Sony have been showing off some new tech over in Tokyo. Sounds cool.

"It has a superhigh contrast ratio (allegedly, 1 million to one), it boasts faster response times than LCD or plasma, it looks incredibly sharp with colors that really pop--and because OLED screens don't require a backlight, they're more energy efficient than plasma or LCD,"

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20080418/sony-el-tv-2.jpg


link with more info:

Before people come in and go "omg why aren't we using this already".

It's still a developing technology. Expensive with one severe limitation. From Wikipedia:

The biggest technical problem for OLEDs is the limited lifetime of the organic materials. In particular, blue OLEDs historically have had a lifetime of around 14,000 hours (5 years at 8 hours a day) when used for flat-panel displays, which is lower than typical lifetime of LCD, LED or PDP technology – each currently rated for about 60,000 hours, depending on manufacturer and model. But in 2007, experimental PLEDs were created which can sustain 400cd/m2 of luminance for over 198,000 hours for green OLEDs and 62,000 hours for blue OLEDs.[31].

The intrusion of water into displays can damage or destroy the organic materials. Therefore, improved sealing processes are important for practical manufacturing and may limit the longevity of more flexible displays.

Regardless, I hope they get further in development so it can become mainstream and the problems solved.

last edited by parabol at 00:11:45 20/Apr/08

what about the Aussie Laser TV? Hows that going?

about the same as queensland's solution to the cane beetle

Shame its going to take so many years until its close to affordable. (for LCD/Plasma TV battles)

Seriously though, as if you wouldn't just upgrade after 5 years anyway. I want a new monitor, now that my car is finally fixed I might splash out on one....right after I get more hard drive space :(

SED must be imminent too I would think.

Need to invent a screen that takes up no space when it's not turned on. Like a hologram or something.

Once scientists can work out how to grow the organics for it faster then it'll be able to be put into bigger dimensions..Give it couple more years and we should be seeing oled screens the size of our tvs now..

Seriously though, as if you wouldn't just upgrade after 5 years anyway

Read what I pasted. It doesn't just die instantly after 5 or so years. It degrades over time. So after a year of use, it's not as awesome and high-spec as when you first bought it.

I think that when they're talking lifespan on TVs, it's the amount of time it takes for the brightness/contrast of the screen to halve. You'd certainly notice one of these current OLEDs degrading year after year.

wow, that was f***en cool

edit: ^^ is it just me or is that nothing more than a projector screen? Look at the first use of the fan you can see the grid lines on his hand. Looks like a more sophisticated version of that giant touch screen thing some guy made out of a wiimote. yawn.

I did read what you pasted, nowhere does it say anything about gradually degrading over time unless I'm blind, I didn't bother following the wikipedia link though.

last edited by whoop at 16:52:38 20/Apr/08

^ yeah the massive light behind the umbrella was a massive hint too.

Also, regarding degrading .. the important quote:

... experimental PLEDs were created which can sustain 400cd/m2 of luminance for over 198,000 hours ...

That figure was probably some arbitrary number that they chose, as in it will exceed that figure for 198k hours and after that the spec will no longer be met. Just like LCD manufacturers choosing a contrast ratio of >10:1 when citing viewing angles (the dodgier companies cite >5:1 to mislead and make their monitors sound not as bad)

last edited by parabol at 17:01:36 20/Apr/08

B.Harball's vid is a projector, which simulates an interactive screen via IR tech. They used a Wii remote to make that vid.

You guise...

SED has all but been abandoned. Laser is still rumored to be coming out next year, and OLED, well that screen pictured I believe is still Sony's demo 10" that they're selling in Japan.

The thing you have to realise is, just because someone comes up with a technology, doesn't mean its viable for consumers. OLED will be unbelievably expensive when it is first released, just like Plasma and LCD were. It will be 3-4 years at least until there is anything competing with them, simply because there is no incentive for panel manufacturers to abandon their extremely expensive facilities to replace them with the latest and greatest technology.

It will happen eventually, but I can see Plasma and LCD living on for another 10 years at least.