"8K Association Sets Minimal Specs for 8K Ultra-HD TVs"

[DrezKill]

"The 8K Association, a group led by leading makers of TVs and display panels focused to facilitate growth of the 8K ecosystem, this week introduced a list of minimal technical specifications that should be met by a TV carrying an 8K logotype. If the initiative is embraced widely by the industry, it will ensure that next-generation 8K televisions and monitors will offer consistent performance levels and therefore experience."

"While resolution is a key characteristic of any display or TV, it clearly is not the only feature that defines quality and experience they provide. Nowadays, there are hundreds of mediocre 4K Ultra-HD 'HDR'-badged displays and TVs which use cheap panels and backlighting that lack proper bit depth, luminance, and color gamut that are essential for proper reproduction of 4K and HDR content. Such hardware ruins user experience and slowdowns adoption of new technologies by content creators."

"To avoid such a situation in the looming 8K era and develop strict guidelines for next-generation TVs, AU Optronics, Samsung Electronics, Panasonic, Hisense, and TCL formed the 8K Association in January, 2019. Since then, the 8KA was also joined by Astro Design, ATEME, Chili, Innolux, Intel, Louis Pictures, Novatek, Samsung Display, Tencent, V-Silicon, and Xperi."

The proposed minimum specs are:
- Feature a resolution of 7680×4320 pixels
- Support 24p, 30p, and 60p frames per second input framerate
- Have a peak luminance of at least (a minimum of) 600 nits
- Support HEVC codec
- Use HDMI 2.1 interface

The standard "...also covers things like bit depth, frame rate, chroma sub-sampling, black level, color gamut, white point, HDR modes, and additional codecs."

EDIT: Forgot link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14824/8k-association-sets-minimal-specs-for-8k-ultrahd-tvs

 

[sharknice]

Seems stupid to me. 8k refers to resolution and should just be resolution. Leave the rest to something more properly named, don't call it 8k when it has nothing to do with resolution.

 

[BinarySynapse]

Seems stupid to me. 8k refers to resolution and should just be resolution. Leave the rest to something more properly named, don't call it 8k when it has nothing to do with resolution.

You don’t think subpar lighting, poor color sampling, or aggressive compression have an affect on resolution? What’s the point of having 33 megapixel panel if the electronics driving it can only push through images that look like stepped-on dogshit?

 

[UnknownSouljer]

You don’t think subpar lighting, poor color sampling, or aggressive compression have an affect on resolution? What’s the point of having 33 megapixel panel if the electronics driving it can only push through images that look like stepped-on dogshit?

Agreed. By placing technical specifications for certification, it forces manufacturers to meet minimum specs. If "8k" was just resolution, they would likely try and push out first generation sets that were 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and cheap out using HDMI 2.0 (not allowing enough bandwidth for higher sub sampling), etc. That's just one example. There are many hacks and tricks that they're willing to peddle to consumers that don't know any better, which creates an uneven playing field (confusing buyers to buy "8k" that's half the cost of "true 8k" creating false division and consumer deception based around price structure rather than even technology).

Thankfully this standard will force an even playing field of minimum specification so that at least at the base level we aren't getting garbage.

 

[grim4593]

I know that standards bodies typically fall behind on specifications but they are already selling 8K TVs in stores. Better late than never I guess.

 

[Luke M]

I guess everyone has forgotten that we already did this 3 years ago with the UHD Alliance. And that didn't seem to have any effect on the market.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

I guess everyone has forgotten that we already did this 3 years ago with the UHD Alliance. And that didn't seem to have any effect on the market.

Let's say thats true (ignoring any form of nuance), your solution would be to do nothing? Just let there be no minimum specification and just have to wade through 10's or 100's of product reviews to find something that is actually built properly? Or wait years for models to offer full support of things that should have been done from the outset?

UHD Alliance was slow to the market. 4k should've been defined before 4k TV's existed. That said, if I want to ensure that the TV I'm getting can at least displays films properly I can check the list.

Not that I'll be moving to 8k anytime soon, but at least when I will, I'll know that there will be a compendium of TV's that I can rely on with minimum specs. Even if it's only 5% of the market. Better that than 0% of TV's worth buying.