It’s only been a few months since the market recognized that 4K UHD TVs are indeed heading towards the mainstream, with Toshiba suggesting this will be materialized by 2017, now the TV industry braces for yet another new comer – the 8K UHD TV (8K ultra high definition television or simply 8K TV).

Samsung paraded the technology at the CES 2016 event, while contenders, LG and Sony, boasted of their equally innovative sets. Although pegged to the 4K resolution, LG and Sony featured equally astounding breakthroughs as in the case of LG’s Glass OLED 4K TV and Sony’s 4K HDR.

The 4K TV technology was met with grave skepticism and doubt since its launch, as tech critics argue a higher resolution isn’t enough to address picture quality issues, as concerns about contrast, color and compression far outweighs resolution, not to mention the unreasonably high price tags. Now that picture quality is getting better and unit prices are going down, 4K going mainstream brings good news to the world of TV innovation.

But perhaps not for very long.

8K is underway, with Samsung staying ahead of the game offering a full range of very high resolution TVs that boast 10-Bit Quantum Dot Displays able to show a billion colors and deeper blacks even in a well-lighted room.

If you’ve been left in awe by 4K TVs, then we bet you’d be doubly amazed by 8K TVs that offer 16 times the resolution of HDTV. To better appreciate the super high resolution, it’s but apt for the TVs to come in gigantic displays of up to 98-inch models or possibly higher, though at the recent CES, Samsung did showcase size range of 49 inches to 88 inches.

Then again, the issue of picture quality over more pixels comes in.

Despite the marketability of 8K TVs (well because the number is twice that of 4K, and consumers may think that higher the resolution, the better), Peter McEleney, Head of Category at Vision at Currys PC World told the Daily Mail UK that he doesn’t see 8K taking off until around 2017, despite being hyped as “the next big thing.”

McEleney said that HDR, as opposed to 8K, “has the greatest potential to be adopted by today’s consumer, ensuring TVs now don’t just have more pixels, but better ones.”

Perhaps McEleney is right. Consumers may have become more discerning after the dubious marketing of 4K TVs in the recent past. Perhaps they too have noticed that more pixels or higher resolution amount to nothing but extra thousands in unit cost if the overall picture quality isn’t noticeably better.

Samsung and the rest of the gang may need to make smarter moves this time around. Consumers looking to upgrade their TVs are now more informed. And yes, the word is out – more pixels do not necessarily translate to better picture. Like in many other products, it’s quality over quantity.
As far as folks here at VHT are concerned, we’d like our clients to get the best deal out of their money. If you have questions about your picture quality, or are interesting in boosting your home viewing experience, send us a message!