You know those little OLED displays used in cellphones and MP3 players? Well imagine an MP3 player with a screen fourteen inches diagonal! Now wouldn’t that be something!

Uh, guess not.

But it’s still cool! OLED technologies are improving like my writing (I hope). Like the Cambridge Display Technology’s creation of a 14″ full colour PLED (polymer organic light-emitting diode) displays using ink jet printing.

The displays were produced at CDT¡’s Technology Development Center in the UK, and feature a screen resolution of 1,280X768 RGB pixels, or the equivalent of almost three million sub-pixels, or over 30 million ink-jet drops. The development strengthens CDT’s view that multi-nozzle ink jet printing is the best approach to achieving scalability and a low TAC time in the manufacture of high quality PLED displays.

Maybe one day you’ll ask your spouse to print you a new TV because your old one just rotted off the wall. (OLED’s are organic, after all.)

Displaybank - CDT Develops 14-inch Full Color Polymer OLED

engadget got a chance to interview David Steel, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung Electronics’ Digital Media Business. Why do I never get to interview anyone like this. The closest I get is our Japanese fighting fish, named “Flower”.

But anyway, Mr. Steel gives up the goods. Mr. Steel reiterates Samsung’s support for Blu-ray. Samsung believes it’s the best next-gen disc format in terms of technical performance. When asked about a dual-format player, he said “That’s the really the challenge when you start mixing standards – it’s going to drive up the complexity and the cost, because then you need different heads to be able to read each disc.” And again about the dual format player:

Is Samsung committed to putting out a dual format player if both Blu-ray and HD DVD make it to market?

No, no. I wouldn’t say we’re committed to doing that. I mean, we’ll still have to see. It’s not just a case of both standards emerging, it’s how much content will be available for each one. We really have from the outset been hopeful that one standard, Blu-ray, will become the standard.

On the subject of OLED displays, he says that 40″ OLED displays are at least 3 to 5 years away, even given the fact that they’ve shown off a prototype.

engadget - The Engadget Interview: David Steel, Vice President of Marketing for Samsung Electronics’ Digital Media Business

At their Global Road Show, held in New York, Samsung showed off several technologies. Samsung is spending $5.2 billion for R&D this year, about 9% of their 2005 projected income. That’s quite a bit. But it seems to be paying off. They showed off the world’s largest DLP HD RPTV, at 71″. The largest LCD at 82″, the largest plasma at 102″, and the largest OLED display at 40″. Interesting to see all those different sizes for the differing technologies. The also showed off a Blu-ray player with a built-in HD tuner.

TWICE - Samsung Unveils New Products At Global Road Show (free subscription)

tom’s hardware guide has a very interesting article discussing the reasons behind their move to support HD-DVD over Blu-ray. There were six main reasons. Two of these I couldn’t care less about: iHD vs BDJ (who cares about either?), and being able to copy a disc to your hard drive (keeping DRM in place). Two were technologies Blu-ray couldn’t demonstrate that HD-DVD did: high capacity (!!) and hybrid discs. Both of these were things that Blu-ray couldn’t show, but will eventually support. The last two are low production costs and low disc replication costs. Personally, I think these will come down for Blu-ray, and will become a non-issue. But there you have it.

tom’s hardware - Blu-ray support a last minute switch, Microsoft says

In an ironic twist, MSN Money (owned by Microsoft) has an article that basically states that Microsoft and Intel’s backing are no big thing. The big factor for the success of either format is studio support. And Microsoft and Intel’s support for HD-DVD may sway studios away from HD-DVD, because PC’s are where all the copying takes place.

Unfortunately, the title of the MSN Money article says that Blu-ray is Sony’s “DVD format”. Not!

MSN Money - Sony defends its Blu-ray DVD format

Sharp is shipping its largest professional monitor, the 45″ LCD model PN-455. At 1920 x 1080 resolution, it fits HDTV perfectly.

