from the would-make-an-adequate-desktop-display dept.
More 8K (4320p) TVs will be coming soon. AU Optronics has announced plans to ship 8K panels to TV manufacturers starting in the first half of 2018:
The lineup of panels featuring a 7680×4320 resolution will be aimed at ultra-high-end TVs and sizes will range from 65 to 85 inches, said Liao Wei-Lun, president of AUO's video products business group, at a press conference. The high-ranking executive did not disclose other specifications of the panels, such as luminance and contrast ratio, but given their positioning, it is logical to expect their characteristics to be comparable to 8K UHDTVs to be offered by LG and Samsung.
Multiple TV makers demonstrated various 8K UHDTVs at various trade shows in the recent years, but so far no one has started to sell them. Given the lack of content, it is hard to expect high demand for 8K televisions in the next couple of years, aside from the halo factor - nonetheless, AUO expects 8K panels to account for 10% of its '65-inch and above' panel shipments in 2020. The presumably high-cost of the panels would indicate that in terms of unit shipments this might still be a low-ish number. However, as with 4K displays, someone has to release 8K TVs to stimulate content providers to offer appropriate material. At this year's CES, Samsung demonstrated its Q9S, its first commercial 8K TV-set, but it did not announce its pricing or availability timeframe. LG and Sony also demonstrated their 8K TVs at CES 2018, but nothing is clear about their plans regarding these products.
[...] As for 8K displays for PCs, Dell is currently the only company to offer an 8K monitor (this one is based on a panel from LG, so the latter might introduce its own 8K display at some point). Philips last year promised to start shipments 328P8K monitor in 2018, so expect the product to hit the market in the coming months too.
Need something to watch on your 8K TV? How about the 2020 Olympics?
Also at DigiTimes.
Related: LG to Demo an 8K Resolution TV at the Consumer Electronics Show
Dell Announces First "Mass-Market" 8K Display
Philips Demos an 8K Monitor
Pimax Launches Kickstarter for "8K" Virtual Reality Headset
HDMI 2.1 Released
LG's 88-inch 8K OLED TV
Related Stories
LG will show off a "Super UHD" 98-inch 8K resolution (7680×4320) TV set at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (Jan. 6-9). It will also launch three 4K sets with high dynamic range (HDR) capability:
The super-slim design of the UH9500-series TVs have almost invisible bezels and a screen depth of just 6.6mm-that's less than a quarter-inch at its thinnest points. Screen sizes of the 4K models range from 49 to 86 inches. In addition to the three models, LG will also offer a standalone, attention-grabbing Super UHD TV with a huge 98-inch 8K screen.
[...] All sets will also include LG's IPS panel – noted for its advanced off-axis performance – further enhanced by two new LG technologies called True Black Panel and Contrast Maximizer, aimed at improving IPS' typically underwhelming black levels by reducing reflections and maximizing contrast by separating objects from their backgrounds, according to LG. The TVs also include SDR-to-HDR conversion to deliver near-HDR quality from standard sources.
Good news for anyone looking to overwhelm their fovea centralis with pixels: Dell has announced the first "mass-market" 8K (7680×4320) display, which will be sold for around $5,000 beginning in March:
Dell introduced the industry's first mass-market 8K display aimed at professional designers, engineers, photographers and software developers. The UP3218K will be available this March, but its rough $5,000 price tag will be rather high even for professionals dealing with content creation. That being said, $5K or so was the price that the original 4K MST monitors launched at in 2013, which perhaps makes this display price more palatable. On the other hand, right now an 8K professional display is such a niche product that the vast majority of users will have to wait a few years to see the price come down.
Up to now, 8K reference displays were available only from Canon, in very low quantities and at very high prices. The displays were primarily aimed at video professionals from TV broadcasting companies like NHK, who are working on 8K (they call it Super Hi-Vision) content to be available over-the-air in select regions of Japan next year. A number of TV makers have also announced their ultra large 8K UHDTVs, but these are hardly found in retail. Overall, Dell is the first company to offer an 8K display that can be bought online by any individual with the money and be focused on the monitor market rather than TVs.
