CES 2006: Big Displays, High-Definition DVDs, Oh My!

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.designtechnica.com/featured_article38_page1.html' target='_blank'>http://news.designtechnica.com/featured_article38_page1.html</a><br /><br /></div>DesignTechnica has a nice CES 2006 wrap-up article that focuses mostly on displays and the next-gen DVD formats. While I'm still pleased with my Samsung DLP TV, I'm always interested in what's coming next. SED really caught my eye, though I unfortunately didn't get to see it in person at CES (it was a freakin' zoo, far too many people). Here's what the article has to say about SED:<br /><br /><i>"Both Toshiba and Canon publicly showed SED for the first time. When launched this coming fall (September-November), it will be a 1080p 55-in. model. Pricing is unavailable, but I expect to get more details in May at Toshiba’s line show. What I can say is the image quality is truly exceptional! As one TV engineer confided, “It made the hairs on my neck stand on end, the picture was so stunning!” While some journalists think that the window is closing for SED (if it doesn’t launch), others feel that the picture quality is so good that people will certainly buy it. We will just have to wait and see."</i><br /><br />The article also talked about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, and what Sony has planned for the PS3. If the HD-DVD camp can have a $499 USD player in the market and 200 movies out by Christmas, it could be a real winner. And if Sony releases the PS3 at a $600 USD price point, Blu-Ray DVD player or not, it will tank. The mainstream public is simply not willing to pay $600 USD for a gaming console.

[Philip Colmer]

I've seen praise of SED at CES elsewhere and it really is starting to make me think that this may be the technology to go for ... "all" I've got to do is persuade the wife that a 55" set isn't too big :lol:.

--Philip

[sojourner753]

What is SED?

Sorry... :oops:

[Philip Colmer]

What is SED?

Sorry... :oops:
No need to apologise - it is all too easy to get lost in the myriad of abbreviations these days.

I pinched this from hometheater.about.com:

SED ( Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) sounds exotic, but is not as complicated as it seems. SED borrows from the basic principle of CRT television technology. CRTs form an image by utilizing a single source electron beam scanning phosphors imbedded on a screen surface. Instead of a single electron beam scanning an entire screen surface, SED employs a separate electron beam for each pixel on the screen surface. This technology allows the manufacture of extremely thin flat panel displays, with the same performance characteristics of the traditional CRT.
Comments from CES, where Toshiba &amp; Canon showed a SED display alongside a plasma display often include phrases like "picture quality of the SED panel was quite stunning". The power consumption is said to be much lower than LCD or plasma.

I don't know if SED has any deficiencies. If it is similar to CRT, but flatter, I would have thought that we would get similar lifespans and similar behaviour (e.g. harder to burn in, etc,).

--Philip

[yada88]

Jason, I've been reading this site since it launched and PPCT for a long time, so I think you'll agree with me when I say

WHEN HAS SONY DONE ANYTHING BASED ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN OR CONSUMER DESIRES?

[Jason Dunn]

WHEN HAS SONY DONE ANYTHING BASED ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN OR CONSUMER DESIRES?

Heh. Good point. :roll: It just seems odd to me that with the success they've seen with the PS2, that they'd gamble so much on making the PS3 really expensive.

[Felix Torres]

WHEN HAS SONY DONE ANYTHING BASED ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN OR CONSUMER DESIRES?

Heh. Good point. :roll: It just seems odd to me that with the success they've seen with the PS2, that they'd gamble so much on making the PS3 really expensive.

Its not yet certain they *are* going to be more expensive.
They may choose to drop the BD-ROM drive to be competitive.

Their main problem is the same they have always have: hubris.
Sony is a strong follower of "not-invented-here" thinking; the inherent superiority of their tech over everybody else's solutions. And in their endless quest to sell the universe on *their* tech, they are determined to use the PS3 as a showcase and promotional vehicle for Cell and BD-ROM.
BD-ROM they want to use to dominate the next generation of video delivery, while Cell, they want to turn into a "standard" processor for multimedia devices; TVs, video players, etc.
(The talk of workstations and PCs is just wishfull thinking; the Cell architecture as implemented in PS3 isn't suited to general-purpose computing at all.)

Bottom line: they are taking their eye off the ball. Thinking of the spinoffs instead of the core gaming market. If they don't refocus on making the PS3 a competitive console instead of obsessing on technology licensing, they may find themselves with an overpriced a technology demo instead of a mainstream consumer electronics product.

[Jason Dunn]

...they may find themselves with an overpriced a technology demo instead of a mainstream consumer electronics product.

Hmm. A good technology that never went mainstream consumer....BETA! :lol:

[klinux]

Canon's site on SED http://www.canon.com/technology/display/.

"A major challenge facing display manufacturers has been how to develop a new kind of display offering the same picture quality as a CRT in a slim yet large unit. Canon's SED has successfully met this challenge." - Canon

Sony's working on FED (field emission display) which has not been publicly demonstrated as far as I know.

Sony is researching FED because it is the flat-panel technology that comes closest to matching the picture of a CRT, says Makoto Kogure, vice president of Sony and president of the company's TV group. "FED's response is very fast and it's very easy to make a CRT-like picture. Power consumption is very low."

Samsung is puring R&amp;D into OLED display - it premiered a 40" OLED TV 6 months ago.