The 2020 QLED 8K TV’s flat back design complements other interior elements well when wall-mounted

When it comes to the art of designing, it is commonly said that it is harder to take something away than it is to add something new. Samsung’s QLED 8K 2020 TVs implement a design that does away with all unnecessary elements while simultaneously offering users the best possible watching and listening experiences for total immersion.

After a lengthy process, Samsung’s designers and developers were able to come together to produce the unprecedented Infinity Screen, which makes use of 99% of the display space and comes in at a super-slim thickness of 15mm. Samsung Newsroom interviewed the product designers and mechanics engineers behind Samsung’s QLED 8K 2020 TVs to learn more about how this revolutionary design came to be.

(From left to right) Jang-ho Kim, Hyun-joong Chae, Jae-wook Yoo and Hokwon Peter Song of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business. Kim and Yoo are part of the product design group, while Chae and Song are part of the mechanics R&D group

Minimized Bezels, Maximized Immersion

Since its introduction to the market in 2018, Samsung’s QLED 8K TVs have constantly been applauded by the industry for their groundbreaking technologies which offer viewers the best available display resolutions powered by AI technology, HDR10+ and 100% color volume. For those who worked on producing the 2020 QLED 8K TVs, this legacy was always front of mind. In order to deliver an even more immersive viewing experience with this series of TVs, the screen’s bezel and its black matrix – that black boundary at the edge of the display – had to be minimized.

“Users should be able to focus solely on watching and listening when enjoying content on their TV,” stressed Jang-ho Kim. “To achieve this, we implemented a design that reduces the bezel count and black matrix into a near-imperceptible level. After numerous tests that involved reducing the black matrix each time by 0.1mm, we discovered the optimal values for this display, these being 0.8mm for the bezel and 0.9mm for the black matrix.”

Compared with the previous QLED 8K model (left), the Infinity Screen (right) has an immediately obvious lower bezel count

After many twists and turns, the ideal design was settled upon. But there were still challenges ahead when realizing this design into a product for the market. Given the number of parts that make up a screen’s black matrix, the team needed to come up with a streamlined way to include them all into the limited space allotted by the 0.9mm total area. “Considering that the average thickness of a human fingernail is between 0.6 and 0.7mm, the space we had to negotiate fitting all of the necessary components into was barely thicker than a fingernail,” said Hyun-joong Chae. “We had to raise the degree of precision implemented at the product assembly stage, which we achieved by producing specialized instruments and equipment, as well as cells that had adequately thin boundaries.”

The team provided a differentiated bezel for this unique display by changing the materials used in production. Previously, the main material for such products had been aluminum, but for this product, stainless steel was spread in the thinnest layer possible using a special method to increase its durability. “By reducing the bezel count and black matrix, the resulting screen we created occupies 99% of the front side of the product,” noted Jae-wook Yoo. “The TV’s Ambient Mode feature, which displays a user’s photographs and videos when the TV is switched off, also contributes to breaking down the boundary between the TV’s display and the space it is placed in.”

A Flat Back Design for Seamless Adhesion

As well as innovating on the front side of the device, the team also eliminated unnecessary elements from its back side. Unlike the back of a conventional display which is thin at both ends but becomes thicker towards the device’s center, the 2020 QLED 8K TV implements a flat back design that has a consistent thickness of 15mm. “When a product is wall-mounted, a differentiated back side design can cast a big shadow if there is a lot of space between the wall and the TV,” explained Yoo. “The flat back design allowed us to reduce this space and any resulting shadows considerably.”

Of course, this slimmer back side design resulted in a reduction of space wherein to fit all the TV’s parts and components. Accordingly, these components, including the output port, the processor, the circuit board, the speaker and the cover, had to be reduced in size in order to fit naturally into this reduced space. “The cover was 2.7mm in width previously, but using a special method, we managed to reduce its thickness down to 0.8mm for the 2020 QLED 8K TV,” noted Hokwon Peter Song. “In order to do so, we spent a lot of time working with external factories and other experts in various fields in order to develop this specialized method.”

A Stand That is Strong in its Simplicity

Conventional TV stands often implement designs that stand out. However, the stand for the 2020 QLED 8K TV is small and simplistic in order to place more emphasis on the screen. Moreover, understanding that every user has consoles of different styles on which to place their TVs, the team decided that a simplistic design would best suit everyone’s TV environment.

“The display stand we designed tilts the TV’s screen backwards around 3.5 degrees,” explained Kim. “We calculated this specific angle to ensure that users would be able to enjoy a fully immersive, comfortable TV experience and the angle also boast the TV’s slim design at 15mm.”

