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Sony Begins OLED Mass Production

Dodger73 writes "According to their press release at sony.net, Sony beings mass production of full color OLED displays at 3.8" size for their Clie PEG-VZ90 'Personal Entertainment Handheld.' The press release claims, that their 'Super Top Emission' technology reaches 150cd/m^2; at the familiar 1000:1 contrast ratio. Not quite the 19" display I'd like for my computer at home, but definitely a step in the right direction."

54 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. For those of you who don't yet know... by JamesD_UK · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by BoldAC · · Score: 4, Insightful

      These translate into image quality and clarity that could previously viewed only on CRT (cathode ray tube) displays.

      Even after all these years, CRT is still the standard. Amazing...

    2. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by LousyPhreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      which is imho because of a two simple reasons:

      price (you still pay a lot less for a crt)
      resolution (you can use any resolution on a crt, on lcd's you are limited to the built in resolution, important especially for newer games if you dont want to buy every half year a new pc)

      --
      -- Karma: beyond good and evil - mostly affected by posting political
    3. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by pVoid · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Yes, I was seeing exactly that: response time of 0.01 ms...

      That's actually better response than a standard CRT!!!

      (Math behind that assumption: 75Hz monitor has a 0.013s, ie 13ms response time - and I'm going easy, the worst case scenario is 26ms, in case the change request happens just after the beam has scanned a particular pixel)

      Leave it to sony though, to somehow embed their proprietary video codec into this screen and not allow you to use DivX (like they are doing with MDs... MDs IMHO were the coolest technology to be available forever, yet they never picked up because of their stupid reluctancy to allow for mp3s).

    4. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by k98sven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Even after all these years, CRT is still the standard. Amazing...

      Amazing, why? What's so bad about them?
      It's a fundamentally simple design, which has had lots of room for improvement. -Like the internal combustion engine.

      And like the combustion engine, that means there's a high barrier to get rid of them.
      So, while they are going to be replaced eventually.. it's hardly strange that they haven't been yet.

    5. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by NoMercy · · Score: 2, Informative

      The main thing is there light emmiting, thus you can get a true black (no light emmited) and strong colors, where as with a LCD display where the light is blocked off, which not only means you've got a huge great big backlight which can't produce the same brightness in many cases as other displays, but you don't get a true black as liquid crystals can never block off 100% of the light.

      Personally I'm hoping to see OLED displays in case-mods, since unlike LCD's they won't light up the area even when black vivid images could be shown inside a case :)

    6. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by saha · · Score: 3, Informative

      CRTs also have other advantages, of higher viewing angle than LCDs and higher color gamut and larger dynamic range. I still prefer using a LaCie Electron Blue CRT to do my Photoshop work. Most video cards RAMDACs are limited to 8-bit (exceptions I can think of are SGI Onyx IR and Tezro systems and other specialized gfx cards), CRTs could easily do 10-bit, 12-bit color per pixel. If you're in the print and publishing industry you'll still want to use a CRT unless the 21" CRT hulk is crowding your workspace, or a radiologist who needs 10-bit or greater grayscale to discern which legions in the x-ray have a tumor. I don't want my radiologist looking at no 8-bit (256 shade) video card and monitor for my X-rays. I haven't seen any specs on what the OLEDs can do. All that stated is that its comparable, which is vague and ambiguous to me.

    7. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by Ignominious+Cow+Herd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Its actually a horrible, wasteful way of doing it. But at the time vacuum tubes were are we knew how to make. Since then billions of dollars and tons of man-hours have gone into perfecting them. Current CRT technology is just about as far as one could possibly push it. It WILL be surpassed very soon by OLED or one of the other up-and-coming technologies. LCD also is probably near its limit.

      --
      Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
    8. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by jsebrech · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can get perfect geometry on an LCD (Trinitrons are a simple example, but there are others) and you can get the same sharpness of LCDs as well (but only with much, much more expensive models).

