Headlines - Sony gambles on OLED

[HEXUS]

Sony will invest 22 billion yen with a view to "expanding the future potential of televisions".

Read more.

[stroberaver]

Is it really that much of a "gamble"? From what I've seen and read of the technology, OLED looks like it's a sure-fire winner.

[chrestomanci]

Is it really that much of a "gamble"? From what I've seen and read of the technology, OLED looks like it's a sure-fire winner.

Only if it works, is cheap enough, and there aren't better competitors.

The Sony XEL-1 OLED TV, that they demoed last year cost £1000 for a tiny 11" screen. Scaling up, a 36" TV (The minimum size most people would consider for a new living room TV) would cost around £10K. Only the richest and most committed early adopters will pay those sorts of prices.

Secondly the OLEDs themselves only have a limited life, especially blue ones. If you leave an OLED TV or any other type of display on 24x7 (Not that unlikely in some homes and especially in shop displays) it will last less than a year before the blues go completely, and it will show significant colour casts before that. When you consider that the average consumer keeps a TV for 8 years before replacing it, and a significant number keep them for 20, Sony will have to find a fix before they can become a mass market product.

Thirdly OLED will only succeed if there are not better or cheaper technologies. There are big investments in LCD and plasma production, and prices are falling all the time. In a few years time the costs will have dropped even further and the quality improved. Also, perhaps new technologies will come along or existing ones greatly improved such as cheap bright projectors that would take up much less living room space than an equivalently sized big screen TV.

[Stoo]

Toshiba and Panasonic double OLED lifespan -- exceeds LCDs - Engadget

Also, hence why they're investing money into the tech, they want it to replace LCD further down the line

Modest sized plasma screens used to cost £15k+ not all that long ago, and Pioneer's first retail model retailed at over £20k..

[matty-hodgson]

well tbh.. £104m to a company like Sony isn't that much when they have the ability to maybe produce better, cheaper, and bigger TV screens..
does anyone know how good an OLED screen can reproduce colours and what sort of reaction times they have atm..

the first LCD was £7141 and was 14.1" and boasted 256 colours

and now look where LCD is..

could be well worth it for Sony in the near future if they can develop and refine the idea behind OLED TVs.

[SiM]

Forget OLED... IMO its all about projectors in the future

[Stoo]

does anyone know how good an OLED screen can reproduce colours and what sort of reaction times they have atm..

OLED's preduce a much more accurate colour than current LCD's, along with a better viewing angle, and better power consumption..

The refresh rates are well under sub millisecond too

Forget OLED... IMO its all about projectors in the future

Not so handy if you want to watch TV in the day, or don't want to lose part of the wall to a white screen, and part of the ceiling to the projector

[SiM]

That's true, but its not going to stop my home cinema room as soon as I get the chance! Most people with projectors have a normal TV too, for news/other daytime tv... this tv doesn't need to be special in anyway...

[Lord Midas]

But what about Lazer TV. Mitsubishi seem to bringing theirs to market sometime in 2008. I've only just heard of this!

Benefits of Laser TV:
- Wider color gamut, capable of reproducing twice the colors of LCD and plasma displays.
- Increased longevity, as the laser engines will last the life of the television.
- Lower power consumption than bigscreen LCD and plasma displays.
- True black levels, high contrast ratios, and very large screen capabilities.
- Less bulk and cost than a traditional lamp based rear projection televisions.

[Funkstar]

Laser TV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia