HAVE YOU GIVEN UP ON 8K?
- Published , by Michael Hamilton
By Michael Hamilton, AVPro Global Technical Writer
As you ease into summer Down Under, I pen this from the USA in the Northern Hemisphere, where in many regions, snow has been falling since mid-October, a signal that the Christmas shopping season fast approaches. Celebrated in both hemispheres, those luckily avoiding 2024’s “naughty list” will soon post letters to Mr. Claus expressing wishes for a new television. Upon waking Christmas morning and finding an 8K display under, err, blocking the tree, will you be enthralled or simply shrug?
The 8K Cosmos
Admittedly, no discernible consumer-facing headway has transpired with the 8K format in 2024; however, I am prompted to invoke my favorite Carl Sagan quotation: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” When at the cusp of any significant transition in this industry, many clasp the status quo for as long as possible. Despite lacking mainstream 8K content, consumers seem less reticent in their approach to 8K than was exhibited with 4K. Content eventually followed the hardware in carrot-and-stick fashion, though Hollywood steadfastly resisted 4K in its nascent days. After the profoundly devastating failure experienced with view-at-home 3D television, manufacturers desperately searched for their next marketable technology, finding it in 4K.
So It’s a Numbers Game, Eh?
Well-established a half-century earlier in consumer electronics marketing, bigger numbers sell, and the 4K format multiplied 1080’s pixels by a factor of four. Hollywood’s (legitimate) complaint had more to do with timing than technology. Already in motion was HDMI 2.0, with the enhanced bandwidth required to accommodate 4K UHD among a myriad of improvements that included 10-bit and higher color depth alongside High Dynamic Range. It wasn’t until September 4th, 2013, that the HDMI Forum announced the refreshed HDMI specification, which Hollywood viewed as not simply more pixels but the better pixels they had long sought creatively.
Preceding this by more than a year, however, on August 23, 2012, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approved UHDTV as a standard. On October 25, 2012, LG Electronics launched the first 4K TVs for consumer sale in the United States. Hollywood collectively viewed this leapfrog with utter dismay, knowing 4K production and post-production infrastructure was virtually nonexistent. The entire content creation community correctly anticipated an uproarious push for 4K content from consumers and TV manufacturers, and that is precisely what occurred.
phrase tool of the trade: something you need to do your job
For context, Dolby Vision was not officially introduced to the post-production community as a complete workflow suite until January 2014, though some insiders had access a few months prior. Dolby Vision perfectly encapsulated the elevated performance capabilities of HDMI 2.0 as the first HDR and enhanced bit-rate codec for content creators.
Additionally, it was not until October 3, 2014, that Sony launched its then-venerable benchmark BVM-HX300 4K OLED HDR professional mastering monitor. It would not begin shipping until February 2015, finally providing the production and post-production community with a valuable, versatile replacement for the CRT-based Sony BVM-24D. By this point, 4K televisions were already pushing three years into the market.
Three-card Monte, the Format Version
During this same timeframe, what ensued for the consumer was a nightmarish sequence of format iterations, which the consumer electronics industry should have managed substantially better. The first 4K TVs on the market were based on the HDMI 1.4 specification with the capacity only to input an 8.91 Gbps signal. That locked out early adopters from HDMI 2.0 and fps rates with full or varied chroma subsampling. Add to this early AVR/video switching. Consumers replaced AVRs with compatible HDMI input and switching facilities, only to discover that highly desirable Dolby Atmos was released a year later. I am not assigning any blame to Dolby Laboratories; we thank them prodigiously for their contributions to cinematic and home entertainment.
Other than the first 8K sets, where chipsets were “doubled up” internally to facilitate 8K bandwidth signals, manufacturers have wisely chosen to abandon any incremental, tiered easing into the format and are marketing full-format compatible displays. Panels are 7680 x 4320, 10-bit, with 48 Gbps chipsets.
8K Here to Stay
It is now safe to say that an 8K display poses no near-term obsolescence technological threat to integrators and their clients. Those adamant on having the latest and greatest - damn the torpedoes! - need fear not. For all others, price and content availability may be considered deterrents.
