Panasonic has a strong presence at this year's CEATEC show in Japan with the introduction of a 55-inch 4K OLED panel, 4K VIERA TVs as well as the 20-inch, 4K TOUGHPAD 4K UT-MB5 tablet.
Introduced for the first time earlier thiss month at IFA, the company's 55-inch OLED panel debuts in Japan. The 55-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel with 4k2k resolution (3,840 x 2,160 resolution, 8.29 million pixels) has been produced through the "RGB all-printing method."
In the printing method of production of OLED panels, OLED materials are applied to the substrate through a printing technique to form an electroluminescent (EL) layer. Due to the simplicity of the production process, it is expected that the technology will be easily adaptable to the production of OLED panels in a variety of screen sizes. Through the printing method, it is also possible to apply just the right amount of organic material to where it is needed, reducing waste material and shortening production lead time, making the printing method of production more economical.
In the production of the OLED panel, Panasonic is utilizing the RGB all-printing method, which allows for the separate application of the red, green and blue OLED materials by means of printing, and has developed the equipment and process technologies to apply the materials uniformly to a large substrate.
As OLED panels are self-illuminating devices, they deliver superb picture quality with high contrast, high color reproductivity and a fast response rate. They also combine the advantages of plasma and liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, such as an ultra-thin profile, light weight and low power consumption. The 55-inch 4k panel showcased at CEATEC was just 8.9mm thick.
Panasonic has not decided when this panel will enter mass production, although it is expected to debut sometime in January.
Panasonic has also on display the 65-inch 4K Smart VIERA TV, model TH-L65WT600. In addition to its 4K supported resoluton, the TV supports 4K/60p input through DisplayPort 1.2a, allowing gamers to play in 4K.
A new 4K DIGA Blu-ray disc playerl, DMR-BZT9600, will become available in the marketplace this fall (planned for release mid Nov 2013). Panasonic demonstrated Blu-ray Disc content that have been upconverted to 4K using its "Master Grade Video Coding" technology. Content on a Blu-ray Disc is stored using the Blu-ray Disc standard of 24-bit gradation (approximately 16.77 million colors). But Panasonic's "Master Grade Video Coding" stores additional bit expansion data to offer studio quality with 36-bit gradients (approximately 68.7 billion colors).
The TOUGHPAD 4K UT-MB5 is a business-friendly Windows tablet with a
a 20-inch LCD 4K display. Its IPS liquid crystal panel supports high-definition electronic stylus input. Panasonic did not provide further details about this device.