At present, Dell is not publishing the full specifications of its UltraSharp 32 Ultra HD 8K monitor (UP3218K), but reveals key specs like resolution (7680×4320), contrast ratio (1300:1), brightness (400 nits), pixel density (280 ppi) as well as supported color spaces: 100% Adobe RGB and 100% sRGB.
There's competition in an overfoveated but underserved segment of the display market:
TPV Technology is demonstrating a preliminary version of its upcoming 8K ultra-high-definition display at IFA trade show in Germany. The Philips 328P8K monitor will be a part of the company's professional lineup and will hit the market sometimes next year.
Philips is the second mass-market brand to announce an 8K monitor after Dell, which has been selling its UltraSharp UP3218K for about half of a year now. The primary target audiences for the 328P8K and the UP3218K are designers, engineers, photographers and other professionals looking for maximum resolution and accurate colors. Essentially, Dell's 8K LCD is going to get a rival supporting the same resolution.
At present, TPV reveals only basic specifications of its Philips 328P8K display — 31.5" IPS panel with a 7680x4320 resolution, a 400 nits brightness (which it calls HDR 400) and presumably a 60 Hz refresh rate. When it comes to color spaces, TPV confirms that the 328P8K supports 100% of the AdobeRGB, which emphasizes that the company positions the product primarily for graphics professionals. When it comes to connectivity, everything seems to be similar to Dell's 8K monitor: the Philips 8K display will use two DP 1.3 cables in order to avoid using DP 1.4 with Display Stream Compression 1.2 and ensure a flawless and accurate image quality.
It is noteworthy that the final version of the 328P8K will be equipped with a webcam (something the current model lacks), two 3W speakers as well as USB-A and at least one USB-C port "allowing USB-C docking and simultaneous notebook charging". In order to support USB-C docking with this 8K monitor, the laptop has to support DP 1.4 alternate mode over USB-C and at present, this tech is not supported by shipping PCs. In the meantime, since in the future USB-C may be used a display output more widely, the USB-C input in the Philips 328P8K seems like a valuable future-proof feature (assuming, of course, it fully supports DP 1.4 alt mode over USB-C).
Previously: Dell Announces First "Mass-Market" 8K Display
The China-based VR company Pimax has launched a Kickstarter for what they call "8K" and "5K" VR headsets. The cheapest version of the "8K" headset is listed at $500 and the company has more than quadrupled its funding goal. The Pimax 8K has a 3840×2160 resolution per eye for a total resolution of 7680×2160 and 32:9 aspect ratio (an actual 8K resolution would be 7680×4320). The field of view (FOV) for the headset is 200°, and is similar in design to the StarVR headset which has an FOV of 210°. By comparison, the latest HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets have a 110° FOV.
While the headsets have a listed refresh rate of 90 Hz, Pimax claims that its "Brainwarp" software technique can effectively double the perceived frame rate:
You may be asking yourself how a VR-ready gaming computer could possibly drive these sorts of graphically demanding resolutions. Pimax's answer is a software technique they call 'Brainwarp', which renders a 4K image only on a single display at time, doing it 150/180 times per second. Pimax says users "perceive a complete 8K at 150/180 Hz with high frame rate," and that it "boosts refresh rate, reduces latency and decreases GPU pressure for Pimax 8K."
Pimax showed off its headset prototypes at CES in January. The company is also developing modular accessories for its headsets.
Just 4.73 times more pixels to reach the "ideal" resolution.
The High-Definition Multimedia Interface 2.1 specification has been released. The total transmission bandwidth has been increased to 48 Gb/s from the 18 Gb/s of HDMI 2.0 (or a maximum data rate of 42.6̅ Gb/s from 14.4 Gb/s). The new data rate is effectively tripled to 128 Gb/s when using Display Stream Compression (DSC).
Using DSC, HDMI 2.1 cables can transmit 4K (3840×2160) @ 240 Hz, and 8K (7680×4320) as well as UW10K (10240×4320) at 120 Hz. Without DSC, you will be able to transmit 4K @ 120 Hz, 5K (5120×2880) @ 120 Hz, 8K @ 60 Hz, and UW10K @ 30 Hz. Keep in mind that color depth and chroma subsampling also affect the necessary data rate.
