During the festive season, consumers look to upgrade to newer products and advanced technology for their living spaces. This Diwali, sales of QLED TVs for Samsung grew three times over the festive season in 2018 while sales of its Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs doubled over last festive season. In the festive period, Samsung saw overall Smart TV sales also double over last year and it sold a record number of its lifestyle TV, The Frame QLED TV.

With Samsung launching premium televisions such as the QLED, The Frame and the recently introduced QLED 8K, consumers are upsizing to larger screens across the country, including in smaller towns. Consumers in cities such as Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Hubli, Jodhpur, Agra, Jabalpur, Nagpur, Raipur, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Jalandhar, Cochin, Coimbatore, Baroda, Ranchi, Tirupati, Asansol, Madurai and Kolhapur, among others are upsizing to larger screen TVs, which can be seen in the rising demand for Samsung’s QLED TVs in these cities.

“At Samsung, we are always pushing the boundaries to provide meaningful customer centric innovations. Samsung has driven the trend of premiumization in India by offering premium technology products along with unique consumer promotions and easy finance schemes on our range of premium TVs and has seen a strong demand for its premium TV this festive season,” said Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India.

This festive season, Samsung offered consumers purchasing select Samsung products such as QLED TVs, 4K UHD TVs up to 25% instant discount. Consumer could also avail up to 15% additional cashback with Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, RBL Bank and ICICI Bank debit and credit cards. Consumers who bought select models of Samsung QLED TVs got assured gifts such as Galaxy S10 smartphone worth INR 61,900 and Galaxy A50 worth INR 21,490. With the purchase of select 4K UHD TVs, consumers got complimentary gifts such as Galaxy M30 worth INR 17,990 and Google Home Mini worth INR 4,999. Additionally, Samsung offered attractive zero down payment EMIs for as low as INR 990 per month for Smart TVs.

Samsung has announced special offers for the upcoming festival of Gurpurab and special package offers for the approaching wedding season.

To celebrate the 550th Prakash Purav of Guru Nanak Devji, consumers purchasing select models of Samsung TVs will get assured gifts such as Galaxy S10 smartphone worth INR 61,900, Amazon Echo Dot worth INR 4,999 and Home Theater worth up to INR 21,900, till November 30, 2019.

For the upcoming wedding season, Samsung is offering bundled ‘Vivah Utsav’ deals on its consumer durables – TVs, Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Smart Ovens and Air Conditioners – ranging from INR 34,990 to INR 1,49,900. With these bundled offers, consumers can avail easy finance offers such as zero down payment and easy EMIs.

Samsung’s Premium TV Line-up:

Samsung QLED TV

Samsung QLED TV breaks new ground for premium TVs and home entertainment, delivering beautiful design that is supported with the most advanced picture quality. Powered by HDR10+ technology that optimizes the TV’s brightness levels and delivers brighter and deeper colors, to deliver the visual experience intended by creators. The technology also features Direct Full Array Elite for enhanced contrast and precise picture quality.

The QLED TV features an Ambient Mode which turns the TV into a piece of art, building on the Ambient Mode’s ability to blend in with the home interior, the TV can be hung on the wall with a No Gap Wall-Mount, intelligently embedded in the back of the TV so that it blends in seamlessly. It also allows the users to take voice control one step further with the new Bixby feature on One Remote Control allowing connections to all connected devices without additional connectors or complicated setups.

Samsung had also launched the 8K QLED line of televisions earlier this years. A must-have for all luxury homes, Samsung QLED 8K TV comes with Real 8K Resolution, 8K AI Upscaling, Quantum Processor 8K, and Quantum HDR – all created to provide a stunning 8K experience.

Samsung QLED 8K TVs, which will be available in four sizes – 98-inch (247 cm), 82-inch (207 cm), 75-inch (189 cm) and 65-inch (163 cm) – come with 33 million pixels, four times the resolution of 4K UHD TVs and 16 times that of a Full HD TV, allowing consumers to immerse themselves into the display. These 33 million pixels provide sharper resolution giving a feeling of realness and presence with exceptionally true-to-life picture quality.

The Frame QLED TV

The Frame QLED TV gives meaning to TV even when it’s switched off. When you are not watching TV, instead of it being a black screen, you can use it as a picture frame that displays artwork and photos just like they would be on paper, film or canvas. It even hangs like a real Frame. With no gap wall-mount, it looks gorgeous from all sides and fits perfectly in your space.

4K UHD Televisions

Samsung’s 4K UHD TVs offers distinctive features through integration, consumption and interaction of TV in the everyday lives of its consumers. Driven by PurColor technology, Samsung UHD TVs are aimed to deliver superior colours with unmatched sharpness and contrast levels. With a host of features such as Live Cast, Tune Station, Screen Mirroring, Lag Free Gaming, Real 4K resolution and 60+ Titles. These TVs empower consumers to enjoy enhanced picture quality and superior content consumption capabilities.

Let the decoding begin!

8K Resolution

From Full HD to 4K and now to 8K! That means there 16 times higher pixel resolution than FHD screens providing an even more enhanced display. There are 33 million pixels which give sharp resolution for a feeling of realness and presence with exceptionally true-to-life picture quality.

