 Hey guys, it's Jonathan Verch. I'm here with Matt McRae, the CTO of Vizio. We're here at CS 2014. Obviously you guys have a lot of TVs here. You guys are a TV company. Yeah, we do okay. Yeah, so you've got your first 4K displays here that you're going to sell. I saw some last year where they were kind of prototypes. Yeah. Why is the time to sell 4K displays now? Well, we waited a little bit for a few reasons. So what you see here is we have our P-series and we have our reference series. We decided to wait until a lot of the standards and security and some of the codecs and things for UHD video were set. We also waited because the panels that were available at the beginning of the UHD honestly weren't very good. And the panels you see here are actually very, very high quality. They're all second, third generation UHD panels. In the case of the reference series, they're actually custom Vizio panels that we've developed internally. We wanted the picture quality to be right. It had to be a leap forward, not a step forward. And we didn't want to strand any of our users where a year from now a bunch of UHD peripherals come out and they don't work. Or some streaming providers start announcing UHD streams and they don't work. Well, that's the big question, right? So you're finally selling the TVs. It's still a big question where the content is going to come down. And I couldn't tell you the answer right now at the show right now. I can help you. Okay. A lot of it will come from streaming. Okay. So we're a big believer in streaming, obviously. We're the number one smart TV platform. We really push that hard. You'll see at the show at least one or two streaming providers announce UHD. And I can tell you there's at least two more that are planning within the year to actually do UHD. And I think one of the best things that can happen is have streaming be first with content, be first with UHD, be first with some of the features. Like High Dynamic Range as an example, I think you'll see streaming first before you see it on physical media. And so as we can lead the pack with streaming, I think people will just start to become, you know, that becomes their primary content path instead of... Do people have the bandwidth for it? I mean, what's it going to take to stream for that? Yeah. So HEVC helps a lot, right? So 1080p content today is anywhere from 5 to maybe 8 megabits per second. UHD is four times the content. So normally you would think it would be, you know, 34, almost 40 megabits per second. But because of the new compression standard of HEVC, it's going to be more like 12 to 15. Okay. So a little bump. It's a bump. And I think you'll see compression get better over time as well. So you mentioned High Dynamic Range. Yeah. The things I've seen in CS that actually look good, I think the High Dynamic Range, the Dolby Vision, that looks really incredible. What's going on there? 4K is great. I mean, four times the resolution, you get close display, it looks amazing. On very large displays like we're showing here, it becomes almost a necessity because the pixels would get so big on 1080p. So 4K is great. But what we're more excited about is actually color fidelity and color spectrum and High Dynamic Range, which really extends the amount of color information. And to us, that coupled with ultra-wide color gamut that we've implemented on our reference series is a much bigger leap, I think, in picture quality than just straight resolution. And I think the TVs around here show that. So where is that going to come from, that content going to come from? Same. So we're working with the studios on the HDR stuff. And so the best HDR stuff actually goes back and remasters. And the directors are actually very excited because you get an image that's better than most movie theaters in a way. And so they're going to remaster a lot of stuff. So that's coming. So you need a middleman streaming service? You do. You will see, and I don't know if these are being announced at the show, but there will be multiple streaming providers that are going to do HDR. And so... It will come on HDR first. Now, I think the next Blu-ray standard will have an HDR component to it as well. And we're ready for it because we have the first HDR compatible TVs in the world. But again, going back to my other point, I think the exciting part is it'll stream first. A lot of these new technologies will get to you over the Internet before the physical media standards actually catch up. But is that the disruptor? I mean, the question you and I have been talking about for years now is how do I get rid of cable locks, how to get rid of input one. You see what the game console guys are trying to do to put smart OS over on top of that. Is content going to really drive the way here? It will. Do you think people can see it? I mean, that's really the question. I think so... what I would say is Ultra High Def in the right circumstance makes a pretty big difference. The color fidelity that we're showing in the ultra-wide color gamut in HDR, that's for 4K or 1080p. Those are things that make any picture look... Are you going to sell a $500 1080p TV that does HDR? I mean, eventually. Because that's like the mass market, right? Yeah, eventually. I mean, I think what we do best at Vizio is actually trickle down technology very quickly. So we have our reference series that we're showing here that has all the technologies that we could think of. We've been working two years on it, clean sheet of paper. And already, even though we're announcing the reference series for the first time here at the show, about 60% of the technology that's in the reference series is already trickled down into our P-series. So you had to build a custom panel. We did. So the reference series actually features a lot of Vizio technology, and I think it might surprise people how much invention that Vizio actually has accomplished in the last two years. So it's a custom panel. Actually, there's two. Vizio custom designed the backlight. So we have 384 zones of local dimming, which