Now, half a decade into the format and with the technology maturing, pricing appears to have stabilized. While still at a premium, quantifiable improvements to current-generation models over their immediate predecessors come at the same or lesser outlay.
One immediate advantage in the commercial world (and in sports-themed home theaters) is multi-image viewing. While dependent on a third-party device, four independent 4K images on an 8K raster retain 4K resolution and are not downscaled to 1080p as is currently done on large 4K displays.
8K Technology Types
Hybrid Panel/Backlight Designs
Samsung’s Neo QLED (Neo Quantum Light Emitting Diode) utilizes mini-LED technology. Mini LEDs achieve higher light output, though they are 1/40th the size of those regularly used in edge-lit displays. However, they pack 10 times more light-producing firepower into the panel on premium sets.
Clustered into much denser arrays, mini-LED backlights provide more precise zoned control over panel light management. Conventional backlights comprised of standard LEDs are typically space-constrained to a few dozen local dimming zones. A mini-LED backlight design can accommodate hundreds of zones with thousands of diodes for granularly localized light control, essential for accurate high-dynamic-range performance. A quantum dot layer on the LCD panel widens the color range, highlights saturation, and increases brightness.
LG also manufactures a similar display technology incorporating quantum dots, mini-LED, and what they refer to as a NanoCell layer, which absorbs excess light at undesirable color wavelengths that bleed through the backlight.
In 2024, TCL stopped selling its one 8K model, citing low demand and offering the opinion that 4K mini-LED can deliver an equivalent enhancement and viewing experience. Another reason might be their new 4K 115-inch mini-LED model with 20,000 local dimming zones. One could portend that this might open the door for the argument that the QM89 would benefit from the jump from 8.294 million pixels to 33.177 million.
Backlight-free OLED
OLED technology’s backlight-free, self-emissive panel technology currently presents the best dynamic range capability available to the general electronics consumer. Micro-LED, another self-emissive display technology used in modular panel arrays, largely remains a commercial product with most configurations in the six-digit range. However, it is now beginning to appear in high-luxe residential projects.
8K OLED remains exponentially more expensive than mini-LED models. In the United States, an 8K LG OLED starts at an eye-watering USD 10,000, with the 97-inch model selling for USD 30,000. Most consumers are unaware of the actual complexity of OLED technology. An 8K OLED TV can require as many as 500 MILLION expensive, substantially high-quality transistors – with multiples necessary per sub-pixel supported by compensation circuitry. OLED is a light-emissive technology, not backlight-transmissive like LED-based LCD. (OLED pixels produce the light that is output; backlit light is not driven through them). These transistors, located on the backplane and consolidated into large monolithic chipsets, are required to produce a fair amount of current to reach consumer-acceptable levels in light output. OLED manufacturing is complicated, with lower yields that translate into an increased retail price.
Advances in panel technology are making inroads, which may soon make 8K OLED televisions more commonplace. Inkjet printing techniques for quantum dot conversion layers have been developed to support 8K resolution for Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED). It doesn’t address the transistor-related backplane issue and the associated expense. Still, it is the first step in paving the way for a mass production process to replace costly specialty fabrication.
What Goes In Comes Out Even Better
The latest generation 8K displays have superior image processing that, rare in the video world, has the potential to make the original 4K image look better than on a 4K native display. How? With four more times the pixel density and four times as many pixels for illumination, an 8K display will render diagonal artifacts undetectable from any viewing distance. 8K content, viewed farther away than what the “experts” say is required (closer is fine, but not necessary), still yields visual benefits from the increased resolution. At the same time, contrast and dynamic range are enhanced compared to a same-sized 4K display.
Inclined to commit but lament the lack of content?
As mentioned, current-generation 8K television models offer phenomenal image processing, upscaling 4K content and mapping it to 8K panels. Content that is accessed today will be displayed with an accentuated perception of image depth, providing a heightened sense of immersion. HDR is rendered with a wider range of gradients, as greater pixel density blends varying hues more seamlessly.
