Samsung and LG are fighting over the image quality of their 8K TVs. The two tech giants are both declaring that their ultra-high-definition televisions are superior to the other, company officials said.
Taking leadership in ultra-high definition televisions has become ever more critical for Chinese TV makers to compete with Korean companies with cheap and quality televisions aggressively.
As the world’s second-largest TV maker after Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics threw the first punch claiming its competitor’s 8K TV is not up to the standards set during the IFA trade fair held in Berlin early this September by an international standard-setting body.
LG hosted another session explaining for local reporters its attack on Samsung. Since the attack, Samsung remained silent on the matter only firing back against LG with a TV tech conference the same day.
LG reiterated that 8K TVs should possess a definite number of pixels and a contrast modulation (CM) value of more than 50 percent. Contrast Modulation (CM) value is a measurement that describes display resolution. LG claims Samsung’s 8K TVs possess a CM value far below the recommended 50 percent value.
Nam Ho-jun explained to reporters, “The 8K TV of our competitor (Samsung) cannot be categorized as 8K TV in terms of resolution”. Nam Ho-jun is the director of LG’s home entertainment research center.
He added saying that Samsung is not compliant with the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM) standard for ultra-high-definition television, “According to data by quality assurance companies such as Intertek and VDE, LG’s 8K TVs have 90 percent CM value while the competitor’s one has 12 percent.”
Samsung’s comeback claims that the CM value does not count as a measurement to define 8K TV display performance.
Vice president of Samsung’ visual display division, Yong Seok-woo, told reporters, “To define 8K display performance we have to consider both optical elements such as brightness and color volume and systematical elements such as resolution processing technology, not just checking the value of contrast modulation.”
“To establish a standard for 8K TV, there should be more discussions amongst related companies in the industry.”
According to a 2018 report by IHS Markit, an industry tracker, Samsung sold about 2.69 million QLED TVs in the global market while LG sold 2.51 million OLED TVs. This data only fuels the fierce battle between the two tech giants.
For decades, Samsung and LG have competed for technological supremacy of televisions. The latest clash in 2017 happened when Samsung claimed LG’s OLED TVs were vulnerable to screen burn-in.
featured image grabbed from Samsung website.