The specification also adds new features such as dynamic high-dynamic-range support (you read that right - the first "dynamic" refers to "dynamic metadata that allows for changes on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis"), Variable Refresh Rate, Quick Frame Transport, Quick Media Switching, and Auto Low-Latency Mode:
This new version of the HDMI specification also introduces an enhanced refresh rate that gamers will appreciate. VRR, or Variable Refresh Rate, reduces, or in some cases eliminates, lag for smoother gameplay, while Quick Frame Transport (QFT) reduces latency. Quick Media Switching, or QMS, reduces the amount of blank-screen wait time while switching media. HDMI 2.1 also includes Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), which automatically sets the ideal latency for the smoothest viewing experience.
- Here is the HDMI Forum's PPT PDF explaining HDMI 2.1.
- Here are the data rates and cables required for various resolutions/bit depths/chroma. Resolutions requiring Display Stream Compression are indicated.
- Here is another table showing the various color depths and chroma subsampling levels.
Also at the HDMI Forum, AnandTech, Tom's Hardware, and The Verge.
Previously: HDMI 2.1 Announced
LG is showing off the world's largest and highest resolution OLED panel in an 88-inch TV at the Consumer Electronics Show:
Just as 4K and HDR are finally going mainstream, the ambitious folks at LG Display have also been busy pushing its OLED technology to 8K. Come CES, the Korean manufacturer will be letting attendees get up close with its new 88-inch [2.2 meter] 8K OLED display (can we just call it the "Triple 8?"), which is both the largest and the highest-resolution OLED panel to date. But as far as specs go, that's all we have for now.
Google and LG will show off an OLED display for virtual reality headsets that could have a resolution of around 5500×3000:
Google and LG are set to present an 18-megapixel 4.3-inch OLED headset display with 1443 ppi and a higher refresh rate of 120Hz during the Display Week 2018 trade show in late May. The display will have a wide field of view and high acuity. The advanced program for the expo was spotted by Android Police via OLED-Info.
Those specs make the forthcoming headset better than most of what's on the market. Screens like the new HTC Vive Pro and Oculus Rift only boast total resolutions of 2880 x 1600 and 2160 x 1200, respectively.
From the Display Week 2018 Symposium Program:
The world's highest resolution (18 megapixel, 1443 ppi) OLED-on-glass display was developed. White OLED with color filter structure was used for high-density pixelization, and an n-type LTPS backplane was chosen for higher electron mobility compared to mobile phone displays. A custom high bandwidth driver IC was fabricated. Foveated driving logic for VR and AR applications was implemented.
The competing "Pimax 8K" uses two 3840×2160 panels to hit 7680×2160 with a 200° field of view. Shipments of that headset have been delayed to April or later. A 2017 StarVR headset used two 2560×1440 panels for a 210° field of view. Two of the panels from Google and LG could add up to around 11000×3000 (based on The Verge's guess), 12000×3000 (36 megapixels), or 11314×3182 (36 megapixels, 32:9 aspect ratio).
Recall that AMD has envisioned VR resolution reaching 16K per eye (a grand total of 30720×8640, or over 265 megapixels).
Also at UploadVR and Android Authority.
Related: Is Screen Resolution Good Enough Considering the Fovea Centralis of the Eye?
AU Optronics to Ship 8K Panels to TV Manufacturers in H1 2018
Sharp Announces 2nd Gen 8K UHD TVs at IFA
Sharp this week introduced its second-generation 8K ultra-high def TVs at IFA in Berlin. The new televisions use the company's new panels as well as the latest processors that can upscale Full-HD and Ultra-HD 4K content to a 7680×4320 resolution.
The initial lineup of Sharp's 2nd Gen Aquos 8K UHD TVs will include models featuring sizes of 60, 70, and 80 inches. The new televisions will be based on the company's new image processor that doubles its compute throughput over the predecessor and can upscale 2K as well as 4K content to an 8K resolution with a 100/120 Hz refresh rate.
