EXCLUSIVE: Samsung Australia, who was tipped to launch a new large screen OLED TV in November, may have to delay the launch due to reports coming out of Korea that there are problems manufacturing large screen OLED panels.Three months ago LG Australia backed down from launching a large screen OLED TV, similar to what they revealed at the 2012 CES Show in Las Vegas. Instead they chose to launch an 84″ Ultra High Definition TV which is set to go on sale in 30 retailers as of November.
Last week senior management from Samsung Australia’s AV division spent the week in Korea looking at new TV developments that the Korean manufacturer will show at the upcoming CES show in Las Vegas.
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There are suggestions that large screen OLED screens will not emerge from either LG or Samsung until late 2013 at the earliest, this plays into the hands of Panasonic who is tipped to show a new large screen OLED TV at the 2013 CES show.
According to sources in Korea, mass production of the technology remains a big problem – with high rejection rates at manufacturing facilities meaning that viable yields of OLED panels cannot be achieved.
While manufacturers have pretty much perfected their technique for making smaller OLED panels for mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), they’re reported to be having all kinds of problems in trying to scale up the size.
NPD DisplaySearch has now revealed it’s unlikely that either company will be ready to start mass producing OLED TVs for general sale for at least 12 months. This comes after the two companies had originally promised to have their first OLEDs in the shops earlier this summer – a promise that failed to materialise.
Samsung Australia is refusing to comment about their OLED TV plans.
On Friday the Consumer Electronics Association changed the name of 4K to Ultra High-Definition, or the shorter Ultra HD.
The rebrand appears to be the same as the already-approved International Telecommunication Union standard, itself called UHDTV. Both require televisions that have at least a 3840×2160 resolution in a 16:9 aspect ratio, though the CEA specification mentions that display products are required to have at least one digital input capable of carrying and presenting native 4K format video at the full resolution without relying solely on up-converting.
Though it is expected that most television manufacturers will use the Ultra HD term, Sony has confirmed it will not use the new name.
The struggling consumer electronics Company claim that they will use its own branding “to ensure clarity for consumers.” Instead of UHD or the like, it is opting to brand its products as 4K Ultra High Definition.
