Today during Sony’s CES press conference, Sir Howard Stringer oh-so-casually dropped news about this prototype Crystal LED display they have in the works. As it turns out, it’s probably the coolest thing Sony has at CES.
What sets the Crystal LED tech apart from other display technology is that instead of using LED’s to light up pixels, Sony up and replaced all the pixels with LEDs. That means that there are six million miniature red, blue and green LED’s lighting up and delivering a crystal clear, razor sharp picture to our eyes. And seeing it up close was impressive.
Sony had the display side-by-side against a standard LED-backlit display. While I’m sure Sony didn’t go out of their way to make the lesser TV perform at its best, the Crystal LED had colours that were significantly richer, and brighter, and a picture that was smoother. Sony also says the display has better contrast and viewing angles than typical TVs, though that wasn’t exactly easy to test amongst a crowded convention hall.
The Crystal LED is something that’s best appreciated with one’s own eyes, (especially since the photos don’t tell the half and fell victim to some weird banding effect caused by the TVs), but feast your eyes on this thing nonetheless. Of course this is nowhere near ready for our living rooms, but that still didn’t prevent me from walking away with a dribble of saliva running down my chin. [Sony CES Liveblog]
GigZ333
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:13 PMWow.. but aren’t OLEDs suppose to be the next gen of television display?
Chris
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 3:17 PMI was about to say that this will be about as close as LCD will get to plasma, but then realised that this isn’t LCD at all. It’s an actual LED TV, not an LED-backlit LCD TV sold as an “LED TV” (shudder).
red t-rex
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 4:04 PMSo yet again the jumping the gun with the sales pitch promoting a technology using misleading terms ends up confusing most people when the actual technology comes out. First there was Standard Def Digital, then slightly better definition digital promoted as HD when it wasn’t and finally Full HD which is actually just HD. Now we have LCD, LED (actually just LED backlit LCD), and finally (Full) LED! Throw OLED into the mix and the average consumer doesn’t stand a chance with the sales talk.
Chris
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:34 PMTell me about it – everyone comes to me to ask about TVs and stuff, and the number of times I hear about “the three types of flat-screen – LCD, LED and plasma” I sigh a little (can’t be angry at people who really don’t know any better, angry at Retravision catalogs selling LED TVs).
Thomas
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 7:55 AMIt sounds like OLED and Sony’s Crystal LED technologies are very similar in their execution – as in pixels + backlight are replaced by self-lit LEDs? By no means my area of expertise, so if someone would like to clarify :)
Matt L
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 5:03 PMIt’s not High Definition only if you think about it in retrospect… At the time, 720p was freaking insanely good! They just didn’t realize something better was around the corner…. So yeah, there will never be a naming standard, as any company who develops it names it themselves… And they tend to name it for their own personal gain… It’s not that confusing tho… Unless the transition from black and white to color was confusing for you.
Matthew
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7:57 PMLaserVue is still going to be my dream.
Cheshire Cat
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:11 PMYeah =( it’s a real shame that tech went nowhere….
chris
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 10:33 AMI was waiting for this years ago to come out but they never released in Australia :( America can buy them..
http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/tv/L75-A94
Matt L
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 5:05 PMI forgot I was waiting for this to come out… Oh well, not anymore… I’d like to see how well they can make these panels, I’d prefer it over a seperate front projected lazer unit, or a oversized rear projection lazer unit….
Jason
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 6:59 PMWhile that Mitsu looks awesome in the picture a depth of 15 inch is a killer. Add to that its 60kg mass and it has no chance. Consumers would laugh at the vendor for suggesting they stick something that deep in their lounge rooms these days.
Jim Smith
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:20 PMInteresting. Good to see Sony with some more wicked products.
Esophagus
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 11:25 PMAs much as I hate Sony, they make some damn fine TVs. Fuckers.