      Trinitrons, though they have square/rectangular pixels, don't have perfect geometry because they lack subpixel-addressability. That's why cleartype only works on LCD screens. Additionally, the high end of LCD (ibm's 200 dpi screens) is much, much sharper than the high end of CRT. What distorts people's opinion about the relative sharpness of LCD and CRT is that CRT's often can be driven at higher resolutions than their dot pitch supports, which just makes things fuzzier (think: showing a 640*480 image on a regular TV, it's usable, but it's fuzzy). With LCD's you're pretty much stuck at their native resolution.

    9. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 2, Informative

      The LCDs *are* brighter, but that doesn't make them better. The manufacturers cannot get the blacks to be any more black, so they make the whites more white to increase the contrast ratio. As you correctly point out, many LCDs need their brightness set well below max, because generally to avoid eye strain you wouldn't want your display to be more than three times brighter than ambient.

    10. Re:For those of you who don't yet know... by cerberusti · · Score: 2, Interesting

      An LCD has to have a much higher brightness in order to maintain an acceptable contrast ratio. There are CRTs on the market that support really bright images, but since a higher brightness generally means more eye-strain, this is not the default.

      A good CRT still produces the best image quality, and can be had for about the same price as an LCD of equivalent dimensions. The image quality of a low end CRT does not even compare with an LCD, although they are much cheaper.

      The glare is less on an LCD because it produces more light, and is therefore not affected as much by ambient light sources. Most good CRTs do have a fairly effective anti-glare coating, although they are not perfect. A polarizing screen filter will eliminate glare almost completely (although my personal solution is to keep the lights off.)

      The OLEDs are better than anything currently on the market. They beat LCDs and CRTs in every way that matters. The image quality is excellent, and they can be run at low brightness levels without sacrificing image quality. Kodak (who owns the patents on most of the OLED technology) really made a breakthrough in display technology with these. I look forward to getting one to replace my (fairly new) CRT.

      --
      I'm a signature virus. Please copy me to your signature so I can replicate.
  2. its not by booyah · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its not the size that matters, its how you use it... I will be very happy to have my 3.8"

    --
    #include sig.h
  3. OLED is described in article by tod_miller · · Score: 4, Funny

    So now we have Organic LED's and Organic speakers.... perhaps one day we will have an organic computer! :-)

    As OLED works with self-luminous organic materials, it has outstanding response time, without producing any afterimage even when displaying moving images (movies). Also with wide viewing angle and contrast ratio as high as 1000:1, high quality images can be realized on mobile products which are used in various occasions.

    As the saying goes, mother nature knows best. With all our technical skills, nature can produce a better light emitting substance than we can!

    This is super sexy, I cannot wait until I have a paper thin wall sized display...

    Good work sony.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
    1. Re:OLED is described in article by Epistax · · Score: 4, Funny

      As the saying goes, mother nature knows best.

      Not to set up a patriarchy but perhaps father time knows better. Nature has a few billion years of work we need to catch up on.

    2. Re:OLED is described in article by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 4, Funny

      Pah!

      I have been using a grid of Glow-worms for years.

      Green screen only so far, but the chocolate food dispensor works as expected. The biggest problem I have is the noise they make when trying to shove replacement ones into place.

      I'm sure the RSPCA would be on at me for something, but its in the name of science!

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    3. Re:OLED is described in article by hb253 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is that better than my Lite-Brite panel?

      --
      Self awareness - try it!
    4. Re:OLED is described in article by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny

      So now we have Organic LED's and Organic speakers.... perhaps one day we will have an organic computer! :-)

      Everyone has at least one of those (sometimes two in the banjo-playing towns). Unfortunately, there seem to be some serious quality control issues in the production process.

      That's probably because so few engineers ever manage to get involved in it.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    5. Re:OLED is described in article by flend · · Score: 2, Informative

      `Mother nature knows best' :) Unfortunately the word `organic' here just means based on carbon chemistry. The organic materials used in OLED and PLEDs (polymer LEDs) do not occur in nature and have to be synthesised by chemists (eg. Alq3, PPVs etc.)

