At CES 2024, both LG and Samsung debuted big screen transparent TVs. Like something out of science fiction, these are absolutely as crazy as they sound. When the TVs is off, it’s like it’s no longer there. Not invisible exactly, but if you didn’t know what it was, you’d never guess that in a fraction of a section it could be showing episodes of Star Trek or The Expanse. While in development for many years, and available in some sizes commercially, transparent screens saw a big push towards the mainstream this year as actual televisions.
With the biggest TV manufacturers hyping this new technology, could a transparent TV be in your life soon? After all, it was only a few years ago these same companies showed off future tech like micro-LED and OLED, and they’re available everywhere now.
The answer is yes — but perhaps not in the way you think.
Transparently magic
Watch this: LG Transparent OLED Turns From TV Into Animated Art
While undeniably cool as a futuristic statement piece in your house, transparent TVs are likely to find more practical uses elsewhere. For example, store windows that let you see inside and show you prices and ads. Windows that can let you see outside while showing a stock ticker, weather highlights, emails and ads, or the glass in a stadium’s box seats where you can see the action on the field, but also see scores and highlights on a transparent screen. On the consumer side, LG even has a prototype tube/speaker combo mounted inside a transparent TV.
What transparent TVs actually do is expand the number of places you can display information, and yes that includes more places to display ads. So it goes. That ability to make money is what’s going to accelerate their acceptance, which will drive down the cost of the technology. That will make them even more accessible, and potentially end up in your home… just perhaps not as your main TV.
