TCL formally introduced Thursday its first Dolby Vision-enabled 2017 4K Ultra HD Roku TVs which will soon begin to appear at authorized dealers around the country.
Roku TVs, which are built around a simple to use on-screen user interface and huge library of streaming service apps, have been among the most popular smart TVs in the industry for the last two years. The TCL release marks the first time Roku is offering a 4K Ultra HDTV product that streams 4K/HDR content supporting both the baseline HDR10 and premium Dolby Vision HDR platforms.
Among a few benefits, Dolby Vision utilizes dynamic metadata which allows grading for color and brightness levels on a scene-by-scene, and even frame-by-frame basis for a more realistic presentation than the standard HDR10 profile. That so-called generic HDR format uses only static metadata requiring that an entire movie is graded at one level from beginning to end.
TCL is offering six such models across two series — the C and P series, which both include 4K/HDR with Dolby Vision, and a wide color gamut, produced through the use of “NBP Photon Technology,” which is basically a poor man’s quantum dots. The technology uses phosphor coated LEDs to produce a quantum dot-like wide color gamut coverage area.
The TVs also employ Contrast Control technologies for a wide range of brightness levels to produce deeper blacks and brighter whites.
Read more on TCL’s new C and P Series 4K Ultra HD Roku LED LCD TVs with Dolby Vision after the jump:
TCL is among the fastest growing television manufacturers in the world, and currently ranked third (behind Samsung and LG) in global television market share. In the United States, TCL has targeted becoming the No. 3 television brand by the end of the decade. It recently broke ground on a massive Gen 11 LCD panel plant in Shenzhen, China. The plant is expected to be the largest LCD panel production facility under one roof in the world.
TCL U.S. marketing senior VP Chris Larson estimated that TCL will be the largest supplier of large-format LCD panels in the world by 2019.
Larson said that 60 percent of LCDs sold by screen area in the world is consumed by China and North America, and 75 percent of all large-screen TVs measuring 60-inches and larger is sold either in China or North America.
To help achieve its No. 3 U.S. TV market share goal, TCL has stepped up brand advertising and promotional efforts, stressing the TCL name and helping to distinguish TCL from the Roku TV brand, which TCL features prominently in its U.S. product mix.
Although TCL is producing 4K Ultra HD LCD TVs using quantum dot (or QLED) technology in China, it has yet to do so in the United States. Instead, the company is producing QLED like performance enhancement from its NBP Photon Technology which appears in both the C and P series lines this year.
The TCL C series 2017 TCL 4K Ultra HD LED-LCD Roku TV models include: the 55-, 65- and 75-inch screen sizes — the 55C807 ($699 suggested retail), 65C807 ($1,099) and 75C807 ($1,999), respectively.
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The C series models, which will be available in June, offer 3840×2160 4K Ultra HD resolution, the latest Roku OS, HDR (HDR10 and Dolby Vision), and an up-scale super-slim panel design. The C-Series also features Wide Color performance via TCL’s NBP Photon technology.
The series includes TCL’s HDR Dynamic Contrast technology, which is said to display content with “optimized brightness for each scene.”
The TCL P series, which will arrive in September, will be offered in 50-, 55- ad 65-inch screen sizes – the 50P607 ($499), 55P607 ($599) and 65P607 ($999). The 55-inch P series model will be available for pre-order on Amazon.com on May 26th.
The P Series uses full-array with local dimming backlighting and includes HDR Contrast Control Zones that optimize contrast across 72 individually controlled LED zones to deliver both deep blacks and bright whites, to present what TCL calls “an unrivaled sense of depth and reality.”
The series also features the aforementioned TCL NBP Photon technology to cover most of the DCI-P3 color space. (The company declined to issue specific color gamut measurements).
Both TCL TV series are based around the Roku operating system that delivers more than 300 streaming app partners carrying thousands of movie and television shows for instant playback when the set is connected to a wired or wireless in-home broadband network.
Several of these streaming app partners – such as Netflix and Vudu – now offer streaming 4K Ultra HD movies with Dolby Vision support. Even more, including Netflix, UltraFlix, Google Play Movies, Amazon Instant Video, and others offer 4K Ultra HD with HDR10.
TCL will also offer this year an S series of “mainstream” LED-LCD Roku TVs ranging in screen size from 28 inches to 65 inches. Five models from 28 to 49 inches will have HD or Full HD resolution and models ranging from 43 to 65 inches will offer 4K Ultra HD resolution with “generic HDR” (HDR10 only) support. Models include a 28-inch ($159.99 suggested retail), 32-inch ($169.99), 40-inch ($269.99) two 43-inches ($319.99 and $369.99), two 49-inches ($389.99 and $419.99), 55-inch ($499.99) and 65 inch ($799.99).
By Greg Tarr
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