News - Samsung shows off state-of-the-art 40in OLED TV

[HEXUS]

Samsung has demo'd a 40in OLED full HD TV, but the company admitted that the screen is at the very limit of what it can manufacture today.

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[dangel]

Want.

Need.

Yummy.

[shaithis]

Yup. OLED seems to be the great compromise between LCD and plasma....

I just hope the prices tumble and the sizes increase, sooner rather then later.

[Funkstar]

So remind me again, whats the big deal with OLED?

why is it seen as the next great thing?

(yes i could google, but i'm sure someone here can give me a nice sumary)

[shaithis]

They don't need backlighting like LCDs (so colour and PQ are better then LCD) and the refresh rate is stupidly fast, which means that not only are fast images perfectly ghost-free but they do not need to keep the pixels active all the time....saving power and making the blackest of blacks.

I don't think they can burn-in like plasma either.

[wjharing]

damn, sweet. need to have it.

[dangel]

million to one contrast ratio on this set says it all..

[Mithrandir]

So remind me again, whats the big deal with OLED?

why is it seen as the next great thing?

(yes i could google, but i'm sure someone here can give me a nice sumary)

From what I remember:
Blacks are black and colours are more vibrant than normal LEDs as the oleds have individual RGB colours just like old school CRTs.

Also, panels can be more thinner than current LED models.

viewing angles are also like CRTs

[Funkstar]

They don't need backlighting like LCDs (so colour and PQ are better then LCD) and the refresh rate is stupidly fast, which means that not only are fast images perfectly ghost-free but they do not need to keep the pixels active all the time....saving power and making the blackest of blacks.

I don't think they can burn-in like plasma either.

got ya.

So in terms of TVs, they are like a gybrid of LCD and plasma with some added benefits from what i can see.

Thinner, can be flexible (so made from plastic instead of glass), lighter and lower powered.

Nice

[Biscuit]

Think of it as a huge sheet of LED lights, each pixel being made from 3 LEDS (or subpixels); RGB (sometimes 4 - 1 green 1 emerald but this is more a future thing). The reason this things are soo superior to LCD is LCD makes black by blocking the backlight wheras the light source in these devices is the LED itself. The main advantage over Plasma is that they will not burn in, no gas replacement, weight, power consumption.

Its not really a hybrid between LCD and Plasma in the sense of the technology used, its really a whole new thing. The only thing that it really took from anything else is the thin film of transistors (TFT) used to drive the LEDs. I suppose in the sense of its ability it is a hybrid though.

When the technolgy really takes off they wont just be thin, they will be so thin and flexible you will be able to roll them up! One of the things which will benefit most from this technology will be mobile devices and IPTV

[wjharing]

it will probably take another 3 years before it is main-stream and affordable.

[BerZerk]

Wow nice, but it won't be cheap to buy...

[chrestomanci]

I don't think they can burn-in like plasma either.

You are wrong about that. Current technology OLEDs suffer from very severe burn in. This was not much of a problem when they where used on things like mp3 players and the like where the display is only on for a few seconds at a time, but is obviously a severe problem with TVs that will be on for hours per day (24x7 in the case of shop displays). Worse some colors are more affected than others so over time the blues will fade and the display will appear redder.

I hope that Samsung have somehow solved the burn in, presumably by modifying the chemistry of the OLED elements. More likely they have not, and this is why the display is just a demo.