OLED TV ARRIVES!

Sony has announced the first OLED TV shipping in the U.S. The XEL1 OLED TV will be available in January of 2008. OLED TVs have been available in Japan for several months and there is much excitement surrounding the technology. OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology allows for more colors, greater black levels, a thinner and lighter screen, and at lower power consumption than current LCD TVs or Plasma TVs. We’ve been anticipating the first OLED to arrive in the U.S. and will be reviewing the unit as soon as possible. This first OLED television available will be an 11” diagonal model.

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV REVIEW

Sony showed their new model OLED TV XEL-1. This is the first OLED TV to be sold in America. The display contained around 15 of the OLED displays with differing computer generated high definition images. I was impressed with the color depth and black level for a screen with only 3-millimeter depth.

OLED TV vs. LCD TV

It’s always interesting and fun to compare visual display technologies. People get so excited and heated about the topic. Eventually most enthusiasts end up putting their hard earned dollars on one side of battle, thus fueling the enduring debate. OLED (organic light emitting diode) is the newest technology in the lively TV/display market and my opinion is that it will be a viable alternative to LCD (liquid crystal display) TVs in the future. So which is better, LCD or OLED TV?

OLED TV vs. Plasma TV

Plasma TV technology appears to be much more closely related to OLED TV technology than its rival LCD. This “future of TV” format has many similarities with plasma technique, as we will see below. OLED TV (organic light emitting diode) is the newest (and best) technology in the lively TV/display market and my opinion is that it will be a viable alternative to plasma TV and LCD TVs in the future. It amazes me that DLP was such a vaunted television format just a few short years ago and now, with the onslaught of lower priced 1080p LCD and plasma TVs, my prediction is that it will be no longer. In less than 2 years I believe there will be very few DLP or rear projection TVs available at all. But that’s another topic.

OLED TV color information is produced using organic carbon-based compounds, which emit red, green and blue lights in response to electric current. OLED television is most similar to plasma technology in that there is no backlight needed to light the screen. OLEDs use a cathode layer to introduce electrons to the first layer of organic molecules. OLED TV panels come with either two or three layers of the organic compounds, which are located in one super thin layer of the “glass”. In a similar way plasma pixel cells containing rare natural gases come alive from electric impulses introduces to the by a TFT (thin film transistor). OLEDs have red, green, and blue organic light emitting diode material much the same way that plasma has red, green and blue phosphors.

However, there is one very important difference in engineering the panel or glass. OLED TVs have one solid layer of plexiglass-like material which is extremely thin and light and contains all of the color compounds and TFT material needed. Therefore, the OLED panel is flexible (as in non-breakable) as well. Plasma panels are essentially a glass envelope, encasing the pixels cells that house the red, green, and blue phoshor. The glass envelope is what makes plasma panels heavy and breakable.

WHAT MANUFACTURERS WILL OFFER OLED TVS?

Sony certainly leads the way in the race for the newest best television technology perhaps ever produced – OLED TV. OLED stands for Organic Light-Emitting Diode and is now being produced by Sony in an 11” model – the Sony XEL-1 television. Sony has hedged their bets on this technology by partnering with powerhouse Toyota to produce them.

Samsung OLED TVs are likely to follow soon after. Samsung has already produced both 40” and 17” prototype OLED TVs displayed at the International Meeting on Information Display in Soul. Samsung OLED prototypes differ from the Sony OLED in that they are based on white emission with an RGB color filter rather than an OLED, which has a patterned RGB light output. They call them AMOLED displays. Samsung’s Park Jong-woo has stated that he believes OLED could be a big breakthrough in the TV and public display business.

Sony XEL-1 OLED Specifications

North Amrrica's first Organic LED television
11-inch screen is ultra slim with a depth of only 3 millimeters
Light emitting structure delivers 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, very deep blacks and unmatched color expression and picture detail
Extremely bright picture with low power consumption