LG Announces Its 2013 Cinema 3D Smart TV Lineup for Singapore
Smart control, smart sharing, and smart entertainment - these are what LG's 2013 Cinema 3D Smart TVs are all about. From the nifty Magic Remote and the useful Time Machine II feature, to the LG exclusive K-Pop Zone and the time-saving NFC functionality, the new TV models sport features aplenty. We've all the details.
Smart Control, Smart Entertainment, Smart Sharing
We’ve seen what Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung are doing for their TVs this year, and now it’s LG’s turn to wow us with its 2013 TV lineup. And this was exactly what the company - one of the world’s largest LCD panel maker - did during a press event earlier today at the The P’ Club Group’s (a luxury furnishings company) exclusive showroom.
LG’s 2013 Smart TV lineup in Singapore consists of no less than 17 models, with the majority of them being Cinema 3D Smart TVs, which means on top of Smart TV functions, they’re also 3D capable. Like all the other major TV makers, minimalist design is still very much the trend this year. The high-end to midrange series (LA8600, LA7400, LA6620) in particular sport the company’s Cinema Screen design, which focuses on premium premium finishing and having the product assimilate with the surroundings. Especially for the latter, to achieve the illusion of a big screen floating in the air, a lot of emphasis is place on stand design (the LA8600 and LA7400 have a 'Magic Swivel' stand that incorporates tiny roller tracks under the stand) and making the bezel as thin and as unnoticeable as possible.
2013 Magic Remote
Besides aesthetics, LG is also keen to point out the smarts that its latest Smart TVs have. And one of the tentpole features is the company’s latest Magic Remote. As we’ve reported in our CES coverage earlier this year, the new remote comes in two models, one for the premium Cinema 3D Smart TVs (such as the LA8600) that features LED backlit buttons, and one for standard Cinema 3D Smart TV models. Other than the usual pointer and scroll wheel, you can use gestures and voice (the remote has a built-in microphone) as modes of control. For gesture control, in last year’s Magic Remote, you can change to the previous channel by moving the remote towards the right while holding down the OK button; in the 2013 Magic Remote, you can draw a line to the right to do the same thing or just write the channel number on the screen. If you only wrote one number, and there are several channels that start with the same number (say, channel 3, channel 301, channel 302), a little menu will pop up at the top left for you to select the desired the channel.
The Wii Remote-like Magic Remote from LG. The longish metallic gray Magic Remote (fourth remote in the picture) is only for the LA8600 series. The standard Magic Remote comes in different colors (white, gray, or black depending on the TV's cabinet/stand color) are for the other series.
If you've only written one number on the screen using the Magic Remote, and there are more channels that start with this number, you'll be presented with this little menu.
For voice, LG is boasting of even more accurate speech recognition thanks to a new natural language recognition software. Take note though, the voice feature works more like voice recognition for search than for voice commands for TV functions. In other words, you can use voice to search for content (on the TV, YouTube, Internet, etc.), but you can’t use voice to control other functions of the TV, like changing the channel or input. For the latter, you should use the new motion control feature. In short, you can turn off the TV, change the volume, channel, and input source using hand gestures. The catch is that this requires the TV to have a camera, such as those in the LA8600 series. For other TVs, such as those in the LA7400, LA6620, LA6200, and LN5710 series, you can get the optional camera (AN-VC400). And lastly, if your home A/V setup is made of LG products, there’s a LG TV Remote app (Android, iOS) that turns your smart device into a universal remote for your LG TV, Blu-ray player, and sound system.
You can use hand gestures to control certain aspects of the TV, such as volume control and input source selection.
Smart Share
Another highlight for LG’s 2013 TVs is the Smart Share function that lets you share content from devices like PCs, smartphones, and tablets on the TV. The underlying technologies of Smart Share include MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link), Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), and Miracast. Miracast in particular is very useful for Android (4.2 and above) users to easily mirror their device’s screen on the TV, sans a wireless router. If you’re using an iOS device or a Mac, you’ll need an Apple TV box that has a feature called AirPlay Mirroring which basically does the same thing, because Miracast isn’t support on Apple devices.
Miracast lets recent Android devices easily mirror their screen onto the TV in just a few steps.
