Sharp Demonstrates 31.5-Inch 8K 120Hz HDR Monitor
Sharp this week demonstrated its first 31.5-inch HDR display featuring a 7680×4320 resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate. The monitor uses the company's IGZO technology and the manufacturer evaluates plans to release this LCD commercially.
Being one of the key backers of an 8K resolution as well as the Super Hi-Vision format, Sharp was among the first to release 8K screens and 8K cameras for professionals as well as 8K UHD TVs for consumers. Several years ago, Sharp demonstrated its first 27-inch 8K IGZO monitor with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 1000 nits luminance, but the device has never been released commercially (at least, it has not been available in stores). This week the company showcased another 8Kp120 display.
Meanwhile, Sony has created a monstrous 783-inch display:
The screen is 19.2 meters (63 feet) long and 5.4 meters (17 feet) high, it features a diagonal of 783 inches and is generally larger than a bus. Sony does not disclose exact resolution of the display (other than saying that it has around 16,000 horizontal pixels), though judging by the looks of the screen we are dealing with something that has a non-standard resolution and a non-standard aspect ratio.
Sony's 16K 783-inch screen uses the company's Crystal LED technology that uses multiple Micro LED-based modules to build custom displays featuring virtually any size, any resolution, and any aspect ratio. Featuring individually-controlled Micro LEDs, the modules have no bezels and can be attached to each other seamlessly. Sony and Samsung use Micro LED/direct-lit LED-based modules to build custom screens for cinemas, airports, showrooms, and other venues that need large displays.
Related: Dell Announces First "Mass-Market" 8K Display
Philips Demos an 8K Monitor
A New Wave of 8K TVs is Coming
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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
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: 2) by ikanreed on Friday April 12 2019, @03:37PM (3 children)
"What if we made it bigger?"
"Sir, I've already got an entire wall of my living room made of TV what more can we do?"
"Make. It. Bigger."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 12 2019, @03:43PM
Can't get much "bigger" than a 220° FOV VR headset. 😎
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(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 12 2019, @03:44PM (1 child)
You make it sound easy. Making something bigger is not always easy. As every man knows!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday April 12 2019, @05:35PM
Some of us more than others, eh Donny?
President Trump’s personal physician recently revealed that the president takes finasteride, a drug used to combat male-pattern baldness. [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @04:11PM (4 children)
They just say 783 inches without specifying what it refers to. Some large old projection tvs could be 783 inches thick. If true, they would be a huge pain to move around.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @04:45PM
Just RTFA and you'll see 783 inches is diagonal, just like all other displays are measured.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 12 2019, @04:45PM (1 child)
First line of the second blockquote in TFS:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 12 2019, @05:28PM
Damn it! You mean I RTFA for nothing?
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Saturday April 13 2019, @04:02PM
Some large old projection tvs could be 783 inches thick
Unless you're talking an actual cinema when you refer to "projection tv", then no, no TVs are 65 feet thick.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Saturday April 13 2019, @12:17AM (1 child)
No really. 8k at just over 30" would require you to be mere inches from it to actually appreciate the resolution, and then only in a small field due to how the fovea works. Why would anyone develop an 8k screen at this size?
I have a 2560*1440 resolution monitor at 30". There is no need to have more information density than this, it's already pushing the limit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by LAV8.ORg on Saturday April 13 2019, @05:57AM
Well physicsmajor, lets not give up on reality so quickly; with rudimentary experimentation, you can easily see that the square sources arranged in a cartesian grid as is (typical of LCD pixels) do not fit with the models used for naturally emitted gaussian distributions (usually borrowed from film photography). Try opening paint or etc. and drawing a single pixel line across the screen with a slight angle, such that one or more shifts in pixel row (jaggies) are visible. Now walk away from the screen until you can no longer resolve the jaggies. Measure this distance. Now compare with the value arrived at with your preferred formulae for human resolving power. You will find that your measured distance is easily more than 3x greater than the calculated "retina resolution" distance.
I had a 30" 2560x1440 monitor for a decade, and I recently changed to a 28" 4k. The difference is appreciable, but with fine lines jaggies are still readily visible at 10 ft, and my eyes aren't great. I print native resolution fractal images at 600 pixels per inch and jaggies are still resolvable from more than a foot, despite the advantage of round ink drops (but there's also a disadvantage of screening due to halftoning). As long as the pixels remain square and gridlocked, there are gains to be had in a few more doublings... not the smartest approach, but brute force also gets there eventually.