It might not be that long before you can get your hands on an 8K ultra-high definition OLED TV from LG, if the latest murmurings from South Korea hold true.
The Aju Business Daily reported this week that LG Display, which is the TV panel display manufacturing arm of LG Electronics, has committed itself to begin building its first 8K OLED displays from the first half of next year. Aju reports LG will start commercial production of the displays despite a lack of any related broadcasting resources at this time.
8K displays are set to become the successor to today’s high-end 4K panels. They feature a horizontal resolution of 7,680 pixels and a vertical resolution of 4,320 pixels, giving a total of 33,177,600 pixels, which is four times that of 4K. Both LG and its main rival Samsung have already showcased concepts sporting 8K resolution. In the case of LG, it showed off an 88-inch 8K OLED model at CES 2018 in January, while Samsung went one better later in the year with its first 8K quantum dot LED TV powered by an artificial intelligence that’s used to upscale the image quality.
LG’s plan is to “begin mass production of 8K OLED panels in May,” Han Sang-beom, vice chairman of LG Display, said at a trade show held in Seoul this week. LG is clearly looking to cash in on the technology as fast as it can, as it's aiming to kick off production with 8K OLED panels first, before making more affordable 8K LCD panels at a later date.
LG also made the rather ambitious claim that it would be able to ship its first 8K OLED TVs by June 2019. The reality may be different however, as it will take some time until the panels can be integrated into actual products what with all the design processes and testing required. LG is also assuming there won’t be any production problems with its 8K OLED displays, which is far from certain at this time. As such, CES 2020 might be a more realistic launch date for the TVs.
It’s also not clear if consumers would be interested in buying 8K models at this time anyway, so LG may not feel it needs to rush things in spite of its statements so far. For all the hype, 8K content is practically non-existent at this time, and will likely remain so for a while yet. Indeed, most experts feel that 8K will only begin to become a mainstream TV resolution by 2023 at the earliest.
LG’s Han did his best to brush aside these concerns, telling reporters that the lack of content could be overcome by upscaling technology.
“At present there is not much 8K content, and upscaling is being done,” he said.