is off the charts. It gives us those little deep black levels and very bright whites. It's 800 nits. So it's one of the brightest panels in the market, which gives you that high dynamic range, right? Almost zero IRB blacks, but really high 800-nit whites. We have our own processors in there. So we have a V6 six-core processor running in those to do all the apps, but also picture processing. And then we have a VM50, a Vizio processor, a back-end processor that does all the MEMC and picture quality tuning and HDR and things like that. And so the pinnacle of your reference series is actually what we're sitting in front of here, a massive 120-inch LCD, which looks incredible. Tell me about, I mean, are you going to sell this thing? Absolutely. Is this a demo? No, this is a... Just to show off at CES? Yeah, that too. So it's 120 inches. Yeah. And it's the reference series. So it's the same as the 65-inch reference series that's sitting behind us. So it has 384 zones, HDR, you know, ultra-wide color gamut, everything we talked about, six-core processor, all that stuff. But it's 120 inches, and it's massive, and it's one of the best panels, I think, in the world. It's one of the biggest panels in the world. I think it's the biggest at the show this year, and we have every intention of going to mass production. How much is it going to cost? We don't know yet, honestly. Everything else, we're getting a good idea of what it's going to cost. This TV, obviously, it's fully up and running. It's basically production-ready. Our issue is really around logistics and with something this big, and we're trying to figure out what's the most efficient path to your living room and how do we get that with something this big and this heavy. You know, what's interesting about this, this is your reference series. This is the one you're going to judge by. And then you've got sort of your mass market M series, and none of them have anything to do with 3D. And you've gotten rid of 3D sort of across the line. What happened? Is it just over? We did a lot of studies around 3D and what people were using it for, if they were, and why they were buying it and why not. And we came away with the fact that we didn't think 3D was important anymore, and we didn't think it was impactful to users. So instead of putting a feature in people don't want, we pulled it out. And I think that's one thing we do different as well. We view our job as not only listening to consumers, but also curating the experience and the products they get. So instead of just throwing everything in the kitchen sink, and the cameras and gesture and voice that doesn't work and all this crap into a product, we actually try and figure out what's the best user experience, curate it down to what really matters, and in our view, 3D didn't matter. All right, man, well, it's always good to talk to you. Okay, thanks.
 Hey guys, it's Jonathan Verch. I'm here with Matt McRae, the CTO of Vizio. We're here at CS 2014.
 Obviously you guys have a lot of TVs here. You guys are a TV company.
 Yeah, we do okay.
 Yeah, so you've got your first 4K displays here that you're going to sell.
 I saw some last year where they were kind of prototypes.
 Yeah.
 Why is the time to sell 4K displays now?
 Well, we waited a little bit for a few reasons.
 So what you see here is we have our P-series and we have our reference series.
 We decided to wait until a lot of the standards and security and some of the codecs and things for UHD video were set.
 We also waited because the panels that were available at the beginning of the UHD honestly weren't very good.
 And the panels you see here are actually very, very high quality. They're all second, third generation UHD panels.
 In the case of the reference series, they're actually custom Vizio panels that we've developed internally.
 We wanted the picture quality to be right. It had to be a leap forward, not a step forward.
 And we didn't want to strand any of our users where a year from now a bunch of UHD peripherals come out and they don't work.
 Or some streaming providers start announcing UHD streams and they don't work.
 Well, that's the big question, right? So you're finally selling the TVs.
 It's still a big question where the content is going to come down.
 And I couldn't tell you the answer right now at the show right now.
 I can help you.
 Okay.
 A lot of it will come from streaming.
 Okay.
 So we're a big believer in streaming, obviously. We're the number one smart TV platform. We really push that hard.
 You'll see at the show at least one or two streaming providers announce UHD.
 And I can tell you there's at least two more that are planning within the year to actually do UHD.
 And I think one of the best things that can happen is have streaming be first with content, be first with UHD, be first with some of the features.
 Like High Dynamic Range as an example, I think you'll see streaming first before you see it on physical media.
 And so as we can lead the pack with streaming, I think people will just start to become, you know, that becomes their primary content path instead of...
 Do people have the bandwidth for it? I mean, what's it going to take to stream for that?
 Yeah. So HEVC helps a lot, right?
 So 1080p content today is anywhere from 5 to maybe 8 megabits per second.
 UHD is four times the content.
 So normally you would think it would be, you know, 34, almost 40 megabits per second.
 But because of the new compression standard of HEVC, it's going to be more like 12 to 15.
 Okay. So a little bump.
 It's a bump. And I think you'll see compression get better over time as well.
 So you mentioned High Dynamic Range.
 Yeah.
 The things I've seen in CS that actually look good, I think the High Dynamic Range, the Dolby Vision, that looks really incredible.
 What's going on there?
 4K is great.
 I mean, four times the resolution, you get close display, it looks amazing.
 On very large displays like we're showing here, it becomes almost a necessity because the pixels would get so big on 1080p.
 So 4K is great.
