Didn't see this covered by Audioholics @ CES...

[The Chukker]

Just curious...
http://gear.ign.com/articles/679/679235p1.html

This looks promising, if not a little strange that it's completely off the radar.
Thoughts?

 

[Audioholics]

I didn't see it - must have been in a back room and we did not have the availability to schedule an appointment with Toshiba. My guess is 2007 at the earliest - regardless of what they say at Toshiba or AGN. I've liked the principles involved in the technology. It needs to be fully-funded, however, and come out prced to compete. If they market it as some kind of "high-end" alternative it will take years to get up to the production yields to overcome LCD and plasma (volume).

 

[ironlung]

Pie in the Sky

No mention of the Dual tuner HD cable card TiVO either. Probably just as well we will not see it until 2007 at best.

 

[df4801]

There's a lot of info on this technology on the web.
It seems likely it will dominate within a few years as they are supposed to price it at current LCD prices.

 

[Audioholics]

It seems likely it will dominate within a few years as they are supposed to price it at current LCD prices.

That is exactly what I read.... almost two years ago. It certainly has promise.

 

[The Chukker]

It certainly has promise.

Agreed. Before I read the article at IGN I had never heard of this display tech before. Resolution and contrast ratio were discussed, as well as refresh rate. Are there any burn-in issues or screen aging associated with SED?

 

[Audioholics]

SED has no burn-in issues. In fact, it is puportedly so "perfect" that it's hard to believe it will ever hit the market. But we can certainly watch and see.

 

[Jedi2016]

It has the same burn-in "risk" of a CRT, since it uses the same technology for the screen itself (i.e. phosphor coating on the screen excited by free electrons).

I've done some digging in regards to different kinds of displays, and it appears that LCD is the only display that's proof against burn-in. Because of the way it works, it's physically impossible for an LCD to burn-in.

SED has the advantage in terms of brightness, contrast, and color, though. Of all the formats, this is the one that gives the "best of both worlds". The image quality of a CRT, with the size and flat-panel advantage of LCD and Plasma.

The big question is price, and that'll be the deciding point for me. If it's cheap (comparitavely), then I'll get one. If it's über-expensive, I'll get a CRT.

 

[jaxvon]

I've done some digging in regards to different kinds of displays, and it appears that LCD is the only display that's proof against burn-in. Because of the way it works, it's physically impossible for an LCD to burn-in.

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I've burned in an LCD. At work, we've had the same static image on an LCD monitor for months at a time. When I was doing some maintenance on it, I noticed that all of the desktop icons had been burned into the panel. Keep in mind this is a fairly new Dell Ultrasharp 1905FP.

 

[Kevin Anderson]

I saw this demo at CES and it was very impressive. They made you go into a completely dark room to see the demo. The upside was that when the image went black, it was completely black like a CRT, meaning you couldn't see a difference between the screen and the black frame around it.

Very nice color saturation and smooth image with supposedly fast refresh rates (at least they make a big point of that feature in the demo).

The downside is that I wondered why they insisted on using a light-controlled environment? Was it to show the superior contrast ratio? Was it because the light output couldn't compete with the LCD, DLP, etc. sets on the convention room floor? Was it just to create a mystic about the product?

I agree that it appeared to be a promising merger of CRT and flat-panel technologies -- the burn-in and cost questions aside.

 

[Jedi2016]

Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I've burned in an LCD. At work, we've had the same static image on an LCD monitor for months at a time. When I was doing some maintenance on it, I noticed that all of the desktop icons had been burned into the panel. Keep in mind this is a fairly new Dell Ultrasharp 1905FP.

Probably just a residual charge in the crystals, keeping them oriented in such a way as to display an image like that. It would probably fade on it's own if left off or discharged, or if a different image were displayed (especially a moving one). As I understand the technology, anyway.

 

[The Chukker]

I've done some digging in regards to different kinds of displays, and it appears that LCD is the only display that's proof against burn-in.

I believe that DLP is not burn in susceptible, at least that is what the manufacturers claim. I am not writing this to pick nits, but rather searching for truth. You say SED is burn in susceptible, another poster says it is not. Who is correct, and what is the evidence?

 

[Jedi2016]

You say SED is burn in susceptible, another poster says it is not. Who is correct, and what is the evidence?

It depends on what you mean by "susceptible" to burn-in. SED is no more susceptible to it than any CRT television.. my TV is ten or twelve years old and I've never had a problem with it.

The "evidence" is simply the technology.. an SED display works on the same basic principle as a CRT.. projected electrons colliding with a phosphor coating on the screen, which illuminates in various shades of color, depending on the intensity of the electron beam hitting it. That's what makes them susceptible to burn-in.. if a certain section of the screen is exposed long-term to a constant electron beam, it becomes charged and permanently altered.. leaving a residual image even after the electron beam is deactivated or changed. The only thing that's changed in SED TVs is how the electrons are delivered to the screen. Where a CRT has only three beams (one per color, red, blue, green) controlled by a large electromagnet array and projected through a large vaccuum tube, SED TVs use individual beams for each pixel. So instead of three electron guns, you've got six million, two hundred twenty thousand, and eight hundred electron guns.

The delivery method is different, but the actual display technology itself is unchanged (which is why SEDs also have CRT-quality displays in terms of brightness, contrast, and color). Hence also the susceptiblity to burn-in. But it's no more prevelant than any CRT. I don't expect it to be a problem for anyone, really. As I understand it, plasmas and projection TVs are FAR more susceptible to it than a CRT or SED display will ever be.

The change in the structure of the TV is also cause for concern. They've said that SED TVs have the capability of being far cheaper to manufacture than plasma or LCD TVs, but there's a catch... with over six million electron emitters, the chances of a fault is much higher.. they'll be having yield problems the same as plasmas and LCDs, and sadly, that will probably keep the cost pretty high for a while yet.

 

[The Chukker]

The change in the structure of the TV is also cause for concern. They've said that SED TVs have the capability of being far cheaper to manufacture than plasma or LCD TVs, but there's a catch... with over six million electron emitters, the chances of a fault is much higher.. they'll be having yield problems the same as plasmas and LCDs, and sadly, that will probably keep the cost pretty high for a while yet.

Thank you for the concise and obviously well researched reply. The concern over dead or poor performing pixels will be a deal maker/breaker for me when I decide to update my panel to 1080p in the future.

 

[Hi Ho]

I'm really looking forward to SED even if it might be a ways down the road. I have never really liked plasma for multiple reasons. LCD's viewing angle problems and lack of absolute black are annoying. DLP's color wheel causes rainbows (which I see). Three chip DLP's are way too expensive. SED looks like the answer provided they can produce them at reasonable prices.

Another display I am really looking forward to is OLED. There are so many possibilities, not only for displays, but lighting as well.

 

[Jedi2016]

I'm really looking forward to SED even if it might be a ways down the road. I have never really liked plasma for multiple reasons. LCD's viewing angle problems and lack of absolute black are annoying. DLP's color wheel causes rainbows (which I see). Three chip DLP's are way too expensive. SED looks like the answer provided they can produce them at reasonable prices.

Another display I am really looking forward to is OLED. There are so many possibilities, not only for displays, but lighting as well.

Yeah. The b**ch of it is that I want to buy an HDTV sometime this year.. hehe. And I have a feeling that SED will be out of my price league. Probably end up with a big CRT or mid-sized plasma, cost depending.

 

[Hi Ho]

That's why I'm going for a projector. Nothing can beat the cost/size ratio and they still have excellent picture quality, even if blacks aren't completely black. The only caveat is the need for a dark room.