AI Upscaling

Samsung’s proprietary 8K AI Upscaling technology based on machine learning upscales picture and sound quality to 8K regardless of the original format. The Quantum Processor 8K recognizes and intelligently upscales the content to appear in 8K quality, independent of the source of the video.

Ultra-viewing angle

The QLED 8K is designed to make sure that viewers can enjoy it from any angle when sitting in a room. So no more fighting over the perfect spot in the room for TV viewing!

100% Colour Volume

With the increased number of pixels and the details that their intersection makes possible, QLED 8K has the right tool – the Quantum Dots — to show colours as they really are.

Bixby on TV

The QLED 8K takes Voice Control a level further with Bixby along with other voice assistants. With Far Field Voice Capability, users can interact with the TV set from across the room.

The QLED 8K is not just a TV – it is lifestyle statement for those who want to experience the best in luxury and technology in their living rooms.

No matter how big the TV screen is, if it doesn’t have the necessary picture quality, users won’t be able to realize the power of the screen. That’s why large-sized TV has inevitably led to the increase in demand for Ultra High Definition (UHD). UHD is a 4K (3,840X2,160) picture quality, which is applied to TVs that measure over 65 inches. The technology is about to take yet another step up as 8K (7,680X4,320) TVs are ready to be commercialized.

But this is an era whereby even the number of pixels isn’t enough in isolation. To produce the best picture quality possible, it’s also important to consider the environment this content will be viewed in and the quality of the original content itself. The paradigm is shifting and it’s vital that all considerations are taken into account to produce an experience that everyone will enjoy.

UHD TV Beyond FHD TV

Worldwide UHD TV sales surpassed FHD (Full High Definition) TV for the first time last year, according to market researcher IHS Markit. It is expected to ship more than 100 million units this year, which is about 45% of the total TV market. In 2022, the proportion of UHD TV is expected to reach 60%.

Samsung UHD TV sales volume is also on the rise. Sales of Samsung UHD TVs in the fourth quarter of last year already exceeded 50% of the total Samsung TV units sold globally. In the first quarter of this year, Samsung UHD TV sales also increased by more than 35% compared to the same period last year.

What is the Standard for Ultra-High-Definition?

In the ultra-high-definition TV market era, standards for judging picture quality are further developing. For example, is a TV able to reproduce colors with real-life brightness, particularly when the normal TV viewing environment is brighter than many would expect? According to the DOE survey, consumers in the U.S. and Europe usually watch TV in a bright environment with an average home illuminance level of 79 lux. Can a TV react and provide an accurate picture in these, and other common viewing use cases?

Experts advise consumers to look beyond the high resolution to see the different factors that cause the difference in brightness, contrast, and content when consumers watch TV. The way consumers view TV and the way experts gauge a TV’s ability to deliver is much more sophisticated than it ever has been. The TV needs to be more versatile because it’s used to do more things. That means Samsung has to be stringent to make sure its QLED products perform not just according to the specifications but also according to real life usage.

Blacks and Colors Transformed

When watching a dark scene in a bright environment, the reflection of objects around the screen can cause discomfort. QLED TV solved this problem by using Anti-reflection technology. Even under daylight or bright lighting, an anti-reflective screen dramatically reduces glare, allowing one to be more immersed in images regardless of the surroundings.

Along with this, Samsung is also working to expand the ecosystem to upgrade HDR (High Dynamic Range) technology, which is an integral function of ultra-definition TV. Since last year, Samsung has been developing HDR10+, which is one step more advanced than HDR10, a standard for realizing HDR video. HDR10+ is a technology that shows optimal contrast ratio for each scene through ‘Dynamic Tone Mapping’ technique which applies different contrast to each scene. The company is expanding its HDR10+ content in cooperation with global companies such as Amazon, 20^th Century Fox, Panasonic and Warner Bros.

AI Upscaling the Content

High quality content is as important as the ultra-high definition TV specification.

Many of the most recognizable names in video content such as Netflix, YouTube and various cable companies already provide UHD content. However, due to the burden of production cost, consumers are not able to enjoy 4K UHD broadcasting content on TV unrestrictedly yet.

The problem here is that if low-quality content is shown on a big screen, the pixels are usually enlarged artificially, causing the picture to shake or lose clarity. Samsung Electronics has solved this problem by installing the ‘4K Q Engine’ based on semiconductor technology on its QLED TV.

‘4K Q Engine’ is a technology that upgrades SD (400,000 pixels) and FHD (2 million pixels) class image to 4K (8 million pixels) class. Based on artificial intelligence, it applies a 5-step algorithm (Image Signal Analysis ▷ Noise Reduction ▷ Improved 1st Detail ▷ 4K Upscaling ▷ Improved 2nd Detail) to improve image quality and express hidden details. In actual comparison, in the FHD image, the part where the light in the night view of the city is clearly separated by the ‘4K Q Engine’.

What’s more, 8K AI Technology will be introduced in the latter half of the year and will offer an even better picture and sound expression.

