4K OLED: introduction and market status - Page 18

As promised, Panasonic showed 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel at the IFA 2013 exhibition. The company had several prototypes on display, and I believe these are the same panels as the ones Panasonic unveiled at CES 2013 in January 2013.

Panasonic panels are made using an "all-printing" method, and Sumitomo Chemical revealed that these prototypes use the company's PLED materials. Panasonic's panel uses a substrate (probably Oxide-TFT) provided by Sony (which are actually made by AU Optronics) - as part of the two companies collaboration. According to the latest reports, they only plan to start OLED production at around 2015.

A few months ago it was reported that LG will unveil a 77" OLED TV at the IFA 2013 exhibition - and today indeed the company unveiled a 77" curved UHD (4K) WRGB OLED TV prototype. This may be just a prototype, but still a great technology feat by LG...

So - this is the world's largest OLED ever shown (the previous biggest one was AUO's 65" panel shown at SID 2013). We've seen 4K OLEDs before from Sony and Panasonic and Samsung also has a UHD OLED panel on display at the exhibition.

About four months after LG launched the world's first curved TV (the 55" 55EA9800 OLED TV), both Samsung and Sony launched curved LCDs - showing us that LCDs can also curve. Samsung actually announced two models, in 55" and 65". Both offer UHD (4K) resolution (and so Samsung proudly says these are the world's first curved UHD panels).

Sony S990A

Sony's S990A curved LED-backlit LCD is 65" in size, and "only" Full-HD. It features the color-enhancing Triluminos display technology (QDVision's Quantum-Dot films). Sony's TV is closer to market - in fact the company already accepts pre-orders in the US for $4,000. It will ship in late October 2013. Sony also showed the 4K 56" OLED TV protoype, which seems to be the same one shown at CES 2013:

Samsung is showing new 4K OLED TVs prototypes at the IFA 2013 exhibition. Samsung calls these panels a 'proof of concept' - which probably means we shouldn't be expecting this panel in a commercial product soon. They are showing two models, one flat and one curved.

It's still not clear whether 4K at a 55" TV actually makes a lot of sense, but it seems that this is the way the market is moving, and it's good to see more 4K OLED TV prototypes.

In May 2013, Ignis Innovation announced that it will soon start shipping sample 20" AMOLED displays to display makers to evaluation their MaxLife compensation technology. Today Ignis announced that they decided to go for a larger 55" FHD OLED TV. The company said it received "firm orders" for those samples from display manufacturers and OEMs.

The MaxLife external compensation technology continuously measures every pixel in the display and compensates for even the smallest shift in performance (due to burn-in or bad manufacturing issues), making it completely uniform and completely stable. MaxLife can work with a-Si, LTPS and metal-oxide backplanes (those 55" panels now in production use a metal-oxide backplane). The technology should, according to Ignis, allow for cheaper OLED TVs as it improves yield and also enables simpler device (i.e. a simpler pixel structure with less TFTs per pixel).

It seems that in the next few years (before OLED TV prices hopefully drop to a comparable level to LCDs), people wanting to buy a premium TV will have two options: 4K LCDs or FHD OLED TVs. 4K resolutions usually means 3840 × 2160 (although some offer different resolutions) - or about 4 times the pixels of FHD resolution, hence the 4K name.

4K OLED prototype (Sony)

Obviously this makes sense. The higher pixel density means smoother images. But does it really make sense? There are two main issues here: suitable content and whether you can actually tell the difference.

Some web sites are reporting that Panasonic is set to unveil a 20" 4K OLED tablet at the IFA 2013 event next week. Those sites are relying on auto-translated Japanese text. But in fact the company will not show such a tablet. In an English PR, Panasonic says they will show a 4K 20" tablet and a 4K OLED panel prototype - those are two different devices.

I'm guessing Panasonic's 4K OLED panel will be the same 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel shown at CES 2013. This panel was made using an "all-printing" method. Sumitomo Chemical revealed that this TV prototype used the company's PLED materials. Panasonic's panel uses a substrate (probably Oxide-TFT) provided by Sony (which are actually made by AU Optronics) - as part of the two companies collaboration.

Last week Sony unveiled new 30" and 56" 4K OLED panels, slated for release in 2014, and they also updated their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors with the new A Series which sport an improved OLED panel. Now I have some new information on Sony's new OLEDs.

So first of all, that 56" panel is the same panel shown at CES, made in cooperation with AU Optronics. Sony do plan to use it for their professional video division, but it's still too early for any delivery dates or price information.

Update: we've got some new details on those new OLED panels from sony

Sony has some interesting news for us at NAB 2013. First up are new 4K OLED monitor prototypes (30" 4096x2160 and 56" 3840x2160). And the good news is that Sony actually plans to release the 30" ones in 2014.

Sony also updated their TRIMASTER EL professional OLED monitors with the new A Series. These new monitors use an improved panel that has a wider viewing angle and reduced color shift (by half, compared to previous models). The new series includes the BVM-E250A/BVM-E170A cinema/broadcast monitors, the BVM-F250A/BVM-F170A TV production and broadcasting monitors and the PVM-2541A/PVM-1741A picture monitors.

At CES 2013 Panasonic unveiled a 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel prototype that was produced using an all-printing method. Back in January we assumed Panasonic were using SMOLED materials, but now Sumitomo Chemical revealed (as part of their 2013-2015 plan presentation) that this TV prototype used the company's PLED materials.

Panasonic has been working on OLED printing technologies for quite some time and back in 2009, they teamed up with Sumitomo to jointly-develop OLED TVs, based on Sumitomo's PLED materials and technology. I thought this partnership is not active anymore, but evidently I was wrong on that one.