Sony Shows Off Flexible OLED Screens At CES

An anonymous reader writes "Sony's stand at CES had a small area set aside for flexible OLED screens, along with three mock-ups of possible OLED devices (including one stunning ultra-portable with no hinge and a single display for both screen and keyboard). There was also a working OLED screen being bent back and forth while playing a video clip. Does this mean roll-up, low-power colour screens will soon hit the market? Not unless OLED prices come down — Sony's stunning XEL-1 OLED TV costs $2,500, but only has an 11in screen ..."

Comments

Do they come with rootkits?

[mcgrew]

I can't buy Sony anything; once bitten, twice shy. Never again will Sony have the chance to fuck me over like that.

along with three mock-ups of possible OLED devices

I.e., lies. But what do you expect from sociopaths who would install rootkits in music CD, especially install rootkits that contain copyrighted FOSS that they have no right to use?

And no, I will NOT let this rest. Sony owes me for the purchase of MS XP (since video drivers were no longer available for 98) and an Audigy sound card, as well as several hours of my time. I can no longer trust Sony and refuse to buy from them, and consider anyone who would be a Sony customer extremely stupid and short sighted.

Not unless OLED prices come down

You can count on it. In five years an OLED screen may well be a couple of bucks.

Re:Do they come with rootkits?

[dotancohen]

Let me commend you before you get modded troll. Sony is the dickwad of the industry. I love their hardware (earphones in particular, and standalone music systems) but never again will I buy anything from Sony with any type of electronic communications interface. Not even their digital cameras, nor Sony-Ericson telephones.

Re:Do they come with rootkits?

[mcgrew]

Let me commend you before you get modded troll.

Thank you, I figured I'd be downmodded but that's what happens when you're honest. My karma can take it. It's possible its now "flamebait" mey become "troll" and wind up a +5 insightful or interesting; it's happened to more than one comment.

Any mention of Sony always provokes an extremely angry reaction by me. I want their business to fold and their executives in prison.

Re:Do they come with rootkits?

[mcgrew]

My forty two inch Trinitron works very well (except for one bad input that I only use for the radio anyway), has an excellent picture ane very good sound (I have it plugged into some 12 inch 3 way speakers).

But the rootkit was a killer. Newer equipment will be internet enabled, and Sony will be able to do any damned thing they want to it, and theor XCP showed that they WILL stoop to anything.

Re:Do they come with rootkits?

[Miseph]

"However, I don't think it's practical in boycott entire mega-corporations since they are really just umbrella legal entities."

You'd be surprised. The only new Sony product I've purchased in over a year is a clock radio, and even then I'm stretching the definition of "I purchased" to include somebody buying it on my behalf with no input beyond "I need a new alarm clock for". It turns out that they have all sorts of competitors offering comparable (and sometimes even better) products at prices which are almost always lower. Why buy a Sony Bravia when you could buy a better rated Samsung or Panasonic TV instead? Sony also makes some great digital cameras, but so do Nikon, Canon and Panasonic, and they don't require you to pay triple for memory cards just so they can use a proprietary format.

As for being "just umbrella legal entities"... I call bullshit. The people who run the umbrella corporation are fully empowered to bitch-slap the misbehaving or antisocial executives of their subsidiary companies. The fact that they don't means that they are equally culpable, taking ill-gotten profits rather than forcing good business practices, and the fastest, best way to tell them to get their act straight is to make it hurt as much and as quickly as possible. When Sony starts seeing their TV sales shrink because their entertainment units are complete fuck ups, then they'll have to start considering the full ramifications of allowing those units to keep doing as they please. You can obfuscate the fact that the money all goes to the same people by tossing parent companies into the mix, but at the end of the day it doesn't change a damned thing.

Re:Do they come with rootkits?

[glitch23]

Actually, Sony buys the "guts" of their HD TVs from Samsung and just puts them in a slick case and slaps their logo in it. You can buy the exact same TV from Samsung without paying extra for the Sony brand.

I was just at Best Buy on Sunday. I looked at a lot of LCD TVs (they had very few plasmas I noticed). They had many in a row on 2 levels of shelves so I could easily compare about 8 all at once. I noticed the Sony KDL52W4100 had the best picture as far as color vibrance and contrast are concerned. Why wouldn't the Samsung and the Sony TVs be the same if what you say is true?

Roll. up TVs?

[Viol8]

Instead of pulling down the whitescreen for a TV projector from a roll, you actually roll down the TV itself - flexible screen comlpete with black backing and polymer based circuitry. 10 years I reckon before these are in the shops.

Flicker?

[tlhIngan]

I have seen the Sony OLED TV (FYI, the resolution is quarter-1080p 960x540), but one thing I noticed is... the flicker during bright scenes. Now, I don't know if it was caused by the source (blu-ray player), the cabling (running 1080p24), or the scaler (both the size and framerate adjust). It was the light images, but I'm just somewhat concerned that we'll end up in the days of screens that flicker again. (Nothing's more annoying that someone who has their CRT set to 60Hz refresh).

I'm thinking it's just a scalar issue, but I've seen it on some of the OLED screens used in MP3 players...

Re:Flicker?

[Twinbee]

Okay, that's a tad scary. I thought OLED had stupidly fast response times. I realise that's not the same as real-world refresh rate, but it should at least be capable.

In any case, I can't understand how (or why) it would want to emulate the mechnical vertical scan of traditional CRT.

One 'interesting' feature of OLED technology I think is that there's no 'real' grayscale. It flickers the light on/off incredibly fast to emulate gray (or any colour). I doubt this issue relates to the above flicker aspect that you're talking about, but it could do.

Re:Am I the only one who feels...

[mcgrew]

I know many close minded young people, and many open minded old people. I know some octogenarians that are so open minded they hire hookers, and some young people so close minded they'd call the cops if they saw somebody smoking a joint.