The Sony Drive XEL-1 OLED TV: 1,000,000:1 contrast starting December 1st
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 1st 2007 1:23AM
posted Oct 1st 2007 1:23AM
[Via Impress]
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holy moly
That's what I said when I read the article without having read the title.
At first sight it looked like an all-in-one PC!!!! W00T
this probably wont make the day after thanksgiving sale, right??
Obviously ridiculous at the moment but it looks like promising technology.
If you got four of them you could split the video feed and make it nearly as good as one of them LCDs or CRTs. Hot.
Is it just me or does that actually seem somewhat cheap compared to what plasmas initially sold for?
I believe you have a point. When plasmas first came out, you were lucky to get a 42 inch for $7000. Now, if the pricing stays consistent, I would expect a $6800 price for a 42 inch OLED, using simple mathmatics. However, OLED are apparently not capable of doing this size yet, so it will be intresting to see what the price will be once the 42 incher appears...
Don't forget that when plasmas initially sold, LCD-s also were more expensive, and had worse view angles, response speed and contract ratio.
It's a different landscape now, and this is why Sony makes only 2000 of those, versus mass producing them.
all the more reason for them to unleash the 105incher on the world. id buy.
Do your math properly =P 48/11 is about 4, but that's not it. You gotta square that to about 14.5. The total comes out to a bit more than $25,000. OLEDs are extremely expensive to manufacture, and Kodak has a monopoly on OLED patents, so we won't be seeing them for a while.
Why don't they center that stand thing... I think it would look much better if it was centered.
I didn't really look closely at the pictures, but now that you brought it up it is very distracting. It seems really strange.
They did it to prove that it's light as F#$@! Now that they've got the point across... CENTER IT! And the rez sucks! Give me 1920x1080 on an 11" LCD and I'll get me one :D
I would think that its in the side so you can put something on top of the stand, such as a dvd player, ect.
I actually like the asymmetric design :D
I'm looking forward to seeing 20+" OLED all-in-one Vaio's with a similar design in a few years. A TV with 11" is a bit pointless, but at least OLED seems to be used for anything but small phone screens now...
The off-centered design looks really, really great. I love it. Wouldn't look half as good if it was in the middle.
And nice to finally see an OLED in production that isn't tiny. Ok, it still is small, but it's the right direction.
It's apparently a statement product, hence they tried to fit-in the most statements in as possible.
1. We're on top of the industry, so we'll sell few thousand OLED TV-s a year, to claim the flag.
2. We can only make it 11 inch size before the already high price makes it totally infeasible for the potential buyers.
3. Instead of putting the tuner up, we'll put it down, so we can show off how thin OLED screens actually are (there's no backlight).
4. The remaining screen frame is so light, so we'll make this painfully obvious by putting the hinge off-center.
The resulting product looks kinda sad. That box down there is much uglier than more classic designs. The off-center frame look fragile, and distracts.
I wish them all luck in the world with this new product, but if their projected sales are less than 2000/year, then they already know they've not made this to sell it.
I wonder if the arm is detachable somehow, so people can put the electronic box in a cabinet, or vertical, and the display on the wall (although at 11" it is a bit small for wallmounting)
Of course that depends on the kind of cabling in the arm, but it seems quite thin (since it has a hole) so the cable(s) in it must be rather simple.
And thinking about it, the display itself must have some driving electronics too to decode what that cable in the arm delivers, which must include a powercable for all those LED, so now I wonder what is in that big box underneath it, tuners are tiny so it must be mostly empty space and a PSU, in the way that DVD players have a lot of empty space inside.
So does this look good and bright outside in the sunlight as well? Is that a property of OLEDS?
I bet you Samsung is like, "OMGWTFBBQ 1M CONTRAST!! H4XX!!!!!!!"
OMFG, 1,000,000 : 1 is sooo over the top. Good job Sony, really god job.
The numbers are a bit deceptive, if something goes completely black that raises the contrast ratio exponentially I read once.
Yeah, that's true, but still, the theoretical 1,000,000 : 1 is something rarely seen, specially for an OLED, for sony, with THAT sexy and slim design.
I can remember reading PC Magazines religiously about 10 years ago and having them rant about OLEDs and the future of displays. It's amazing to actually see it in real product form. Technology is truly amazing.
Yes, cos we all want to watch TV on an 11 inch screen. I doubt the human eye can even appreciate such a contrast ratio.
Sony's going to need to try harder next time around, especially with that price.
Your trolling attempt amuses me. Try better next time.
indeed, you would much rather prefer a 200:1 CCFL LCD screen right?
As the other poster noted, nice trolling attempt. Better luck next time when you know you might not be so blatantly full of it.