    6. Re:OLED is described in article by phobos13013 · · Score: 4, Informative

      perhaps one day we will have an organic computer!

      hate to burst your bubble but just because they are made out of 'organic' materials doesnt mean they are natural. All it means is that instead of oil based acrylics, and metal laden materials, they are using carbon-based materials that have fast-transfer dendric properties. These materials are about as natural as DDT. They are still really cool devices tho and have a great contribution to technology, just dont go around thinking its like an extenstion of the human body or about to go reproducing on its own now...

      --
      ...and it should be known by now
  4. Chin up, little fellas by gregduffy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just don't use any anti-bacterial soap before handling it! ::swish::

  5. 2nd september, Opto OLED's by tod_miller · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Opto Tech introduces 1.5-inch OLED panel for handsets

    "The company said that the panel has the highest resolution among all current OLED panels"

    Perhaps OLEDs will lead to 300dpi displays, or at least 160dpi. ~72 just don't cut it.

    --
    #hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
  6. OLED power consumption by grunt107 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The story did not say anything on power consumption for the Sony OLEDs. I would hope, since PDA/Cell battery life is fairly low right now, that this OLED consumes far less than its backlit counterpart.

    Otherwise, the sharper contrast/light quality is nice, but no thank you.

    1. Re:OLED power consumption by dabug911 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It was my understanding originally that OLED's where being promoted/created to help fight the power consumption. OLED was promoted to be used to replace light bulbs eventually becuase of the lower power consumption as well I believe. Even some Cells are starting to experiment with them.

      --
      I can't believe its not butter!
    2. Re:OLED power consumption by daiakuma · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I read a while ago about how OLEDs in the future could be part of an energy revolution, causing electricty consumption for lighting to be reduced to a tenth of present levels. The article I read suggested that the day was about ten years away. Maybe it is a lot closer than that, now.

      --

      ~~~ Centigrade 233 ~~~ yaku, yaku, yaku!

  7. It's about time by Dolphy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One step closer to everything we've been promised the past few years. You want a roll-up screen to go with your fold-up keyboard? This is the technology line that will make it happen. Window curtains that can change color, table-tops that are skinnable...think of it.

    Now if we can only get the price down enough to make such trivial applications a reality.

  8. Human Side? by webword · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like to read about this geek stuff. Understanding the technology is important to me. However, I am most curious about how the technology is applied. What software applications will be better for people now? How does this impact the elderly users? How will the usability be improved overall? The technology is great, but I like to understand the business benefits and the user benefits.

    1. Re:Human Side? by Paulrothrock · · Score: 2, Informative
      How does this impact the elderly users?

      OLEDs can be made much bigger and lighter than CRTs without sacrificing performance. This means the elderly can run Firefox with 72 point fonts so they can read them and still fit a page width on the screen.

      --
      I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
  9. Power consumption.... by imsabbel · · Score: 5, Informative

    should be quite a bit lower than lcds. The diods are far less efficient than the lcd backlights, BUT:
    -You dont need polarizers and color filters (those absorb >2/3 of the light in a lcd)
    -Dark pixels are just not powered/lower powered (if the typical brightness level is low, this is another factor of 2-4).
    So the organic leds only need 10% of the effience of normal ones to break even, which should be very archiveable.

    --
    HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
  10. Clie? by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if this is going to change their policy in regards to selling Clie's in the US?

    1. Re:Clie? by daiakuma · · Score: 2, Informative

      The new Clie that they've just introduced is more of an entertainment device than a traditional PDA. Since the Clie brand is well-known and respected, it would make very good sense for them to start selling entertainment devices under the Clie brand in the US, I guess.

      --

      ~~~ Centigrade 233 ~~~ yaku, yaku, yaku!

  11. lifetime of display? by mshultz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Has any progress been made regarding the life of these displays? Last I heard, the longest these things would last was about a year or two before going too dim to be useful.

    Unless Sony is figuring that the early adopters will be people who tend to buy new PDA's quite frequently anyway, and will therefore be willing to get rid of this one once the next generation comes out the following year...

