Pseudo or Picture perfect? The difference is in the quality

June 30, 2015 - PRLog -- JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – June 30, 2015 – Samsung Electronics South Africa’s recently launched Smart SUHD TV range delivers best-in-class display with vivid imagery and remarkable colour expression that brings movies and multimedia to life. However, not all UHD TVs are created equal and unfortunately pseudo UHD TVs have found their way into the South African market. A pseudo UHD TV is in fact misrepresented and uses inferior 3K resolution that delivers 25 percent less pixel power.

“UHD stands for Ultra High Definition and this is precisely what consumers should get when they purchase a television,” says Matthew Thackrah, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Consumer Electronics at Samsung Electronics SA. “Samsung’s SUHD TVs produce 64 times more colour expression than conventional televisions and have a pure 4K resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. The inferior pseudo UHD TV only offers 3K resolution of 2880x2160 pixels. This is because the sub-standard 3K technology uses RGWB (red, green, white and blue) technology in order to minimise production costs. The technology replaces some of the RGB sub-pixels with white sub-pixels and reduces the resolution significantly.”

Thackrah continues that while 3K television might offer improved brightness and resolution compared to traditional TV’s, some manufactures are misleading consumers because they aren’t producing and selling  true UHD TVs, thus misleading consumers and the wider UHD TV market.

“The risk to consumers is that they aren’t getting what they pay for. The pseudo UHD might seem more affordable in the short term, but the quality and additional functions you get when you purchase a true UHD more than justify the investment,” he explains. “The influx of pseudo UHD TVs confuses consumers and impacts negatively on perceptions of what UHD truly offers. Consumers already face an array of standards and systems and the addition of a sub-standard UHD screen only serves to make things more complex and confusing. This is where Samsung would like to educate consumers to ensure that they know exactly what they are buying and how to tell the difference between pseudo and true UHD TV,

The UHD Test

In order to help consumers make an informed decision between buying a true UHD TV and a pseudo UHD TV they can ask the following questions in store:

•          What is the resolution?

A true 4K UHD TV has a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels.

•          What is the aspect ratio?

A true 4K UHD TV has an aspect ratio of at least 16:9.

•          What is the colour bit depth?

A true 4K UHD TV has 8 bit colour depth.

•          What is the frame rate?

A true 4K UHD TV has a 24p/25p/30p/50p/60p frame rate.

Another clear indicator that you might be purchasing a pseudo UHD TV is that the cost may be considerably less, but this is because you’re in fact not purchasing a true UHD TV.

Samsung is the only manufacturer that offers an entire range of UHD TVs all of which deliver genuine 4K resolution as certified by American and European authorities and is currently working with relevant global authorities and leaders in the industry to establish UHD quality standards.

“This will ensure that the UHD development and design adheres to the 4K and this resolution standard and encourage further innovation. Samsung’s SUHDTV ticks all the boxes on the UHD checklist, thus ensuring that you receive a true to life, immersive entertainment experience,” says Thackrah.

With a Samsung UHD TV you also get so much more on top of 4K resolution. Its SUHDTV boasts an array of extra features and capabilities including among others the Tizen open-source platform that supports web standards for TV app development and a responsive and intelligent user interface. Samsung's proprietary, eco-friendly nano-crystal technology is supported by the intelligent SUHD re-mastering engine, which automatically analyses the brightness of images to minimise additional power consumption while expressing ultimate contrast levels, producing images with much darker blacks and an elevated brightness 2.5 times brighter than usually.

“At Samsung, we passionately lead and transform innovation in technology and design, creating a window for users to discover new experiences. We understand consumers’ needs and develop ground-breaking visual and audio products and services to deliver the most immersive and breath-taking viewing experience possible,” concludes Thackrah.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. inspires the world and shapes the future with transformative ideas and technologies, redefining the worlds of TVs, smartphones, wearable devices, tablets, cameras, digital appliances, printers, medical equipment, network systems, and semiconductor and LED solutions. We are also leading in the Internet of Things space through, among others, our Smart Home and Digital Health initiatives. We employ 307,000 people across 84 countries with annual sales of US $196 billion. To discover more, please visit our official website at www.samsung.com and our official blog at global.samsungtomorrow.com