In October 2019 Samsung Display formally announced its decision to invest $10.85 billion in QD-OLED TV R&D and production lines. The company is already starting to produce prototypes, and is on track to start mass production in Q3 2021.

But SDC is facing a problem it probably did not anticipate - Samsung Electronics is hesitant about the adoption of QD-OLED panels, and may not ship QD-OLEDs in 2021 - or maybe even at all. Apparently Samsung Electronics wants to focus on microLEDs for next-generation displays as it finds QD-OLED TVs to be not bright enough - and also because it suffers from burn-in issues.

Philips recently announced its latest OLED TVs, the OLED 805, and the company is apparently worried about burn-in issues, and it is developing software technology to mitigate such issues - specifically the problem with network logos.

Pocket-lint reports that it has seen Philips' new technology being demonstrated. Philips' algorithm recognizes these logos, and reduces the brightness of the pixels that display the logo. This extends the lifetime of these pixels and should keep them at the same level as other pixels that do not display constant logos.

In November 2018 HiSense launched its first OLED TV range, the Series X in Australia and later in Europe. The 55" model is now shipping in the UK for £1,149. According to reports, demand for HiSense's OLEDs were lower-than-expected, at least in Australia.

According to a new report from China, HiSense 2020 OLED TVs will feature new technologies to solve image burn-in, low brightness and color inaccuracies. HiSense developed six-layers of technologies that include LEA-edge station logo monitoring and adjustment; local brightness adjustment of static content under dynamic video; brightness adjustment function for still images; overscan pixel shift technology; OFFRS function; and JB function.

Samsung released a short video that may help you find burn-in marks in your OLED TV. The video should be run on your OLED TV, and it shows a red image that will (according to Samsung) show visible marks if there are any issues in your TV.

If you did find such marks - Samsung suggested to contact a service center - or switch to one of its QLED LCDs... I wonder if this is a mart marketing move as Samsung itself is now committed to OLED TV technology and will start producing QD-OLEDs in 2021. Samsung is probably hoping that no one will remember this video by then...

A Federal Court in Australia ordered LG Electronics to pay a fine of $160,000 AUD to two consumers after LG refused to repair, replace or refund OLED TVs that exhibited burn in after less than a year of use.

Under the Australian law, consumers who purchased faulty products are entitled to a repair, refund or replacement - even if the warranty does not apply or has come to an end. The two OLED TVs were bought in 2013.

OLED Displays burn-in has always been an interesting topic, with some users and reviewers complaining about serious burn-in issues in some of their OLED TVs, while others report of no visible issues. UK based HDTVTest performed a comprehensive 6-month test on a brand new LG E8 OLED TV and found no sign of permanent burn-in.

HDTVTest says that they displayed varying content for 20 hours a day for more than 6 months (a total of over 3,700 hours). They also suggest to put the TV in standby mode rather than complete power-off so that the compensation cycles can run.

Samsung is developing its QD-OLED TV technology and the company was supposed to hold an investment review committee on April 2019 to decide whether to go ahead with plans to start production soon (mass production by the end of 2020).

However in May we later reported that Samsung decided to delay the production - trial production will begin towards the end of 2020, with real mass production on a new 10-Gen line only at around 2023. A new report from Korea sheds some more light on Samsung's situation.

Asus recently launched a new gaming laptop, the Zephyrus S GX502, which uses a 15.6" 4K 120Hz LCD IPS display. At Computex 2019 in Taiwan, Asus demonstrated one of these laptops with an 15.6" SDC AMOLED display.

Asus OLED laptop (left) vs LCD one (right)

Asus says it has no immediate plans to release an OLED gaming laptop as it still has concerns over the shorter lifespan of OLED displays, image retention (burn-in) and long-term color accuracy. As soon as these concerns are resolved, Asus says it will push forward with incorporating OLED panels in gaming laptops.

IGNIS Innovation published the following interesting video that shows how its compensation technology can remove the visible signs of pixel aging:

IGNIS tells us that this is a 12" LTPS automotive AMOLED panel. The company tested it for 1,000 hours at 85 degrees Celsius - to make sure the company's compensation technology can remove all signs of burn-in patterns. IGNIS's Max Life technology combines a functional in-pixel compensation pixel circuit with a sensing line and the company's current measurement driver chip that can perform external compensation.

HDTVTest posted an interesting interview with Cadmium-Free QD developer Nanosys CEO and president Jason Hartlove. In this long interview Jason discusses the company's technology and recent achievements.

Jason reveals that the company is working on emissive Quantum Dots displays - and he expects to have a full-color monitor-size QLED display prototype ready by the end of 2019. Jason says that they hope to show these display prototypes in private demos at CES 2020.