    1. Re:lifetime of display? by mshultz · · Score: 2, Informative

      What I've read (but I am a violinist, not an engineer...) is that typical OLED displays have a life of about 5-10,000 hours. These folks apparently market a 20,000-hour OLED panel, but I believe that's for the monochrome version. That measurement is the amount of time until the panel display reaches half-brightness, I believe.

      Even a 10,000-hour display would give you a decent useful lifetime, but according to this page, little things like exposure to air, humidity, and temperature extremes can reduce the display's lifetime.

  12. PSP bound? by PorscheDriver · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will these end up in Sony's PSP? Would be nice...

    --
    "This is your life, and it's ending one second at a time."
    1. Re:PSP bound? by LilMikey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not this one specifically. It's a 3.8" display and the PSP specs seem to claim a 4.3" one. Besides, the PSP is going to be a more budget oriented device than their Clies so using the latest greatest screen technology would probably be cost-prohibitive.

      --
      LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
  13. In other news... by tcdk · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...Sony releases the Clie VZ90. To bad it's for Japan only, as Sony has decided to pull out of USA and Europe when comes to PDAs.

    --
    TC - My Photos..
    1. Re:In other news... by hey! · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One of the toughest things I've learned about business over the years is the importance of identifying and concentrating on your best customers for a product.

      Your best customers aren't necessarily the ones with the most money, or even the ones with the greatest need. They're the ones who are willing to pay the most money for things you're good at. Looked at this way, in Japan, there are tons of people who will pay top dollar for sophisticated, cutting edge technology in a small package. In the US, being a gadget freak makes you a -- freak. Look at the phones people use! Look at the networks! The height of technological sophistication among well heeled US executives is a Blackberry, nothing against RIM or anything, it's a nice device, but nothing very astounding.

      So, the size of the early adopter market in the US is actually much smaller. Sony can have a pretty sure hit in Japan among the early adopters without the extra investment in marketing and production that seriously targetting the pragmatist segment would require. Once the kinks are worked out and the production costs are trimmed, then they can consider introducing something for the pragmatists at a lower cost, or more likely licensing their technology to somebody geared up for that particular headache.

      I really wish I'd learned that lesson in software marketing.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  14. Didn't Kodak introduce an OLED display ? by gwizah · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For one of their Cameras awhile back? Whatever happened to that? And why wasn't it ever realeased in the US?

    I'm glad to see Sony utilizing this technology. Now I just have to wait for the eventual OLED gameboy :)

    --

    There is no spork.
    1. Re:Didn't Kodak introduce an OLED display ? by Blitzenn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes they did play a big part in the development of OLED technology.
      Kodak OLED Research

  15. Took Longer Then I expected by LabRat007 · · Score: 2, Interesting


    Seems I've been hearing about this technology for years. Does anyone know what Technical road blocks may have been keeping it from entering full blown industrial production for so long? Or maybe this is just the normal gestation period of a new technology?

    --
    "Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
    1. Re:Took Longer Then I expected by Blitzenn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Production cost is one factor. It is still more expensive to manufacture these things. There are articles out there that claim otherwise, but they are simply wrong. Here is an Independent analysis of manufacturer who happens to make OLEDS. It is a good synopsis of what the real problem is there.

      The other problem is that the operation life span of an OLED display is much shorter than other comparable display technologies. The link here is a really good PDF on OLED, what it really is and what advantagious and it's problems. (apologize of my spelling errors, I was too lazy to go back and correct them.)

  16. Response time by Lank · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They keep saying they have excellent respone time, but how fast is it? To quote TFA: "As OLED works with self-luminous organic materials, it has outstanding response time, without producing any afterimage even when displaying moving images (movies)." I think LCD screens make the same claims, although they actually can and do leave afterimages a lot of the time, making fast moving games, like first person shooters, very difficult to enjoy.

    --
    Gotta get me one of these!
    1. Re:Response time by close_wait · · Score: 2, Informative

      The data sheet included in the press release gives 16msec for LCD, 0.01msec for OLED. That's 1600 x more responsive by my calculation.

