenges are like a vast sea, which brings hope and pressure to all manufacturers. To be sure, only those companies with the capability of vertical integration of hardware and software can maximize the market initiative.
Of course, under the wave of virtual VR technology, smart TV industry may also usher in some changes from the product form, virtual VR + smart TV product form may bring some unexpected chemical reaction.
The most screen technology patterns, Quantum dots, OLED, HDR, 8K leading the trend
Looking at smart TVs nowadays, in fact, more and more technical innovations are being performed on a single screen. The bigger, clearer and brighter the screen is always the human instinct to pursue on this screen.
Starting from old-fashioned black-and-white television, a TV such a product has always been running in the direction of bigger, brighter and clearer, even though it was still 92 years after its birth.
From the perspective of the screen technology of smart TVs, the product has become a test field for various new technologies. New technologies such as OLED, HDR, and 8K are leading the way. These technologies may become the catch-up direction of smart TV industry in 2016.
1, quantum dot technology
Quantum dot technology is also a screen technology that has been welcomed by television manufacturers in the past two years. In fact, this technology appeared in Sony's 4K TV as early as 2013. This technology was named by Sony as "TRILUMINOS Trick" and it was used on Sony's smart phones. That is, Luo Yonghao once laughed at the conference, "Terry charm color screen." Of course, this is only the ignorance of Teacher Luo.
Quantum dot technology has not been used by Sony since then, but this technology has been stolen by Samsung, TCL and other vendors. At the 2015 CES Forum, Samsung, LG, Sharp, TCL, and Hisense all launched smart TVs using quantum dot technology. At the Samsung FORUM 2016 forum on March 2 this year, Samsung's new SUHD TV once again brought quantum dot technology to light.
The principle of quantum dot technology is that the built-in special nano-transistors generate pure red, green, and blue colors without filtering out other colors. It is also true that the screen not only displays more super-fine colors, but also has better photo quality. The advantages of quantum dot technology are low power consumption, low hardware cost, and low iteration cost. Compared with technologies such as 8K and HDR, quantum dot technology is currently in an era of eruption. In 2016, it has been popularized among domestic TV manufacturers for a long period of time.
2. OLED technology
OLED technology has emerged as an important technology in the field of screens very early. As early as 2010, Samsung used OLED screens on its own mobile phone S8500. Since then, the Galaxy series flagships have used OLED screens.
The use of OLED screens as TV screens was in January 2013. At that time, LG released the LG curved OLED TV at the CES for the first time in the world, which indicates that the world has entered the era of large-size OLEDs.
OLED screen energy consumption is lower, the display black is not light; viewing angle is large, the picture is not distorted at a large viewing angle, the response time is one thousandth of the LCD, the display motion picture will not have a series of excellent features such as smearing The OLED screen has become a technology commonly pursued by domestic and foreign TV manufacturers. Since then, domestic and foreign television manufacturers have also developed a large number of variant OLED screens based on OLED technology.
It is worth pondering that Samsung, which had already widely used OLED screens on its own flagship mobile phones at the time, did not insist on using OLED screens on its own televisions. Instead, it used LCD screens in reverse and pushed curved screens. Of course, this is just a postscript. Because OLED screens are costly and difficult to mass produce and other practical problems. It is also true that Samsung suspended production of OLED screen TVs in 2014. However, according to sources in the South Korean media quoted informed sources, Samsung is preparing to invest $ 3.3 billion to restart OLED TV technology, Samsung OLED TV will be listed in 2018 at the latest.
This move is closely related to the development trend of OLEDs in the smart TV field. OLED has become an industry trend in 2015. After years of adhering to it, LG is gradually enjoying the technological dividend brought about by OLED. The balance between production capacity and cost of OLED screen has gradually reached a more reasonable level. It is believed that OLED TVs will have even more outstanding performance in 2016, driven by LG and even domestic manufacturers who are brave enough to adopt early adopters.
3, HDR technology
The principle of HDR technology on TV is basically similar to that of HDR technology on mobile phones. It is to achieve better picture quality by improving the contrast between bright and dark areas of the screen. Smart TVs under this technology will have a better look and feel and more colorful color performance.
In 2015, a series of manufacturers such as Sony, LG, Philips, Panasonic, and Samsung are all launching or preparing to launch HDR TVs. From the perspective of the upstream power of international manufacturers, the domestic TV market in 2016 may usher in a wave of follow-up trends. However, HDR TV still needs the support of content, and it will take a while to get popular. The good news is that Hollywood and other content production companies like Netflix and Warner Bros. have promised their content will support HDR.
4K TV
4K TV has not been unified today, and content support is not yet complete, and 8K television will follow. In fact, as early as the 2013 CES show, Sharp had demonstrated 8K television, but has not yet announced the opening time. By January 2016, the Sharp LC-80XU930X was finally announced in parts of Asia at a price of $16,000.