The stand, which tilts the screen back by 3.5 degrees, provides the optimum angle for user immersion

Samsung’s 2020 QLED 8K TVs have been receiving favorable reviews from across the media and industry landscape not just for their advanced screen quality and sound technologies, but also for the concerted efforts the team have put in to overcome the limits of conventional design.

“In the future, TV screens are set to grow in size and provide users with ever-better screen quality experiences,” noted Yoo. “Our job is to make sure the product design fully backs up and complements the features and performances of these future products. We will continue to work hard to create products that provide the highest quality TV-watching experiences to users.”

(From left to right) Youngwook Sohn, Guiwon Seo, Martin Junseob Kim, Beomjoon Seo and Seonseok Kim of the Picture Quality Solution Lab of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business

To create the fully immersive picture quality of Samsung’s 2020 QLED 8K TVs, a variety of technologies came together. The 2020 QLED 8K TVs provides users with the best resolution in the industry thanks to 100% color volume, which can recreate around 1 billion different colors on-screen for a natural screen experience, anti-reflection 2.0 technology, which eliminates the effect of bright light conditions on the screen quality, and AI upscaling technology that enhances lower-resolution content into 8K picture quality.

Samsung’s 2020 QLED 8K TVs also feature HDR(High Dynamic Range)10+, an enhanced version of HDR10 that leverages dynamic metadata to maximize the contrast between each and every scene’s black level and peak brightness on a display. HDR10+ performs a key role in delivering users their best display experiences yet by optimizing brightness and contrast for each scene. Along with innovating users’ viewing experience, Samsung’s HDR10+ has also been setting new standards across the home entertainment industry at large.

Samsung Newsroom interviewed the developers at the Picture Quality Solution Lab of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business to learn more about the game-changing HDR10+ technology and how it brings out hidden details on QLED 8K.

Enhancing Display Immersion with Vivid Details

In 2017, Samsung introduced its HDR10+ technology to bring more vivid TV watching experiences to viewers. The reason why HDR10+ has become a key element in ultra-high-resolution video is because of its rich contrast range and wide color gamut. “Previously, we followed the SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) standard that is characterized by a low brightness level of 100 nits and a narrow color gamut,” noted Seonseok Kim. “But when HDR10 was introduced, with its high brightness levels and wide color gamut of over 1,000 nits, we were able to offer brightness and color ranges to users that previously unimagined.”

Each content producer offers content with differing encoding methods, brightness and color settings. The resulting picture quality that viewers see can be different depending on the analysis methods done by HDR technologies. HDR10+ is unique as it breaks down the video into ‘scenes’ while processing the file. “The previous technology, HDR10, applied a singular contrast range curve to an entire video, but HDR10+ analyzes the average brightness, maximum brightness and accumulated data distribution by scene to apply different contrast range curves where appropriate,” highlighted Beomjoon Kim.

For example, when portraying a scene including an airplane flying across a heavily sunlit sky, contrast range is, of course, important but so is the gradation of the scene – gradation being the stages of change as a shot moves between light and dark. When gradation is poorly executed, the signal around the object in a scene can end up bound, meaning that details are blurred or excluded. “A good gradation of such a scene would present viewers with accurate representations of the sky and clouds as well as the airplane,” noted Guiwon Seo. “All characteristics in a video need to be analyzed to successfully achieve this. Our technology will automatically adjust the HDR curve when there is a high amount of gradation signal distribution to ensure these signals are not mixing with other specific gradation features.”

The image on the right, good gradation has been applied to bring out all of the scene’s details, even on the background clouds

Developing Algorithms for All Kinds of Display

Viewers can experience different picture qualities when watching the same video, depending on how bright their displays are. When posed the question of ‘what is the most difficult task in developing HDR technologies’, Martin Junseob Kim responded saying that it was ensuring that different TV products, with different brightness settings, could provide the same display experiences.

It is no small task to maximize the display effects of a video with the same analyzed video characteristics on TVs with various brightness settings. Nevertheless, the Picture Quality Solution Lab’s developers were able to overcome this challenge by developing a proprietary adaptable HDR processing algorithm, a process that took numerous discussions and much trial-and-error.

Development Fueled by Collaboration

Viewers need more than just a good quality TV to fully enjoy a piece of content with high quality detailing. To provide the most immersive TV watching experience possible, Samsung understands that collaboration with the home entertainment market at large, including content creators and streaming services, is necessary. This is why Samsung has been focusing on establishing the industry-wide standard specification for HDR10+.

“Samsung established HDR10+ Technologies, LLC, along with 20th Century Fox and the Panasonic Corporation, and as of January 2020, 94 companies had joined,” explained Youngwook Sohn. “We at HDR10+ Technologies, LLC, provide free specification details on the technology and the relevant tests, along with the verification logo and user guide. This allows us to bring more realistic and richly colored video images to more users. We are set to improve our HDR10+ specification based on feedback from each of our member companies.”

