You may have heard whispers of the arrival of 8K TVs. These TVs offer higher resolution in the form of increased pixels. A 4K TV features an image that is 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. The 8K TV doubles that resolution.

Bigger must be better; you may be thinking. But unless you’re considering opening a cinema in your living room and making money off of popcorn sales, you don’t need an 8K TV.

Overreaching Technology

Manufacturers tend to release a product to stay even with their competitors. Remember when everyone was releasing 3D TVs? It was supposed to be the next big thing. But they found that just because the technology existed, didn’t mean that consumers wanted it.

 

3D TVs needed content developed in 3D to justify their existence. The problem was that 3D content was expensive and time-consuming to create. Compounding the problem was the fact that the 3D image wasn’t particularly compelling for anything other than an action movie. People soon tired of the effect and 3D TVs proved to be a short-lived fad.

 

The 8K TV threatens to follow this same path, although for a slightly different reason. Currently, although there have been some broadcasting experiments in 8K, no country on earth has TV networks that broadcast in 8K. Only three countries, China, Japan, and South Korea, are even making plans to offer it in the future.

 

The amount of data that needs to be transmitted to support an 8K resolution is immense. It consumes enormous amounts of bandwidth and requires much more efficient compression systems than currently exist. 8K technology simply overreaches the transmission infrastructure of today.

 

How Much is Too Much?

Broadcasters and content creators are still adapting to the standards that 4K brings to the marketplace. These standards were dictated by the technology the manufacturers introduced.

While increased resolution is something that everyone wants, some people are scratching their heads and wondering; how much is too much? Even if broadcasters overcome the bandwidth issues and can broadcast in 8K, how many people will be able to afford 300,000 baht for a TV? This is the estimated price point for an 8K TV.

 

People with Hi-Def TVs and Ultra-High-Def 4K TVs will be able to watch a show broadcast in 8K without the need to fork out additional money to do so. This means that for the foreseeable future, 8K TVs will be like exotic supercars. They’ll be nice to have if you can afford them, but entirely unnecessary to own.