Is 2012 the Year of Super-Thin OLED Displays?

[admin]

It's no secret that televisions have extremely low profit margins. In fact, there seems to be very little differential between models as more and more products acquire similar features and move towards a convergence of thin, 3D, streaming media-centric devices. But what if there were a way to "apple-ize" the TV industry? What if OLED were finally to become a reality this year and television manufacturers were able to get a new technology to market that was both appealing and beneficial? That seems to be happening - at least if reports are to be believed about LG Electronics and its pending 55-inch television that will measure a scant 3/16" thick and weigh just 16-1/2 pounds. That's pencil thin. And they're not alone. Samsung is making similar claims and both companies intend to announce - ANNOUNCE, mind you, not just show a proof of concept, OLED TVs this year at the CES Expo in Vegas.


Discuss "Is 2012 the Year of Super-Thin OLED Displays?" here. Read the article.

[wiyosaya]

Interesting article. I think the wait and see attitude is appropriate.

In the mean time, here are a few links that give more info on the LG model

Estimated $8,000 US price. Not bad, IMHO, if it delivers on promise.

Interesting specs including a 0.1 microsecond response time.

Details on the technology.

Enjoy!

[scott911]

when the tv's thinner than the power plug behind it, I kind of don't get the point.

[darien87]

If the hot Korean model comes with the TV then I might consider paying $8,000 for it.

[Adam]

If the hot Korean model comes with the TV then I might consider paying $8,000 for it.

Yeah, it's all fun and games until she won't hand over the remote.

[gene]

when the tv's thinner than the power plug behind it, I kind of don't get the point.

Agreed. I went to install my sister-in-law's LED display to her home theater yesterday and found that these TV's no longer come with RCA connectors on them. Instead they have a dongle that breaks out for component video. The dongle is so flimsy that if any tension is placed on it, it will fall off. I recognize that legacy connections are going away but HDMI still has issues. In most cases I prefer to install a cable box via component video over HDMI either for performance reasons or to resolve technical compatibility issues.

[lsiberian]

when the tv's thinner than the power plug behind it, I kind of don't get the point.

Who need plugs we can just go wireless?

[wiyosaya]

when the tv's thinner than the power plug behind it, I kind of don't get the point.

Personally, I think the advances with OLEDs are more in other areas rather than thickness since there are sets nearly as thin already. Mainly, I think the advances are in the likely superior picture quality.

For instance, it sounds like this set will have better than 100 percent NTSC color gamut, while LCDs have something like 80 percent NTSC color gamut. Response time, too, is another factor being on the order of 1000 times faster than LCD, and there is the promise of significantly less power consumption over both LCD and plasma displays - to mention a few areas where OLEDs have the promise of excelling over current technology.

In my opinion, marketing hawks are touting thickness because it will sell sets to the average customer.

[j_garcia]

Personally, I think the advances with OLEDs are more in other areas rather than thickness since there are sets nearly as thin already. Mainly, I think the advances are in the likely superior picture quality.

For instance, it sounds like this set will have better than 100 percent NTSC color gamut, while LCDs have something like 80 percent NTSC color gamut. Response time, too, is another factor being on the order of 1000 times faster than LCD, and there is the promise of significantly less power consumption over both LCD and plasma displays - to mention a few areas where OLEDs have the promise of excelling over current technology.

In my opinion, marketing hawks are touting thickness because it will sell sets to the average customer.

OLEDs still face one significant problem and that is they are very difficult to produce in a larger size that is uniform over the whole surface. So while all the other factors are certainly improvements, they haven't yet figured out how to make it easy to produce reliably. Until they do that, the prices will still be extremely high.

Both companies are going to announce these displays, but they are not what I would call production ready for the mass market.

[wiyosaya]

OLEDs still face one significant problem and that is they are very difficult to produce in a larger size that is uniform over the whole surface. So while all the other factors are certainly improvements, they haven't yet figured out how to make it easy to produce reliably. Until they do that, the prices will still be extremely high.

Both companies are going to announce these displays, but they are not what I would call production ready for the mass market.

Personally, I do not agree that the technology is not production-ready.

LG has announced plans to release this set to the market in mid 2012. As this article said, LG is planning to announce the set at CES 2012, not just present it as a concept.

While the technology is still young, DuPont has announced both a technology for printing OLED that is capable of printing a 50" screen in under two minutes, and its licensing to an as yet unnamed major Asian manufacturer.

As is typical with emerging technologies, time will tell.

Despite my apparent optimism, I maintain a healthy skepticism.