First Toshiba SED TVs coming in March 2006

Toshiba dropped a few more deets and a prototype SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) television at the IFA in Berlin. As we already told you, the first units developed in cooperation with Canon will flaunt a 50-inch diagonal and hopefully sport an incredible 100,000:1 contrast ratio. We now know these super bright and oh so thin boobs-o-tube will ship in March 2006 (Japan first most likely) with "full" HDTV resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and a response time of less than a millisecond. Damned impressive… with a price tag certain to match.

[Via HD Beat]

[Tupper @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

"Damned impressive� with a price tag certain to match."

I would be impressed, damn impressed even, if the price was affordable... but I am guessing that it not what you mean.

[mark @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

if you happen to have the specs handy:

what is the top contrast and response time of OLED?

making plans for 2007.

[...another Mark... @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

And as luck would have it, I just dropped $2000 for a 37" 1366x768 LCD...

Oh well, by the time Christmas 2007 rolls around and I'm ready to upgrade, a 42" or 50" SED display will probably be affordable (read: $3000).

NOT!

[Brad @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

This is the TV I've been waiting for for sure. I'm expecting it to be closer to $10k for the 50 inch. Maybe even higher. But given the clicker's take on future proofing, is it really worth it?

[aelso @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Is SED a better technology than OLED? I know some companies were working on OLED displays, but they were rather pricy.

[Elledan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

"Is SED a better technology than OLED? I know some companies were working on OLED displays, but they were rather pricy."

'better' is a relative term. In terms of image quality, SED and OLED are quite close, in that they're both superior to any other existing technology.

Main issue holding back OLED in the larger-than-10"-displays market are scaling problems, and of course the stability of the organic components, which degrade over time. SED is more or less an evolved CRT, with the only major change in the electron emitter department (from 3 to millions of emitters).

Basically, SED is an 'easier' technology than OLED, which explains why SED displays will start shipping within a year, and large OLED displays aren't expected until 2008 or later.

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Wow ... all of this innovation in the display market is really exciting. Now if we could just get more HD content. The content really makes the experience. Even on my Panasonic ED plasma, HD content looks amazing.

[dweebe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Has anyone actually seen an SED television next to a currently available technologies? (Plasma, direct-view LCD, DLP etc.)

[Jerry @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I'm wondering what the possibly is that we will still have issues with stuck/dead pixels and screen burn in. I hope not, because I'm really keen on this technology.

[lordgarth @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

I believe one of the major selling points of SED was to be price. Cheaper than LCD and Plasma.

[Jimosai @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Personally I'm reserving judgement until I actually see one of these in action. Since its phosphore based I'm concerned about how sharp this picture will actually be as brighter coloured pixels have a tendancy to overpower adjacent pixels in a CRT Tube. Admittedly though, I'm a huge fan of Toshiba, Canon and HDTV for that matter, so I have a lot of hope for this product.

[H @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

SEDs will be cheaper to produce. Once they get their returns on R&D, and production is ramped up, then SEDs will be cheaper to buy. But maybe not while it's being introduced. Cutting edge technology and perceived value and all...

[Samuel Lago @ Dec 19th 2005 2:05AM]

Someone told me SED wasn't comming for years and that it would mainly be for industry. That was in relation to an LG yacht article.

What a dope, here they come.