To produce high-quality TV displays, Samsung’s Picture Quality Solution Lab developers are constantly working hard to bring realistic video experiences to users; they are already on their way to realizing technologies that improve on existing ones. “Our goal is to bring about previously unimagined viewing experiences by creating the best possible HDR quality for next-generation displays,” affirmed Sohn.

(From left) Hyungjun Lim, Hyunseung Lee, Cheon Lee and Seungho Park of the Picture Quality Solution Lab of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business

In recent times, screen picture quality has transcended high definition – these days, it’s all about ultra-high definition. Although today’s hardware has been developed to support not just 4K content but 8K content as well, only recently has content begun to actually be produced to 8K quality standards. Therefore, in order to improve the video display quality of content made before 8K existed, upscaling technology exists to keep up with today’s ultra-high definition standard.

Samsung Electronics’ 2020 QLED 8K TV lineup continuously receives praise for its devices’ innovative display quality, sound, design and many other areas. In particular, the range showcases an impressive evolution with regards to its video upscaling technology, at the core of which is Samsung’s AI Quantum Processor 8K.

Samsung Newsroom interviewed the team from the Picture Quality Solution Lab of Samsung Electronics’ Visual Display Business to learn more about this revolutionary technology.

Leveling Up Deep Learning for Optimized Upscaling

When a low-resolution video plays on a high-resolution display, the resulting image quality can be below a viewer’s expectations. AI (artificial intelligence) upscaling is a technology that converts low-resolution videos into ones of more vivid and natural resolutions by analyzing the video data and adapting it intelligently.

In 2018, Samsung Electronics implemented its machine learning-based AI 8K upscaling technology for the first time. This technology harnesses machine learning wherein a human-designed algorithm intelligently analyzes the various video qualities, including line, light and color, and improves each of these for an improved display resolution. Such deep learning capabilities permit a TV to analyze and process video features whilst simultaneously learning thanks to an artificial neural network that acts in the same way as the human brain.

The members of Samsung’s Picture Quality Solution Lab focused on developing deep learning algorithms that enable displays to always showcase optimum video qualities without human intervention. “Deep learning enables more precise and efficient image quality improvements than can be achieved by humans alone,” noted Hyungjun Lim, who developed the AI upscaling technology’s texture generation method.

This operational advantage is what led the team to develop an AI upscaling technology that combines machine learning with deep learning – Samsung’s AI Quantum Processor 8K. “Previous machine learning technology brought about enhanced sharpness to display picture quality, but now our technology can also offer more delicate texturing,” noted Hyunseung Lee, who developed enhanced edge sharpness for the AI Quantum Processor 8K. “Images with complicated textures, like mountain or grass landscapes, can now be upscaled into 8K quality more naturally.”

Solving the Conundrum of Deep Learning

Although deep learning has limitless potential, there are still obstacles to be overcome. The Picture Quality Solution Lab team had to go through countless trial-and-error scenarios in order to make their technology market-ready. “It was difficult for us, at first, to clearly follow and comprehend the algorithm being developed by the artificial neural network of the processor,” highlighted Cheon Lee, the developer of the AI Quantum Processor 8K’s network structure and learning method. “The artificial neural network’s high hardware chip power consumption was an issue we had to solve, too.”

After a lengthy development process, Samsung was eventually able to solve the problems that had arisen thanks to its range of differentiated technologies. “We achieved the highly efficient display quality performance of our processor by making it a hybrid technology that combines complexity along with different aspects of deep learning and machine learning,” explained Lee.

Dreaming Bigger, Better and More Realistic with AI        

It wasn’t that long ago that the day-to-day application of AI-powered technologies was but a distant dream to us. Nowadays, technology has improved rapidly to the end of improving the lives of people across many different areas of everyday life.

“We are now able to categorize videos of differing quality levels in a more detailed way while also bringing these AI categorization technologies to the commercial market,” noted Seungho Park, who worked the AI Quantum Processor 8K’s noise elimination and improving the detail contrast range. “Such technologies permit next-generation displays, such as The Wall, to be able to showcase all kinds of videos at the most realistic qualities possible today.”

This AI-powered innovation is not just limited to upscaling technologies. There exist a variety of ways to harness AI to improve the screen qualities of displays, including video quality categorization, noise elimination, data-compression-caused distortion restoration and spatial or time-based resolution restoration, to name just a few. “Our goal is to continue Samsung’s legacy of providing leading TV viewing experiences by combining the advantages of our next-generation displays with AI technologies that can restore videos to realistic-level qualities, regardless of their original qualities and resolutions,” affirmed Park. The future of QLED 8K is looking bright.