Samsung's first 8K TV goes on sale next month
Samsung is announcing its first commercial 8K TV, the Q900R, at IFA 2018 this week. The QLED panel will be available in 65-inch, 75-inch, 82-inch, and 85-inch sizes, and is capable of peak brightness of 4,000 nits. It also supports the newer HDR10+ format backed by Samsung and Amazon.
The incredibly poor detail of 4K makes my eyes bleed; it's impossible to look at. At least now we'll have some more 8K options to tide us over until we reach 64K (61440×34560).
See also: Tech Tent: Are you ready for an 8K telly?
Samsung's 8K QLED TV looks great, but who needs it?
Toshiba Intros Its First Ever 8K TV Concept – IFA 2018
Previously: AU Optronics to Ship 8K Panels to TV Manufacturers in H1 2018
Related: Dell Announces First "Mass-Market" 8K Display
Philips Demos an 8K Monitor
(Score: 1) by FuzzyTheBear on Saturday February 24 2018, @04:57PM (6 children)
Content providers , studios and everyone concerned producing media are just ( and some not even started ) to offer 4k that you want them all to abandon the format to swap again to another format ?
LOL
They're nuts . How much money does it cost a broadcaster to switch a format ? .. ask them and be met with a baseball bat suggesting that the equipment they bught 6 months ago as upgrades to their kits in the billions of dollars are no good and they need to change yet to another format.
Freaking nuts.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:06PM (5 children)
I doubt it will take off. Indeed, I'd be surprised if anyone sees the difference between 4K and 8K at normal viewing distance.
But probably a few people will buy it so that they can boast with it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:23PM (3 children)
You might be right if it were not the case that display sizes are also scaling up significantly. 2018 normal size is 55, and these displays are already targeting bigger ones. Of course I think there will be a time where not body has a big enough wall to put such monster panels.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 24 2018, @07:12PM (2 children)
But with a bigger display, you have to sit farther away to comfortably watch. Which compensates the larger pixel size.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:27AM
Doesn't mean you can't move in / lean in and examine detail, though.
I have a 204" projection display; at 1080p, I can walk up to the display surface and cover a single pixel with the tip of my pinky with it sharply focused. At our normal watching distance (which is pretty far back as you would expect), it looks great. But move on in, and it turns into dots. I don't want dots. I want detail and I'm willing to pay for it. 8k will help there, when and if it hits the market.
For that matter, I want real 3D, not this crappy stereo-vision they tried to foist off on everyone as "3D." I want to look down into valleys, up at balconies, and behind the cheerleaders. I don't think it's going to get here in time for me to enjoy it. That would be a huge shift in technical capability from the studio to the home, and I just can't see it happening any time soon.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:17PM
There's a bunch of topics to google for, field of view and angular resolution.
I would have to substantially redesign my living room for 4K to make sense. Its possible, but I don't want to move the couch there solely to play PS4 or watch crappy TV. So it sits there.
The unreported story is my family mostly doesn't watch TV anymore. The kids are all over tablets, my wifes on her phone. The TV is at most a source of background noise. People of a certain age will remember yard sales and GoodWill stores full of analog quadraphonic gadgets. The recent TV fad is likely to end up that way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:59PM
If you don't sit next to the screen you have trouble telling fullhd resized to hd from original fullhd. 4k monitors, cool. 4k TVs meh, 8k useless unless you want a video wall or something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:03PM (3 children)
Panels still have idiotic display latency compared to CRT's.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @07:10PM
find me a 27" 8k CRT monitor, and I'll find some room on my desk to test it for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @07:23PM (1 child)
https://displaylag.com/asus-mg24uq-4k-gaming-monitor-review/ [displaylag.com]
https://displaylag.com/display-database/ [displaylag.com]
Some are as low as 9-10 ms. How much is too much?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:53PM
These displays all use hacks (such as degrading output quality) to accomplish these low refresh rates. Incomparable to CRT.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @08:24PM (2 children)
8K?! I mean my 10 years old camera can do 5 MEGA pixels!!1
For the unwashed masses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @08:36PM (1 child)
You're an unwashed loser.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:34PM
protip https://i.imgur.com/jQu0nwV.jpg [imgur.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by corey on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:23PM (3 children)
As per title. Planned obsolescence in full swing on TV's, its been going a while. I suppose 3D is out the door and curved LCDs are too.
