Samsung offers two shows at once on new OLED tv

South Korean electronics giant Samsung Monday unveiled a new television that lets two people watch two different shows at the same time.

The F9500 television is the first in the world to offer this feature, dubbed "multi-view," the company said in Las Vegas, attributing the advance to the use of the latest generation of screen technology called "organic light-emitting diode" or OLED.

The feature allows two people "to watch completely different Full-HD content simultaneously on the same screen with corresponding audio and controls," the company said on the eve of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, the world's biggest for the electronics trade.

Joe Stinziano, a senior Samsung official in the US, emphasized at a press conference that "it's only possible in OLED due to the very fast speed" at which images can move across the screen with the technology.

So that they see just the show they want, the two viewers must wear special 3D glasses, which come with personal speakers built in to deliver the audio, in stereo, directly to them.

OLED TVs don't require separate backlights and thus are thinner, consume about 20 percent less power and offer a sharper picture than conventional flat-panel sets.

Samsung's South Korean rival, LG, has so far been the only company to launch a line of OLED television for commercial sale.

LG's OLED model, 55 inches wide but just 0.16 inches (four mm) thick, was opened for pre-orders last week, with the whopping price tag of 11 million won ($10,357). It will start shipping in late March.

Samsung hasn't indicated the price or release date of its television, which will also be 55 inches.