Skip to main content

We discuss wallpaper TVs, roll-up TVs, and OLED canyons with LG’s Tim Alessi

Digital Trends sat down with Tim Alessi of LG product marketing at our CES 2018 in Las Vegas booth to discuss what LG is showing off at this year’s show.
Recommended Videos

LG’s novel OLED designs and Google Assistant

The big issue at hand is, of course, LG’s 2018 TV lineup. LG is releasing a new version of its seriously impressive wallpaper TV, known as the W8. While the W8 looks a lot like its predecessor, the W7, there are some big enhancements to the hardware inside. Specifically, the W8 wallpaper OLED will be packing LG’s new Alpha 9 processor. This new processor is designed to not only deliver the best picture possible right now, but in the future as well.

“You can start out with the same panel, but you still have to make the picture on it,” Alessi said in the interview. “With 4K, HDR, and the coming generation of higher framerates, it’s a lot of power required to process all that data. The Alpha 9 is designed to be ready for anything that comes down the pike. It’s the most powerful processor we’ve created to date; it’s got up to 50 percent more power for not only graphics and processing, but also memory to handle all that.”

We’ve also heard about how Google Assistant integration will make LG’s TVs, like the W8, the centerpiece of a smart home environment. And then there’s LG’s mind blowing rollable OLED, which curls up into its base to hide away.

Alessi said we can expect the W8 to drop in mid-to-late March, but there’s no word on pricing yet.

Super UHD TVs, Technicolor HDR, and more

Also at CES is LG’s line of 2018 Super UHD LED-LCD TVs, which use nano display technology. These displays purify the picture, widen the color gamut, and reduce glare. Plus, because the displays are IPS panels, you can watch off-center without losing any picture or color quality.

All of LG’s T’s will be benefiting from its partnership with Technicolor in the form of picture modes specially tuned by Technicolor experts and support for Technicolor’s new HDR format, HDR by Technicolor. As Alessi explains, HDR by Technicolor “is similar to HDR10, but it has some benefits for backward compatibility and very efficient delivery of SDR and HDR content to the screen.”

Watch our full interview above to hear more about LG’s TVs, smart home ecosystem, its 4K laser projector, and the remarkable entrance to LG’s CES booth, which features a 256-panel OLED canyon.

Topics
Brendan Hesse
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brendan has written about a wide swath of topics, including music, fitness and nutrition, and pop culture, but tech was…
LG’s 2024 OLED M4 takes AI processing to new heights ahead of CES
The 2024 LG OLED M4 television seen in a press image.

The 2024 LG OLED M4 sports an even better processor and faster refresh rates — all while doing so wirelessly. LG

With its new QNED televisions and accompanying range of new soundbars having already made their pre-CES appearances, LG now turns to the big guns — its 2024 OLED TV lineup. Basically, just take what made its 2023 models so great and add some more superlatives: Bigger (or smaller, actually, but we’ll get to that.) Brighter. Faster. More powerful.

Read more
LG’s DukeBox concept marries a tube amp with a transparent OLED display
The DukeBox by LG Labs.

What happens when you take a tube amp, a multispeaker sound system, and a transparent OLED display and mash them together? You may end up with something resembling the DukeBox, a new hybrid device concept from LG Labs that will be on display at CES 2024.

LG Labs is a "marketing platform focused on delivering experimental yet innovative products and services," according to LG, so it's not entirely clear if the DukeBox is something LG intends to bring to market or simply a way of creatively showcasing what can be done with the company's transparent OLED display technology. No pricing or availability has been released so far.

Read more
Sharp’s promised Roku OLED TV is now available and deeply discounted
Sharp Roku TV OLED 4K UHD.

In January 2023, Sharp surprised many observers by announcing its return to the North American TV market -- and then surprised us again by saying it intended to launch the first OLED TV powered by Roku. True to its word, you can now buy the Sharp Roku TV OLED 4K Ultra HD in 55- and 65-inch screen sizes, each of which has already been discounted for Black Friday sales.

Normally $1,900 for the 55-inch model and $2,500 for the 65-inch screen size (very similar prices to what LG asks for its 55- and 65-inch LG C3 OLED), the new Sharp OLED TVs are now $1,500 and $2,000, respectively.

Read more