Samsung’s TV head honcho: «We don’t need Dolby Vision for a good picture»

It was the major media showcase nobody was waiting for but everyone wanted to attend: the first European Samsung Summit in Bad Homburg, Frankfurt. The journalists in attendance weren’t exactly expecting any real news. Not so soon after CES 2023 had taken place in Las Vegas. Still, the Summit offered the opportunity to see the new lineup for ourselves and pose questions to Samsung’s head honchos. People like Nathan Sheffield, Head of TV and Audio Europe.

I seized the opportunity and headed to the event with a number of questions, one of which came from the Community. Namely, why is there no Dolby Vision on Samsung TVs?

The unsung golden child: QD-OLED

Samsung finally muscled its way into the OLED market in 2022 – a development that hasn’t been left to chance. In fact, QD-OLED, Samsung’s more advanced OLED technology, could challenge LG’s OLED monopoly for the first time in almost ten years. For instance, Sony, a fellow player on the market, has already been busy buying QD-OLED displays from Samsung in order to build them into its own TVs. In addition, an increasing number of manufacturers are using Samsung’s QD-OLED panels for their gaming monitors. Could the market be on the verge of upheaval?

«It’s not always about who’s first to bring a new technology to market. It’s about who develops the best implementation of it,» Nathan Sheffield tells me. Nathan speaks with the self-assuredness of someone who knows Samsung is the largest TV manufacturer in the world by a longshot. A position it holds despite the fact other manufacturers often launch new technologies on the market much earlier.

Nathan’s view seems to hold some truth. Take Mini LEDs, i.e. the thousands of closely spaced LEDs that provide background light. Chinese tech company TCL was the first TV manufacturer to bring the technology to market. TCL even promised that Mini LED would be better than OLED. In spite of this, the first manufacturer to come anywhere close to fulfilling this promise was Samsung – and the company knows it. In Frankfurt, «Our best TV» is plastered above the new Neo-QLED TV, which makes use of mini-LED backlighting. Its 8K version is even labelled «Our true flagship TV».

But is that a fair assessment?

I don’t think so. No marketing department in the world can convince me otherwise. Ironically, it becomes evident at the Summit that even Samsung’s own marketing department doesn’t think so.

During a Samsung presentation, for example, professional colour calibrator Florian Friedrich of FF GmbH (link in German) directly compares the QD-OLED image with a reference monitor used in Hollywood for mastering films. Friedrich gushes over the 2,000-nit peak brightness (a measurement almost unheard of in an OLED TV) and the 14-bit image processing, which ensures particularly reference-worthy colours even with varying image brightness. The picture provided by «the competition’s conventional OLEDs» (as Samsung puts it) looks comparatively outmoded. But why no comparison with a TV from the Neo-QLED range, Samsung’s supposed «best TV» in the house? I put the question to Nathan Sheffield.

«When we say ‘our best TV’, we mean the package as a whole,» Nathan says evasively, drawing on a whole repertoire of marketing terms. There’s talk of the structure of the lineup. Then picture quality, sound quality, Q-Symphony, design, connectivity, processing, AI upscaling, Shape Adaptive Light Control and Real Depth Enhancer Pro. According to Nathan, the Neo-QLED TVs best serve the entire lineup, which is why Samsung is marketing them (and not the QD OLEDs) as their flagships.

Does that implicitly mean that QD-OLED TVs at least offer the best picture quality? Samsung’s TV and Audio division chief isn’t keen to confirm that. Instead, he reverts to the explanation that Neo QLED is better suited to bright rooms, while QD-OLED is more suitable for dark rooms. He’s not wrong. On account of their technology, Mini-LED TVs have a brighter appearance than (QD-)OLED TVs. Nevertheless, I’m disappointed that I can’t tease a clear answer out of him.