To simplify the Wi-Fi connection procedure between a smart device and the TV, NFC also makes an appearance on the new TV models via a Tag On feature. In a nutshell, you can pair your NFC-enabled Android device to your TV simply by tapping it to a receiver tag (it's a sticker that you can stick anywhere near your TV) that comes with the TV, without going through a complicated setup process like in the past. Of course, before that, you should install the LG NFC app from the Google Play Store. When a connection is established, the NFC app will call up the LG TV Remote app. From the app, you can summon an on-screen keyboard, as well as use your smart device's screen as a trackpad. On a related note, LG TVs have since last year a feature called 2nd Display which lets you watch what’s on your TV on your smartphone or tablet over Wi-Fi.
Here's how the NFC sticker looks like.
Smart Entertainment
With regards to content, besides the usual fare of popular apps (some of which are region specific) and the 3D World content service that’s recently started to rent out Disney 3D movies, there's a LG exclusive K-Pop Zone, which is a channel dedicated to K-Pop content. Other new apps include games like Where's My Water? and Air Penguin, and child-friendly, interactive app Avatarbook. You can always download more from LG's own app store, called LG Smart World. LG has also hinted that it's trying to bring local content to its platform; unfortunately, the company has nothing more to reveal at this point in time. In addition, there’s LG Cloud, which is a cloud storage service which lets you store content on it and stream them between your devices, including an LG Smart TV, that have the LG Cloud app installed. LG Cloud provides 5GB of free storage space, and is launching at the end of this month.
K-Pop Zone is an LG TV exclusive channel. There's a lot of K-pop content, from shows to interviews to concerts.
Popular smartphone/tablet game Where's My Water? can now be downloaded on LG's latest TVs.
LG has also updated its Time Machine feature in its 2013 TVs. Similar to a digital video recorder, Time Machine II allows you to record programs onto the TV’s built-in memory. For the LA8600 series that comes with two tuners, you can record a TV program even while you’re watching another channel. While you can also record to an external hard drive (which allows time-shifting), because the data is encrypted, you can’t simply unplug and share it with another TV (even if it’s the same LG TV model). Time Machine II is available on the LA8600, LA7400, LA6620, LA6200, and LN5710 series. However, only the flagship LA8600 comes with 4GB of memory; the rest come with 2GB. For those interested, 2GB is sufficient for 75 minutes of normal quality SD recording or 45 minutes of high quality SD recording. For HD, it’s 60 minutes (normal quality) and 12 minutes (high quality). Again, due to copyright concerns, this feature is limited to free-to-air channels (from the RF input) and signals from the composite and component inputs.
The best way to use Time Machine II is to make use of the electronic TV guide.
Alternatively, you can use the manual timer to schedule a recording in advance.
Dual-core CPU
With modern Smart TVs capable of doing so many things (apps, gaming, multitasking - you name it), TV makers also have to ensure that their TVs possess sufficient horsepower to deliver a smooth user experience. In LG’s case, all its 2013 Smart TVs are equipped with a dual-core CPU. LG has provided us with some stats: compared to its 2012 models, power-on time, channel switching, webpage loading, USB photo loading, and USB video loading are 24% 18%, 14%, 18%, and 13% quicker respectively. And for the LA8600, the new H13 chipset provides more than 300% boost in framerate over last year’s LM9600/8600 models. And speaking of the LM9600 series, LG isn’t bringing the LA9600 here.
There are a few more under the hood improvements and new additions worth pointing out. For one, LG has improved its Triple XD image processing engine. This is supposed to bring about deeper contrast and higher image clarity, but we’ll only pass our final judgement when we’ve a unit for proper review. But based on what we’ve seen so far, it certainly looks very promising. LG’s Micro Pixel Control (a localized dimming tech for both 2D and 3D modes) that’s available on the LA8600, LA7400, and LA6620 series is said to be improved as well, and should bring about deeper blacks, better uniformity, and lower power consumption. Energy efficiency is also 5 to 20% better than last year’s models thanks to the use of a Dual Brightness Enhancement Film (DBEF). This also means that the new TVs are now brighter (LG says by about 15%). And last but certainly not the least, the LA8600, LA7400, and LA6620 series come with a built-in stereo speaker system with a subwoofer (i.e., 2.1-channel).
For two-player games, instead of splitting the screen, Dual Play allows the whole screen to be used by each player. This is done by transmitting two separate 2D images that can be seen through two different sets of polarized glasses. In this example, this pair of glasses can only see the red car; the other pair will only see the yellow car.
The 3D glasses and Dual Play 2D glasses are colored differently to avoid mixing them up. Thanks to passive 3D tech, the 3D glasses are light and battery-free.
Specs, Pricing & Availability
LG's 2013 TVs will be available from end April. Below is a table showing the series breakdown and their prices, courtesy of LG Electronics.
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