3D Aficionados Petition LG to Include Technology in New OLED TVs January 23, 2017 Flushed with the apparent success of petitions to persuade LG to introduce an HDR gaming mode to its 2016 OLED and LCD TVs, consumers have now started a new petition on change.org to try and get LG to reverse its decision to remove 3D support from its OLED and LCD TVs. The petition was launched in the wake of the revelation at this year’s CES in Las Vegas that LG was dumping 3D from its entire 2017 TV range. Sensibly (given that incorporating 3D would require a hardware change) the new petition doesn’t try to get LG to launch a 3D-capable OLED TV in 2017, but instead looks ahead to 2018, saying that even a single relatively low-end 3D-capable OLED model then may be enough to keep 3D fans happy. Could the LG OLED65E6 mark the end of LG's 3D support? Petition creator Aidan Padden claims that 3D support was a key reason why many AV fans bought LG’s relatively expensive E6 OLED range in 2016 rather than the entry-level, 3D-less B6 range. He adds, too, that there are potentially thousands of 3D fans across the world that already own large 3D Blu-ray collections that have cost them thousands of dollars, pounds or Euros to accumulate. The petition even tries flattery, describing LG’s 2016 3D-capable OLED TVs as the pinnacle of 3D in the home, and suggesting that while other brands may have ditched 3D on TVs because they weren’t able to do it right, that argument doesn’t apply to LG. As a one-time 3D fan myself with plenty of 3D discs in my Blu-ray collection, I understand the passion behind this new petition and am not surprised to find that at the time of writing the 3D OLED petition has already been signed by nearly 5,000 people. Unfortunately, though, while I always felt that LG might be persuaded to fix its HDR gaming lag issues by previous petitions, I feel less optimistic that this 3D petition will bear fruit. For starters, despite the popularity of the petition so far, the gaming community that drove the HDR Game mode petition is undeniably far larger than the 3D community. Not least because, as the wording of the petition rightly points out, many people have been put off 3D over the past few years by poor quality TV hardware solutions from other brands. Also problematic is the lack of 3D support on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, and the fact that all the other major TV brands have also now decided to discontinue 3D support. This latter point means that LG won’t feel any pressure from its rivals to go back to 3D. Finally there’s this far-from-promising reply from LG: “While LG’s Cinema 3D was very well received and is still appreciated by consumers, 3D capability was not recognized as a key buying factor when selecting a new TV. We decided to drop 3D support for 2017 in order to focus our efforts on new capabilities such as HDR, which have much more universal appeal.” |
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