Samsung expands SEA leadership with new curved UHD TVs, home entertainment lineup

MANILA, Philippines - Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the leader in TV technology for eight years, recently unveiled an impressively broad range of new TV and home entertainment products  including a full lineup of curved and ultra high-definition (UHD) TVs with features specially catered toward the region, at its 2014 Samsung Forum in Bali, Indonesia.

Reinforcing its leadership in innovation and design, Samsung also showcased its flagship sound system, which is designed to elevate the home entertainment experience.

“This is a big year for entertainment,” said Hyunsuk Kim, executive vice president of the visual display business at Samsung Electronics.

“In 2014, Samsung will lead the new era of television by offering immersive entertainment experiences and a broad lineup of UHD TVs for Southeast Asian consumers. These new TVs and our innovative audio products truly take the home entertainment experience to the next level,” Hyunsuk added.

Ahead of the curve in creating the ultimate immersive experience

 Ushering in a bold new era of immersive veiwing, Samsung is blending its innovative curved form factor with its UHD TV technology. The curved screen gives videos a stronger presence not felt on flat screens, plus a wider field of view creates a panoramic effect that makes the display seem bigger than it is.

The curved design enables a more realistic and true-to-life viewing experience even in different viewing positions, so everyone watching has the best seat in the house.

The most common viewing distance of a TV is three to four meters and Samsung’s curved TV is designed with this in mind. It’s curvature has a radius of 4.2 meters, which means viewers will be at the right distance to enjoy the best viewing experience.

The combination of the curve and UHD technology creates the ultimate immersive viewing experience, bringing images to life and providing spectacular color, clarity and detail.

This is augmented by Samsung’s proprietary Auto Depth Enhancer, an algorithm that analyzes regions of images and automatically adjusts contrast for a greater sense of depth. It also gives a 3D effect without glasses.

Color is further enhanced on these sets with Samsung’s PurColor technology in the U9000 curved UHD TVs, which reproduces color for even more detail expression. The number of color adjustment points has been increased by a factor of seven.

In Southeast Asia, Samsung is introducing curved UHD TVs available in 78 inches, 65 inches, and 55 inches.

Introducing a better, broader Samsung UHD TV lineup and ecosystem

 Samsung’s UHD TVs provide crisp picture quality because they have four times the resolution and pixels of Full HD. Additionally, all UHD TVs feature UHD Upscaling, which gives users great picture quality regardless of source material.

The proprietary technology converts Full HD, HD and lower resolution sources to nearly UHD clarity through a unique four-step process that includes signal analysis, noise reduction, detail analysis and finally, upscaling. UHD Dimming technology also helps to further optimize picture quality by adjusting the brightness levels to create deeper blacks and purer whites especially for UHD.

As the category leader, Samsung is making significant investments and establishing critical partnerships to invigorate the market and expedite the delivery of a UHD ecosystem to consumers. For instance, Samsung will release a UHD Video Pack on a one-terabyte hard disk pre-loaded with UHD-quality content, including feature films from Fox and Paramount Pictures.

Samsung supports all of the latest UHD TV standards — including HEVC, HDMI 2.0, MHL 3.0 and HDCP 2.2 — in an effort to build a holistic UHD ecosystem with premier content partners. Samsung UHD TVs are also the only TVs on the market that are future-ready due to the Samsung UHD Evolution Kit.

In fact, in the industry, only Samsung UHD TVs are PrimePass certified, which means users can be confident about enjoying the new detail and picture quality of this next-generation TV technology. 

Through its three UHD TV series — S9, U9000 and U8500 — Samsung will offer a full lineup of UHD Smart TV models in 2014, in both curved and flat form factors, enabling consumers to choose the UHD TV that best fits their lifestyle.

Smart experience: Now smarter, easier, faster than ever

 Samsung’s Smart TV is even easier, faster and more fun to use. The new Multi-Link Screen feature brings contextual multitasking to the big screen, enabling users to go deeper into their entertainment by splitting the screen into two and bringing related content alongside Live TV to enhance the viewing experience.

Consumers can populate the right-hand screen with contextual search results on the Web browser, YouTube and more for side-by-side enjoyment of related entertainment and information streams.

The new Smart TV experience is faster than ever, thanks to the upgraded quad-core processor, the Quad Core Plus, which is up to two times faster than the Quad Core process and delivers quicker loading and navigation with an overall improved Smart TV performance. Turning on the TV has never been faster with Instant On. The TV will turn on soon after pressing the power button so that users can get to their entertainment faster.

The 2014 Samsung Smart Hub is more intuitive and enjoyable. With the new design, content is organized and easily accessible, giving people more control over their entertainment experience.

In the Southeast Asian market, Samsung Smart TVs consist of three panels: a panel for apps, a separate panel for multimedia content, and a NewsOn panel. The NewsOn panel was developed so that users, even in low-bandwidth locations, can access real-time news and weather. In Australia, users can enjoy a total of five panels, including three panels for movies and TV shows, an On TV panel, which recommends live TV programs what users may like with various program information, and a newly introduced Games panel, which allows users to enjoy big-screen games from leading partners.

Localized features: Built for Asia

 Samsung has tailored its 2014 product lineup to be “Built for Asia”— with exciting new features specifically for the Southeast Asian market. For example, the new Family TV feature lets family members enjoy their entertainment experience to the fullest with Screen Capture and Sound Capture.

Screen and Sound Capture allows users to save scene images and audio clips straight from the TV with an easy-to-access button on the remote control. Each family member can now save his or her favorite parts of the entertainment experience with a single click.

The new Soccer Mode provides advanced features specifically designed for a more enjoyable soccer-watching experience. Optimized picture and sound quality as well as new added functions — which include zoom-in, and auto and manual highlight — bring viewers even closer to the action.

Additionally, available for countries with the Digital Broadcasting is PVR replay that can play and record live matches simultaneously and automatically select the best scenes from the match for instant replay.

Samsung has also partnered with Huawei and local telecom operators to offer a 3G dongle that users can plug-in for an easy Smart TV experience. The 3G dongle instantly provides access to high-speed Internet, making sure users experience the best of Samsung Smart TV.  

Samsung’s new audio products keep life, design in tune

 Samsung’s new audio line provides solutions to the growing demand for solutions that offer consumers the ability to manage multiple audio sources. The new line includes Samsung’s ultra-slim HW-H600 SoundStand, which can be conveniently connected wirelessly to the TV.

The HW-H600 SoundStand is designed to be used for TVs ranging in size from 32 inches to 55 inches. Its Multi-direction technology provides richer sound in a sleek, low-profile (1.4-inch) design. The SoundStand is perfect to fit in smaller spaces like the bedroom.

At 3400W, the new portable MX-HS9000 GIGA Sound offers robust power that can fill an entire house with quality sound. The new GIGA Sound includes an array of speakers engineered to reflect the growing demand for exceptional sound quality.

By utilizing cloth wave edge technology, Samsung created a lightweight vibration system and increased the sound pressure level. The result is an extraordinary acoustic experience with versatile equipment that goes anywhere, providing consumers with quality sound and unmatched convenience.

The new HW-H751 Soundbar captures the warmth of analog sounds combined with the latest digital audio technology. Designed with a sleek, metallic appearance, the HW-H751 looks as good as it sounds when paired with one of Samsung’s large-screen TVs. The soundbar can also be grouped with Samsung’s Wireless Audio-Multiroom to enable tether-free entertainment.