LG Electronics says next year’s high-end OLED TVs will feature Bluetooth ultra-low latency technology for gaming controllers to enable split-second responsiveness in cloud gaming sessions.
The company says it’s working with MediaTek, the creator of the high-performance chipsets used in its TVs, and the game controller company Razer, to create what is the world’s first Bluetooth ULL controller with an input lag of just one millisecond.
That’s according to Flatpanels HD, which says the controller is designed for cloud gaming services such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Amazon’s Luna, which are both accessible on LG TVs through the webOS operating system.
"The ultra-low latency (ULL) Human Interface Device (HID) enhancement project aims to make Bluetooth gaming controllers as responsive as those using USB-wired or proprietary wireless communications,” the Bluetooth Special Interest Group explains on its website. “This enhancement, which intends to support polling rates as high as 1000 Hz, could also be used to improve the user experience for other latency-sensitive devices including controllers and sensors for augmented, virtual, or mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) scenarios.”
LG’s new split-second latency controller was shown for the first time at the webOS Summit earlier this month, with the company demonstrating its smooth responsiveness on various fighting, shooting and racing games. The technology is supported in the new MediaTek MT7921 chip, which will power next year’s LG OLED televisions.
The good news for gamers is that they won’t be limited to just one controller, for LG also announced a certification programme for others that want to make their own ultra-low latency controllers. Of course, Razer has already received the certification.
According to LG, the plan is to make webOS become the “ultimate gaming platform”, with Bluetooth ULL available on both its OLED and high-end QNED televisions next year. It will be supported on TVs with panels that have a refresh rate of at least 120Hz, the company said. Its TVs will also support WiFi 6 for super-fast connectivity, it added.
The addition of Bluetooth ULL ‘might’ give LG an advantage over its rival Samsung and other TV makers, which have not yet announced support for lower-latency games controllers, though it’s far from certain that they won’t announce the same capability for next year’s TVs. If Samsung doesn't get support for Bluetooth ULL, it still has a key advantage in that it supports Xbox game streaming. At present, there is no Game Pass app available for webOS TVs, and no plans have been announced for one.
In other news last week, LG’s subsidiary LG Display, which makes the panels for LG Electronics’ TVs, announced that it will sell its last remaining LCD manufacturing plant to TCL CSOT for the price of 2 trillion won (around £747.3 million).
The factory in Guangzhou, China, currently manufactures low-end and mid-range IPS LCD TV panels for televisions such as LG’s QNED series. With its sale, LG Display is finally exiting the LCD manufacturing business altogether, having previously sold off its other LCD factories or converted them into OLED lines.
Like Samsung, which sold off its last LCD plant last year, LG has found itself squeezed out of the LCD manufacturing business due to fierce competition from Chinese panel makers like TCL CSOT and BOE, which can produce them more cheaply.
As a result, both LG Display and Samsung Display will focus their TV panel production operations on OLED displays only, relying on Chinese suppliers for the LCD displays in their respective QNED and Neo QLED offerings.
"We plan to concentrate more on the OLED business to enhance our competitiveness and build stable profit bases,” LG Display said in a statement. “We also expect that the capital from the (plant) sale will help strengthen our financial stability.”