However, the fact that he’s doing his best to dodge the question doesn’t surprise me. Years ago, Samsung had a dress rehearsal for launching onto the market in the form of OLED. In 2014, however, after a series of failed prototypes, it announced its withdrawal from the OLED TV business. Since then, the manufacturer has vehemently spoken out against OLED TVs on numerous occasions because of the often-cited risk of burn-in. Instead of buying archrival LG’s coveted and evidently well-functioning OLED panel technology, Samsung touted its LCD TVs with nanoparticle technology and Mini LEDs as the true star of the market. That is, Neo QLED.

Outside Samsung circles, this assessment was hardly met with agreement. It wasn’t uncommon for specialists to speculate that the company secretly regretted turning its back on OLED, despite the success of its comeback with QD-OLED. To backpedal too vigorously now wouldn’t be a good look for the South Korean firm. This is probably why the «best TV» title has been given to the Neo-QLED and not the QD-OLED. That’s my theory, anyway.

I give the question one last go: «With QD-OLED, you’re offering the best image technology on the market, but you’re understating it in your communication. Why?» In response, Nathan says, «We’re definitely going to be talking about QD-OLED more this year,» pointing out that Samsung is also planning to launch a 77-inch version of the TV and continue to push cloud gaming. In doing so, he doesn’t challenge the way I’ve worded my question.

So that’s something.

When will micro-LED make an appearance?

Another hot topic at Samsung is the so-called TV technology of the future: micro-LED. Having been announced on an annual basis since 2018, it’s supposed to be an all-singing, all-dancing piece of technology. Basically, it’s a TV with a bright picture, rich colours, perfect black levels and, most importantly, no burn-in. What the absurdly expensive technology hasn’t done yet is penetrate the mass market.

«At the moment, it’s impossible to say when it’ll become affordable. I certainly can’t give you a concrete prognosis in years,» Nathan admits honestly. «We’re obviously still talking about the long-term future here. When it comes to the short to medium term, other technologies take priority.»

That being said, Samsung wants to speed things up, and will bring 75-inch TVs to market for the first time this year. This is a major step; for a long time, the manufacturer couldn’t build Micro-LEDs smaller than 110 inches. A TV like that would run you 140,000 francs, whereas a 75-inch version would fetch a price somewhere in the five-digit region. Nevertheless, it’ll be a while before ordinary consumers will be able to afford this TV all-rounder. The question is, what will happen to the other image technologies when that time finally comes?

«It’s simple. The premium technology of today becomes the mid-range or even budget-level technology of tomorrow. Just like QLED used to be our premium technology, but can now be found among even our most inexpensive TVs,» Nathan says. Makes sense.

Samsung vs. Dolby Vision

«Why is Samsung the only TV manufacturer that doesn’t support Dolby Vision?» has to be the most frequently asked question posted under all of my Samsung articles. It’s a question I’m all too happy to pass on to Samsung’s European TV boss. He laughs. «Believe me, that’s the question I get asked the most too,» Nathan says with a smile. Then he goes all serious, pondering the question for a while. Finally, he lets loose: «I’m not sure what Dolby Vision would do for Samsung that we can’t already do anyway.»

Boom.

Nathan reminds me that Samsung is one of the founding members of the open HDR standards HDR10 and HDR10+. The latter is the equivalent of Dolby Vision, Dolby’s closed HDR standard with dynamic metadata, which manufacturers have to pay for. Asked whether Samsung is reliant on Dolby Vision to produce image quality that’s equally good as the competition’s, Nathan is categorical in his denial. He even goes as far as turning the tables on the company’s competitors. Nathan says it’s other manufacturers who might have to rely on Dolby and its standards to produce what Samsung can do without Dolby and Dolby Vision.

A bold statement. That said, Samsung did actually achieve the most reference-worthy picture of any manufacturers in my review – without Dolby Vision. Instead, Filmmaker Mode was enabled. And only on the QD-OLED TV, the real «best TV» in the house, if you ask me.

Nathan Sheffield has been with Samsung since 2008. In 2019, he was appointed Head of TV and Audio at Samsung Europe, working with global headquarters and seventeen European subsidiaries to implement the European strategy. Before joining Samsung, Nathan worked in product marketing at Toshiba and Dixons Retail.