The Sony Drive XEL-1 OLED TV: 1,000,000:1 contrast starting December 1st
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 1st 2007 1:23AM
posted October 1st 2007 1:23AM
[Via Impress]
posted October 1st 2007 1:23AM
powered by gdgt
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
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