OLED HDR - Page 6

According to ETNews, Samsung Display is under pressure from the LCD business, and is expected to make a final decision regarding a future OLED TV panel production facility investment. According to Digitimes, SDC have resolved the technological issues that previously resulted in low production yields, but there are still many challenges before mass production is possible.

Samsung OLED TV (2009)

I think that the main pressure for Samsung Electronics is actually from LG whose OLED TVs get great reviews and a lot of press. If Samsung wait too long, they may end up losing the future OLED TV market, and already I believe they are starting to be seen as less innovating. And losing to LG will be the most shameful of all...

The OLED Association posted an interesting article, summarizing 2015 and giving its projection for 2016 and onwards. So first of all, they conclude that 2015 was a great year for the OLED display industry, with shipments up 53% over 2014 to reach almost 275 million units. AMOLED Revenues grew to almost $13 billion - up 40% over 2014.

The growth was mostly due to Samsung Display's effort to commercialize flexible OLED displays for mobile phones and the expansion of AMOLED customer beyond Samsung Electronics. LG Display also contributed to the OLED display market, and the OLED association estimates the LG sold over 400,000 OLED TVs. They also say that they shipped around 14,000 flexible OLEDs, but they probably mean around 14 million - as that about makes sense for the Apple Watch.

LG announced their OLED TV lineup in 2016. The company will release four new OLED TV series, all of them use 4K panels (flat and curved). LG will also continue to produce and market the FHD models announced in 2015. All the new TVs support LG's new Web OS 3, HDR and LG's Color Prime PRO technology.

So first up we have the high end Signature G6 line. This is an ultra-slim on-glass design that uses a high-end pivoting speakers. The 65" G6 will launch towards the end of February 2016 while the 77" model will launch a new months later. Prices were not announced yet.

In September 2015 Panasonic announced the company's first OLED TV, the TX-65CZ950. This TV hasn't been released yet, but Panasonic is showing it again at CES 2016, and confirms that it will be sold in the US too.

The CZ950 uses a curved 65" 4K OLED panel (produced by LG Display) that features Panasonic's 4K Pro tech which includes advanced gradation controls and 3D color look tables. The TV supports HDR and is THX certified.

LG Display announced it will showcase several OLED prototypes and products at CES 2016 next week. LGD will show 65" and 77" 4K HDR OLED TVs, a paper-thin 55" concept, a 139" Vertical-Tiled OLED display and a 18" rollable OLED that has a curvature radius of 30 mm.

Most of these displays were already on display. The 18" rollable OLED was first demonstrated in July 2014 and in May 2015 LGD announced flat 0.97 mm thick 55" OLEDs. The 139" tiled display is now, although a few months ago LGD did showcase a 111" double-sided wave display that was made from three attached 65" 4K OLED panels.

According to a report in China, Skyworth launched new 55" and 65" 4K HDR OLED TVs earlier this week. The 55" one will be priced at ¥14,999 ($2300 USD) and the 65" will be priced at ¥25,000 ($3850 USD). Those OLED TVs currently has a premium of around 50% over LCDs, but Skyworth aims to bring down prices in 2016 (to a 30% premium).

Skyworth Group's VP Liu Tong Chi said that OLED TVs are finally reached mass-market promotion, and Skyworth aims to sell 30,000 OLED TVs by March 2016 (the end of their 2015 fiscal year) and 200,000 OLED TVs by March 2017. Skyworth's VP expects OLED TVs to reach a 30% market share in China by 2020.

TV testing website HDTVTest, UK retailer Crampton and Moore and Leeds Trinity University teamed up to do a public TV shootout, pitching two new OLED TVs (Panasonic's upcoming TX-65CZ950 and LG's 65EF9500) against Panasonic's TC-P60ZT60 plasma TV, which is considered the best plasma TV ever made.

Panasonic TX-65CZ950

The three TVs were calibrated and then displayed the same scenes in front of 28 AV enthusiasts - who voted for the TV that delivered the best picture quality. After disqualifying two voting papers, only 3 voted for the plasma TV - the rest of the votes were split almost evenly between the Panasonic and the LG OLEDs. That represented a 88% vote in favor of OLED technology.

Our friends from FlatPanelsHD visited LG Display in Korea, and came back with some interesting information regarding LG's plans for the OLED TV market.

First of all, LG is still developing its 0.97mm wallpaper-thin OLED TV with an aim to make it more durable - and also to figure out the cable issues. Currently LG is using an external box for all the connections - and LG considers using this design in future OLED TVs so the display itself can stay as thin as possible. The current plan is to release a 0.97 mm OLED TV commercially towards the end of 2016.

LG's 55" flat 4K OLED TVs (the 55EF9500) are finally shipping in the US - for $3,999, the same price as LG's curved 4K OLED, the 55EG9600. The 65" flat model is also shipping for $5,999.

The EF9500, available in either 55" (55EF9500) or 65" (65EF9500) models feature a flat 4K OLED panel, HDR, a new anti-glare filter, WebOS 2.0 and quad-core CPUs. LG offers similar curved models, the EG9600 TVs at the same prices.

Vestel, the Turkish-based tech giant is about to bring several new high-end TVs to the market, adopting technologies such as 4K, curved panels, HDR, Android TV, Quantum Dots - and OLEDs. The company is offering its designs to other brands as an OEM.

Vestel says they plan to introduce an OLED TV to the market in early 2017. Vestel aims to create a high-volume TV, aiming to sell a large amount of TVs at a relatively low cost. It's highly likely that Vestel is talking to LG Display to supply them with those OLED panels. LGD is already supplying OLEDs to several Chinese makers, including ;including Skyworth, Konka, Changhong, and Haier, and is also supplying the OLED for Panasonic's new OLED TV.