Exploring 8K vs 4K: How to Choose the Right TV Size

  • Thread starter bhobba
  • Start date
  • #1
10,837
3,699
Hi All

I have been doing some research into 8k televisions after splurging out and getting an 8k Samsung 65 inch. I love it, but am always a sucker for geeky stuff even if its of no value.

The whole 8k vs 4k thing is quite interesting with arguments ranging from it's a gimmick to WOW, but seem not to look at the actual research. Here is what research/public showings say - and its not what I would have thought.

8K Live Encoding at IBC 2019

‘On the 4K native content, people complained about the quality of the capture, but the 8K captured content down covered to 4K and played back on the 8K TV had quality that was close to the native 8K content. This proves that a 8K-to-4K down convert with a 4K transmission and a quality up-scaling at the 8K TV is a viable option, if bandwidth is critical.”’

In summary, if you are getting a new TV now, at 55 inches get a good 4k TV. At 65 inches its not 100% clear cut, but for virtually everyone except nut cases like me still get the 4k - but if you are a bleeding edge type consider the 8k - its kind of cool when you get real close you still can't see pixels. I personally got the Samsung 65 inch 8k. At 75 inches its about 50–50 - only you can decide - 80 inches and above, 8k is the way to go.

Most people these days don’t have tv’s that large so its not really viable at this point in time cost wise - nearly everyone goes for about 65 inches or lower.

However here is the interesting point - if you have a direct 4k signal and an 8k signal fed directly into any size 8k TV compared to a 4k tv of the same size, the 8k looks substantially better. This is very strange - especially with what I said above. Investigating this further showed if you down-scaled the 8k to 4 k and compared it to 4k direct, the down-scaled content was substantially better. So let's compare the 8k to its down-scaled version. Then for tv’s below about 75-80 inches it is very hard to tell a difference. This means there is no need for normal size TV’s that are affordable today to get 8k, 4k is fine, providing you do filming, production etc at 8k then down-scale for transmission. But as time goes by larger models will become more affordable, and that is when transmitting in 8k may be of value. But here is the caveat - AI up-scaling from 4k to 8k is getting better and better. By that time it may be so good you will not be able to tell the difference at a normal viewing distance on even large screen size TV’s - right now we do not know. I have a 65 inch Samsung 8k myself and can say the AI up-sampling it has is very good - FHD looks almost like 4k.

And we have some very exciting developments in down-scaling:
https://www.isize.co/bitsave/
https://aomedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/YiannisAndreopoulos_UCL_iSize.pdf

It seems, and this is quite strange, down-scaling using AI then up-scaling at the other end, even without using AI in the up-scaler produces a better quality picture at the same bit-rate - very very strange - but true. So if we actually go to 8k is a moot point.

Thanks
Bill
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Informative
Likes Torbert and davenn
Engineering news on Phys.org
  • #2
Interesting, I try not to get the bleeding edge. I remember the VHS vs Betamax wars which tape to buy. In my case, none until the war ended and VHS became dirt cheap (Beta was even cheaper).
 
  • Like
Likes bhobba
  • #4
I think you need to consider available content not what the TV can theoretically display. 4k has only really taken off last year even though it's been around for a while, I think you need something like 20MB/s internet to get a decent 4k picture. With an 8k picture do we have the infrastructure to stream at those rates? Not for a while yet I imagine even if company's did offer the TV hardware now, 4k is a niche even now.
 
  • Like
Likes bhobba and jedishrfu
  • #5
MikeeMiracle said:
I think you need to consider available content not what the TV can theoretically display.

Indeed. We now know 4k quality is substantially better when down-scaled from 8k so we will see the gradual migration to 8k anyway - but it will take quite a while.

Thanks
Bill
 
  • #6
bhobba said:
Indeed. We now know 4k quality is substantially better when down-scaled from 8k so we will see the gradual migration to 8k anyway - but it will take quite a while.

Thanks
Bill

All you need now is some decent programmes to watch!
 
  • Like
Likes bhobba
  • #7
So, local enhancement to provide features not included in the broadcast. That was being used as early as 1962. :smile: See here. :smile:

Color Television and the World of Tomorrow
In 1962, a television broadcaster in Sweden decided they'd try and fool the entire country for April Fools. The broadcaster Svergies Radio aired a segment with a "scientific expert" who said it was possible for people to see their broadcast in color by stretching a pair of panty hose over their black-and-white TV screens.
 
  • Like
Likes dlgoff, bhobba and PeroK
  • #8
No thanks to early adoption for me.

I've got a 53" wide screen TV and it's still too dumb to reformat shows and movies to fit the screen optimally.
I get a tiny pic with a giant 4-sided border - or I get to watch in squishy-scope - or any of a bunch of annoyances.

Why would I bother getting the latest gadget when they can't even get the old ones working complatibly?
 
  • Like
Likes dlgoff, Asymptotic, hmmm27 and 3 others

Similar threads

Replies
3
Views
2K
Replies
6
Views
2K
Replies
22
Views
1K
Replies
4
Views
3K
Replies
6
Views
13K
Replies
10
Views
2K
Back
Top