Forget your OLEDs and your Quantum Dots, Panasonic's Super IPS panel tech is coming

[P4-630]

"The Japanese panel manufacturers have announced to the world their new IPS screen technology, offering the same levels of contrast as OLED panels and the same brightness as Quantum Dot displays.

That’s all well and good, but these are the best gaming monitors around right now.

The new technology takes essentially the same design as a standard liquid crystal panel but placing a layer of light modulating cells between the backlight and the RGB display cell itself. This extra layer allows for much tighter control over the backlighting of the panel, down to a per pixel level.

Because they have independent control over the display cell and the light modulating layer light leakage has been dramatically cut. Panasonic reckon they've been able to achieve a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 with the new IPS tech, something only seen before in the ultra expensive OLED panel technology with its perfect blacks."

"Panasonic have also used a high-brightness backlight with the new panel design, which means the new IPS displays are able to achieve a peak luminance level beyond OLED and more akin to what Samsung have been preaching about with their Quantum Dot screens. The maximum brightness of the Super IPS design is 1,000cdm2 with a minimum brightness of just 0.001cd/m2.

That means Panasonic’s new tech has also got almost the same perfect black representation as OLED screens and far deeper than even Samsung’s latest Quantum Dot displays measured at 0.045cd/m2 for their minimum brightness.

Because of the huge contrast ratio and the peak and minimum luminance levels the new IPS design looks to be a fantastic option for HDR monitors and TVs. At the moment Panasonic are talking about the technology going into medical disaplys (y’know for checking our x-rays and the like) or for broadcast monitors and HDR video production. Or cars. Weird. "

"Samples are meant to appear in January of 2017 and it looks like they’ve managed to get the new tech into production so quickly because they can just use their existing manufacturing equipment. Panasonic’s existing production lines are capable of creating screens from 10-100 inches across, but whether this new IPS design will make its way into gaming monitors is currently unknown.

And even if it does, it probably won’t be any time soon. When was the last time you saw a Panasonic PC monitor? But hey, if Asus wants to license the panel and stick it into a new 4K ROG Swift I’m not going to complain.

Though Panasonic haven’t yet announced any potential refresh rate or response time levels, and those are going to be key elements as to whether the new IPS tech is going to be suitable for gaming. Already some gamers complain about a 5ms response time for existing IPS monitors, if that gets pushed up by another layer of crystals getting in between backlight and display then that could well be a deal breaker.

But if it can achieve the same performance as current IPS monitors, or better, then the new IPS could be all the display technology we’ve ever needed and my search for the perfect gaming monitor might well be over. "

http://www.pcgamesn.com/panasonic-new-ips-panel

 

[Bill_Bright]

Interesting that there is no mention of efficiency, power or heat in the article. Or viewing angle either.

 

[Steevo]

I bet getting the light polarization just right of the control panel under was what took so long to create this, as it would have been easy to create a second black and white only panel behind and a thin diffuser and sample the chroma to determine how much light to let through.

 

[eidairaman1]

Might be my monitor and tv upgrade in 2017. My brother said Samsung TVs suck now...

 

[Bill_Bright]

My brother said Samsung TVs suck now...

I think people are just turning against the brand name because of melting Samsung cell phones and exploding Samsung washing machines.

 

[Frick]

I think people are just turning against the brand name because of melting Samsung cell phones and exploding Samsung washing machines.

On the whole the brand has been quite overrated I feel. Things catching fire is bad, but it feels like they'll get away with it with their image intact, somehow.

 

[R-T-B]

Interesting that there is no mention of efficiency, power or heat in the article. Or viewing angle either.

Probably because it's essentially an IPS lcd, and we haven't really had high power or heat draw since plasma screens, which died out in early 2014.

IPS has also always had stellar viewing angles, part of the techs trademark.

 

[AsRock]

Probably because it's essentially an IPS lcd, and we haven't really had high power or heat draw since plasma screens, which died out in early 2014.

IPS has also always had stellar viewing angles, part of the techs trademark.

All so a stellar price tag, although dropped a fair bit over the years but don't expect this to be cheap.

 

[eidairaman1]

I think people are just turning against the brand name because of melting Samsung cell phones and exploding Samsung washing machines.

that was only a Note 7, the Washing machines was a rarity- however they love to go unbalanced real easily

 

[R-T-B]

All so a stellar price tag, although dropped a fair bit over the years but don't expect this to be cheap.

Which is another reason I still like VA panel tech... fairly affordable, and pretty damn decent blacks. Just don't look at it from the side and you are fine.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I think, in theory, this tech can be applied to any LCD tech, not just IPS.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

IPS is the standard these days. If it's better than regular IPS and cheaper than OLED, it will catch on fast.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Probably because it's essentially an IPS lcd, and we haven't really had high power or heat draw since plasma screens, which died out in early 2014.

I don't like to assume. Though you are "probably" right, that was not my point.

Improving energy conservation and increasing the protection/repair of the environment have been driving forces in advancing the state-of-the-art in consumer electronics for the last couple decades. Not just by manufacturers, but governments too. Look at the "global" banning of incandescent lights.

"Green" and "greener" are characteristics marketing weenies are keen to jump on and "fluff up" in their marketing "hype". Yet there is none here. Why not?

Just looking at a new MSI graphics card box I see no less than 14 logos on the box indicating some sort of "eco friendly" compliance. There's even one that claims the ink used on the box was made from soy! There are 11 such logos on the box for a EVGA G2 "Gold" PSU. And speaking of PSUs, we as advisers never recommend a PSU that is not 80 PLUS certified yet 80 PLUS certification, in no way, ensures a better "quality" PSU. It may imply better quality, but it does not ensure it.

Even car makers boast this year's model gets 36mpg compared to last year's 35.

So because "eco friendly" is so important to so many consumers (and governments), marketing weenies ALWAYS boast about it in their promotions and marketing hype, unless there's nothing to boast about! And that's my point with these "new and improved" displays. There's no hype about efficiency. Why not? Are these displays "greener"? I "assume" not or there would be hype bragging about it.

So if not greener, are they less efficient and add to our global warming and pollution problems?

that was only a Note 7, the Washing machines was a rarity- however they love to go unbalanced real easily

It is the potential for problems that matters, not the actual number of events. So I would not call the potential for nearly 3 million in 34 models of recalled washing machines a rarity.

And it was not just the Note 7. Other Samsung phones have had fire issues too. The Note 7 was just the most recent and caught the most press because it was Samsung's new flagship model that was supposed to whoop up on Apple. That said, millions of other products from 1000s of brands using faulty Li Ion batteries are fire hazards too.

FTR I like Samsung. I have a Samsung S4 Mini phone, 5 Samsung monitors, 2 Samsung TVs, and 1 Samsung tablet and I will probably buy Samsung again unless the company goes Lenovo on us and demonstrates a repeating pattern of intentionally pre-installing malicious spyware on their products. Then I will boycott Samsung just as I have done, and recommend others do with Lenovo.