6in WQHD screen (2K resolution)

[TomFahey]

http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/18/vivo ... k-display/

This is the first finished device with a screen that has the pixel density and size suitable for an HMD that I'm aware of.

Apparently they're pushing for a launch before Chinese New Year in China, and "have big plans for the overseas market".

Hopefully we'll start to see more of these high-resolution screens in the next coming months, especially at CES in January

[colocolo]

Certainly.....

[remosito]

After reading the latest reactions of ppl to the internal Rift prototype using low persistence OLED displays, I just can't get excited about LCDs of any resolution!

The magic that happens within that grey goo of ours going low persistence and seriously cutting overall latency seems to trump going higher resolution by a lot!

[Fredz]

It's still left to be seen if Oculus will be able to use OLED panels in the consumer Rift. Because AFAIK the only panels of a size suitable for an HMD are made by Samsung and they don't sell them to anyone.

And considering that LightBoost-like technology can basically offer low latency to LCD panels and that Palmer has been tinkering with backlights in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if the consumer Rift would indeed use LCD panels.

[nateight]

It's still left to be seen if Oculus will be able to use OLED panels in the consumer Rift. Because AFAIK the only panels of a size suitable for an HMD are made by Samsung and they don't sell them to anyone.

That would be a damned shame, because the screen Samsung is allegedly making for the Galaxy S5 sounds like something out of Palmer's sexiest dreams. I can understand Samsung keeping a tight leash on panels designed for a proprietary phone - they wouldn't want to sell a bunch to some Chinese grey marketeer who might turn around and produce a cheaper competitor - but will such restrictions hold for devices that Samsung isn't even in the business of manufacturing? One hopes that $75m starts to be enough to convince some key players that there are only upsides to churning out a few hundred thousand extra panels when they aren't even bound for the mobile phone market.

The benefits of an OLED panel seem so significant in an HMD context that Oculus will surely stop at nothing to source one. I can just see Palmer, Carmack, and Iribe now, sitting three-abreast in an old cement mixer behind some freeway billboard, balaclavas on and guns at the ready, watching a laptop as the red dot of a lojack attached to a Samsung semi truck creeps slowly toward them...

(Yes, I did get Shadowrun Returns for Christmas. )

[Fredz]

I can understand Samsung keeping a tight leash on panels designed for a proprietary phone - they wouldn't want to sell a bunch to some Chinese grey marketeer who might turn around and produce a cheaper competitor - but will such restrictions hold for devices that Samsung isn't even in the business of manufacturing?

As someone else said in a thread on the Oculus forums : "A new product is always a competitor for your own market.". If you had spare money to shell out next year, would you buy the Oculus Rift or the Galaxy S5 ? To me that answers the question as to why Samsung would have no interest in selling OLED panels to Oculus VR.

The benefits of an OLED panel seem so significant in an HMD context that Oculus will surely stop at nothing to source one.

I don't see the benefits to be that much significant. To me there should be at least 4 advantages for OLED over LCD : resolution, black level, motion blur and latency.

1) Resolution
Someone did a side-by-side comparison of the 1280x800 devkit and the 1920x1080 Samsung Galaxy S4 with the A-cup lens and honestly I've not been impressed by the difference. It's arguably better (although still debatable, the grid is also still clearly visible and the colors are less natural), but I thought the jump in resolution would be much more impressive considering the doubling in pixels. I think it may be related to the PenTile layout on the S4 display though, but it's not inherent to OLED technology and could be different in new panels. I'd really like to see the same picture taken on the HD prototype to compare.

2) Black level
Although black level in OLED panels should be really great, there have been concerns with the Galaxy S4. Apparently there is a problem causing smearing when all pixels are black, and the only way to correct this is to disable pure black. See : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNwCuufJuLM . I don't know if this can be corrected in new panels or how the black level in this panel does compare to LCD though.

3) Motion blur
I'm not sure this panel or the one in the Galaxy S5 will be exempt from motion blur, at least it was not the case in the Galaxy S3 : http://www.blurbusters.com/faq/oled-motion-blur/ . And motion blur can still be eliminated in LCD with strobed backlighting like in the LightBoost monitors.

4) Latency
From what I've read LightBoost adds ~4ms latency with 120Hz LCD (see : http://www.blurbusters.com/benq-xl2420z ... z-monitor/). No idea for OLED though, maybe around 1ms if Oculus VR were talking about OLED for the pixel switching time in their "Virtual Reality - A new frontier in computing" slides.

[remosito]

Latest S5 rumors: Switching to sharp lcd display as they have production problems with their 1440p amoled screens. And cant make enough for massive S5 sales.

rift has less sales volume... perfect partner to buy existing production runs?

pure speculation on a pure unverified rumor!

but boy would that rock! 1440p would even be enough pixels to increase the fov a bit without pixel density per degree falling too low!

[MSat]

As someone else said in a thread on the Oculus forums : "A new product is always a competitor for your own market.". If you had spare money to shell out next year, would you buy the Oculus Rift or the Galaxy S5 ? To me that answers the question as to why Samsung would have no interest in selling OLED panels to Oculus VR.

AFAIK, Samsung produces the AMOLED display for the HTC One S. So if they're willing to supply a direct competitor with their premium components (not to mention CPUs and memories), then I don't see an inherent reason why they wouldn't sell components to a company they aren't competing with at all.

[Fredz]

I was refering to these quotes by Nate Mitchell from Oculus VR :

"If we move to an OLED panel, pixel-switching times would go down to about zero, because OLED tech just gives us that for free," he explained. "But we can't buy them at the size that we want because the only company that has them is Samsung. Hopefully, OLED tech will be caught up to by other manufacturers.

"We're not Microsoft, Apple or Samsung," he said. "We've sold 35,000 dev kits so far. Showing that number to a screen manufacturer, they're like 'OK, come talk to us when you're selling a million units.'

From http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/22/48891 ... re-hurdles

And

“The real trick to OLED is that there’s only one manufacturer in the world making OLED technology in the form factor we want.” That would be Samsung—and they’ve never sold their tech to any third party.

From http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/12/oculus-rift/

I don't know what the situation really is, maybe there was some sort of business agreement between Samsung and HTC. But in 2010 HTC moved on from AMOLED to LCD because of shortage issues. This article tentatively explains why :

One reason for the shortage of AMOLED display is because the South Korean company is seeking to ensure that that there is enough of it for its own range of popular smartphones, including the Galaxy S.

[MSat]

This might be part of the reason Oculus got that $75M cash infusion. Someone had to take a financial risk, and if it wasn't going to be Samsung, then it would have to be some investors. Money talks.

/speculation

[Fredz]

Good speculation I'd say, I was doubtful that it would allow them to get custom panels, but it seems that it could be the case.

"Palmer Luckey says that the company's success has opened new doors. Manufacturers, he says, have started looking at the Rift as more than an untested product, which means they're willing to work with Oculus on displays that aren't just repurposed phone and tablet parts."

From : http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/528577 ... -prototype

Also Palmer somewhat confirmed that not all OLED are able to do low-persistence :

"we’re taking the image and flashing it on when it’s correct, and only keeping that on for a fraction of a millisecond and then turning it off and then going black until the next pulse," Luckey continued. "It is not something that any OLED panel can do," he stated.

From : http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/7/5284258 ... mysterious