While a lot of people are still working their way up to a 4K TV, there’s already plenty of companies willing to sell consumers an 8K screen. The problem is, there appears to be little benefit to owning an 8K TV over a 4K alternative. A point now reiterated in a fresh study.
There’s little doubt that the home entertainment viewing experience has become significantly better in recent years, with consumers now only limited by their spending budget. However, there does come a point where you can have a better home system, but not actually reap the benefits of it. A case in point seems to be the difference between how the human eye perceives 4K and 8K content, which appears to be minimal, at best.
In a recent double-blind study by some of the major names in the industry, the results indicated few people could tell the difference beyond 8K being (on average) “marginally slightly better.” As TechHive points out, the test involved taking a selection of 8K clips and comparing them to the same clips after downscaling to 4K and upscaling back to 8K. While the upscaling might raise some questions, this was done to ensure the experiment was not impacted by other technical issues, such as the display the clips were randomly being played on. In total, 139 people took part in the study with their visual acuity measured to rule out any significant differences in vision.
8K TVs Just Not Worth The Investment Right Now
If the argument was simply which is better, then 8K wins every time. After all, it is technically better than 4K, in terms of offering a richer experience. However, that’s only true if you can perceptually notice the difference to begin with, and that is going to massively vary depending on the individual, quality of vision, and distance from the TV. Of course, some will notice the difference, and for them 8K is going to be a better proposition. Then again, considering that even in the best case scenario, the results of this study only indicated a slightly better experience, it still reinforces the wider point that the difference is one of fine margins. While minor differences can matter, they matter less when the price margin between 4K and 8K is not equally as fine. When you then weigh the price difference against the improvement margin, it seems clear that there are few, if any, reasons to justify an upgrade from 4K to 8K.
Even if assuming 8K is worth the upgrade at the visual level, there still remains the more general issue of a complete lack of 8K content. Even now, 4K content is still not as readily available, in terms of actual availability, and in terms of the heightened cost compared to HD and SD content. With this availability in mind, 8K videos are almost nonexistent and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. In the longer-term future, it very well may be the case that there are better reasons to upgrade from 4K to 8K (or just skip 4K altogether), but as of right now – consumers are better off buying a 4K TV. Not to mention, using those additional 4K savings to upgrade the rest of the home experience setup.
