Sony Launches First OLED TV

[Nehkara]

First OLED TV comes to Canada this month

Sony announced today it will launch the XEL-1, an 11-inch Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) television, in Canada on February 29th for $2,499.99.

OLEDs possess several advantages that make them ideal for televisions of the future. They are brighter than any back-lit passive technology, such as LCD, and they react faster to changes in signal than does either plasma or LCD TVs. This fast reaction time makes OLED well suited for full-motion video. Because they do not require a backlight, they are much lighter and use considerably less power.

Other benefits of OLED include high contrast ratios, a measure of the difference between the brightest and the darkest colors the display can show, and panel thickness. At its thinnest point, Sony's new TV set is only 3 millimeters thick. On image sharpness, the new XEL-1 has a contrast ratio, of over one million to one, far better than the 2,200 to one achieved by Sony's Bravia LCD TV series.

The biggest problem with OLED's are their short lifespan. The red and green LEDs have long lifetimes of 10,000 to 40,000 hours; however, the blue component suffers high failure rates after about 3,000 – 5,000 hours meaning the lifespan of the panel is limited by the blue LEDs' life.

The future of television folks. Enjoy.

The main challenges for Sony will be making them bigger, lengthing lifespans, lowering production costs, and increasing production. All the problems that occur during a new generation of televisions.

[OBCT]

Good golly that's impressive stuff. I thought my new Samsung LCD had stunning HD capability. yowsers!


I remember awhile back hearing about OLEDs (I might have read about it in Popular Science), but I pretty much just wrote it off as one of those crazy ideas that may or may not have any practical application for decades. Incredible that the technology has already come far enough for Sony to market them in North America. [I'm assuming this technology has already had a decent tenure on the Asian marketplace.]

[Bobblehead]

Old news, but I guess it was buried in the old, massive thread.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...&postcount=201

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by OBCT

Good golly that's impressive stuff. I thought my new Samsung LCD had stunning HD capability. yowsers!

Which one did you get? I just got one myself and not sure I'm terribly impressed. It looked like the best at the store but dunno, maybe I was expecting to much.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I wonder how long it will be until these are genuinely mass market viable. Or if they ever will be. Maybe they'll find their way into portable gadgets - but will these things ever be in home theaters?

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

I wonder how long it will be until these are genuinely mass market viable. Or if they ever will be. Maybe they'll find their way into portable gadgets - but will these things ever be in home theaters?

They already are in portable gadgets - the Nokia 6215i cell phone released in Sept/06 was the first and there are many more now.

The issue with OLED is being able to make the large enough for thing s like TVs.

[browna]

Saw this in Vegas two weekends ago at the Sony Store.
VERY impressive, form factor wise, and, screen clairty/brightness wise.

[Dan02]

well if you watch 3 hours of TV a day on average that means anything near the end of year 3 it is expected your TV is gonna stop working? I think if they're expecting that kind of turnover they need to bring the bring under 500$ before i'd consider buying one.

[Nehkara]

Originally Posted by Dan02

well if you watch 3 hours of TV a day on average that means anything near the end of year 3 it is expected your TV is gonna stop working? I think if they're expecting that kind of turnover they need to bring the bring under 500$ before i'd consider buying one.

This is why they need to address the longevity issues. Give them time... this is the first TV product from this technology.

In ~5 years you will probably be able to buy a 40" OLED TV for the same price as that 11" above and it will probably be the same price and a lot better.

Just remember... 5 years ago a 60" plasma was $30000.

[OBCT]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Which one did you get? I just got one myself and not sure I'm terribly impressed. It looked like the best at the store but dunno, maybe I was expecting to much.

40" LCD. It's the 4071F. I've been very happy with it.

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/d...=LNT4071FX/XAA


...


Just like with anything else, it can take years for the price of revolutionary technology to drop into an acceptable range for the average consumer. The OLED will surely benefit from massive R&D monies being poured into it... the cell phone, portable video player, TV and computer monitor markets are massive right now, and every company wants to perfect this technology first.