News Panasonic announces 1,000,000:1 contrast IPS displays

I think this is a very interesting development, an OLED rivalling contrast ratio without the OLED downsides of a shorter lifespan and a propensity to burn-in. I wonder how long it will be before the price becomes affordable?

 

I imagine like all these things it will be three-ish years after the initial production model that versions under £500 start kicking around and another year before good ones under £500 appear.

Or OLED screens will get better and this will have a brief lifespan.

 

I can see this being useful where a very high maximum illumination level is needed (that OLEDs cannot achieve), e.g. outdoor displays, dashboards, etc.

 

I heard that OLED has pretty high input lag, not so much recommended for gaming TVs.

 

I wonder what those light-modulating cells are made of. it sounds like it might have usable properties even outside the use of displays. I mean LCD's never completely block light, and doesn't have the ability to block very high intensity light, so if this new stuff is better AND can switch at speeds of 60 times a second it at least sounds like it would have many uses. Depending on the cost of course.

If it's cheap enough you can even have electrically blinding windows, which in turns brings up the question what frequencies it can block, can it block IR and UV?
And another question is if it has low power use. Anyway, many questions need answering.

 

Unfortunately input lag is shocking on plenty of non OLED TVs as well.

 

Good. Always thought reducing the entire back light was a gimmick.

The price will have to be less than oled but I think the public would expect 4k panels which will keep the manufacturing costs high, and the appeal for lower size market might not be there (as the cost would be high)

 

I now hear it's still using liquid crystals, confirmed by the quote:
"The new panel can be manufactured using the existing equipments for liquid crystal panel manufacturing."

And I also hear they target the medical world and such rather than consumer, probably meaning the reaction time isn't all that

So sorry guys, it's not all that hot after all.

 

Chances are Panasonic is using quantum boxes (like the ones Samsung uses in his QLED monitors) to achieve this. Note that those quantum boxes are used in both cases with LCD matrices. But quantum boxes could also be used with OLED technology, or whatever diffuses light.

The technique used by Samsung, if I got it straight, goes like this:
Every box is equal to a subpixel and can be tuned to one specific frequency output (to get pure red, pure green and pure blue) reacting to a light source. That way, you can miss the colour filters: much more light will go through the LCD matrix and reach the quantum box, which will react accordingly the light's intensity.

The technique used by Panasonic seems to be modulating the light intensity with quantum boxes.
Light enters one side, exits the other (not same light, slight difference, quantum thingy that takes a page to try and explain) side, and applying certain tension on the walls of the box changes the reaction power (so one can dull or amplify the reaction). That way, one can gain pixel-sized local dimming, without having an expensive lighting array behind the LCD matrix = cheaper to manufacture and technically also superior (LED arrays have never been made pixel to pixel. But one LED covered a small area of a certain amount of pixels).

So, for the IR/UV blocking... Quantum boxes "react" to energy coming in, by emitting energy through the other side. What happens inside is that the wavelength gets modified ([so whitish light source will be a bit more yellowish at the other side, but with a visual intensity higher than the source], if untuned, but one can tune boxes so they emit a pure colour of choice). One can close the box as well, which prevents the energy from entering it, making it blocking. But sincerely, doesn't seem to have any commercial use (still need to use energy, even if in small amounts, to control the reaction of the boxes, so can as well use physical blocking methods that might have additional advantages).

PS: part in brackets is speculation, but based on my knowledge of some quantic properties with lighting. The effect described can be reproduced by putting a thin gold film on a light, with holes slightly smaller than the light's wavelength. Activate the light, and it will shine, brighter than without the gold film, even though it shouldn't even shine (the holes in the gold film are smaller than the light's wavelength). Resulting light will be brighter, but with a smaller wavelength. So if one uses a neutral white light, it will turn towards warm white, but with more intensity (conversion from one wavelength to a smaller one gave an energetic bonus, resulting in higher intensity of light).

Well, that's it for my midnight-ill-and-can't-go-to-sleep-yet post.

 

I just think it's odd that it would use liquid crystals, they have been plagued by their inherent flaws for forever (when was the first LCD? Early 1970's?) and of course you need to deal with the existing polarization method if it's behind a regular LCD screen. So it seems odd that it would be so much better that blocking light, and so much more heat resistant (from their claims), and that heat resistance would indicate it doesn't absorb IR much right?
But if it is so much better at blocking it would in my mind certainly open up new uses apart from screens, stuff where you can't rely on LCD for so far since it just is so flawed.

It does seem odd somehow how long we are tied to the flawed LCD technology. It reminds me of classical harddisks, they get better of course but it still seems primitive somehow.

Still a damn sight (pardon the pun) better than CRT of course, at least we can say that without blinking.