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At CES 2009 I had the opportunity to sit down in a roundtable discussion with three of the leading Samsung execs from the Digital Media Business. Mr. Sang-heung Shin, Dr. Dongho Shin, Mr. Kyung-shik Lee fielded questions from the press around Samsung’s HDTV strategy, their entry into LED TV, ambitions with Blu-ray, and the future of internet enabled television. Here are some of the leading Q & A from the chat (paraphrased):

Is LED HDTV a new category of televisions or a replacement for current models (ie. Plasma, DLP, LCD)?

This is a new category for Samsung and will not be a replacement for any of their current models. OLED is not yet ready for Samsung and LED offers superior picture quality against today’s standards. They did go onto say that DLPs will be phased out over the next year, but this is irregardless of the LED entry. 

Is OLED the next generation TV display technology?

LOED is one of the best technologies for the future but it needs more time and lower prices before it can be introduced. Currently only small screen sizes are available: 1-3” screens in portable media players and the 11” Sony set coming in at $2,000. If a consumer can purchase a 46”+ set for $2,000 what would make them buy an 11” OLED. Until a 40” set (the optimal consumer size) can be released at a reasonable price Samsung will not enter the market.

What is Samsung’s Blu-ray market share in the US and internationally?

Well 5 million Blu-ray players have been sold in 2008 (excluding the PS3). The goal for 2009 is 10 million. According to NDP Samsung is number 2 both in the US and globally, with a share of 28-30%, respectively.

Does Samsung believe that there should be a 3D HDTV standard, as Panasonic has called for? And is Samsung interested in participating?

Samsung is happy to have a standard for 3D but the discussions have not gotten to that yet. This will be discussed more over the next year.

Will Blu-ray become irrelevant with the increases in capacity and lower costs around flash memory? Or due to the advent of IPTV, and streaming HD content (ala Netflix)?

Samsung sees flash memory as a part of the Blu-ray experience.  In the future more and more memory (likely flash) will be built into Blu-ray players for added functionality, such as BD-Live. Further, the internet hook-up on Blu-ray players allows for future upgrades and more added functionality. The difference between DVD and Blu-ray is that DVD is a static experience, while Blu-ray adds another dimension via its internet connectivity.

Where will internet enabled TVs go in the future? Will we move beyond widgets and streaming content?

We believe that Yahoo is just the first of many entrants into this area. It is an open platform and will continue to develop over time.

Why would a consumer purchase a high-end Blu-ray player? (Background information: knowing that a Blu-ray player outputs a 1080p digital signal, and you transmit that over HDMI you should not loose any picture quality at all. So why pay more for the player?)

There are four reasons we can charge a premium for our player, and why we sell higher-end models.

1. Correct, the video is the same between players. The main difference is audio options. Higher-end player tend to offer more audio formats as well as more audio outputs, including analog.
2. Higher end models add more features such as BD-Live and increased internal storage, PCconnect, Pandora, Netflix, etc.
3. Some of the higher-end models are more stylish. And with Samsung, out BD players match the design of our flat panel TVs.
4. Finally, in higher-end models the TV will recognize the BD player and will auto-adjust the picture to provide the optimal watching experience.