AfterDawn: News

CES 2008: Sony shows off OLED TV

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Sony Corp. is showing off one of the potential candidates to replace both LCD and Plasma display technology. A lot of media attention has been given to organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) display technology in recent years, and for good reason. The technology offers lower power consumption at a time when the world is more conscious of energy consumption than ever, and a much brighter picture.

It is not without its problems however. First of all, it is incredibly expensive to mass-produce as a viable display option for TV viewing these days, and technical problems hold back displays from growing. There are issues to work out with how long an OLED display will "live" also. Nevertheless, consumer electronics companies are in a competition to make this technology usable and cheaper to manufacture.



Sony is to start selling an 11-inch OLED display immediately for about $2000, quite a bit more than you'd expect to pay for a much larger screen using a rival technology. It is just 3mm thick, and Sony is actually currently developing flexible OLED displays but that is still in the lab stages. "You are going to see us do bigger sizes down the road. It is a new technology that is going to take several years before it competes with plasma and LCD," Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said.

Glasgow also claimed that Sony has not yet been affected by the economic woes in the United States. Technology shares are being impacted by woes that a slowdown will impact the performance of the biggest players in the industry.

If you are interested in other OLED developments, check out Samsung's offerings at CES.

Source:
Reuters

Written by: James Delahunty @ 8 Jan 2008 18:34

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• 5 comments

• vinny13

  Jesus thats a lot of money... I thought these TVs were supposed to be cheaper to make then LCDs...

  8.1.2008 20:10 #1

• rainofire

  No, there actually easier to apply on a solid surface. They are easier to make and produce, similar to the process of printing ink on a paper. You print the OLED cell, matrix or whatever on the thing you want the picture,video on. But the thing that makes it expensive is need to improve the lifetime of the cells. If you are a true tv maniac and stay in from of an oled tv, you will see your tv degrade due to the cells losing there life. Since it is organic. While easy to apply to make the OLED itself is expensive.

  8.1.2008 22:51 #2

• Rudeboi

  It is a much simpler process to make over LCD's. The OLED's go through a vacuuming process which allow the particles to move freely which is a very expensive process (the vacuum process).
  If OLED's needed to be coated like LCD's do using Indium, it'd be much more expensive, especially because that stuff is being used up like crazy, but since it's can emit its own light, it doesn't need the Indium.
  
  The expensive price tag is truely not needed, Sony will charge that because:
  
  1. The colours are much much better, it doesn't use a back light which in LCDs, they do, which ends up not letting the black show its "true" colour(Hence the much greater constrast ratios) plus, no polarization in the OLED.
  2. The response time of these things can be around 0.01ms I believe, whereas LCD's, they can get to be around 2ms-12ms.
  3. Much better viewing angles.
  4. Extremely thin, only because of the OLED, you can never make an LCD that thing.
  
  Huge disadvantages thought like "rainofire" explained.
  
  1. The colour can fade out very quickly, the blue pixels have been known to last about 5000 hours, I don't know if Sony has extended the life of that though.
  
  2. Water can really mess this thing up if it gets inside past whatever layer they use, that is probably going to be advertised like crazy, stay water away from this thing. And people were telling me not to touch an LCD screen or i'll damage it, i'm scared to touch an OLED screen.

  9.1.2008 00:14 #3

• rainofire

  Actually, about the water thing on oled is true. But most oled's that are made, prototype/mass production are somewhat water tight ONLY where the OLED is at. Companies that produce OLED's are trying to figure out how to make it water tight and cheaply, as of now water tight ones incredibly increase the price of the TV. OLEDs are nice because they actually have more advantages than disadvantages, but some of the disadvantages are quite major. LCD and plasma do have more disadvantages, power consumption, viewing angle, weight, burn-ins (plasma), dead pixels, etc. But not very major ones, so I would still choose LCD and plasma over OLED.

  9.1.2008 00:51 #4

• borhan9

  Quote:The technology offers lower power consumption at a time when the world is more conscious of energy consumption than ever, and a much brighter picture.This is going to be a great incentive for consumers and this will be a great explanation for the cost that it entails for the consumers because in the long run it helps society in the long run.
  
  Quote:Sony is to start selling an 11-inch OLED display immediately for about $2000, quite a bit more than you'd expect to pay for a much larger screen using a rival technology.The cost however is not that bad but i gather give it all some time and you will see we can get this for a cheaper price just remember patience is a virtue.

  9.1.2008 22:46 #5