Like another commenter said, hardly anything is available in 4k yet even, unless you consider everything Netflix.
Seems like the manufacturers don't respond to user needs but just invent their own.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:29PM (2 children)
People want "8K" for computer monitors or VR (not really 4320p in the case of VR since you also want an ultrawide 200 degree FOV).
Unless your TV is utterly gigantic, even 720p is probably good enough from some feet away.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Spamalope on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:40PM (1 child)
Wall. Screen.
That's what I want.
CES 2016 they had 98 inch 8k screens everywhere. 1/4 inch thick, perfect viewing angles. Some of the vendors were struggling to get anything to animate though. It was obvious the screen driver chips/data interface weren't there yet for at least some of them.
The screens were glorious though. And they were about the right size to fill the corner wall in my living room. Perfect!
I'm sad the curved screens seem to be going away. Large screens, close viewing they help with focus. A 40-50 inch screen that's close has the center of the screen a much closer focus distance than the outer edges. If those edges curve in some, your eyes don't have to shift focus as much. By they were marketed for big screens far away. Why?!?!?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:11AM
https://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-patents-the-wall-luxury-tv-more-big-screen-excess-on-the-way [techradar.com]
http://koreabizwire.com/samsung-denies-that-it-will-enter-oled-business/111917 [koreabizwire.com]
It definitely seems to be on the way. There are also a lot of rumors regarding Samsung putting out a bendy phone:
http://www.talkandroid.com/325130-samsung-might-start-building-its-mythical-galaxy-x-folding-smartphone-this-year/ [talkandroid.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:54PM
i kick ass in a FPS using a 512mb 3D card driving a 1024x768 CRT.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Sunday February 25 2018, @12:44AM (1 child)
Well, wasn't there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just
one, wall but, so far, three! And expensive, too! And the uncles, the aunts, the cousins, the
nieces, the nephews, that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree-apes that said nothing,
nothing, nothing and said it loud, loud, loud. He had taken to calling them relatives from the very
first. "How's Uncle Louis today?" "Who?" "And Aunt Maude?" The most significant memory he
had of Mildred, really, was of a little girl in a forest without trees (how odd!) or rather a little girl
lost on a plateau where there used to be trees (you could feel the memory of their shapes all
about) sitting in the centre of the "living-room." The living-room; what a good job of labelling
that was now. No matter when he came in, the walls were always talking to Mildred.
"Something must be done!I"
"Yes, something must be done!"
"Well, let's not stand and talk!"
"Let's do it! "
"I'm so mad I could SPIT!"
What was it all about? Mildred couldn't say. Who was mad at whom? Mildred didn't quite know.
What were they going to do? Well, said Mildred, wait around and see.
He had waited around to see.
A great thunderstorm of sound gushed from the walls. Music bombarded him at such an
immense volume that his bones were almost shaken from their tendons; he felt his jaw vibrate,
his eyes wobble in his head. He was a victim of concussion. When it was all over he felt like a
man who had been thrown from a cliff, whirled in a centrifuge and spat out over a waterfall that
fell and fell into emptiness and emptiness and never-quite-touched-bottom-never-never-quite-no
not quite-touched-bottom ... and you fell so fast you didn't touch the sides either ... never ... quite
. . . touched . anything.
The thunder faded. The music died.
"There," said Mildred,
And it was indeed remarkable. Something had happened. Even though the people in the walls of
the room had barely moved, and nothing had really been settled, you had the impression that
someone had turned on a washing-machine or sucked you up in a gigantic vacuum. You drowned
in music and pure cacophony. He came out of the room sweating and on the point of collapse.
Behind him, Mildred sat in her chair and the voices went on again:
"Well, everything will be all right now," said an "aunt."
"Oh, don't be too sure," said a "cousin."
"Now, don't get angry!"
"Who's angry?"
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday February 25 2018, @01:26AM
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/06/16/1839243 [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]