LG's 84-inch ultra-high-def TV

LG will be launching an 84-inch ultra-high-definition (also called 4K) TV in New Zealand in early December.

At a launch in Auckland last night, LG revealed the 84-inch TV (84LM9600), which it says will be in select Harvey Norman stores around New Zealand from the first or second week in December. PC World understands that in Auckland, one of the in-store displays will be at Harvey Norman Mt Wellington.

The TV is one of only a few '4K' TVs currently released - Sony announced its 4K TV last month. The resolution of the 84LM9600 is four times that of Full HD, at 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution, but there's very little content that is available to use that much screen real estate.

Peter Jackson's forthcoming movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, some music videos and short films are the only material produced in 4K to date, though there's more material filmed in 2K. A spokesperson at the LG event says that the TV upscales content produced at a lower resolution, but acknowledged that it won't be quite as breathtaking as true 4K content.

The 84LM9600 also displays 3D content, and is also a smart TV. It comes with 2 50W speakers in-built and 200MHz motion blur in addition. It features an IPS LCD panel.

PC World only got to see a very limited range of demonstration footage on the TV - sharpness is excellent, but we can't comment on motion, colour accuracy or other technical aspects.

The 84LM9600 will cost around $25,000. Sony's 84-inch 4K TV retails for around $35,000.