The only trolls are you two - who are now getting insulting. Does it cut you I think 11 inches is too small for a TV? Or that Sony needs to try harder? 11 inches isn't a TV size and you know it.
It's a fact, this is too expensive, and it's too small.
First generation technology always have limitations and are always more expensive. Did you think LCD TVs were launched at $200 or scaled straight up to 40" during the first generation? Or do you have any idea how technology works?
Does not change the fact that TVs do not need to be 40" to be practical. This could be used in the kitchen for example.
Your trolling reply failed too.
Wow, all this effort because I'm not over the moon about this screen. No I don't understand why Sony would debut only an 11" screen. Why not 14, the smallest monitor size?
Your own trolling does you a disservice, there's no need to get upset because I don't think this screen is a good enough effort.
Wow ..Sony isn't forcing you to place this in the middle of your living room to be your main TV. Did they? So I dont see where your coming from. Sometimes people just cant see the whole picture. Sony is bringing new cutting-edge technology out there and your complaning its too small for watching F***ing Greys Anatomy? You are obviously missing the point and just proved to everybody here how Dumb some people are. Funny I dont see anybody complaning about watching their movies on their new ipod NANO with video? Do us and yourself a favor and keep your comments to yourself. Engadget and the world would be a better place.
I don't know what to say. Sony is the first to produce consumer level OLED screens, giving up to 1M:1 contrast ratio, despite Samsung saying the company would not make the deadline. Yeah, sure, it's only 11inch. So what? It's frigging first gen! Bigger and bigger ones are going to come out, this is like a symbolic first step.
Besides, defending yourself for such trolling is really... stupid.
why not 14inch?
Simple, money!
The 14inch OLED might of cost 2240$ compare to the 1740$ price tag.
There is psychology involve too, new technology, high price, etc.
You can't tell consumer to buy this 2240$ OLED tv that is new stuff and expensive! I am sure they debate over this but this is NEW and taking a smaller risk if all this does not work.
I am pretty sure they have all the OLED size imaginable that are waiting for the production GO!
The technology looks promising, and it's nice to see that sony is actually pushing the concept out the door, but is anyone really going to pay almost $1800 for an 11-inch sub-HD set?
Still, I can't wait until laptops have this ;)
Will this be the Trinitron of LCD's?
I miss the days when Sony displays ruled, back when nothing could beat a Trinitron.
It's not LCD, It's OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode. Big difference.
Cool.
Now... where's that 23/27-incher that would have the 1080p? I remember it being announced alongside the 11" one earlier this year.
Hmm, at exactly $158.18 per inch (not square-inch), a 23-inch will set you back $3638 USD and 27-inch, $4271 USD.
Now, for square pixel, that price of that OLED TV is about $2.42 per square pixel.
A 1920x1080 resolution TV is 1440 square pixels. That would set us back $3,485 USD. @_@
This is pretty damn expensive, but we can't blame it for being new.
Imagine... 60-inch TV at $9491 USD if going by those numbers alone.
I wouldn't mind having one in my room. XD
Now, to win the lottery....
Okay. Never mind. Checked the Japanese site, and this baby rocks ALL the res. 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Holy coolio.
I'm confused. In the article it says "features a 960 x 540 pixel resolution."
I went straight to the "Read" link for this article, basically the specifications listing for the OLED TV. Had the support resolutions there.
No sir. The Screen features 960x540 (pixels) but it can accept (and down convert) 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i INPUT SIGNALS.
http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=/language_tools&u=http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200710/07-1001/
Oh ho, I see. *rubs chin* Acceptance is okays by me. :]
I think you're right, and I was just arriving at the same conclusion through babelfish.
Wouldn't it be nice if it could do HD resolutions though?
If you do the math, it's practically 1/2 1080p. :P
Well, if going by this comment in Joystiq:
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/28/halo-3-not-hd-runs-at-640p-pixel-counters-claim/#c7866318
There is one game that runs at 540p-- The Darkness. So, no scaling at all. LOL
Then other games will look odd if played at that resolution. XD
Is it me or is SONY coming back to it's usual cool-self. I mean, even if you look only at engadget, for last couple of weeks, SONY has been coming up with a steller product line up! Rolly, OLED tv, Sonic-stage -less-walkmans, video-walkmans and yeah walkmans with tv tuners and so many different VAIOS for everyone. Isn't it kewl to see they are back on track innovating real "gadgets" like they did back when they were unstoppable. Of course they don't have that Apple-sort of hype where fan bois go ga-ga over anything apple throws out(ok may be except for iphone update 1.1.1), but looks like SONY has finally awakened! About time!
amen to that! :-) I've always had a soft spot for sony... the overall quality of their goods (hardware wise) has always been top notch... nice to see them innovating and releasing now without the damn businessmen screwing them up in every way possible (proprietary...proprietary....)
