All OLED TV Reviews

Despite the widely spread news of a Panasonic OLED TV last week, Matsushita has confirmed that 2011 is not a set date for release of a large OLED TV.

From Tech On

Some media sources reported June 24, 2008, that Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd are making final adjustments to start volume production of a 37-inch OLED TV in fiscal 2011.

Matsushita responded to our interview and commented on 14:00, June 24, on the news, saying, “We are currently advancing research and development in view of OLED production at IPS Alpha’s Himeji Plant for the future, but nothing specific has yet been decided on the commercialization of our OLED TV at the moment.”

According to some reports, Matsushita is planning to mass-produce OLED panels on the new lines to be installed and dedicated to OLED panel production at the Mobara and Himeji plants (which is slated to begin operating in January 2010) of its subsidiary IPS Alpha Technology Ltd and assemble them into TVs at its plants both inside and outside Japan.

It has been reported that Matsushita will take six 37-inch OLED panels from a sixth-generation glass substrate at Mobara Plant, while taking 10 panels from an eighth-generation glass substrate at Himeji Plant.

Matsushita feels that the era of the OLED TV is fast approaching. At its management policy meeting in January 2008, President Fumio Otsubo said, “Large OLED TVs will start replacing the existing TVs from about 2015, I expect.”

Good news from Korea. LG Display has launched an OLED TV and OLED Display production line:

“LG Display formally launched an organic light emitting diode (OLED) division at its Gumi plant in North Gyeongsang Province on Thursday.

OLED is touted as a driving force in the next-generation display field, and companies like Sony and Samsung Electronics have already entered the business. Because it does not require additional backlight, OLED panels can be made thinner than 1 millimeter.

LG Display will first focus on developing and producing small products but expand business to producing medium-sized to large televisions, the company said.

LG Display developed an active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) for a 20.1-inch television in 2004, and was the first in the world to produce a 4-inch flexible OLED in May 2007.”

From Digital Chosunilbo

Sony has responded to the claims of decreased longevity of its XEL-1 OLED TV. The XEL-1 recently received a number of negative OLED TV reviews after it was claimed it would only last around half the 30,000 hours stated by Sony before fading.

Practically speaking, this won’t have any effect on the average viewer as 30,000 hours will last you a good number of years.

Register Hardware has a reply from Sony on these findings. Read more at reghardware.co.uk

Dupont and Dainippon have announced a partnership to develop a new OLED manufacturing process.

From digitimes.com

“The companies also have signed an agreement relating to their intention to bring together the elements needed – materials, technology and equipment – to mass produce OLED displays, delivering higher performance at a lower cost.

“The flat panel display market is about US$100 billion annually and growing. DuPont is applying its science to make possible more vivid displays that are lower cost than current LCD displays,” said David B Miller, group vice president of DuPont Electronic & Communication Technologies.

The companies are developing integrated coating and printing equipment for the fabrication of OLED displays from solution, an approach which is unique in the industry and can significantly reduce manufacturing costs for OLED displays.

DuPont brings to the alliance its distinctive small molecule-based OLED solution materials and proprietary process technology from which excellent performance has been obtained in testing. Dainippon Screen has developed a unique printing technology, called nozzle printing, in which the OLED materials can be printed accurately at very high speed.”

This is good news and helps to balance out the bad news on the Sony XEL-1 lifetime issues.

According to Digitimes.com, LG is planning to enter the OLED TV business.

“In addition to investment in next-generation production lines, LG Display has also deployed into the development of AMOLED panels. Despite that AMOLED is mostly applied in small-size panels, LG Display said it would continue investing in the large-size segment, with volume production of 32-inch OLED TVs scheduled for 2011.”

This is good news as more competition can only help bring OLED TV prices to a reasonable level in a few years.

It looks like we’ll see some larger sized OLED TV reviews starting next year. Samsung announced yesterday that their AMOLED panels for medium and large sized applications will be mass produced by the end of 2009.

“Currently the biggest issue with mass-producing AMOLED panels is production costs, but Lee explained once a capacity of three million units can be achieved, economies of scale are reached and production costs become more manageable. Lee pointed out that Samsung SDI will achieve a production capacity of three million panels in 2009, up from a current capacity of 1.5 million panels. The company also expects to double its capacity again by the end of 2010.”

Check out the full story at Digitimes.com

Taking OLED TV development yet a step further, Sony has displayed an even thinner version of the XEL-1 at the Display 2008 show in Japan.

According to audioholics.com;

“The new display was recently shown off at the Display 2008 expo trade show in Japan, where Sony also debuted a new version of its $2500 11-inch XEL-1, the world’s first mass-produced OLED TV. In this unit, the display panel “glass” measures just 0.3mm thick, about 1/4 the thickness of the prior model. We’ll be terribly impressed when the pricing drops by about 1000% and sizes go up to 42-inches or more. Until then, it’s fun to watch and wait.”

A very interesting OLED TV survey has been completed by Displaybank. Their research “is intended to gauge the potential of large-size OLED displays upon the opportunity of Sony’s launching of 11-inch OLED TV XEL1″.

With 709 respondents from an expert panel, the results are pretty much as we would anitcipate regarding future predictions for larger sized OLED TVs.

“Displaybank reports results from its “Large-Size OLED Display Recognition Survey” that includes:

- 50% of the expert panel agreed that attractive price points of OLED TV can be achieved if within 50% of LCD TV prices.
- 60% of the expert panel forecasted 40″ OLED TVs to be available in the marketplace in 2010-2012.
- 37% of the expert panel stated that attractive price points of OLED-based notebook PCs can be achieved if within 20% of LCD-based notebook PCs.”

Full story at Displaybank

From the Personal Tech Column of the Washington Post, here’s a quick question and answer  item on OLED TV;

Washington, D.C.: This month’s Consumer Reports has a little blurb about a new OLED TV. It’s something like $2,500 for an 11-inch screen, but it’s 1/8″ thick (ignoring the substantial base on which it sits) and apparently offers spectacular quality.

As someone who still watches TV on a tube (!), I’m curious — how long till OLED technology is mainstream and affordability? I’m not currently in the market to replace our tube TV anyway, but now I’m wondering if OLED gives me an excuse to hold off even longer. Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Don’t hold your breath. OLED is going to take a long time to become as affordable as LCD and plasma, especially at the bigger screen sizes we’re seeing now. 40 inches is apparently now considered “small,” in relative terms.
I agree as it appears to be at least two years until a larger sized OLED TV is available at any reasonable price.

A recent Sony XEL-1 OLED TV review from the folks at Digital Journal TV. They give a good look at the Sony XEL-1 and discuss the pros and cons of OLED TV technology.