  17. 150 cd/m2 is pretty dim by GuyFawkes · · Score: 4, Insightful


    Must be 5 years ago now for a project I was working on way back then, I got hold of a 12.1 inch 800 x 600 native Sharp industrial grade TFT (for those of you not in the know indusrial grade are the pick of the yield) which the had the standard sharp backlight, which was about 300 cd/m2 even way back then, removed and replaced with one from an american company called Landmark Technology which meant it was 1500 candela and true daylight readable even in direct sunlight... the screen was driven by an expensive (I forget the make for the moment) graphics engine which took the input RGB and converted it to the TFT native electronics signal format.

    The image quality was absolutely astonishing, even blew away things like my current 21 inch sony 520, white WAS absolutely white, the most minute details such as the - - - - - - effects you get around selected dialogue buttons in windows were absolutely pin sharp, and when showing images such as some of the nature type pictures included in xp as default desktop backgrounds the effect can only be described as feeling like you were looking at a high quality photographic transparency backlit by a professional grade light-box.

    The horizontal and vertical viewing angles were also pretty dramatic, with a very wide range over which brightness and contrast didn't appear to vary, response was also more than enough for multimedia playback.

    So that was 5 years ago.

    I haven't seen anything since that was actually better quality, except today I could get an 18 inch 1600 x 1200 panel, so these "new" ideas are cool and all, but I think their unique selling points must be anything other than true image quality, it must be something like very low power consumption, very much more robust, or perhaps extended operational temperature range.

    Until one of those uses applies to me I'm quite happy to use the tft built into my dell laptop, but for desktop work it has to be CRT, for everything else such as the digital camera then the tft screens in built are no more use than thumbnail browaing in MHO.

    --
    http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
    1. Re:150 cd/m2 is pretty dim by dabadab · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "when showing images such as some of the nature type pictures included in xp as default desktop backgrounds

      (...)
      So that was 5 years ago.
      "

      I hate to point out that five years ago it was 1999 and we did not have Windows 2000 - let alone XP.
      Also, the good quality of a high-end, probably insanely expensive TFT does not mean much about the stuff we have to use in our lives - for example, the TFT in my Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook has very sucky viewing angles.

      --
      Real life is overrated.
  18. For those of you that only beleive Wikipedia... by 't+is+DjiM · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wikipedia-link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED Wikipedia states that the main advantage is that (apart from the contrast ratio and the response times) it doesn't need back-lighting and thus has a lower power-consumption. Will this also be true for very large OLED displays? I can imagine that, since every single pixel has to light up by itself, it can be more efficient to use a backlight. Anyone has an idea about the power consumption per pixel for OLEDs and TFT/LCD?

    --
    --Use ant to make .war
  19. Re:failure rate is still high by Blitzenn · · Score: 5, Informative

    NO real progress has been made in that area. The color failure rate is still pretty high. the typical failure is a pixel getting 'stuck' in the on or off position. Being that the display is more expensive to make than other available technologies, they probably won't be replaceable and will make the units, escentially, throw aways or disposables.

    See my other comment for details and supporting links.

  20. Working temperatures? by Kokuyo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to know at what temperatures those thing still work... They'd come in handy as GPS screens in cars. But cars usually get very cold/hot during the seasons.

    Hey, if they came in the right size I'd put them in my KARR (yes the one from Knight Rider) once it's finished.

  21. Re:Great technology by LilMikey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Dude! Don't you know that "Super Top Emission" is actually an FCC approved rating for display technology. Here's the rating summary directly from FCC Document BU11-SH17:

    25 cd/m2 -- Cheap Bastard Emission
    50 cd/m2 -- 'Not too bad' Emission
    75 cd/m2 -- Very Good Emission
    100 cd/m2 -- Mega Emission
    150 cd/m2 -- Super Top Emission
    175 cd/m2 -- Ulta Super-dee-dooper Emission
    200 cd/m2 -- Mega Ulta Super-dee-dooper Emission
    300 cd/m2 -- Nocturnal Emission

    No really...

