Toshiba pledges 30in OLED TV will ship in 2009

Why Organic?

The market already offers large inorganic LED displays. If I need a durable display, and I do not need it to bend, why do I need OLEDs?

Release date

Why does it matter that Toshiba are releasing 30in OLED screen? Big deal... Ok it's a lot bigger in size, but the product won't be coming out for another 2 years. Everyone will probably be producing those screens by then.

yup.

more than enough...

@ Steve (but nicely)

"and who keeps something for 12 years these days."

I do. I have a couple of TVs that are perfectly good, with inputs for Scart, D-Sub and coax, yet (I know, i can get a freeview box, but its not the same, and its more plugs into the mains) shortly they will be obsolete due to the drive for "better" technology, as will my analogue tuner hard disk recorders (which cant control external digital tuners). I have old toasters, kenwood chefs etc and a really old car inherited from the mother-in-law, all fo which work perfectly well, but its better for the planet (and my wallet) to keep them going rather than replace them with all the costs of manufacture, shipping, packaging, not to mention the landfill with the old stuff.

At my place of work, the PCs are on average 8 years old, the servers not much younger, but we make it all work and save alot on costs. Its not always ideal, and I'm not a militant greenie, but the throwaway society really gets my goat.

@Steve - power consumption

Steve do you have a weblink or something that talks about the greater power consumption than normal LCDs? I'd like to see the evidence! ;-)

I always thought that OLED would demand less energy overall, LCDs always drain a roughly consistent amount of energy from the always on cold cathode, it then has to filter ALL that light out when displaying black.

I would expect OLEDs to drain an amt of energy consistent with the general screen brightness. Average it out for the average TV channel content and it should turn out less.

About the 3.5 years life- Well before then, the elements would perhaps begin to fade and change colour (not necessarily to white or black) hence ruining the screen well before an LCD screen reaches a similar end of life.

A great tech regardless tho.

Not LED as we know it

OLED have more in common with 1960s Electroluminescent panels, which also suffered from lifetime issues.

They have an Anode & Cathode hence "Diode",

They emit Light

They are based on organic chemistry

Thus Organic Light Emitting Diodes OLED.

The Sony screen is only 11", a lot of its power consumption is likely the electronics. You need to compare 37" screens.

LCD only allow about 1/5th of the backlight. Unfortunately some OLED screens do not use Red, Green & Blue emitters but Blue/Violet/UV OLEDs and phosphor or even white via phoshors and then coloured stripes making them less efficient than LCDs.

OLEDs are not really at all the same animal as conventional LEDs, hence not the same efficency, colours or life. Really they are EL panels.

You'd think they'd mention response times.

A fast LCD display element has a response time of a few miliseconds. A fast OLED display element has a response time of a few microseconds. OLEDs are about a thousand times faster than LCDs, far too fast for any lag to be perceivable.

These spokesbods are supposed to highlight a product's strengths, aren't they?

On the subject of consumer durable durability, I think all of our family's TVs did at least 12 years service apiece, and none of them were ever disposed of until they were thoroughly knackered. We were using a Sony Trinitron with a tuning knob well into the 1990s, and I can still remember the channel positions (ITV = 25, C4 = 28, BBC1 = 32, BBC2 = 35). O tempora, o mores.

A shame for japanese engeneers

I wonder what became of the old japanese spirit of getting down devices to a usable size. I mean 30 inch, where can one put such a gigantic thing? And further more it doesn't have any usable flat top. You cannot put anything on top of your set so you waste even more space.

Why can't they think about a simple device with an OLED front which can display "windows" of content. For example I have one clock and 2 video inputs, or perhaps a cheap oscilloscope, etc.

Well durability is really a problem. People just expect their TVs to last 30-40 years, but LCDs also cannot promise that.