ThumperComet
New member
What Hi-Fi went round the major TV brands asking what is actually happening with 8K and came back with a pile of no comments, a couple of nothing to share right now, and one statement about broader adoption depending on how content and distribution ecosystems evolve. That last one is corporate for no.
Worth remembering how loud this all was. Samsung started talking 8K up in the early 2010s and has been shipping sets since 2018, and in fairness some were genuinely good - the QN900D took a What Hi-Fi Award in 2024. LG ran three generations of 8K Z-series OLED. Sony did the Z9K mini LED in 2022. LG and Sony have both walked away since, which leaves Samsung holding the format on its own.
The part that bothers me is not that 8K stalled. Plenty of formats stall. It is that future-proofing was the entire pitch. Anyone who spent flagship money on an 8K panel in 2020 on the strength of that promise now owns a very nice 4K TV with a good upscaler, and nobody is refunding the argument.
The same script is running again right now, which is the actual reason to care. RGB mini LED is being sold as the OLED killer. Dolby Vision 2 is being sold as the thing your next set has to have. Both currently have roughly as much mastered content behind them as 8K did when it launched. Buy the picture sitting in front of you, not the roadmap someone reads you in a showroom.
Is anyone here still glad they bought an 8K set, or has it just become a 4K TV that cost too much?
Worth remembering how loud this all was. Samsung started talking 8K up in the early 2010s and has been shipping sets since 2018, and in fairness some were genuinely good - the QN900D took a What Hi-Fi Award in 2024. LG ran three generations of 8K Z-series OLED. Sony did the Z9K mini LED in 2022. LG and Sony have both walked away since, which leaves Samsung holding the format on its own.
The part that bothers me is not that 8K stalled. Plenty of formats stall. It is that future-proofing was the entire pitch. Anyone who spent flagship money on an 8K panel in 2020 on the strength of that promise now owns a very nice 4K TV with a good upscaler, and nobody is refunding the argument.
The same script is running again right now, which is the actual reason to care. RGB mini LED is being sold as the OLED killer. Dolby Vision 2 is being sold as the thing your next set has to have. Both currently have roughly as much mastered content behind them as 8K did when it launched. Buy the picture sitting in front of you, not the roadmap someone reads you in a showroom.
Is anyone here still glad they bought an 8K set, or has it just become a 4K TV that cost too much?
