July 26, 2021 – The 8K Association (8KA), the cross-industry group dedicated to promoting the growth of the 8K ecosystem, has revealed that there are now over seventy 8K TVs that have been Certified by the 8KA. This includes nearly 50 newly launched models through the first half of 2021 from 3 of the world’s top TV brands – Hisense, Samsung, and TCL. These TVs are being offered for sale today with availability varying by region. See the full list and press release.

In a demo performed at 3IT Innovation Center for Immersive Imaging Technologies, which is part of Fraunhofer HHI in Germany, Spin Digital, in cooperation with Fraunhofer HHI, demonstrated that 8K content can be efficiently encoded and decoded using the Versatile Video Codec (VVC).  This is quite a milestone so read more.

TCL has launched their new 6 series of 8K TV as they promised at CES 2021. These are the first 8K TV powered by the Roku operating system and they are 8K Association Certified. Offered in 65" and 75" sizes for $2199 and $2999, they also include miniLED backlight technology, AI-based upscaling, THX Certified Game Mode as well as Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support. See full press release.

Certainty of licensing terms and the security of the IP seems to be as important as the royalty rates for the adoption of a new codec. This report suggests that royalty-free codecs like AV1 are already having an impact on potential royalty rates for VVC - specifically, AV1 adoption lowers the cellular FRAND rate of VVC 40% to $0.03.

Deltacast has announced support of 8K on their 12G quad-link video I/O’s cards. Because their release featured an image of the 2020 Olympics, we reached out to see if these cards were being used to support the 8K Olympic broadcast. The company was unable to confirm that, which is not surprising given the tight control the IOC has over all production items.

When we saw this report on the set top box market, we were curious what the analysts thought of the potential for 8K support in next-generation boxes. Alex Davis replied to say, "We don’t think there is much chance of an 8K set top box. 8K Blu-ray players, maybe viable, but with the declining pay TV households we’re seeing, that dwindling installed base is unlikely to be a target for the R&D work needed for 8K in the nascent stages. As time goes on, and 8K gets cheaper to implement, then it would become viable, but our current view is that the timelines for the decline of pay TV, the shift from set tops to smart TVs or OTT dongles, and then the commodity pricing of 8K don’t overlap very much."

Samsung's new 1000" 8K microLED display is clearly aimed at commercial applications but it now integrates many of the leading edge features available in Samsung's 8K TV line as well. Even in the commercial world, TV-like features and technologies offer value and set the stage for wider adoption of 8K in the ProAV market.

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