More consumers are pursuing TV quality; Amlogic may be out of favor; Mstar and HiSilicon are expected to dominate the market

The latest does not mean the best, and sometimes the word high-end also needs to be put in quotation marks. This is marketing, and the words give you the biggest hint: the latest and high-end are the best. But what is the reality? It can only be said that it is not necessarily the case.

A good TV not only has a good panel and good design, but also a good chip. So some people think that high-end products should use Mstar chips or Huawei HiSilicon chips. If Amlogic chips are used in TVs and they are also called high-end, it would be a bit forced.

Good chip, a must for good image quality

The quality of the chip determines the performance of the TV

Everyone has a different understanding of a good TV, and it is difficult to have a unified explanation. Some consumers think that as long as it uses imported panels from Japanese and Korean manufacturers such as Sharp, Samsung Display or LGD, it is a good TV; some consumers think that a product that uses some black technology, such as a certain number of channels, or a borderless design, is a good product; some people think that a product with a moderate price and decent performance is a good product.

This is what is called "there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand readers". Although it is difficult to unify the definition, I believe that few consumers will deny that a good TV should have good picture quality.

The performance of a TV is often determined by its core - the chip. Currently, the most widely used smart TV chips include Mstar and Amlogic. Huawei HiSilicon chips have accumulated a lot of experience and quickly become the new favorite in the smart TV market.

The Mstar series chips are launched by Morningstar, the world's largest TV chip manufacturer. They have many fans in the TV market and are used by many flagship TV brands. Statistics show that more than 50% of the world's smart TV chips use Mstar chips.

Although there is still a certain distance compared with Sony, which has X-Reality Pro, TRILUMINOS image processing technology, X-tended Dynamic Range Pro elite light control technology, and 4K HDR technology, objectively speaking, unlike Sony's aloofness, Mstar is still a manufacturer that provides affordable high-end chips to the public.

MStar mainly makes it possible to build a high-performance OTT image processing engine into SOC by improving the wafer process, improving the cooling system, and increasing computing power. In the new generation of Mstar series products, MStar has introduced the 4K Zhencai image processing engine Pro developed to solve these pain points, which presents a real, delicate, and smooth picture sense for the image, bringing a colorful viewing experience.

Mstar chip, favored by many manufacturers

Amlogic, also known as Amlogic Semiconductor, is similar to MTK, which is positioned as a mid-to-low-end product in mobile phones. Its products are mostly used in TV set-top boxes, TV boxes and other products. For example, the familiar Xiaomi box, Tmall Magic Box, LeTV box, etc., many of which use Amlogic chips. Therefore, there are not many TV manufacturers that use Amlogic chips, and almost all of them are out of cost control.

Amlogic is becoming less and less popular

When HiSilicon had not yet emerged, there was a saying in the industry that the Mstar chip used in smart TVs was known as the Qualcomm of the mobile phone industry, while Amlogic was positioned the same as the MTK of the mobile phone industry. Many consumers would probably understand this comparison.

Taking two popular chips as an example, some netizens have compared them. The CPU architecture of Amlogic T966 is A53, and the CPU architecture of MStar 6A938 is A72. According to the ARM architecture, A72 is much stronger than A53. Some netizens even commented, "These days, if you don't use a 928 chip, you are embarrassed to call yourself a smart TV."

For example, on May 18 this year, Xiaomi TV 4 was released. Many netizens expected it to use the Mstar 6A938 chip, but it turned out to use the Amlogic fifth-generation image quality engine. Although the prices of 3,499 yuan for the 49-inch, 3,999 yuan for the 55-inch, and 9,999 yuan for the 65-inch made many Xiaomi fans excited, the low configuration also made some die-hard fans think that "Xiaomi is getting further and further away from black technology." And peers also vetoed Xiaomi TV 4 because of the chip, believing that it was not as worth looking forward to as imagined.

Box chips are not popular

TVs using Mstar chips are more expensive, and companies will not cut prices at will. Take this year's 618 as an example. When LeTV Super TVs using Mstar were arbitrarily priced by JD.com and Tmall, LeTV actually issued a statement "Statement on the forced price cuts by third-party platforms" to argue, claiming that LeTV Super TVs had already been discounted, and on this basis, the two major e-commerce platforms also forced price cuts, which LeTV could not bear. As an important promoter of the price war, LeTV also finds it difficult to find a balance between high configuration and low price. When the bottom line interests are touched, it takes the initiative to stand up to protect its own rights and interests.

In fact, this is also the reason why some brands have such a big price difference in the same size. For example, the flagships of Coocaa and Weijing, including the current LeTV flagship, all use Mstar chips, while split TVs such as Xiaomi, Haier and Baofeng use Amlogic chips.

There is still a gap in the performance of the box chip

Another company that has seen opportunities in the smart TV market is Huawei HiSilicon, which first applied its chips to Skyworth TVs in the mainland market in 2014. Currently, it is developing rapidly due to its stability. Skyworth President Liu Tangzhi revealed at the time that HiSilicon chips save more than 20% of the cost of similar chips, and GLED's 4K smart TVs are 8%-10% cheaper than similar products. It is understood that HiSilicon chips are currently better than Amlogic in overall functionality, but still have a long way to go to catch up with MStar, but the performance is already very good. For example, Sharp has also started using HiSilicon chips, and its potential should not be underestimated.

Mao Zhixue, senior product manager of Whale TV, believes that the most important indicator of a TV is the picture quality. The chip used must have a rich adjustment function, otherwise the picture quality will be very strange. According to him, Amlogic has no technical accumulation in picture quality. The picture quality is mainly used on the box. The TV using Amlogic chips has very few screen adjustment options, which is far from Mstar. Moreover, it is easy to have noise, blurred dynamic picture quality, inaccurate colors, blurred edges of objects on the screen, and smearing.

Judging from the current situation, Amlogic still has a certain market space due to the obvious price difference, but it has been criticized by some consumers, especially in flagship and high-end phones. Many companies have abandoned Amlogic. The current mainstream is Mstar, and HiSilicon may join the battle in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.