Is SED Obsolete Before It's Born?

by Gregory Sullivan — Monday, May 28, 2007, 08:00 AM EDT

Surface conduction electron emitter display. SED. We've been hearing about its bright colors, high contrast ratio, lack of ghosting, and wide viewing angles for quite some time. There's a problem. It would have definitely been superior to a plasma television back when a 50" plasma cost $10,000. Now you can buy that same plasma for two or three grand, and you still can't buy an SED. And even if you could, it would still cost ten grand.

From a technological standpoint, industry insiders all agree that SED had the potential to gobble up a huge portion of the HDTV market in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The operative words in that last sentence is “had the potential”.

While SED production plans have stalled, plasma and LCD technologies have charged forward in the last three years. Gone are the days of plasma burn-in and slow LCD response times. In the last few years, the native resolution of LCD and Plasma panels have increased, average panel life has increased, contrast ratios have increased, response times have improved and prices have plummeted.

I bet you could have a wonderful time playing Duke Nukem Forever on it, though. You can go pick it up in your flying car.

Tags: sed

Is SED Obsolete Before It's Born?

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