If a manufacturer wants to equip its television model with the 8K logo, the television must meet a number of minimum technical requirements. In the following, I will show you which technical data a television must display in order to be marketed as an 8K TV set. Because at the end of August 2019, the "8K Association" - an amalgamation of various companies such as Panasonic, Samsung, Intel and many more - decided and published the corresponding values.
Chapter in this post:
What does 8K actually mean?
The abbreviation 8K describes an image resolution that is based on its predecessors 2K and 4K - the further developments of HD (720p) and Full HD (1080p). While 4K with 3.840 pixels Width in the 16: 9 standard resolution is almost 4.000 pixels (4 "kilopixels"), so it brings 8K to 7.680 pixels (almost 8 "kilopixels"). In summary, one can say that the term is a description of a high number of pixels on a screen / display. The image is displayed in a correspondingly high resolution; However, 8K does not provide any information about contrast, image or color depth, image repetition rate or Hertz number and so on.
Technical requirements for 8K televisions from 8KA
And that's exactly why the 8K Association (8KA) has specified a few other technical data that a television must have in order to be allowed to wear its logo. Some of them have been made publicly available. Others are only accessible to members of the association. Overall, specifications are given for input parameters such as bit depth, frame rate, brightness, black level, color spectrum, white point, HDR and codecs. The following 8K TV specifications are publicly listed:
- Resolution: 7.680 x 4.320 pixels
- Input frame rate: 24 fps, 30 fps and 60 fps
- Screen brightness: More than 600 nits as a maximum
- Codec: HEVC
- Interface: HDMI 2.1
- Source: press release
Other resolutions, frame rates and interfaces are possible
The requirements listed above are of course minimum requirements. TV sets with a 8:17 format, i.e. 8 x 8.192 pixels, or with an even denser 4.320:16 format, which has 9 x 8.192 pixels, are certainly also possible for receiving the 4.608KA logo. Higher frame rates – 5 Hz, 100 Hz or even 120 Hz – are also conceivable for televisions that are designed for gaming with game consoles such as the upcoming PlayStation 140 and the like HDMI 2.1 connection - as with current devices - other interfaces are of course conceivable. By the way, there is more information about the image resolution itself at Wikipedia ;)
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Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.