Over the past decade, many electronics manufacturers have launched large TVs, all claiming to bring the cinema experience into your homes. Although at home sound technology might’ve gotten close, the screens have fallen well short, that is until now. The LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema looks to be the closest yet; the only catch is that it comes with a rather hefty price tag.
14th September saw the launch of LG’s Direct View LED (DVLED) Extreme Home Cinema Wall-Sized TV range that has a massive 325 inch top of the range model. The series is aimed at high-end homes with the space to accommodate such large displays and enough room for those watching to feel the full cinema-like experience.
LG has been targetting the premium electronics market for several years, capturing the affluent consumer and obtaining brand loyalty. Unlike any other residential display technology, the DVLED Extreme Home Cinema from LG uses 2 million to 33 million individual diodes (depending on resolution) to deliver exceptional brightness and superb performance. The systems provide the owner with a substantial lifespan, high colour gamut and magnificent viewing angles.
Direct-View LED technology is fundamentally and visibly different from “LED TVs,” which are LCD TVs with LED backlighting to boost brightness. DVLED technology images are created directly by the LEDs, providing a high contrast ratio and brightness. This makes some of the most vivid images available in a video display currently.
The 16:9 displays range in size from 81 inches to a whopping 325 inches (diagonal). The UltraStretch video wall-style installations (example below) are said to deliver a perfect 32:9 display, which would be ideal for windowing multiple video sources.
The systems are only available in the USA and via a new custom installation dealer network. Although this might seem like jumping the gun somewhat and obviously predicting a surge in demand, the company has already packaged more than DVLED Extreme Home Cinema Displays ranging in sizes and resolutions to help ease any installation backlogs.
Installations of the LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema system include integrator training, customer support assistance, and on-site help from an LG field engineer. Buyers also get a health check twice a year for three years after purchase. The LG Connected Care software subscription allows the installer to monitor their customer’s system performance remotely.
Fortunately, given the price for the LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema systems which we’ll come to shortly, the display includes a five-year limited warranty as standard. LG states that the cost of these services would ordinarily be around $30,000.
The high service levels don’t just end there. To add to the feeling you’ll be getting something special, LG forgoes common or garden wooden crates when it comes to delivery; instead, they’ve decided upon the far fancier option of branded flight cases to transport the screens to ensure they arrive in pristine condition.
With LG’s webOS technology, simple things like artwork can be stored on display without the need for WiFi. The LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema Displays can also interface with webOS-compatible content management systems to enable multi-window viewing; basically, if you’re one of those people that needs to keep track of your popularity via social media etc. you can do.
Dan Smith, LG Electronics USA’s vice president in charge of DVLED displays, said, “This truly is the supercar of home display technologies, offering hand-constructed quality and performance that appeals to those with luxury lifestyles who want something that is not only immersive but also highly exclusive.”
He also went on to say that the LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema Display technology is expected to last 100,000 hours before reaching half-life, this means that it should be able to deliver stunning visual entertainment for at least ten years and your eyes will probably have turned ‘square’ long before then.
The LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema models are currently only available in the United States, so sadly, I won’t be able to install one in my man cave (I wish). If LG did bring them to the UK market and if I had more money than I knew what to do with, I’m pretty sure I’d be tempted. Then again, it does open up a can of worms; how much do I price the tickets at my front door for the friends and family who’ll start finding any old excuse to visit me?
LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema – Where and How?
Ten different displays are available as part of the LG’s Extreme Home Cinema range, which includes four 2K and 4K options, respectively, in addition to the 8K TV. Prices will start at around $70,000 and rise to a whopping $1.7 million. That is quite a few cinema visits that you could obtain along with the oversized popcorn buckets and drinks. However, new models have a five-year warranty, which is expected given the price.
Each LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema model will be delivered with LG’s Quad-Core webOS interface to provide smooth content playback from connected high-resolution video sources. They have built-in media players or attached streaming devices, and all-new remote control will give owners access to many options, including brightness, picture modes and content management. They will arrive in a custom-built flight case offering complete protection.
For more information on the LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema and to see the full range of products offered by the company, visit www.lg.com.
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