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LG 8K, 88 Inch OLED TV to Ship Next Month

amirm

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Was surprised to get a notice today that LG's 8K, 88 inch OLED TV (OLED88Z9PUA) will ship next month (August)! We are almost crossing the border where one can replace a projector with a flat panel and gain better performance across the board. I was about to pull the trigger till I read the price: a cool USD $29,999.99. :eek: Why they went after the last 99 cent at this price, is beyond me.


Some interesting specs:

1563486431102.png


Not sure why they had to make the stand so heavy. I guess this is their way of justifying the price. :)

Anyway, likely these sets are made one at a time and bad pixels repaired before shipping and hence the high cost. Yields have to be very poor I imagine at this stage in the game.

Anyway, something to look forward to in the next few years.
 

tmtomh

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The newest, biggest, and most advanced TV is always priced at an outrageous premium. I believe the first 77" flat-screen TV was initially $30k, and Sony's first OLED TV was $2500 - for an 11 inch screen.
 
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amirm

amirm

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We bought the first Full-array dimming TV from Sony in Japan and it was $10,000 back then. This was just a 50 inch set I think.

I recall my first 1080p set was $4,000. So yes, prices do come down and drastically so.

With 4K already commoditized, 8K is the next marketing game.
 

mi-fu

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I just saw the demo of a Samsung 8k tv another day. Stunning!
 

RayDunzl

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Gee, you're making me look at TV ads to replace my old 50 inch plasma.

How do you repair "bad pixels"?
 

Fregly

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I wish they would start making small OLED TVs. I have no need for the wall sized units. 24"- 32", nice little bedroom TV
 
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amirm

amirm

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yes. they called it QLED. but i really don't know how the difference is.
LCD technology (regardless of what it is called) blocks the backlight to make black pixels. "LED" LCD TVs use LEDs as the source of light but the panel itself is still LCD. No matter how good the LCD is, it still can't fully shut off the backlight.

A work-around is to use what is called Full Array Dimming. Regions of the backlight are modulated in brightness level so that combined with the LCD shutter closing, creates much darker blacks. Problem is that 256 regions or so that it is typically used is still large clusters of pixels, not just one. So you can get artifacts such as halos around white pixels on black backgrounds.

OLED is emissive technology. There is no backlight. The pixels themselves generate light. As such, they can be fully shut off to create true black pixels. This increases their contrast ratio without the artifacts explained above. This makes them excellent for darker rooms and hence my comment about replacing projectors.

Samsung started with OLED technology and is still world leader in small sized ones used in phones and tablets. But thought it would be too expensive for TVs so pulled out that market. In a misleading but marketing genius, they decided to call their TVs QLED which almost looks like the word OLED, making people think it is similar technology. It is not.

LCD technology is getting better however with new back light filters such as Quantum Dots (where "Q" comes from). And because their backlight can be arbitrary made bright, can be much brighter than OLED. This helps with HDR or High Dynamic Range content.

OLED can be made bright but it lowers its life expectancy so it trails LCDs in absolute brightness. They also dynamically change the brightness level if too many pixels are lit (similar to plasma) which causes brightness pumping and dirty snow effect.

Probably more than you wanted to know but there it is. :)
 

mi-fu

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LCD technology (regardless of what it is called) blocks the backlight to make black pixels. "LED" LCD TVs use LEDs as the source of light but the panel itself is still LCD. No matter how good the LCD is, it still can't fully shut off the backlight.

A work-around is to use what is called Full Array Dimming. Regions of the backlight are modulated in brightness level so that combined with the LCD shutter closing, creates much darker blacks. Problem is that 256 regions or so that it is typically used is still large clusters of pixels, not just one. So you can get artifacts such as halos around white pixels on black backgrounds.

OLED is emissive technology. There is no backlight. The pixels themselves generate light. As such, they can be fully shut off to create true black pixels. This increases their contrast ratio without the artifacts explained above. This makes them excellent for darker rooms and hence my comment about replacing projectors.

Samsung started with OLED technology and is still world leader in small sized ones used in phones and tablets. But thought it would be too expensive for TVs so pulled out that market. In a misleading but marketing genius, they decided to call their TVs QLED which almost looks like the word OLED, making people think it is similar technology. It is not.

LCD technology is getting better however with new back light filters such as Quantum Dots (where "Q" comes from). And because their backlight can be arbitrary made bright, can be much brighter than OLED. This helps with HDR or High Dynamic Range content.

OLED can be made bright but it lowers its life expectancy so it trails LCDs in absolute brightness. They also dynamically change the brightness level if too many pixels are lit (similar to plasma) which causes brightness pumping and dirty snow effect.

Probably more than you wanted to know but there it is. :)

Thanks for the write-up! Now you made me want a OLED tv :eek:
 

Tks

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Wonderful 8K with no serious catalog to play anything on it without upsampling.

Normal cable television is still lagging (let alone all other forms), where 1080p is even a rarity outside of broadcast news stations, or premium subscription based channels.

And then of course, you can't watch most channels with their static elements unless you want to eat some "burn-in" (more like burn-out in actuality as the diodes do not burn evenly based on the color they produce).

And then you have the ridiculous stagnation seemingly in every tech industry, where standards are being abandoned (or far too many optional portions being added, which is a contradiction in terms seeing as how they shouldn't be called standards at that point).

STILL waiting for 12-bit panels.

STILL waiting for actual HDMI 2.1 certifications centers to start spitting out true certified devices.

STILL waiting for any semblance of proper HDR (Dolby Visions' top spec of 10K nit brightness is pretty good, along with 12-bit panels)

STILL waiting for any of this sort of stuff in monitors, as they have been FAR worse to progress than TV's, it's pretty awful up until recently.

STILL waiting for REC. 2100 color space, and specification fulfillment.

STILL waiting for any sort of OLED to be seen in the consumer monitor sphere.

STILL waiting for Micro-LED (hyped seemingly vaporware supposedly that should have dethroned OLED picture quality).

STILL waiting on tech like this to ever see the light of day.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And as always, forever waiting for the excuses of "we're hitting a wall" where technology magically only currently today somehow can't progress in any sensible time frame. You see this sort of horseshit from Intel and their disgusting 10nm CPU delays, meanwhile AMD the underdog out already with 7nm (yeah yeah, I know they measure things sometimes differently in this regard, but still, a 5 year arch wait? Pathetic complacency at it's finest).

The only thing with panel and TV makers, is they're all in on some sort of gentlemen's agreement where they're all just taking it easy.
 

maxxevv

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Well, you now can have a gigantic rollable screen without the need of a projector .....

 

Wombat

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Willem

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That rollable screen is certainly what I would like. With screens getting bigger and bigger they look awful in a nice minimalist interior such as ours. I am less convinced by 8K. First, and this was already mentioned, there is no program material. Second, it is doubtful if such high resolution can actually been seen. Already for 4K there is some argument, and in that sense the debate is similar to high resolution audio: how much better than perfect is desirable? So for now, I am sticking to my 1080p plasma screen, until such day when there will actually be meaningful quantities of 4K program material.
 
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Soniclife

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The only thing with panel and TV makers, is they're all in on some sort of gentlemen's agreement where they're all just taking it easy.
At least they don't suggest you buy an HDMI cable for the price of your house to make 720p look like 8k. Real improvements will be made, and prices will come towards normal people, rather than disappear into the stratosphere.
It will be interesting to see how they handle trying to sell better than 8k when 8k looks old, when human eyes won't be able to see the difference.
 
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