Though not the true no-wires-of-any-kind promised by Displace’s battery-powered TV, the new LG M-series OLED TV does communicate wirelessly with the unit’s separate breakout box. Think of it as a Samsung One Connect without the wire marrying the box to the display. LG calls it Zero Connect.
We got a sneak peek at the first model in the new line: The LG Signature OLED M3 is a 97-inch beast mounted to a stand.
LG’s Zero Connect box hosts all of your audio/video gear and streams their content to an M-series OLED TV using a proprietary wireless protocol.
Michael Brown/Foundry
LG promises glitch-free transmission of signals from the Zero Connect box to the display panel at up to 4K with a 120Hz refresh rate and automatic signal strength attenuation. While no official claims of distance have been released, a spokesperson at last night’s demo session told us to expect range of around 30 feet, line of sight. When asked if it would be possible to put the streaming box in an equipment closet, he said it wouldn’t be recommended.
Still, 30 feet should be plenty far enough to remove the visual distraction of cables–other than power, that is–snaking around the TV. The TV also features LG’s “One Wall” design; i.e., it has a very thin bezel and chassis.
The aforementioned breakout box is sitting on the end table in the image above. As you can see in the photo above that, the box has an RJ45 port for ethernet, a coaxial input for a TV antenna or cable set-top box, two HDMI ports (one with eARC), a 3.5mm analog audio input, an optical digital audio input, and two USB ports.
The idea is to plug all your entertainment devices–gaming console, Blu-ray player, media stored on a USB stick, and so on–into the breakout box, which will then stream audio and video to the TV using a proprietary wireless link that LG has developed. The person we spoke with last declined to provide details about this technology, other than to say it wasn’t based on 2.4- or 5GHz spectrum. The quoted range had us thinking 60GHz WiGig, but that’s not proprietary. We’ll just have to wait to learn how LG is pulling this trick off.
It’s great to see wireless HDMI coming to market. When it comes to home entertainment, the fewer wires the better. You can see what else LG has up its TV sleeve for 2023 in our other news story. The 97-inch LG M3 is slated to ship in the second half of 2023. LG has not announced a price tag.
Author: Jon L. Jacobi, Freelance contributor
Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.