 But what we're more excited about is actually color fidelity and color spectrum and High Dynamic Range, which really extends the amount of color information.
 And to us, that coupled with ultra-wide color gamut that we've implemented on our reference series is a much bigger leap, I think, in picture quality than just straight resolution.
 And I think the TVs around here show that.
 So where is that going to come from, that content going to come from?
 Same. So we're working with the studios on the HDR stuff.
 And so the best HDR stuff actually goes back and remasters.
 And the directors are actually very excited because you get an image that's better than most movie theaters in a way.
 And so they're going to remaster a lot of stuff. So that's coming.
 So you need a middleman streaming service?
 You do. You will see, and I don't know if these are being announced at the show, but there will be multiple streaming providers that are going to do HDR.
 And so...
 It will come on HDR first.
 Now, I think the next Blu-ray standard will have an HDR component to it as well.
 And we're ready for it because we have the first HDR compatible TVs in the world.
 But again, going back to my other point, I think the exciting part is it'll stream first.
 A lot of these new technologies will get to you over the Internet before the physical media standards actually catch up.
 But is that the disruptor?
 I mean, the question you and I have been talking about for years now is how do I get rid of cable locks, how to get rid of input one.
 You see what the game console guys are trying to do to put smart OS over on top of that.
 Is content going to really drive the way here?
 It will.
 Do you think people can see it?
 I mean, that's really the question.
 I think so... what I would say is Ultra High Def in the right circumstance makes a pretty big difference.
 The color fidelity that we're showing in the ultra-wide color gamut in HDR, that's for 4K or 1080p.
 Those are things that make any picture look...
 Are you going to sell a $500 1080p TV that does HDR?
 I mean, eventually.
 Because that's like the mass market, right?
 Yeah, eventually.
 I mean, I think what we do best at Vizio is actually trickle down technology very quickly.
 So we have our reference series that we're showing here that has all the technologies that we could think of.
 We've been working two years on it, clean sheet of paper.
 And already, even though we're announcing the reference series for the first time here at the show,
 about 60% of the technology that's in the reference series is already trickled down into our P-series.
 So you had to build a custom panel.
 We did.
 So the reference series actually features a lot of Vizio technology,
 and I think it might surprise people how much invention that Vizio actually has accomplished in the last two years.
 So it's a custom panel.
 Actually, there's two.
 Vizio custom designed the backlight.
 So we have 384 zones of local dimming, which is off the charts.
 It gives us those little deep black levels and very bright whites.
 It's 800 nits.
 So it's one of the brightest panels in the market, which gives you that high dynamic range, right?
 Almost zero IRB blacks, but really high 800-nit whites.
 We have our own processors in there.
 So we have a V6 six-core processor running in those to do all the apps, but also picture processing.
 And then we have a VM50, a Vizio processor, a back-end processor that does all the MEMC and picture quality tuning and HDR and things like that.
 And so the pinnacle of your reference series is actually what we're sitting in front of here,
 a massive 120-inch LCD, which looks incredible.
 Tell me about, I mean, are you going to sell this thing?
 Absolutely.
 Is this a demo?
 No, this is a...
 Just to show off at CES?
 Yeah, that too.
 So it's 120 inches.
 Yeah.
 And it's the reference series.
 So it's the same as the 65-inch reference series that's sitting behind us.
 So it has 384 zones, HDR, you know, ultra-wide color gamut, everything we talked about, six-core processor, all that stuff.
 But it's 120 inches, and it's massive, and it's one of the best panels, I think, in the world.
 It's one of the biggest panels in the world.
 I think it's the biggest at the show this year, and we have every intention of going to mass production.
 How much is it going to cost?
 We don't know yet, honestly.
 Everything else, we're getting a good idea of what it's going to cost.
 This TV, obviously, it's fully up and running.
 It's basically production-ready.
 Our issue is really around logistics and with something this big,
 and we're trying to figure out what's the most efficient path to your living room
 and how do we get that with something this big and this heavy.
 You know, what's interesting about this, this is your reference series.
 This is the one you're going to judge by.
 And then you've got sort of your mass market M series, and none of them have anything to do with 3D.
 And you've gotten rid of 3D sort of across the line.
 What happened? Is it just over?
 We did a lot of studies around 3D and what people were using it for, if they were,
 and why they were buying it and why not.
 And we came away with the fact that we didn't think 3D was important anymore,
 and we didn't think it was impactful to users.
 So instead of putting a feature in people don't want, we pulled it out.
 And I think that's one thing we do different as well.
 We view our job as not only listening to consumers,
 but also curating the experience and the products they get.
 So instead of just throwing everything in the kitchen sink,
 and the cameras and gesture and voice that doesn't work and all this crap into a product,
 we actually try and figure out what's the best user experience,
 curate it down to what really matters, and in our view, 3D didn't matter.
 All right, man, well, it's always good to talk to you.
 Okay, thanks.