BREAKING NEWS: Toshiba quits SED TV panel production!!!

[eddieaus]

This is huge! Toshiba just announced they quits SED TV panel production. Because of the lawsuit Toshiba finally decideded to give up on SED TV. All the shares will be sold to its partner Canon on 29th Jan 2007!

Samsung and Sony must be laughing so hard right now.

Source from Toshiba Japan official website:

キヤノンによるＳＥＤ株式会社の完全子会社化について

2007年1月12日

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

キヤノン株式会社
株式会社　東芝

　キヤノン株式会社（以下キヤノン）と株式会社東芝（以下東芝）は、両社で設立したＳＥＤ株式会社に関して 、2007年1月29日をもって、キヤノンが東芝保有の全株を買い取り、完全子会社とすることを決定いたし ました。

　今回の決定は、キヤノンに対する“ＳＥＤ”の技術に関連する米国訴訟の長期化が予想されることから、ＳＥ Ｄテレビ事業の早期立ち上げに向けて両社で協議した結果、ＳＥＤパネルの事業をキヤノン単独で行うことにし たものです。

　ＳＥＤ搭載テレビの発売は、計画どおり本年第４四半期に日本国内において開始する予定ですが、ＳＥＤパネ ルの本格量産については、キヤノンが計画を見直すこととなります。

　今回の合意によってキヤノンと東芝の関係は大きく変わります。
　今後、両社はそれぞれ“ＳＥＤ”の高画質を活かしたテレビ事業の円滑な立ち上げに努めていき ます。

　なお、ＳＥＤ株式会社の現社長である福間和則は、出身元である東芝からキヤノンに移籍の上、引き続き社長 を務めます。また、東芝から出向している技術者については、キヤノンによるＳＥＤパネルの単独事業化に向け ての引継ぎ期間中は新たに締結する契約に基づいて出向を継続させる予定です。

注）ＳＥＤ： Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display （表面伝導型電子放出素子ディスプレイ）の略称。
キヤノンと東芝の共同開発による次世代薄型ディスプレイ。

[tranzparentl]

I think this could be a good thing for HD DVD. Toshiba is not just giving their half of the business away to Canon for free. They are selling it to them for $82.64 million dollars.

Hopefully Toshiba will use that money to put more effort into HD DVD.

Sometimes even a large company needs to look at its priorities and decide what route to take. Toshiba probably felt they didn't want to stretch their R&D costs any more than it had to, especially with the lawsuit pending, it's possible whoever holds onto the SED venture could be the big loser.

[Aodh]

Sounds more like a mistake/money grab. Canon bought the rights (Before? After?) SED Inc was made and for some reason SED wasn't covered as part of the rights. So the only way to keep the rights and continue development was to make it a Canon subsidiary. They didn't quit, they backed out to let the technology development continue and avoid litigation.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2.../tech-sed.html

Nano-Proprietary Inc., a U.S. technology company that has licensed a key SED technology to Canon, claims SED Inc. is not covered under the agreement because the company is not a Canon subsidiary.

[dobyblue]

I don't think these sets will ever see the light of day, which is a shame because they sounded awesome.

Nevertheless the new CinemaVision line from Toshiba coming out later this year seems to be where they've put their efforts. The sets sound like they will be well worth checking out.

[Blueguy]

Well, it's not all bad. We still got FED, which from my novice eye, seems very similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_emission_display

[Tejstar]

Another piece of vapourware then. A big shame as I was really looking forward to SED.

[Blueguy]

Ditto. I've been holding off on spending big bucks on an HDTV until SED came out. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out from buying a nice big flat panel.

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by Blueguy

Ditto. I've been holding off on spending big bucks on an HDTV until SED came out. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out from buying a nice big flat panel.

I can hold off until December 2007, no longer.

How many times do "ip" lawsuits have to trump innovation. Sad.

"First, kill all the lawyers"

[glocks out]

Sony showed a 27" and 11" OLED TVs with a 1,000,000:1 [sic] contrast. The picture quality was amazing. Pioneer announced a "quantum leap" in plasma technology as well (certainly vaporware at this point) they say looks better than SED.

It's just too bad though because SED was certainly promising.

[Aodh]

Originally Posted by glocks out

Sony showed a 27" and 11" OLED TVs with a 1,000,000:1 [sic] contrast. The picture quality was amazing. Pioneer announced a "quantum leap" in plasma technology as well (certainly vaporware at this point) they say looks better than SED.

It's just too bad though because SED was certainly promising.

My cell phone is an LG I've had for a few years now. It has an OLED display on it and it is bright. I use it as a flashlight if the power goes out. They're low energy and look good. OLED TVs has been something in the works for a while, it'll be interesting when it actually is released.

[Maxx_75]

OLED has a chance. The have some issues to work out like lifespan for one. All the colors have a short lifespan with Blue being really short.

[glocks out]

Yeah, LG showed some small 4" OLED displays that look killer as well.

[nesto719]

forgive my ignorance but what is sed tv? is it the same as the new laser light tv's that mits. is coming out with

[Aodh]

Originally Posted by nesto719

forgive my ignorance but what is sed tv? is it the same as the new laser light tv's that mits. is coming out with

Easiest way to think about it is a flat-panel CRT. 180' viewing and very very high contrast ratio and true blacks.