QLED TV’s dramatically improved picture quality this year has been widely praised by many media outlets including Tech Radar, What Hi-Fi, and AVS Forum. Trusted Reviews gave Samsung’s QLED the Highly Recommended mark and said: “The Samsung QE65Q9FN is the most impressive TV I’ve reviewed in years. It effectively combines the strong brightness and colour of Quantum Dot LED (QLED) with the deep blacks and almost the lighting precision of OLED. That’s a huge deal in a world where you generally choose one or the other.”

“As TVs gradually get larger in size and the competition for premium picture quality becomes fiercer, detailed and subtle image rendering performance is growing in importance,” said Doochan Eum, Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “With Samsung QLED TV’s enhanced brightness, contrast, content, we are continuing to provide consumers with a superb immersive viewing experience.”

The new AI technology achieves close to 8K resolution and enhanced sound quality by aligning with the unique characteristics of the specific content, a step up from typical upscaling technology used to improve image quality. So how exactly does it work? Let’s take a closer look.

Enjoy any content in 8K through Machine Learning

The world’s first 8K AI Technology that realizes a definition nearly the equivalent of 8K is based on Machine Learning. Computers or smartphones run according to directive values that humans enter. In contrast, Machine Learning refers to the way AI learns certain patterns and gives optimized answers based on various examples.

Samsung’s Machine Learning Super Resolution (MLSR) utilizes AI technology to compare low and high-quality versions of the same content to learn the technological differences between the two and form a vast database. It analyzes millions of pieces of video content and finds a correlation. Based on its analysis, it can select the optimum filters that support brightness, the level of blackness, spread and other errors from all inputs, and transform low-definition content to close to 8K high definition.

The input content is recognized as ‘real-time’ based on a frame and is enhanced by scenes, which makes it possible to upgrade image and sound quality immediately, regardless of whether the video source is live streaming or OTT (Over The Top).

8K picture quality through AI, what’s the difference?

Other upscaling techniques require human input to compare low-resolution and high-resolution scenes and find ways to reconstruct them. However, Samsung’s AI Technology enables it to self-study millions of images on its own using MLSR, allowing much-improved accuracy compared to conventional technologies.

There are three elements to improving picture quality on displays. First is ‘Detail Creation’ that sharpens the detail of expression and improves the texture to areas with low definition that have become blurry after compressing the file. Second, ‘Edge Restoration’ defines the edges of text, people or objects in a video, moving pixels on the borders to thin them down to increase legibility and visibility. For example, if text context is spreaded along the edges, the video will be adjusted around the text for clarity. In a video that shows the moon, Edge Restoration improves details of the moon’s shadow and enhances the darkness of the background for a clear distinction. Lastly, ‘Noise Reduction’ gets rid of static noises generated during high compression or recompression of files. In order to transmit an image, it is necessary to compress the image. In this process, various ‘noises’ such as a jiggling point or a squared dot can be effectively removed according to the image characteristics.

AI delivers immersive sound effects

When watching dramas or movies, realistic, immersive sounds are as important as picture quality. Samsung’s AI technology not only transforms low-definition into high-definition, but also optimizes the sound quality of content.

Conventional TVs provide multiple view settings such as movie mode and sports mode according to the genre of content. With Samsung’s new AI technology, content can be automatically analyzed by characterizing scenes to provide optimum sounds.

For example, let’s say you were watching a movie that includes musical performances. AI technology can highlight the music in a way that allows you to experience the sound as the actual characters would. When the crowd applauds after the performance is over, you would hear the clapping the same way as if you were in the crowd in the movie. When characters are speaking, AI adjusts the sound to make sure the lines are communicated clearly.

Imagine you were watching a relay broadcast of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics that started last week. AI will enhance the voice of the announcer so that you don’t miss who’s up next. When a game has started, AI will increase the background sound to deliver the liveliness of the actual game. With this tailored sound adjustment scene by scene, audiences can enjoy the best sound quality for any genre of content.

Samsung developers plan to continue to improve sound quality according to the preferences of individual viewers so that each viewer can enjoy the best TV viewing experience, right for them. Because volume patterns differ for every user, and the viewing environment can change according to the time of day and other factors, the sound will be accordingly adjusted and optimized to provide the most enjoyable experience to each individual viewer.

Why does 8K AI technology matter?

As customer needs for high-definition TVs and content increases, some terrestrial broadcasting stations have committed to working towards UHD delivery, and various IPTV and cable channels have initiated 4K UHD (3,840 × 2,160) services. However, even as the TV industry begins to launch 8K (7,680 × 4,320) TVs, the reality is that 4K content is, as of yet, still not fully utilized in homes.

In this context, Samsung has proposed a new direction for TV technology by combining 8K UHD display technology and premiere content through AI. Samsung has developed an AI algorithm that automatically enhances picture quality to solve the problem of limited high-quality content. As example, AI technology plays a key role in the 85-inch 8K QLED TV technology that Samsung introduced at CES 2018.

Samsung will begin the process of applying AI technology to its 8K QLED TVs from the second half of this year, and viewers will soon be able to enjoy UHD quality video that is nearly 8K in resolution and delivers optimized sound for any type of content. A genuine 8K era is now on the horizon, and Samsung will continue to lead the way.