Sharp brings 8K to Europe
So, 33 million pixels (7680 × 4320) — four times more than 4K Ultra HD, and 16 times as many pixels as Full HD. This 8K resolution was always on the roadmap, especially for broadcast organisations, for whom 4K was a technology that “escaped from the wild”, becoming a standard simply because panel makers started releasing them. The result has been the inexorable rise over the last four years of larger screens — 55-inch is the new 42-inch, as they say, and 65-inch is the new 50-inch.
But 70-inch and above is also growing, and it needs 8K to deliver the best results, claimed Sharp’s Sascha Lange, speaking to IFA’s Global Press Conference in Rome. A 128-inch screen with 8K resolution has the same pixel density as a 32-inch panel of 1080p, he points out, so the higher resolution supports the idea of today’s open living room spaces supporting much larger screens with the same viewing distance as before, or potentially even closer, with the picture extending further across your field of view. The result — ultra realism.
To prove the point, Sharp had its 70-inch 8K LV-70X500E television at the Press Conference event, announcing the official European launch of this model, which went on sale in Japan last year. Its recommended retail price in Europe is €11,999 .
The panel’s ultrafine resolution results in a pixel density of 125 ppi, while wide colour technology covers a claimed 79% of the Rec. 2020 colour gamut. We can attest to an amazing picture; static images looked like printed backlit artworks on display in a high-end gallery.
But of course, in such early days for 8K there are questions. Some fundamental technologies simply aren’t ready, as Paul Gray from IHS Markit notes in our interview opposite. The current silicon for HDMI can’t handle 8K signals, so the Sharp TV has to use ‘bundled’ 8K inputs using parallel 4K HDMI connections. By bundling parallel inputs in this way, the LV-70X500E can support 8K signals with High Dynamic Range; it supports HDR10 and the broadcast HLG version.
Then there is the question of content — what to watch. There are no 8K sources yet. But of course, just as 4K content followed hard on the heels of 4K screens, 8K content will come. As in the early days of 3D (if we can dare mention 3D), you can make your own, since the photos from cameras and phones will look great in 8K. For video, NHK Japan is currently test broadcasting one hour of 8K per day, and plans a regular 8K service as early as December. YouTube has supported 8K videos for more than a year, and it’s a firm bet that streaming services will be first out with mainstream content — Lange informed us that Lost in Space, showing here on Netflix, is being filmed in 8K.
Sharp points proudly to its own provision of an 8K ecosystem. It has an 8K camera available, the 8C-B60A (shown below with lens, viewfinder, microphone, and batteries). This is being used for a European pilot project with France TV to create 8K sports viewing at the Roland-Garros French Open under way as we go to press. The catch? At this stage the results will only be shown within the stadium, as a demonstration.
So as Sharp’s Lange admits, the priority for these early 8K televisions is their effective upscaling of 2K and 4K content. He says the LV-70X500E will up-convert content to 8K using an advanced picture processing suite so that the image is not merely “blown up” to the higher resolution, but visibly enhanced.
Sharp Australia seems not yet to be back in the TV business. So the next 8K model along should be Samsung’s, due in some markets before the end of the year, while TCL has heavily teased the likelihood of having 8K ready for IFA 2018 in Berlin this September.