4K OLED: introduction and market status - Page 17

LG announced that it plans to launch their 77" curved UHD OLED TV, the 77EC9800, in Q2 2014. The price will be $29,999. That's a very steep price of course, but this will be probably the best display you could buy in 2014 (unless you want an even larger panel, of course).

The 77EC9800 features LG's Color Refiner that results in superior color consistency and balance, High Dynamic Range (HDR), passive 3D FPR, LG's Tru-ULTRA HD Engine Pro that can upscale resolutions from SD to 4K and Motion Estimation Motion Compensation (MEMC). The TV also includes LG's newest Smart-TV platform.

LG already announced it will be showing several new OLED TV models at CES (including new 55", 65" and 77" models), but today at CES the company unveiled a bendable 77" 4K OLED. As was speculated last month, this panel can change from flat to curved using a "combination of water and motors" (whatever that means).

Engadget says the new TV is gorgeous. They were told by LG that they actually plan to ship this TV to the US soon - at H2 2014 or maybe at the beginning of 2015. It'll be interesting to see how all this bending effects the OLED structure. The TV anyway moves 7.5 cm to bend (it's eight centimeters narrower in total at full curve).

Just a couple of days ago I said LG are expected to bring ready-to-market 4K OLED TVs at CES 2014, and today indeed they announced they will show new 55", 65" and 77" curved 4K OLED TVs. It seems that the 77" and the 55" ones are actually the ones that they will release first as they already have a model number (77EC9800 and 55EB9600).

LG's OLED TVs will all be smart TVs, and will offer new image enhancement technologies. The new 55" one (the 55EB9600) will be more eco-friendly than the current 55EA9800 as it is more energy efficient and it is made from fewer component. It also uses more recycled materials. LG, by the way, will also show the flat Gallery OLED TV at CES - for the first time in the US.

In January 7 CES 2014 will begin, and it'll be very interesting to see what kind of new OLED products and prototypes will be launched during this exciting event. Highlights from CES 2013 included LG's OLED TV launch, Samsung's YOUM flexible OLED launch and 4.99" FHD mobile OLED (which was later adopted in the GS4) - and finally Sony's and Panasonic's 56" 4K OLED prototypes.

But what should we expect from CES 2014? So first, let's look at OLED TVs. LG and Samsung are bound to show their current flat and curved 55" OLED TV products at CES, and LG will most likely bring their 77" curved UHD OLED prototype, but we do not expect them to launch this as a product yet. The two Korean companies are quite likely though to unveil ready-to-market 4K OLED TVs, curved and flat. Samsung already showed a 55" 4K OLED prototype at IFA 2013.

In June 2012, Sony and Panasonic announced that two companies will jointly develop technologies for OLED TV panels mass production. Now the two Japanese companies announced that they canceled the joint development. The two companies will continue to develop OLED technologies independently, but will focus on UHD LCDs. Sony and Panasonic explains tha OLED TVs did "not deliver the growth originally envisioned, and are unlikely to be commercially viable in the near future.

Sony 56-inch 4K OLED TV prototype

In January 2013 (during last year's CES event), the two companies unveiled 56" 4K OLED TV prototypes. The Oxide-TFT substrate was produced by AUO. We know that Panasonic used an ink-jet printing process, Sumitomo's PLED materials and a direct-emission architecture. Sony used their own Super Top Emission OLED technology and evaporable OLED materials.

Kateeva is a US based startup that was established in 2009 to develop OLED ink-jet deposition technology originally developed at MIT. The company has been been in stealth-mode for years, and now finally they have unveiled their technology and system, branded YIELDJet.

So YIELDJET is an inkjet printing system that can be used to produce OLEDs in high volume. Kateeva claims that their system, the first one engineered from the ground up for OLED mass production, will dramatically improve yields and drive production costs lower. Kateeva says that this was achieved by three major technical breakthroughs: is features a production-worthy pure nitrogen process chamber, which doubles the lifetime in certain applications, it reduces particles by as much as 10X thanks to a specialized mechanical design and it offers exceptional film coating uniformity with a process window that’s 5X wider than standard technologies.

In December 2012 reports suggested that Panasonic may stop plasma R&D by March 2013. Now the company officially announced that it will cease Plasma panel (PDP) production by the end of 2013. They will put all their resources and development into UHD (4K) and OLED TV technologies. This move probably means the end of Plasma TV technology, but is good news for OLED TVs!

In January 2013 Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K2K OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials and is collaborating with Sony on production technology. Panasonic aims to release the first OLED TVs in 2015, but according to some reports they are progressing fast and may be ready with a product by the end of 2013.

Last month Ignis Innovation announced that they began producing some 55" OLED TV evaluation samples for display makers to test their MaxLife compensation technology. The company now tells us that the first sample panel arrived at their offices, and they will start fulfilling orders (to display makers and OEMs) in about two weeks.

The company did some initial measurements, and they say that this panel offers the world's lowest power consumption (20% lower than LG and Samsung's current OLED TVs), longest lifetime (a significant boost over existing OLED panels). The panels are highly uniform (much better than the OLED TVs no the market).

According to the OLED Association, Panasonic said that they are progressing fast enough to launch the 55" (probably 56") UHD OLED TV in Q4 2013. Panasonic will start mass production in its Himeji Pilot Gen-5.5 line (which means initial production will be very limited). If this report is true it means a real acceleration as Panasonic previously said they will only be ready in 2015 (although you may say that the current Himeji line will not be real mass production in any case).

Panasonic OLED TV prototype, IFA 2013

Panasonic's OLED TV panel, unveiled in January 2013, is produced using ink-jet printing and uses an RGB subpixel matrix (direct-emission). Panasonic is using Sumitomo's PLED materials, and AUO's oxide-TFT Substrates. The company is collaborating with Sony on OLED technologies.

Last month I posted about the new wave of UHD (4K) TVs. 4K resolution usually means 3840x2160 and offers four times the pixels of FHD (hence the 4K name). In my post I quoted DisplayMate's Raymond Soneira that said a human being can't really tell the difference between 4K and FHD panel in a 55" TV viewed from a normal viewing distance.

LG UHD OLED TV prototype

This sparkled a lively debate. Some people say that 4K images are superb to Full-HD ones. Only today Paul Gray, DisplaySearch's director for EU TV research posted his thoughts on the IFA exhibition - and he says 4K provides a completely new way of viewing and enables immersion even better than 3D.