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Canon Abandons SED TV Hopes
angry tapir writes "Canon has decided to liquidate a subsidiary developing a flat-panel display technology called SED, effectively bringing to an end once high hopes that the screens would replace LCD panels and plasma displays in living room TVs. Development of SED (surface-condition electron-emitter display) screens began in 1986 at Canon and was joined in 1999 by Toshiba. SEDs combine elements of both CRT (cathode ray tube) and LCD (liquid crystal display) technologies. As with CRTs, electrons hit a phosphor-coated screen to emit light. But instead of being shot from an electron gun, electrons are drawn out of an emitter through a slit that is only a few nanometers wide. The result is a picture that is as bright as a CRT and does not suffer a time lag sometimes seen on LCD panels with rapidly moving images."
Ah, that's too bad. I was looking forward to trying out 's/commercial//g'.
At least you'll still get your basic viewing stats with AWK TV.
Trolling is a art,
This display sounded good until I read TFA. Bottom line: they cost too much.
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CCFL LCD's are a few inches thick. someone i know just bought a 47" LED LCD TV and it's 1" thick at most. they junked a 150 pound CRT flat screen monster that broke. no one wants a big TV anymore
Canon just flat out cannot compete in that market with something that will cost too much. Look at the ridiculous amount of effort put up by the kingpin companies like Samsung, Visio, Sony, ect. Their campaigns filled with all the goody-TV-jargon ooze, not to mention anyone with even a remotely hapless budget can afford a 42"+ LCD TV now from them is flat out hard to stand next to.
FTFA, it's unfortunate that SED TV won't survive. But I see it no different that the VHS-vs-Betamax, BlueRay-vs-HDDVD market flame-wars that have taken place of recent memory. Some things that had potential to be better than their rival product sometimes just don't survive or make it.
I would bet that California put the nail in the coffin.
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Let us pray that big OLED screens with enough longevity become a reality in a couple of years, because the LCD tech just isn't that good.
This is bad news... Very, very bad news.
'Tis a shame...I remember reading about this tech back in the mid to late '90s...seemed promising. Oh well -_-;;
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I wonder if a company like Eizo that makes high end monitors for medical purposes and professional image editing would buy out the technology. They already seem to have some success at selling relatively small LCD monitors at extremely high prices due to their color accuracy and brightness, so maybe this technology would be another step in the right direction for them. My understanding is that the expensive technology Eizo uses doesn't actually fare well on moving pictures, so this CRT-type thing might be significantly better, assuming that the color gamut is similar to their current offerings......
I mean, if they did all that work to turn it into a TV at all they could have released it to compete against Plasma TVs. If I could get CRT quality in LCD weight and size I'd be all over that. $5000 for a 36" TV that does that? Yes please.
I though 'SED' stood for smoke emitting diode. Probably would give a nice bright image I guess, but not for very long.
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Dura lex SED lex
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That's a huge shock. This is one of those technologies that was going to be on the market "any time now" for a over a decade.
It was a patent troll that shot down this technology. You can thank the sorry state of affairs in America for this.
Honestly, this isn't as nearly as sad as it appears, because its 'rival', OLED surpasses SED in almost every area. In fact, it could well be in EVERY area. Does anyone have any information on how SED could have been even slightly better?
OLED, when it comes of age, really is the panacea/holy grail/goal/best of all worlds when it comes to display tech (and possibly most types of lighting too).
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In America our broadband is so abysmal that even "crappy" displays already outrun the quality of the video (or gaming) experience brought in by the available bandwidth. Every time I see something like this I tend to think "oh thats nice, but what will I watch on it?" Yeah it might be cool for netflix, but the average geek (me) already has those streaming over his pencil-thin bandwidth.
Sad news, indeed. Our 32" Sony CRT is over a decade old now and has started having a few display issues. We found out when flat-panel TVs came out that my wife is sensitive to the fluorescent backlight (migraines - gets them with CFBs, too (http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=157)), and I have been generally unimpressed with the picture quality (lighting, color, viewing angles, etc.) of even the higher end LED backlit flat-panel TVs. Those things cost 5 times more than their CRT counterparts, and their sole advantage is their footprint. Picture quality and viewing experience seem to have taken a huge step backward. Since I can no longer find a CRT for sale, and am unwilling to pay higher prices for inferior quality, I suppose when ours goes, we'll stop watching TV.
This is a technology that had promise. I guess we'll have to see if the same thing happens to OLED.
It was a patent troll that shot down this technology.
I wonder if patent expiration might have been involved, too. The project started 24 years ago. Perhaps, after all the delays, all the fundamental patents would be toast by the time production ramped. So the PHBs might think that even if they got it competitive now they'd be vulnerable to instant generic clones.
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Have you seen an LED screen recently?
I bought a laptop with an LED screen and I have to be very clear - it's obviously a sharper, better, higher contrast screen. The white is very white and very bright, and the blacks are deep and dark. Sitting next to the LCD screen (I run dual head) the difference is glaring.
LCD is sharper (to me) than CRT, and LED is brighter/more contrast than LCD. Best of both worlds?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
"The result is a picture that is as bright as a CRT and does not suffer a time lag sometimes seen on LCD panels with rapidly moving images."
Why are you trying to upsell me to something that you don't have stock?
Having seen a SED TV working up close, it's a pity they have not got this out as even LCD, OLED, plamsa etc all did not have the accurate color representation of CRT - In fact reference monitors were the initial target
But seeing one up close, the colors and resolution was just amazing - most people don't realise how "compressed" the color space is on most content and displays
But hey just like Token Ring, FDDI, ATM etc being technically better than ethernet, cost and being good enough often wins out
Good
Excellent colour accuracy
No blurring or lag
Better brightness than OLEDs
Excellent contrast
No image burning
thin screens (the first models not as thin as edge lit LEDs but doable with improved manufacturing and maturity)
Very well known and tested technology
Long life
It should work great for 3D
Bad
Scalability (Manufacturing will require new expensive retooling to produce the the screen and technical development needed to produce high yield at affordable prices
Very expensive to produce the substrate (because the above)
No as green as LED
All and all the technology is better than OLED offer longer life and is a mature technology, just not affordable with the current manufacturing techniques available.
I'd guess the number of consumers who would pay a 500%+ markup for a television with, arguably, marginally better iq than a plasma is vanishingly small.
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The stupid thing is the biggest loser in the whole ordeal is probably Nano Proprietary, the ones who started the litigation in the first place. If they had just let the joint venture build the damn things they would be collecting royalty checks today. Instead they sued their only revenue source out of existence.
Ummm, isn't that what patent trolls do?
A shame this, as a lot of the earlier reviews of the SED technology picture quality had it just about equalling CRT, but it was firmly beating Plasma, and obviously LCD was a distant 4th.
Oh well, maybe OLED can be ramped up in size and down in cost, as that doesn't do too bad in the PQ stakes.
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late gen plasma.
sure, theyre not CRTs, but theyre also at least not LCDs.
and given the popularity of LCDs these days, super quality plasmas can be had for relatively cheap.
and c'mon, 1920x1080 isnt that bad.