SIM2 infinite contrast Solar Series LCD

Dolby Vision gets its debut in the Sim2 Solar Series LCD
Dolby Vision gets its debut in the Sim2 Solar Series LCD

LED backlighting good, Dolby Vision better - that's the lesson to take away from today's launch of the Sim2 Solar Series 47-inch LCD.

Dolby Vision features an algorithm that manages LEDs behind the LCD panel. Each LED is controlled individually in concert with the image on display.

By selectively turning off the backlight behind black areas in scenes, Dolby Vision allows those areas to become truly black - giving an infinite contrast ratio.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear LEDs

The Full HD Solar Series 47 delivers brightness of over 4000 cd/m2 from 2306 LED backlights, with 16-bit processing and (95 per cent) uniform luminosity across the panel.

That should mean some of the brightest, clearest and sharpest colours even seen on an LCD - you can check for yourself if you head down to the 2009 Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) Show in Amsterdam, which is on until Thursday.

There's no mention of whether the Solar Series offers frame doubling to cope with high-speed action, but the SIM2 press release claims the set's, "HD scaling and de-interlacing capabilities maintain purity under actual content-playback conditions, and do much to enhance the perceived quality of lesser formats."

No price details yet (expect a tag north of £2500), but the Solar Series should be dropping jaws and smacking gobs in the UK by the summer.

Mark Harris is Senior Research Director at Gartner.