LG previews 88” 8K OLED TV – Why?
LG Display (LPL) set the tone for the New Year, announcing the world’s first 88” 8K OLED TV, which will be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show next week. The company expects to offer the new set ‘soon’, adding to the OLED product portfolio. The price of the unit has not been announced but LG Electronics (066570.KS) largest OLED TV, the 77” (OLED77G6P), which comes with all the bells and whistles and sound by Harman Kardon, sells for a mere $19,999, although you can steal either the 77” (OLED77G7P) less tricked out model or the 77” wallpaper OLED TV (OLED77W7P) for the low, low price of $14,999, which would imply that the 88” 8K model might be a bit more expensive.
Other than for the express purpose of showing such a large, high resolution TV at a show, there is little reason to produce more than a few such TVs as 8K TV is barely a ‘thing’. Actually the Japanese Public Broadcasting Network NHK has been sending out a bit of 8K material over the airwaves since August 2016, when it covered a few portions of the 2016 Rio Olympics in 8K, but as there were almost no 8K sets available for Japanese viewers, the broadcaster had to set up a number of ‘viewing stations’ at public locations for the public to see the 8K broadcast. Sharp (6753.JP) was the first to actually produce an 8K TV (85”) which it showed at the 2012 CES show, and a number of other TV panel producers and brands have shown similar 8K TVs at more recent events, including the massive 110” Samsung 8K 3D TV shown at CES in 2015, but given the lack of 8K content, they are not big sellers, particularly as the world of consumer electronics is just getting used to 4K, a resolution that broadcasters are still struggling with.
We assume the idea here, other than attracting crowds at the show, is that they can. Panel producers need to show that they are at the bleeding edge of technology to attract those who are early supporters and buyers of technology, regardless of relative cost or other factors. However, 4K TVs have 8.3m pixels, each with one red, green, and blue sub-pixel, which makes for a lot of pixels, which need to be refreshed between 120 times and 240 times each second. That means a lot of data has to be processed, and for a broadcaster it means a lot of data has to be sent to viewers, which means it takes up a lot of broadcasting bandwidth, and while these are questions that we have discussed many times for 4K TV, when you step up to 8K, the problems become far worse.
8K resolution is 7680 x 4320, which boosts the number of pixels on the screen from 8.3m to 33.2m (times 3 for subpixels), which means that instead of processing ~25m datapoints every 120th of a second, the set now has to process ~100m datapoints/second, and the broadcasters has to send 4 times the information to subscribers, which means he will need 4 times the bandwidth to do so. As bandwidth costs money, and every bit of programming takes bandwidth, this means the broadcaster has to buy more bandwidth or reduce the number of simultaneous streams he can send at one time. Not something that makes broadcasters happy (See table 1 for details).
Much of our discussion here is simplified and there are a number of compression techniques that can reduce the data rates needed for 4K and 8K, but if the idea is to improve the picture, using compression defeats the purpose as it degrades the quality of the signal. Many in the industry say that the average consumer will not be able to see the difference, and this is probably correct, but if that is so, why go to a higher resolution in the first place? This is an ongoing issue that the industry will contend with for years, but panel producers and TV brands are more than happy to sell consumers sets that are ‘ready for the future’, a bit before the future is visible. There are standards for 4K and some for 8K, but they evolve as the industry struggles with the points above. Regardless, you can buy the new LG 88” 8K OLED TV very soon and watch reruns of the Rio Olympics and a few movies, although we believe at least one TV brand will show an 8K TV that will allow you to watch four 4K sources at one time on the same screen…maybe there is something to the idea after all….
Other than for the express purpose of showing such a large, high resolution TV at a show, there is little reason to produce more than a few such TVs as 8K TV is barely a ‘thing’. Actually the Japanese Public Broadcasting Network NHK has been sending out a bit of 8K material over the airwaves since August 2016, when it covered a few portions of the 2016 Rio Olympics in 8K, but as there were almost no 8K sets available for Japanese viewers, the broadcaster had to set up a number of ‘viewing stations’ at public locations for the public to see the 8K broadcast. Sharp (6753.JP) was the first to actually produce an 8K TV (85”) which it showed at the 2012 CES show, and a number of other TV panel producers and brands have shown similar 8K TVs at more recent events, including the massive 110” Samsung 8K 3D TV shown at CES in 2015, but given the lack of 8K content, they are not big sellers, particularly as the world of consumer electronics is just getting used to 4K, a resolution that broadcasters are still struggling with.
We assume the idea here, other than attracting crowds at the show, is that they can. Panel producers need to show that they are at the bleeding edge of technology to attract those who are early supporters and buyers of technology, regardless of relative cost or other factors. However, 4K TVs have 8.3m pixels, each with one red, green, and blue sub-pixel, which makes for a lot of pixels, which need to be refreshed between 120 times and 240 times each second. That means a lot of data has to be processed, and for a broadcaster it means a lot of data has to be sent to viewers, which means it takes up a lot of broadcasting bandwidth, and while these are questions that we have discussed many times for 4K TV, when you step up to 8K, the problems become far worse.
8K resolution is 7680 x 4320, which boosts the number of pixels on the screen from 8.3m to 33.2m (times 3 for subpixels), which means that instead of processing ~25m datapoints every 120th of a second, the set now has to process ~100m datapoints/second, and the broadcasters has to send 4 times the information to subscribers, which means he will need 4 times the bandwidth to do so. As bandwidth costs money, and every bit of programming takes bandwidth, this means the broadcaster has to buy more bandwidth or reduce the number of simultaneous streams he can send at one time. Not something that makes broadcasters happy (See table 1 for details).
Much of our discussion here is simplified and there are a number of compression techniques that can reduce the data rates needed for 4K and 8K, but if the idea is to improve the picture, using compression defeats the purpose as it degrades the quality of the signal. Many in the industry say that the average consumer will not be able to see the difference, and this is probably correct, but if that is so, why go to a higher resolution in the first place? This is an ongoing issue that the industry will contend with for years, but panel producers and TV brands are more than happy to sell consumers sets that are ‘ready for the future’, a bit before the future is visible. There are standards for 4K and some for 8K, but they evolve as the industry struggles with the points above. Regardless, you can buy the new LG 88” 8K OLED TV very soon and watch reruns of the Rio Olympics and a few movies, although we believe at least one TV brand will show an 8K TV that will allow you to watch four 4K sources at one time on the same screen…maybe there is something to the idea after all….
Figure 1 - LG Display 88" 8K OLED TV - Source: Pocket lint.com
Table 1 - TV Resolution & Bandwidth - Source: SCMR LLC, various
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