Yeah, I think the same too. Well.. not the Rolly bit.
I can see they're trying to replicate their earlier self, but looking at the actual stuff they produce, they've a long way to go.
You know, the stuff they produced before were at the same time top technology, luxury, and practical. And those goods were mass produced.
I don't think Rolly (what's the point of this thing?), or OLED TV produced at 2000 units per year makes up for it.
Honestly, 2000 units per year. This is just PR product, when they drive it to a state when they feel confident mass producing their "gadgets" and people buying them, I'll arrive at your conclusion Sony is back to its old self.
Well, I guess SONY has always done lot of innovating! they didnt necessary have to be the biggest commercial success stories! remember that robo doggy? and there were bunch of portable gadgets apart from walkman, i.e. watchman which they discontinued after a while. Besides if SONY doesn't try things who would? So a succesful portfolio means lot of commercially successful products like trinitons and bravias and lot of innovations and concepts like rolly!
I used to be a bit of a SOny fanboy, back when the Trinitrons ruled the TV roost and they had an FM/AM Walkman with illuminated remote that was barely larger than the cassette that went in it. Soon thereafter, however, they dropped the ball. Competitors caught up (and passed 'em by), and Sony's rediculously high pricing an crappy service further dropped them into the pits of irrelevancy.
But now, it looks like they turned a new leaf and have at least refound their drive to produce cool gear, cutting edge stuff. The kind of stuff that you'd buy not only because it is something that you need (*cough*want*cough*), but you'll be showing off to your mates.
Sony may not be at the top yet, but I for one welcome them back into the fold.
I'm glad they got the new technology out the door...but this thing has about as much worth to me as a box of rocks.
Wake me when I can get a laptop with an OLED screen with this contrast ratio sporting solid uber PC resolutions.
OR
WhenI can buy a 40-50 inch 3mm thin OLED with 1,000,000:1 contrast and 1080P. Good god that would look HOT..THAT my friends would change display technology.
One thing that worries me is that everyone assumes the size restriction will be worked out "soon." What if there really is no viable solution and these displays will neve make it to tv's? Or what if they don't find a solution until 10 years from now? I'm excited about these displays...but I'm worried that I won't get to enjoy them until I'm gray and my 20 year old plasma is "good enough."
Whats the point of having the ultrathin screen if you have that ugly box mandatory below it... I hope future models will be all in one and thin all over :)
Well... there's an ethernet port in that box base, and it's called SonyDrive...
Okay, that's enough baseless hypothesis on my end. >_>
The point is 1,000,000:1 contrast....
Your idea of trolling amuses me. Try better next time.
Go buy an 11 inch screen and watch TV on it.
It may be only 11" which is too small for a general purpose telly, but at 2kg (that is lighter than most laptops) this is a sweet portable TV for use in the kitchen or bedsit table.
It was mentioned in the other thread about this (one of the first comments, IIRC), but SonyDrive is the name of the product info site. The product name is simply XEL-1. You can verify this for yourself by simply navigating to any other page on the Sony site.
I wonder why they have chosen to launch this technology in a TV, rather than in a laptop (or even a desktop PC monitor).
In a TV the thinness and low power consumption don't really matter, and the small size and (possibly) poor lifespan do matter. On the other hand, in a laptop the thinness and low power consumption would be real benefits.
Because the product is not designed to be practical, it's designed to make the news, and help Sony's not-so-great image as of late.
Truth is, laptops are a luxury product (not quite as much as 10 years ago). While everyone has a TV. A newspaper is trying to write about news that may interest the largest percentage of their readers. A yet-another thinner laptop isn't so interesting.
But TV means they interest the average Joe. Of course, the average Joe won't buy this product, but he'll read about it, and make it a point about the brand he picks on his next purchase.
If only people were able to remember bad things companies did, and respond to that, but they don't.
So many wellknown huge companies did such outrageous things, sometimes leading to the death and suffering of thousands of people, and nobody remembers or cares.
Once a company gets big enough it has too much momentum to be halted by anything really.
I'm delighted to see OLED tech reaching lifespans and brightnesses that Sony, at least, thinks consumers will be OK with. Initially, they were reported to have pretty short lifetimes and way-too-soon loss of brightness.
I'm pretty sure that larger screens will come shortly; just like IC wafers, yield is a matter of the odds of a defect over a certain amount of area; as they hone the manufacturing process, the defect count will drop and that'll cue them to step up the size *and* allow them to drop the price for the current size.