    --
    LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
  22. Just a thought by Tibe · · Score: 2, Funny

    As I sit here infront of my four current LCD's... 'crap'

  23. CRTs DO do 10 bit colour! by purduephotog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously- I know. I calibrate them.

    Of course you need a good probe to know read the CRT- and that means something like the SLS9400, which retailed around 5K at last recall. And you can't ever shut the monitor off, it has to be on ALL the time.

    And of course you need a specialized interface for Windows, because windows simply chokes on anything other than 8 bit. Certain cards, like the Dome boards (10 bit BW) are great. Others actually have internal 10 bit ramdacs but don't allow driver access to them. Such a pity.

    The underlying subsystem is broken for windows which will limit everyone to 8 bits for years to come.

    Never mind that CRT manufactures are calling daily to say they're discontinuing this model, that model... sigh.

    (and you need 8 bit to 10 bit internal to avoid banding/quantitizaiton errors after calibrating...)

  24. Actually you do need polarizers. by purduephotog · · Score: 2, Informative

    The big problem with OLEDs is you need some way to make them dark. Really- the ITO substrate is highly reflective, and given the nature of the panel that means your 'off' colour is actually your ambient light level reflected right back at you.

    Which lowers the effective contrast to about 30:1.

    When you add a polarizer, you can get up to about 250:1. Crank the driving current from .5ma to 1ma and you can get your 1000:1 but at the cost of lifetime (chemical migration, etc).

    So yes, you don't particularly need to 'filter' the light, but some modern OLED designs still do... and since I don't know what I can and can't say I won't say anything :)

    (used to work on them till they laid me off... bastards)

  25. Oh AND if you have an Analog system thru and thru- by purduephotog · · Score: 3, Informative

    you can get as high as 14 bit colour.

    Of course that means you need specialized EVERYTHING for displaying a photo, down to how the image is scanned (high end scanners can do *real* 12 and 14 bit imaging... don't believe that 16bit crap- it's usually 'marketing bits' for the last couple.

    So if you have a dedicated viewing system that can display an image appropriately at the bit depth (which is a bit of an oxymoron when you're talking about analog systems) you've got an easy 13 bit display.

    And want to know something really interesting about that? The image looks lifelike. As in, you could almost reach in and touch it.

    8 bit really sucks.

  26. AMOLED's suffer from terrible burn-in by Theovon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I work at a company that develops medical imaging display systems. To make displays uniform and produce correct grayscale images for viewing xrays, etc., there are some strict standards for "gamma" calibrating monitors, referred to as DICOM.

    I was at the last SID convention, talking to one of the experts on this stuff from IBM, and I ignorantly commented on how I was looking forward to OLED displays because of the contrast ratio. He explained to me that OLED displays suffer from burn-in worse than any CRT.

    Until the recent past, the lifetime of OLED displays has been measured in months. Apparently, what happens is that for each pixel, the junction between the electrodes and the organic diode decays over time (relative to the amount of charge that has gone through it), increasing resistance. At first, this just dims the LED, until the resistance gets so high that you can't meet threshold voltage for the diode, and it stops working entirely.

    As I'm sure you can imagine, medical displays can't afford to have any non-uniformity. But given that medical images are non-uniform by nature, non-uniform burn-in will occur, making the xray or MRI image look different, depending on its placement on the screen. The point is that I'm sure you won't appreciate having your monitor suffer non-uniform burn-in, even IF what you're displaying can't affect someone's health.

    (The advantage with LCD's is that the liquid crystal doesn't decay, and the only things that do break down are the fluorescent back-lights, and that decay is relatively uniform.)

    As I'm sure is the case with everyone else, I look forward to the day when OLED decay is practically non-existant. The problem is that the progress is incredibly slow. LCD's been around for a LONG time, yet it's still far from perfect. OLED will require just as much time to get as good, which means it'll be decades before it catches up. Meanwhile, LCD's will continue to get better.

  27. I thought Sony wasn't making OLEDs this year... by Tritoph · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought Sony wasn't going to be OLEDs in 2004?