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."

Comments

how thick are the TV's?

[alen]

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

Re:how thick are the TV's?

[TooMuchToDo]

The LED LCD TVs along with Corning's new Gorilla glass (so there is no border/bezel around the edge of the TV, the picture can fill the entire screen size) are going to be awesome. Sturdy, extremely-scratch resistant, and light weight.

Re:how thick are the TV's?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure 2160p will offer too many benefits over 1080p. It'll be a while before source media is anything greater than 1080p since the bandwidth/disc capacity to broadcast/distribute that isn't there yet. TVs can upscale, but 1080p BluRay already looks crystal clear at a reasonable viewing distance, so you don't get the same level of benefit that upscaled DVD gets.

The things that I see becoming differentiators are:
- AMOLED (3D is supposedly actually watchable on these screens)
- wireless connections (LG already offers TVs with a separate box to hook everything into which you can put anywhere in the room)
- size/thinness/weight (lighter TVs could mean adhesive wall mounts)
- viewing angle, brightness (while still maintaining black levels)
- eventually OLET TVs.

High end monitors

[djlemma]

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......

Couldn't release it as high end consumer product?

[Ironhandx]

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.

Why not LED?

[mcrbids]

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?

pity

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Crap

[aztracker1]

I still miss my old 22" CRT in terms of display acuracy... I've yet to see any LCD that compares to it in that regard. Of course, I don't miss the strain of the 80 pound behemoth on my desk... and appreciate having the space back... I don't do too much graphics work anymore, mostly programming, so don't miss it *that* much... but have to agree, seeing IPS panels come down in price, and OLED on the horizon gives some hope... I wasn't familiar with SED until this article though.

Re:Crap

[PCM2]

I've had my LCD for a year, and I still get pissed off by the damn thing glowing grey when the screen saver kicks in.

I just bought a 22" LED-backlit panel and the blacks are very black. The glow of the black screen is not completely imperceptible in a darkened room, but it is hard to detect. As with all technologies, things improve over time.