The 8K Association's “4K/8K evaluation committee” is organizing an “internal demonstration” of 4K and 8K content “to see if we can see a clear difference between 8K and 4K content delivered as might be expected” via over-the-top delivery, said the group Thursday. The demo, planned for Oct. 27 at Samsung’s Irvine, California, facility, will feature two 85-inch side-by-side calibrated TVs at 4K and 8K resolution. “We will be showing native 8K content vs. 4K content (downscaled using several methods),” and encoded in H. 265 at various data rates, said the association. All 8KA members are invited to attend, but preregistration is required, it said.
LG’s 88Z2PUA Z2 Signature Series OLED TV won Value Electronics’ 2022 8K King of TV in the Scarsdale, New York-based specialty retailer’s 2022 TV Shootout Sunday, emailed owner Robert Zohn Monday. The 88-inch LG TV won over Samsung’s QN85QN900B Mini LED and Sony’s XR85Z9K Mini LED. The 4K King of TV in the Saturday competition was Sony’s Bravia 65-inch XR A95K Master Series QD OLED TV. The Sony 4K OLED beat the Samsung QN65S95B OLED, LG 65G2PUA OLED, Sony XR65X95K Mini LED, and Samsung QN65QN95B Mini LED, Zohn said. Attributes measured include motion, peak lumens, upscaling performance, black level, color accuracy, sharpness, average picture level and 4,000-nit tone mapping, Zohn said.
Connectivity accessories supplier Covid announced an 8K HDMI cable for integrators that supports 8K@60 Hz, Deep Color and x.v.Color, HDR10, enhanced Audio Return Channel for Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD surround sound. The 15-foot 48-Gbps cable also supports Consumer Electronics Control extension commands and functions and HDMI Ethernet channel, the company said Wednesday.
Valens Semiconductor, originator of the HDBaseT connectivity standard, will use this week’s InfoComm 2022 exhibition to showcase an “extension solution” for uncompressed 8K video resolution via HDMI 2.1 interfaces, said the chipmaker Tuesday. Valens believes the innovation will speed the deployment of 8K Ultra HD video installations, it said. It also will showcase a reference design for an enhanced audio return channel extension “to address the increasing demand in the residential market to connect smart TVs to surround audio systems,” it said. InfoComm’s exhibit floor opens Wednesday for a three-day run at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
8K TV purchases are being driven by consumers “looking to futureproof their investment,” said Futuresource analyst Chris Evans Monday, saying consumers are largely making the decision based on the price delta between 4K and 8K screens. “8K sets have struggled to capture the imagination of consumers,” said Evans, citing lack of content. “Ultimately, the transition to 8K is likely to hit an insurmountable wall if there isn’t a compelling library of content.” After NHK launched the first 8K TV channel in Japan in December 2018, 8K broadcasts are “still very limited beyond the Japan and China borders,” Evans said. The analyst noted proof of concept transmissions have taken place for sports events, and YouTube and Vimeo have an 8K video catalogue, "but major streaming platforms are yet to offer any 8K streaming.” Though the range of 8K-capable TVs is widening in the premium segment, and the number of high-end 8K smartphones is growing, mainstream TV adoption is far off; Futuresource estimates global 8K TV shipments will represent 3% of the market by 2025. 8K resolution can have applications beyond traditional broadcast and streaming, including gaming, virtual reality and user generated content, but those use cases are “in their relative infancy” and not expected to show appreciable near-term traction. Compared with the migration from HD to 4K, the drivers for 8K “are trickier to set in motion,” Evans said, saying “the benefits are amplified [and] so are the costs. 8K adoption will be a slow burn process,” he said.
A firmware update will bring in-camera 12-bit RAW-format video at up to 8K 60p to Nikon's Z 9 camera, with oversampling at 4K UHD 60p, and a new pre-release capture function, said the company Thursday. The pre-release capture function is said to improve the odds of catching "hard-to-predict moments." The company also announced auto focus performance enhancements and other improvements for the Z 6II and Z 7II with firmware version 1.4. The updates will be available Wednesday, Nikon said.
