CES: LG Partners With Netflix on Improved TV Viewing

During the opening press conference at 2015 CES, Consumer electronics giant LG announced that it would be working with Netflix in several ways to improve the TV viewing experience.

As part of that effort, Netflix will be providing High Dynamic Range (HDR) streams to LG TVs.

The initiative is notable because HDR streams can significantly improve picture quality with better blacks and whites, which provides a more realistic look.

It also reflects a larger industry trend to add both HDR and wider color gamut to TVs to improve picture quality rather than just focusing on higher resolutions.

LG also announced that it would support 4K or UltraHD streams to its 4K TV from DirecTV and YouTube. Its 4K TVs already offer UHD streaming from Netflix and Amazon.

During the press conference, Greg Peters, chief streaming and partnerships officer for Netflix took the stage to announce the addition of HDR to stream to LG and a new initiative, “the Netflix recommended TV program,” which would provide consumers recommendations for TV that provide the best Netflix experience. LG will be the first partner in that program.

The partnerships were part of a number of other announcements about LG's new TV line, which included a major push to expand its OLED offerings, a wider array of 4K TV sets, efforts to add wider color gamuts and news that it would be demoing 8K at its booth during the show.

In terms of OLED, LG noted that its sister company LG Display has made a $600 million investment in manufacturing OLED displays in a bid to bring the cost down to more affordable level.

OLED has the advantage of providing pure black and much better colors but its introduction to the market has been slowed by high prices and the difficulty of mass producing them.

LG announced eight new OLED models ranging from 55 inch to 77 inch.

It also announced a much wider array of 4K sets and the addition of wider color gamuts to a number of these sets. The sets will have up to 30% wider color gamut, which can greatly improve the viewing in brighter rooms and the overall color realism.

Research has generally shown that WCG and HDR provide notable improvements in picture quality and often have a greater impact on viewers than higher resolution 4K sets.