LG Display To Unveil Motion-Blur-Free LCD TV

LG Display on Tuesday said it would unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show next month an LCD television that's free of the motion blur often seen when such flat-panel TVs show fast-moving images.

The LG TV's Trumotion 480Hz display panel has a 4-millisecond response time and an unprecedented 480 refresh rate per second, according to the company. As a result, the TV can show "crystal-clear" pictures of racing cars and other images that typically cause motion blur on LCD TVs.

Helping to produce the better image is LG's "scanning backlight" technology that enables a backlight on an LCD panel to be repeatedly turned on and off to reduce blurring, the company said. In addition, the backlight technology offers higher contrast between dark and light images for more vivid pictures.

LG plans to showcase the new TV at CES in Las Vegas, which runs Jan. 8-11. The Trumotion TV is scheduled to ship in the second half of next year. LG did not disclose pricing on display sizes.

LCD TVs are the hottest-selling segment of the digital TV market, but their popularity has not been immune to the economic downturn. Market researcher iSuppli in November lowered its global forecast for LCD-TV shipments in 2008 to 93.4 million units from its previous prediction of 99 million units. For 2009, iSuppli dropped its prediction to 112.6 million units from 124 million.

Despite the lower forecasts, shipments this year and next would be higher than the previous years by 18.9% and 20.5%, respectively, according to iSuppli. One reason for the popularity of LCD TVs is declining average selling prices.

With its new product, however, LG appears to be reaching for higher profit margins by targeting consumers with money. "LG Display will provide its customers with unique, high-end products while delivering crisp picture quality for fast-moving images," Eddie Yeo, executive VP and head of LG's TV business unit, said in a statement.