Sony demos 56" 4K prototype OLED TV at CES

There is no product, ergo no price or availability is relevant.

Sony has no 8G facility to produce this display and cannot, as a practical matter, even achieve the 500K annual production of an LG using a 5.5G line.

Does AU Optronics have the production facilities? I read that this prototype was a collaboration between Sony and AU Optronics.

Prototype is the keyword here. This is a long ways off. Not even relevant today.

http://www.legitreviews.com/news/14876/

You never know... it seems like Sony has made some significant advances in the technology. And though they don't have the mass production capability themselves, Sony can just get some other company to build the displays (ie. AUO).

I wonder how much it would cost if it was an actual product today. $50K?

I want video.

Make up a number and roll with that. It's about as plausible as this display coming to fruition in the foreseeable future.

Don't care, this is just Sony polishing its own ego.

No, it’s Sony once again proving their R&D dominance when it comes to display technologies. The problem is that they are in no position to manufacture anything like this on a large scale.

Last year was Crystal LED now is OLED so I tell you guys next year there will be Crystal OLED .

HInts of R&D dominance with little in the way of practicality and nothing beyond a prototype. We can call it pie in the sky if that's less offensive.

R&D dominance? Seriously. It's a prototype, which is years away from reality.

Get off the Sony bandwagon. That's been stuck in a pit stop for years.

You're preaching to the choir here. I am guilty as the next Kuro fanatic for imagining what could have been had Pioneer managed to stay in the Plasma bidness, but Sony likes to tease its devout fanbase of what "could be" every year as if they're trying to keep them mesmerized with this make.believe mantra.

Oh I’m sorry, who else has been demoing tech like Crystal LED, 4K OLED displays, and had numerous other firsts in the last decade with the first OLED TV, they have 17" & 25" OLEDs on sale for a year now, first with things like RGB LED backlighting, local dimming LED etc.

Sony’s problem is that they don’t have manufacturing capacity, which has nothing to do with their R&D.

Sort of, but not really. They can't do IGZO backplanes yet which means they can't realistically do 4K OLED at that size. And they can't do OLED at that size since they don't have any ability to do SMS OLED (small mask scanning). It's all hypothetical. Less hypothetical than Sony going it alone, but hypothetical at best.

Yes.

The earliest Sony could have an OLED like this to market would be 2015. And that feels aggressive.

COLED for the win!

Apparently they didn't bring back the CLED prototype, or at least they aren't hyping it this year....

I'd argue the company still has no display strategy of any kind.

Sony can have the "what if" title.

Lets see when they follow through with one of these "revolutionary" technologies for mass production

Sony fan, but not getting excited for this like I have their showings the last few years until it's more than a prototype.

I don't think it was meant for anything other than to make a statement of sorts. It will be interesting to see whether in the year 2013 the OLED set from LG is considered the "Ferrari" of display tech, or whether the prestige will go towards the large panel 4K sets.

In any event, the OLED completely aside, I think that Sony's 2013 TV lineup looks much improved from 2012, and should make for some solid performing sets. Alas I don't see myself budgeting the money for a 4K set anytime soon, but I absolutely agree with the notion of quality speakers being a part of the package for wall-mounted displays. The 55" and 65" look very nice.

On a non-display note entirely, Sony at least should be well positioned for any concerted industry push to 4K, especially from a content creation and distribution standpoint.

xb, I wonder what the statement is to be honest.

"We again are showing something we can't and won't build. We are falling so far behind while trying to look the part."

It's not so much desperate as pathetic.

Sony needs to tell the world whether it intends to make TVs and if so what kind and how.

This incremental, overpriced stuff is losing them tens and hundreds of millions each year and gives them no future.

If they're falling behind though, it's from a business perspective, rather than a PQ/technology perspective.

I expect that the X900 series will have some of the best PQ in 2013 out of the available displays on the market. Maybe not the best under all circumstances, but their top-of-range has been competitive for the title the last couple of years running now. Their products are hardly an embarrassment - on the contrary, they seem devoted to accurate color reproduction where other LCD makers are devoted to blasting eyeballs with color.

Anyway... a falling yen will have more immediate and powerful effects on the likes of Sony and Sharp than would any single product announcement, and to that end, I hope we see both players endure in the industry.

It appears that both Sony and Panasonic have revealed the same 56” 4K OLED panel. It seems their partnership may be deeper than just developing manufacturing equipment and manufacturing processes as this demonstrates the sharing of actual device design.

You have mis-read that, in my opinion.

The partnership is to "develop technologies to manufacture OLED displays". It's absolutely nothing more.

The prototype you see was made by neither company, but instead by AU Optronics. It ostensibly -- and I want to emphasize that word because there is no real confirmation -- is proof of that because it uses the "printing" technique they are trying to co-develop.

At this time, if they are successful, each company will have the technologies from the JV to exploit as they see fit. There is certainly no JV to co-design products or co-produce products. The latter is possible, the former is very, very improbable. Neither is close to fruition, I'd say. Of course, the prototype is not close to a product anyway.

This might be the details of their contract. Still, it’s interesting that they are sharing the same design and so they may do that again in the future. I would not be surprised if their manufacturing partner AUO invests in a fab line for this technology in the next year or so.

Sony and AUO

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1332925855

I question the veracity of any article that has "Sony has already officially announced their plan to release OLED-TVs in 2013" which is false.

They have made no such announcement.

If this info is accurate, then both TVs were developed indepenantly with different methods

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/hdtv/eyes-on-sony-and-panasonics-56-inch-4k-ultra-hd-oled-tvs-1123767

"The Panasonic rep told TechRadar that while Panasonic's 4K OLED TV has "the same picture quality" as others, like Sony's, the printing production method will ultimately prove more cost-effective and allow Panasonic to more easily produce 4K OLED TVs of varying sizes.

Sony: "We have the expertise"

Sony's 56-inch Ultra HD OLED TV was not made with the "printing technology" described by Panasonic, but with the same "Super Top Emission" technology that Sony has used to make its other OLED displays, a Sony representative told TechRadar"