CES 2012: LG To Show Largest OLED Screen Yet, With Good News On Pricing

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Home theater buffs out there–and those interested in building their own home theater–have a lot to consider these days, not least of which is the kind of display you’ll use to get your images. And with a panoply of televisions available (not to mention projectors), choosing one in particular is tougher than ever. But with LG about to show of its newest–and largest–OLED television at CES 2012, the job is about to get even harder.

LG’s OLED television, said to be not only its largest but also the world’s largest, measures in at an impressive 55 inches. Sure, we’ve heard of bigger screens, but not too many, and 55 is at least in the upper percentile for big screen televisions. But leaving aside the less than spectacular (but still plenty big) size, there’s plenty else here to like.

Tops on the list is a very healthy 100,000 : 1 contrast ratio as well as a response time that’s fully 1000 times faster than LCD panels of a comparable size. But that’s not all; reports are coming in about reduced power consumption thanks to an improved backlighting system, as well as LG’s proprietary “White OLED” system that stacks the red, green and blue color diodes on a base of white diodes. These and other manufacturing modifications result in the new LG OLED television being not only as high end as the new standard would expect, but also being significantly less expensive than the norm.

Now, this by itself doesn’t mean a whole lot. While it’s entirely possible that this could go to shelves, and seriously impress the home theater buffs out there, it’s just as possible that this will be little more than a big dog and pony show for LG’s new proprietary systems. Of course, the problem with such an approach would be that LG would be missing out on a substantial opportunity if they had an OLED television that could match LCD, plasma and LED prices but also provide better quality images. But then, if LG’s using this as a tech demo, of sorts, then they have the opportunity to refine the unit into something much better for two or three years out. This does, however, mesh with earlier reports we’d heard saying that LG would have something ready along these lines for the Olympics in 2012, so take that with as big a grain of salt as you need.

So what do you guys think here? Will we see OLED televisions sooner than expected from LG? Or will this just be the start of something great in the home theater market? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section and fill us in!