Company creates SED panel with 100,000:1 contrast ratio

A joint venture between Canon and Toshiba called SED Inc. has unveiled an SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) panel with a 100,000:1 contrast ratio which is, well, pretty damn impressive (feel lucky if your current LCD rocks 1000:1). The company's first SED panel, by comparison, had a contrast ratio of just 8,600:1. Apparently, the key to such a large jump in contrast ratio was a broad reduction in black luminance, from 0.04 cd/m2 to 0.003 cd/m2, which they achieved by improving the electron-emitting source property. Or, in plain english, blacks look blacker, which is always a good thing. No word yet on when you'll be able empty your bank account and hang one of these things on your wall.

[Via Akihabara News]

[UFG @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Stupid Toshiba and Canon and their bloody SEDs caused my NNPP stock to drop from 3.90 to 1.89 in like 1 day. Back up to 2.35 now though. =/

[morcheeba @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Wow, that's amazing but I wonder how much of that is specmanship. 0.003cd/m^2 is bordering on the edge of measurability (see link). I assume this is measured in a totally dark, pitch black room... which is not how someone would use it. In real rooms, there is usually some ambient light -- either intentional or reflected back off the walls from the brighter portions of the TV. I'll bet you easily get 0.04 cd/m^2 reflected back, which totally blows out the improvement in the emitter.

[muipotu @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

I think all this does is show how uselessness contrast ratio is as a measurement of quality. As you get closer to 0 in black luminance you approach infinity for the contrast ratio for anyything slightly brighter than the black luminance. Stupid! Just give me the black luminance and the white luminance and stop talking about contrast ratio.

[m @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

I wonder what the contrast ratio is for a high end Sony Vega CRT television (35-40inch screen). anyone know?

[erdega79 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

this is pretty amazing cause this borders a real life contrast ratios which is around 100000:1. It means the picture would have real life resemblance. Most tv's of today have contrast ratios of 1000:1 or lower.

Sony crt

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

Now we need more than the 24/32bit video system which is standard today; the banding in photos and gradients would be quite visible with such a high contrast ratio, I think.

Wonder how SEDs compare to OLEDs

[Brisco County Jr @ Dec 19th 2005 2:14AM]

They really need to make unlawful the use of 4:2:0 colorspace encoding.

OLEDs with black layer technology should have excellent contrast ratios as well.