INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Now available to buy for a bargain €11,990 ($14,732, £10,520, AUS$19,216), Sharp's Aquos LC-70X500E is the first 8K TV to go on sale in
Europe and around the world. An 80-inch version, the LC-80XU30, has been on sale in Japan for a few years (we even reviewed it), but this
new model's global availability marks nothing less than the beginning of the 8K era. The LC-70X500E was unveiled at the IFA Global Press
Conference in Rome, and the venue was purposely picked - it was now or never
IFA 2018 in Berlin in late August is expected see 8K TVs announced by all major TV brands.But wait
8K What about 4K Isn't that supposed to be the latest and greatest in TVs Why are we obsessed with 7,680x4,320 pixel TVs Do we really need
8K TVsRegardless, more 8K TVs are coming in 2018 8K content may be virtually non-existent, but we're about to see every major brand launch
an 8K TV. “Will the other TV brands be able to resist the temptation to offer a premium 8K TV Of course they won’t,” said Paul Gray,
Director Research and Analysis, Technology, Media Telecom, IHS, speaking to TechRadar at the IFA Global Press Conference. CES 2018 saw a
bevy of 8K TVs shown-off, includingSamsung's 85-inch Q9S 8K QLED TV, Sony's 85-inch 8K TV, andLG Display's 88-inch 8K OLED TV display
All three were prototypes … but not for long. But these TVs are a mere appetiser
But these TVs are a mere appetiser
Next comes wallpaper TVs. “People want larger screens at home,” said Sascha Lange, VP Marketing Sales at Sharp, who thinks the only
limitation on TV sizes is resolution, hence the drive for 8K
“The pixel density of a 64-inch 4K TV is exactly the same as a 32-inch Full HD TV,” he said
“And a 120-inch 8K TV also has exactly the same pixel density as a 32-inch Full HD TV.”That mighty concept, and others, likeSamsung’s
The Wall, would allow broadcasters to capture, say, an entire football pitch
You would sit close to your 150-inch 8K wallpaper TV and turn your head to watch the action, just as if you were there. “Today even a
70-inch screen doesn’t fill a wall – you could easily get a 120-inch screen on a wall in any home,” says Lange
“People want larger screens and they have the space, and now the technology is here.” The Wall by Samsung is a 146-inch microLED TV
coming out later this year.How big do we want our TVs Sharp can see a clear trend, and it’s for ever-bigger TVs. The highest demand for
better screens and larger displays comes from China, where the average size of a TV is 54-inches
it’s 50-inches, in Europe it’s 49-inches, and in Japan it’s just 40-inches. In fact, 55-59-inch TVs are the biggest-selling size of
TV in Europe right now, and it’s a sector that’s grown by almost a quarter over the last year alone. IHS Markit predicts that 8K
displays will make up only about 1% of the 60-inch and larger display market in 2018, but a whopping 9% by 2020
That’s a massive chunk of the TV market, and it’s easily the most lucrative
8K is about cash. 8K is about cash
OK, so sales of 70-inch and bigger TVs make up only 0.4% of the European TV market, but if you are in the market for one, what would you
buy “Sharp’s 8K TV and a 77-inch OLED TV are very similar prices,” says Gray, who's unsure about this TV's commercial future as a
“People will buy 8K TVs as monitors, as 4K multi-screens, as whiteboards, but as high resolution TVs, probably not – this is a hybrid
prosumer product.”So how big should an 8K TV be “If 40-inch was the starting point for 4K, then 80-inch has to be the starting point
That suggests the LC-70X500E is on the small side
“But there are other reasons to have a 65-inch 8K screen, such as character readability in China, and the fact that smart TVs are as much
about graphics as they are about video.”The 8K frame rate problem Video is consecutive images, or frames, flashed-up on a screen in quick
The more you have per second, the smoother the image
It’s expressed as frames per second (fps), though there’s no internationally accepted frame rate so PAL and SECAM (Europe and China)
differs from NTSC (North America and Japan). Sharp’s 8K TV can show a maximum of 50/60 fps (for PAL/NTSC), but that’s a technology that
pretty much maxes-out at 4K. “If you double the resolution, then you ought to double the frame rate,” says Gray
“Otherwise all you get is camera blur that’s very accurately recorded!” So just as we went from 24/25fps for HD to 50/60 fps in Ultra
HD 4k, we should go to 100/120fps for 8K. “Broadcasters have absolutely bought into that because motion sharpness is more important than
anything else,” says Gray
Put simply, watching video in 8K without 100/120 fps is pointless. Put simply, watching video in 8K without 100/120 fps is pointless
Sadly, there’s no way of getting high frame rates into any kind of TV
Not even the upcomingHDMI 2.1 standard will change that, though it will support 8K resolutions. So the LC-70X500E includes eight HDMI
ports, four of which need to be used simultaneously to get a 8K signal into it
Sharp’s new 8C-B60A, the world’s first 8K camcorder, can capture 8K content at 60 fps and be hooked-up to the LC-70X500E. Sharp also
says that still images in 8K can be viewed from a USB thumb drive or HDD
The LC-70X500E will also upscale 4K into 8K
However, if you want to watch live 8K TV broadcasts, you’re going to have to move to Japan and tune in to NHK’s satellite TV broadcasts
in 8K resolution. 8K could rejuvenate 360 and VR “The application that is crying out for more resolution isVR headsets because VR will
only work when you become completely unaware of the pixel structure,” says Gray. He also suggests that high resolutions could be used by
broadcasters to offer completely new immersive ways of watching TV by capturing in 8K and zooming-in on specific areas. “360 with 4K is
an interesting opportunity for short content ‘snacks’, especially for live coverage where you want a sense of presence, such as at the
“You could scroll around with your remote control, like having a periscope, to look around the stadium.” Those kind of viewing options
require 8K capture.8K TVs might seem pointless to some, but it will help sell bigger TVs, which are becoming more popular, it will introduce
8K as a creative capture format, it will likely rejuvenate VR, and it could completely change how we watch TV. “There’s a whole new
creative production grammar and language that will need to be used,” says Gray of the 8K era
“The storytelling will be different, with much longer shots, and more time to soak it all in, much like the best VR
experiences.”xxdTqFcW4N6pBkFkiKgKmD.jpg#