Sharp’s LCD monitor line has several proprietary technologies and features that ensure unparalleled image quality for a professional presentation of information, data and images. The line has anti-glare and low-reflection properties enabling Sharp monitors to be placed in brighter areas where other screens might appear washed out. Higher contrast lets viewers discern details they might otherwise miss, particularly when viewing darker content. The 170-degree viewing angles help the monitor display a crisp picture that can be seen from virtually anywhere in the room.

The PN-455 has an MSRP of $9,595.

Creative Mac - Sharp Ships PN-455 45” Pro HD LCD For Digital Signage

Samsung showed off their stuff at the International Meeting on Information Display 2005. Some highlights from the Samsung booth included:

• 40” Active Matrix OLED: Recognized with the Top Industry Technology Award by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the 40” OLED display is the world’s largest and first to be developed as a single-sheet glass plate with WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels) HD-class resolution using an amorphous silicon backplane. It has a maximum brightness of 600 nits, a shade ratio (black-and-white contrast ratio) of at least 5,000:1, and color saturation of at least 80%. Its ultra-slim design allows for the development of TV sets that are a mere 3cm thick or less.
• 82” LCD TV Panel: The largest LCD ever developed, the 82” LCD was produced at the company’s newest and the world’s largest TFT-LCD production line, the 7th Generation (1,870mm×2,200mm glass substrates) line located in Tangjeong. It features an unparalleled viewing angle of 180˚ and boasts a color saturation of 92% and video quality response speeds of 8ms or less.
• “Xmitter” LED Technology: The Xmitter technology incorporates Samsung’s proprietary optical structural design to enhance light efficiency by more than 40% over the conventional side scan method. Power consumption was reduced by 40% compared to existing LED products and color saturation stands at 107% while brightness is at 500 nits. The product is drawing attention as the next-generation light source as it meets new environmental regulations which will go into effect in Europe in 2006.

Link: Samsung - SAMSUNG LCD Technology Highlighted at IMID

HDTVExpert has a great article about emerging LCD and other display technologies at the SID 2005 show. It seems that there’s a lot of experimentation going on with how to wring the most performance out of the venerable LCD technology. LED and hybrid backlight technologies, polarizing films, screen sizes up to 82″, and resolutions of 1920×1080 were all in evidence.

OLED also made an appearance, but SED was a no-show. Personally, from what I’ve heard, SED likes like quite a technology to watch. LCOS technology also made an appearance at the show.

Check it out:

Link: HDTVExpert - SID 2005: LCD’s Full Metal Jacket

At the Society for Information Display (SID) 2005 show this week, Samsung will be strutting its stuff.

They’ll be showing off an 82″ (no typo) LCD display, with a response time of 8ms or less. (Great for moving video, one of LCD’s traditional weaknesses.) They’ll also be showing off a 46″ LCD panel using LEDs to backlight the display. As mentioned in another article, they’ll also be showing off their 40″ HDTV OLED display.

Link: ultimate AV - LCD & LED @ SID

Universal Display has announced the development of the world’s first high resolution (200dpi) transparent OLED display.

The development of this high-resolution transparent OLED display is a step toward putting thin, low power, full-motion video displays that provide transparency when turned off into a variety of applications where preserving partial visibility or bi-directionality is important. These include architectural vision glass, entertainment, medical and industrial products, helmet shields for military, Homeland Security, fire and rescue applications, and other applications as yet unimagined.

Link: Audioholics - Universal Display First to Achieve 200 dpi Transparent OLED

My friend Joshua was just mentioning OLED the other day. It came up in a conversation about Steve’s 10 year old Mitsubishi 33″ (I think) CRT which is going on the fritz. This was quite annoying as we were playing some GameCube games, as the screen would get brighter, then darker, etc. So Steve’s pondering what television to replace it with. We bandied about several ideas, but the main problem is that all display types have compromises of one sort or the other. So Steve will will have to make up his mind one way or another. Too bad he’ll probably have to replace it before OLED becomes mainstream, because it looks like quite a promising technology. Read the rest of this entry »