With the New Year comes the annual Consumer Electronics Show, as well as plenty of new electronic goodies. LG wants to get the crowds pumped up for something extra special, so they are promising to have a 55-inch OLED TV on hand at the show -- the largest that has ever been shown.
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) TV panels have popped up before, but not in such a large form factor. The fact that the company has a 55-incher ready to roll could mean that they're ready to bring the tech to market. If you aren't quite convinced, Tech-On and HD Guru both say that Samsung is also working on a similar OLED panel, so the race is on to see who comes to market first!
OLED operates differently than LCD, allowing light emitting diodes to self-generate light (as opposed to LCD and LED/LCD TVs which require a backlight). In this respect, it's similar to plasma TV, and should be able to offer those deep black levels we love. OLED technology also features a response time that is claimed to be 1,000 times faster than liquid crystal. LG promises stellar image quality and a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, as well as a wider color gamut than LCD panels. It's also pretty thin, at less than 5mm thick, and more energy efficient than LG's current LCD TVs.
LG, in particular, uses White OLED (WOLED) with the color layers below. This method boasts a lower error rate, higher productivity, and a clearer Ultra Definition screen via the benefits of small pixels.
"Our objective has always been to actively define and lead emerging display technology markets," said Dr. Sang Beom Han, CEO and executive VP of LG Display. "Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display's 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers."
For now, LG claims that this 55-incher is "the world's largest" OLED TV panel. The next question is whether or not the TV will support 3D content -- and if so, which style of 3D the company will go with. Right now, LG manufacturers both active and passive 3D TVs. However, they really pushed the latter in 2011. If we had to place a bet on Vegas, we'd wager that the CES OLED will not be 3D-friendly, but future models may be. As mentioned above, the technology has had its share of size limitations. Yes, the 55-incher supposedly addresses those issues. However, it's hard to imagine that LG will put so many eggs into one basket for this big OLED's big debut.
If they did decide to roll the dice on both technologies in one set, it would be a hard secret to keep. LG made a few other 3D-related announcements earlier today, and none mentioned the OLED TV. Maybe they are saving a few surprises. We shall see in a few weeks when the Consumer Electronics Show runs from January 10-13, 2012.
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