OLED displays have long been associated with the likes of myth and illusion.  Okay, we’re exaggerating, but hopefully you’re picking up what we’re laying down.  Said another way, OLED tech has long been relegated to the small screen, such as smartphones and monitors, which are anything but practical for home theater viewing. However, that is about to change thanks to LG.

Today, the company announced the world’s largest OLED TV.  The 55EM9600 measures 55-inches from corner to corner and boasts a 100,000,000:1, contrast ratio.  That’s 50 times greater than the next best LED TV on the market today.  It’s actually a pretty silly number in real world terms, but it does provide some perspective to just how powerful this set is.  Images are said to be beyond life like and it doesn’t hurt that it’s 3D capable as well, though you’ll still need to sport a pair of glasses to take advantage of the extra dimension.

LG has opted for White OLED (WOLED) as a light source and Oxide TFT is the panel text, which replaces Amorphous Silicon with Oxide, which is cheaper.  This is all packed into a 4mm, yes 4 millimeter thick body.

LG hasn’t announced a price or launch date, but hopefully we’ll see a production model emerge by the end of 2012.  It’s complete conjecture, but we expect the price to be well north of $10,000.

It will be sometime until we start to see 4k movies and tv shows appear.  After all, didn’t 1080p just hit the mainstream?  However, it won’t be long before we can watch 3D sans glasses.  If French isn’t in your lexicon, sans means without, so without glasses.  And Toshiba says they’ve already developed a 55-inch TV that just does that and is set to go on sale at the beginning of next year.

The Toshiba’s REGZA 553X uses a wide array of technology to make this feat possible.  First off, and we’re sure you’re wondering this (we were) this 3D can display a three dimensional image for up to nine people simultaneously, or at least we can only infer so – the linked article says “nine different viewing positions,” so take it as you will.

All this wonderment of TV viewing bliss is possible thanks to a number crunching machines found on the back of the TV.  Toshiba also incorporated a range of lenticular lenslets that guide each respective image to each eye – to achieve 3D they must be slightly offset.  And to ensure the images are delivered to the right spot, they’ve also stuffed in face tracking tech, which supposedly can follow and detect a variety of viewers so the correct left/right image is sent to the correct person.

What makes this particular TV so astounding is not only the resolution and the ability to achieve 3D without glasses, but its sheer size.  Most sets of this ilk, at least up until this point have been less than 32-inches, which is far from practical for a 3D viewing experience.  We have yet to get a hands on with the Toshiba 553X, but we can all but guarantee that we’ll get a preview at CES 2012.

By the way, price is a purported $11,500.  Not too shabby for a glasses free 3D TV.

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