Is your living room big enough? Samsung reveals 98-inch TV which promises ‘near pristine’ 8K quality (even though content doesn’t exist yet)
- Japanese electronics giant announced last year they would release a 8K range
- Sizes range from 65-inch, 75-inch, 82-inch, and 85-inch and 98-inches
- The company promises stunning 8K-level picture quality and AI sound quality
- They announced partnership with Apple ahead of CES 2019 convention
Samsung has unveiled a mammoth piece of technology in the form of a 98-inch 8K television at CES in Las Vegas.
The TV measures nearly two and a half metres from corner to corner and uses a specially designed Quantum Processor 8K chip that relies on AI-based tech.
It is the largest model in a range which also includes 65-inch (165cm), 75-inch (190cm) , 82-inch (208cm) and 85-inch (215cm) versions.
The Korean company promises ‘near pristine’ 8K quality, however there is no formatted content available to consumers today.
According to Samsung, the televisions will support native 8K content via the HDMI 2.1 spec when it becomes available.
Samsung has yet to announce a price for its marque product but its previously announced 85-inch 8K TV costs £15,000 and its 98-inch (248cm) 4K TV currently retails at nearly than £14,000 in the UK.
Samsung has unveiled a 98-inch QLED 8K television at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday. Pictured here, Dave Das, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics America reveals the model yesterday
8K televisions have 8,000 pixels across the screen.
This newest resolution has four times as many pixels vertically and horizontally as current top-end 4K Ultra HD screens, and 16 times more than standard 1080p HD.
Samsung promise that with more than 33 million pixels, their range will deliver crisp detail, even in super big screen sizes.
The AI Sound ‘matches each scene with optimal sound quality’, the company claims, enabling you to ‘hear a pin drop’ from your favourite movie.
Samsung claims that the TVs will have improved software capabilities with support which includes Alexa, Google Assistant and now iTunes and Airplay2.
They are also working with Amazon Prime Video on creating 8K content, according to reports.
During the CES press conference, Dave Das, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics America, who led the presentation showed off scenes from Game of Thrones, but it wasn’t in native 8K format.
Ahead of the CES 2019 convention, Samsung announced a partnership with long time rivals Apple and begin offering iTunes movies and TV shows on their television sets.
Ranging from 65-inch, 75-inch, 82-inch, and 85-inch, the series uses a Quantum Processor 8K chip that relies on AI-based tech to scale media from various sources to ‘near pristine’ 8K
The screen resolution on an 8K television is 7680 x 4320 pixels – or 33 million pixels in total. Ahead of the CES 2019 convention, Samsung announced a partnership with long time rivals Apple and begin offering iTunes movies and TV shows on their television sets
The company revealed it would be launching televisions with 8K screens last year. Samsung has not released pricing details availability but the 98-inch model is expected to cost around $15,000 (£11,000)
Samsung revealed it was launching televisions with 8K screens last year.
Full HD TVs have been used in most households since 2007. A standard set has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. That’s 1920 pixels along the bottom, and 1080 up the side.
This adds up to approximately two million pixels. With an 8K TV, the screen resolution is 7680 x 4320 pixels – or 33 million pixels in total.
WHAT IS A MICROLED DISPLAY AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
The are two technologies at the heart of most modern televisions and monitors, liquid crystal displays (LCD) and light emitting diode (LED) displays.
An LED screen uses light-emitting diodes as a source of light behind the screen, as opposed to LCDs which use cold-cathode fluorescent lamps.
Organic (OLED) sets emit light using a layer of material based on carbon, which in a technical sense makes them organic.
Sets using OLEDs, primarily made by LG, tend to be pricey because they are difficult to produce.
Manufacturers say MicroLEDs are brighter than OLEDs and offer the same benefits of high contrast and deep blacks, without burn-in. Samsung’s gigantic new 146 inch The Wall TV (pictured) is the first to use the technology
Pixels, the individual points that form an image, are self-illuminating in OLEDs and can be shut off individually.
That means images can have truly black areas, rather than just very dark.
OLED sets also cut down on light spillage in scenes where bright and dark colours are side by side, which means you see sharper contrast.
OLED sets also have a wider viewing angle than regular sets, but they aren’t as bright as other displays and can suffer ‘burn-in’ if a static image is left on screen for too long.
Just as with OLEDs, sets with MicroLED technology have self-illuminating pixels but the material used is slightly different and isn’t organic.
Manufacturers say MicroLEDs are brighter than OLEDs and offer the same benefits of high contrast and deep blacks, without burn-in.
Samsung is unveiling a 146-inch MicroLED set this year.