This topic was written by Sultan Al-Qahtani – Roku appears to be making moves into the premium TV market during the CES 2024 event with its new Pro series sets, which feature Mini LED backlighting for improved brightness and contrast, as well as improved sound.
The company announced its first DIY TVs at last year’s CES event, a surprising move, given that it has also partnered with TCL and other companies for years to make “Roku TVs” powered by the Roku OS.
The first batch of Roku TVs, the Select and Plus models, were clearly value-oriented, with prices ranging from $149 to $999.
The Pro series costs; Which includes 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch versions, to $1,500.
It appears that Roku is still targeting value shoppers who would normally consider cheaper TCL TVs.
While Roku’s previous mid-range Plus TVs included some notable features, like QLED displays and Dolby Vision and Atmos support, the Mini LED backlighting on the Pro series TVs will be a noticeable upgrade.
Most mid-range TVs feature a small amount of local dimming backlighting, which can increase brightness and contrast in certain areas of the screen.
Small LED backlights provide higher brightness, and since they are so small, they allow for hundreds (possibly thousands) of dimming zones.
At this point, Mini LEDs are the closest thing to the power of OLED, which can turn individual pixels on and off to achieve perfect blacks and intense levels of contrast on a standard LED display.
Furthermore, Roku also announced that it will leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning for new Roku Smart Picture features, which can automatically adjust Roku TVs for certain types of content.
The company says that most consumers don’t typically adjust their TV settings, which means they’re likely stuck watching content in suboptimal ways.
We won’t see the Smart Picture feature in action until spring 2024, but it will likely help reduce motion smoothness during movies and enhance it in games Sportswhere you want your footage to look more realistic.
Roku also says its new Pro Series TVs will arrive in the US in spring 2024. The company will also expand retail availability for its Select and Plus series sets, but we don’t have details on where they will appear yet.
Source
