South Korean electronics manufacturer LG has shown off a remarkable transparent TV at CES 2024 in Las Vegas that the company says will liberate customers “from a dominant black screen that competes with the décor in their home”.
The 77-inch OLED screen isn’t meant to offer the most brightness or highest levels of contrast, rather it’s being pitched as an aesthetic object.
“Practically invisible when turned off, it blends into the environment and frees users from the long-standing problem of what to do with the ‘big black screen’,” LG said in its announcement.
LG is following a similar idea to that of the Samsung Frame, that an off TV is conspicuous and could instead be designed to complement your living space rather than just being a glaring black void against the wall.
The transparent OLED adds a new dimension by allowing content that “appears to float in air”, almost like a hologram.
It can have passive information like the weather, or a sports ticker, becoming a more ambient information display.
When you want to sit down and actually watch your TV, you can press a button to raise a “contrast screen” to be able to see shows and movies as you normally would.
In keeping with its minimalist aesthetic, the transparent TV uses wireless video and audio transmission to receive signals.
You plug your media clients, streaming sticks, and game consoles into a box on the other side of the room so the TV doesn’t have a nest of cables sticking out of its back ruining the view of your wall.
There’s no release date or price yet on LG’s transparent TV which may end up being little more than a demonstration of what the future of TVs could look like.
At CES this year, LG also said it its new TVs will be integrated with Google Chromecast, removing the need to have Chromecast sticks plugged into HDMI ports.
Not to be left behind, Samsung also used CES to show off its transparent micro LED display that appears to be more of a technical demonstration than an attempt to sell see-through TVs, at least not for the time being.