Although 4K TV support is not yet perfect, 8K TV is still just a gimmick. However, at CES 2016, LG and Samsung both exhibited their own 98-inch 8K ultra high-definition TV products. In order to cooperate with Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, Japan announced that it will start 8K digital broadcasting in 2020. It may be that in the past two years, 8K television has become one of the main directions for domestic and foreign TV manufacturers to concentrate on their main attack.
Product form is also the focus, surface, split, interaction into the direction of exploration
The TV screen has always been valued by users as a determinant of the perception. However, the experience of a TV is determined not only by its screen perception, but also by its product form. With the development of smart TVs today, how to break through the traditional way of interaction and change television has become the next question to be considered.
1, split
Split TV may also become the standard for the 2016 market. As early as last year, a series of domestic TV makers such as Xiaomi, Leshi, Kukai, Xiaowei, and Storm all adopted the design of split TV in order to resist hardware problems caused by system and software upgrades.
Although some people say that split TV is just a gimmick, there is not much benefit to the appearance and process integration of TV. Before Haier and Lenovo's split TV did not draw much attention, the concept of split TV has long been abandoned in the past. However, it is undeniable that TV is not a mobile phone, and TV cannot be changed every year. Split TV plays a role of modularization. From the point of view of major trends, split TV has become a very mature technology and this technology is expected to gain popularity in the market in 2016.
2, surface
The first thing to say here is the curved screen. Curved screens, in fact, strictly speaking, should be placed on the screen technology module. Because this is more of a screen technology category. But from a physical point of view, in fact, the curved screen also has some considerations on the product form.
Because of its special structure, the surface will bring immersive experience. For example, when playing a shoot-out game such as FireWire, the surface will give players different feelings. Because in the process of adjusting the line of sight, no matter from which point of view the human eye can obtain a relatively consistent picture, and the depth of field caused by the surface, that is, the visual sense of fall is also very easy to give people immersive pleasure. Surfaces that bring people's sensory stimuli to the surface are far from comparable.
After Samsung demonstrated its first curved TV at CES in 2013, curved TV has always been difficult to popularize because of cost issues. However, in 2015, as the surface TV production capacity and cost gradually reached a balance, domestic manufacturers such as TCL and Hisense have also made curved TV prices lower and lower. Nowadays, it can be found on Tmall that TC and Hisense's 55-inch and even larger screen curved TV shops sell for only five or six thousand yuan. This price is almost the same as the same-size flat-screen TV prices of Internet companies such as Xiaomi and LeTV. In the past, curved surface televisions that used to have thousands of yuan have already flown into the homes of ordinary people.
What is even more noteworthy is that at the end of 2015, LeTV, the Internet brand, launched its own curved surface television. According to sources inside Xiaomi, Xiaomi's curved surface television will also be launched in the next month or two. According to market rumors, the approval of the L65M4-AQ TV production that Xiaomi is applying for in the National Electronics 3C Certification Center data is the curved surface television. The promotion of manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Leshi has actually pointed out a competitive direction for the 2016 smart TV market – curved surfaces will soon become mainstream.
3, interaction
When Jobs redefined the mobile phone, it also needed someone to redefine the TV today.
Knowing that there are netizens saying it is very good, from an experience point of view, the "smart TV" interaction problem is an alternative interactive solution to passive consumer information devices. TV is not an active source of information in the user's living room, but is a time-consuming object.
The real core issue today for smart TVs lies in the way they interact. The interaction of a TV and a remote controller is actually a product of the old era. This interactive approach also determines that TV products can only become content consumables and cannot be products that can be born.
Some people even say that the real problem of smart TV is not how to interact with people, but how to subvert the product form and create a new way of interaction between people.
If smart TV cannot solve the core problem of interaction, the ultimate fate of this product is very sad. In the end, it will be sent to the grave of history by smartphones, laptops, and tablets.
Of course, staying in the state of the art shows that it is difficult for the smart TV to bring about other imaginations. You can't ask for a screen and a remote controller to bring more amazing experiences. Behind the new experience is the need for new technologies to drive behind.
At present, some domestic manufacturers actually have reflected their own thinking. These companies are unique and seem to have stepped in the right direction. Take the storm as an example. When Storm's Storm TV and Storm Mirror are combined, you may be able to explore the future of Smart TV.
In fact, there is not only a wonderful combination of storms and VR, LeTV and VR, Xiaomi and VR are also in the air. From the perspective of the exploration trend of the entire industry, this may be the direction.
Because smart TV and virtual VR put together, it may produce a different chemical reaction. Taking NextVR as an example, such a company dedicated to the development of virtual reality TV live broadcast services has successfully produced the first live broadcast of virtual reality in the NBA's latest season, and has obtained a $30.5 million investment from Time Warner and Comcast. In the future, domestic virtual VR + content production + TV hardware may become the choice of many manufacturers.
Written at the end:
For smart TVs, the amount of screen technology is very important, and the qualitative change in product form is the future. Only in today's wave of technology that is less certain, the state in which smart TVs can evolve is an unknown number.