And I think people will buy this. Deep blacks look great. To the poster that talked about what the eye can see, you'd be surprised; yes, the cells in the back of the eye have a limited range, but when you add the ability of the iris to adjust how much light is allowed into the eye, it turns out that you can comfortably see some pretty dark stuff, and some pretty bright stuff - just not at the same time. :-)
Anyway, OLEDs are suddenly starting to show up in various places - watches, keyboards, this display - and the more they make, the better and less expensive they'll get, you betcha. No back-lights (to die!), cheap and simple drive electronics, low power, bright, colorful, high contrast... oh yeah. Gimmie!
I seriously doubt the pitfalls of OLED's have been overcome with this model. They have probably just completed a manufacturing process that can at least keep status quo on the larger size screen. I, for one, really don't like the idea of a disposable screen, at least at the current prices. Maybe when the price reflects the lifespan I'll be more interested.
It is not called the "Sony Drive". Sony Drive is the name of the sony information website. This TV is called the XEL-1.
** Could someone please fix the Digg link? **
It's pointing to that lame Nokia "anti-Apple" campaign, which I really didn't want to Digg.
overpriced - OLED is a lot cheaper than LCD/Plasma in terms of development... looks like sony is pricing this based on the fact that it's the first to go into market for the consumer + hype...
11 inches is great if you have cash to blow and if you want to pimp your ride.
it's not completely useless.
um... wait... Why is this more expensive than the 13 inch laptops that use the same technology? Please educate me.
An amazing product despite the shortcomings. Who remembers the first commercially available cell phone for instance? Congrats to Sony for getting this out there.
http://www.fed-tv-reviews.com
http://www.fed-tv-reviews.com/sony-oled-tv
It's a halo product, I doubt Sony really expects to sell a lot of these, if I had to guess the target market is wealthy executives putting this on their desks to watch Bloomberg/CNN/CNBC etc while showing of their amazing new toy.
Hell, I kind of want one for my desk.
it seems to me like Sony had to make this thing commercially available. yes, it's a prestige product, and yes they won't sell a huge number of these-- they're not even AIMING to sell a huge number of these. what they could NOT do is allow another holiday season to pass without OLED making at least a PR splash into the consumer market. plasma and LCD contrast ratios continue to get better and better (by next CES I'm sure we'll see a bevy of 250,000:1 contrast ratio units on the show floor) and OLED needs to be in the limelight, even if only so the general public can express an interest in keeping this much delayed tech alive. otherwise it'll just fade from the radar like SED did, and Sony has put too much money into OLED development to just let it die now.
11" is a perfectly acceptable TV size in Japan. It will be really cool in on of the POD hotels. My hotel room in Japan was a 6'x6' box with a 10" TV.
Many Japanese people have small TV's which is why portable electronics are so much more popular over there. The average house is a 2 story 20'x20' box. A 50" plasma is overkill.
120 more vertical pixels and it could play Halo 3 at its native res.
*rimshot*
Shinogu @ Oct 1st 2007 2:51AM
If you do the math, it's practically 1/2 1080p. :P
No its 1/4
And what kind of lifetime does this miraculous OLED screen have in real use? 200 hours? 2000?
Not holding my breath here.
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/6239.html
Talk about torch-mode, I have seen these OLED displays at shows, when they go 100% white, it's so bright you have to shut your eyes.
I only hope the lifetime is ok. OLED's have been slowing coming up in life and lack of life means burn-in.
Yes, the OLED is here now, at least in its primitive stage. Does this make it right for Sony to stop making the SXRD TVs? I had my first SONY TV about 15 years ago and never a problem. Then my LED/PLASMA TVs have each been replaced after several nagging repairs within the last 2-3 years respectively. The main TV in a family home needs to be a damn solidly built TV like the SXRDs and not these flimpsy paper like objects, called OLED. SONY should not forget that there are families with growing children and that means, need for solid durable TVs in the family rooms. Even the LEDs never sufficiently replaced the big SXRDs as the main TVs. The OLEDs/LEDs can be developed for whom ever wants them in their family rooms, but continue to make the SXRDs for those of us that are still in love with the beautiful 70 inch SXRDs. I'm anot singing any praise songs for these TVs especially because SONY wants to stop making the SXRDs which I'm still saving the money to buy. TVs are not supposed to be toys. All these people praising these TVs have carefully consider these circumstances. And don't forget, the SXRDs are much way cheaper to maintain than these unsightly objects that everyone seems to calling revolutionary. For your info, I'm not by any means an old man, I'm still in my high 30's and a Mechanical/Electronics Engineer. And I can debate a lot about these TVs at any level.
Everyone should use this medium to advise SONY against stoping the SXRDs, remind them that at least, they still make the CRT TVs today and it has not hampered sales of any SONY TV brands. And that it's a free market by any means.
Thanks to all readers.
...lehm1