The first of LG’s 2022 OLED TVs went on sale on its website Monday, with additional models due at authorized dealers over the next few months, said the company. No price or availability was given for the first 97-inch OLED TV, part of the Gallery series. An 83-inch G2 series version will be available next month at a $6,499 suggested retail price. Available now at lg.com are 77-inch ($3,999), 65-inch ($2,999) and 55-inch ($2,199) 4K TVs. C2 series models start at $1,499 for the OLED48C2PUA and go up to $5,499 for the 83-inch model. Both the G2 series Gallery Edition and C2 series have the alpha 9 Gen 5 processor that’s said to improve on brightness, clarity and detail. 8K models include the 88-inch OLED88Z2PUA and the 77-inch version ($12,999), both due in April. Starting price overall for OLED TV at LG is $1,399 for the 4K B2 series 42-inch OLED42C2PUA, due in May, it said. The 2022 models have the latest version of LG’s smart TV platform, webOS, which includes customizable user profiles, NFC Magic Tap to mirror a mobile device screen to the TV, and Room to Room Share, which allows users to mirror a program from a cable or satellite program to a TV elsewhere in the home over Wi-Fi without requiring a second set-top box. The LG OLED TVs also have Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail (Z2, G2 and C2), said to unlock more detail from Dolby Vision content. For gamers, the TVs have a 0.1-millisecond response time, low input lag and up to four HDMI ports supporting multiple HDMI 2.1 features, LG said. Cloud gaming is possible via built-in support for Google Stadia and GeForce Now.
Xfinity's U.S. pay-TV customers can access 150 hours of Beijing Olympics coverage in 8K via an NBC Olympics VR by Xfinity virtual reality app, said Comcast Friday. Live and on-demand coverage of six popular sports will be available “in an immersive 180-degree environment,” it said. “Select events will offer viewers the option to switch between different cameras.” Coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies also will be available, as will features and highlights from 10 more sports, it said. Comcast previously used the Olympics as a platform for upscale video and audio experimentation, having announced plans last summer to deliver the Tokyo Olympics to X1, Flex and Stream customers in Dolby Vision HDR and Atmos surround audio (see 2107140035). The Olympics VR app is available for download at the Oculus Meta Quest 2 online store. It supports the Oculus Quest and Quest 2 VR headsets and the Oculus Touch controller, says the store. It lists the app as having been released July 9, which would have been two weeks before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. Facebook parent Meta owns Oculus.
The 8K Association landed Amazon Prime Video, UL and 4by4, a producer of 8K demonstration and promotional videos, said the group Thursday. The association didn’t speculate on the ramifications of Amazon's new membership for 8K streaming content on Prime Video, and the customarily secretive Amazon didn’t respond to questions. 8KA, the brainchild of Samsung and Samsung’s broader display ecosystem, also revised the criteria for earning its certification logo to include “a broader set of video decoding standards that will promote the wider availability of 8K streaming content,” it said. The association unveiled its logo program a year ago (see 2101040054).
Hisense’s 75-inch 8K Roku TV, introduced in May (see 2105050058), is finally due to ship soon, emailed Hisense, but it won’t be available in time for Christmas if purchased from Amazon. At Amazon Wednesday, the 75-inch U800GR, part of Hisense’s ULED series, was available for purchase for $2,399.99, with “free inside entryway delivery” as early as Dec. 30. Best Buy was the other retailer Hisense gave on its website as a purchase source for the TV, but bestbuy.com said the TV was “unavailable nearby." Best Buy listed the U800GR at $2,699 with a “price match guarantee”; Amazon was a qualifying online retailer for price matching. The 75-inch TV had two questions from shoppers at bestbuy.com. One customer asking about availability was referred by a Hisense product expert to Best Buy. In response to the other question, whether the TV has an ATSC 3.0 tuner, the Hisense product expert said “ATSC 3.0 will not be available until mid 2022,” and “no models currently support this tuner.” Best Buy showed a financing option of $112.50 for 24 months. Though there was no cart option for purchase, the e-tailer gave Best Buy’s extended holiday return period: “When purchased now through Jan. 2, you can return this item anytime until Jan. 16.” The U800GR series has Dolby Atmos and Vision, up to 1,000 nits peak brightness, an 8K upscaler, 180 local dimming zones and Hisense’s 480 Motion Rate, 120Hz panel and low-latency mode for gamers.