With four times the pixel count of 4K, conventional data compression schemes have challenged 8K. New codecs like Versatile Video Coding (VVC) augment traditional compression technologies such as H.265 for more efficient 8K delivery.
For over a decade, content acquisition in Hollywood has been at 5K and 6K, elevating in the past half-dozen years to 8K and even higher, primarily driven by invigorated filmmakers. Arri flagship Alexa 65 is considered one of the most expensive cinema cameras available. The Alexa 65 camera body is not sold individually but in a package costing upwards of $175,000. Its A3X sensor can capture up to 6560 x 3102 resolution, which is used by various formats, including IMAX.
Are you thinking 8K is where it stops? On the heels of its 12K camera, Blackmagic Design recently revealed its URSA Cine 17K 65, which has a 65mm CMOS RGBW sensor capable of resolutions from 4K up to 17,520 x 8040 and costs USD 30,000.
Acquisition at these higher resolutions initially provided non-animated special effects with more pixels, so guy wires, harnesses, and other movie magic trickery could be “digitally erased” without compromising image fidelity.
Now, remastering is doing for movies what it has done for musical catalogs—giving the public not a different version of their favorites but rather an unchanged, better version.
In Hollywood workflows, 8K masters will eventually lead today’s 4K hits (Top Gun: Maverick comes to mind), which may re-released in their original 8K splendor to an even more amazed audience. Consider a platform like Kaleidescape. While I have no information indicating anything of this sort may be forthcoming, what is to prevent them from developing an 8K player for 8K titles they secure for exclusive use in their store? Given their relationship with the content creation community, it is a mere side step.
8K In Broadcast
Broadcasters internationally have also been involved with 8K research and development. After a series of 8K trials from 2015 through 2018, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, launched NHK BS8K on December 1st, 2018.
The Korean Broadcasting Corporation (KBS) has actively conducted field trials and anticipates 8K terrestrial signal transmission testing in 2025.
ATSC 3.0 indicates that new compression algorithms, such as VVC, can enable 8K terrestrial broadcasts to use the same channel bandwidth space as 4K.
Streaming Will Follow
Amazon recommends a minimum internet download speed of 15 Mbps for 4K HDR content, while Netflix suggests 25 Mbps. Fiber providers in the United States can provide speeds from 500 Mbps to as great as 5,000 Mbps.
It is anticipated that 8K content can be effectively delivered to homes using Versatile Video Coding at a speed of 40 Mbps.
Effective encoding is half the battle. The more significant challenge will be for streaming providers to upgrade infrastructure, including storage and servers. Hopefully, VVC and other compression codecs being developed will lessen the infrastructure demand.
Gaming
Pre-orders are already being taken for the Sony PS5 Pro, which will be available on November 7. The PS5 Pro supports 8K gaming, leveraging PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) technology to upscale lower resolutions to 8K. This allows for enhanced image clarity without requiring the raw performance of high-end gaming PCs. While it can compute at native 8K resolution, developers must optimize their titles to take full advantage of this capability.
Xbox Series X is technically capable of 8K output, but this feature is currently restricted and not fully activated.
Still, with the aforementioned upscaling benefits 8K panels offer, 4K High Frame Rate gaming on 8K displays is highly appealing.
Looking Ahead
Ironically, Dolby's ambitions always seem to parallel future specifications that have already been established. Dolby doesn’t drag Hollywood around by the collar, but almost. Their roadmap includes 12K, 120 fps, uncompressed color, and 10,000 nits.
In the USA, I recall when Unity Motion, an equally ambitious but doomed-to-fail direct broadcast satellite service, debuted the first high-definition satellite channel in September 1998. The display was a Joe Kane-designed 32” Princeton AF3.0 HD Reference CRT monitor. The system was set up in a store I was working in at the time, and with little more than an early morning scene featuring ducks swimming on a remotely located pond, customers would endlessly stare, mesmerized, hoping that one day that would be in their TV room.
We have become spoiled…
