Why Did TV Manufacturers Stop Using 8K Panels?

We saw the first prototype for 8K TV panels way back in 2012, with a follow-up 85-inch 8K 3D TV unveiling in 2014. However, it wasn't until 2019 that the push for 8K TVs really started to heat up, with LG and others unveiling new 8K OLED TV options. However, the first 8K TVs didn't become readily available to purchase until 2020. Now, less than seven years later, 8K TVs are slowly being phased out, with LG being the latest to announce that it will step away from the higher resolution displays, with TCL stepping away in 2023 and Sony dropping 8K manufacturing in 2025. So, what happened to 8K, and why is everyone giving up on it?

Well, to answer this question, we first have to understand what 8K actually is. Beyond just being double the resolution of 4K, the overall differences between 4K and 8K are a bit more complex than that. See, a current 4K display is rated at a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 — roughly 8.3 million pixels. An 8K TV, on the other hand, has a resolution of 7,860 x 4,320. Sure, it's only twice the resolution, but it amounts to far more pixels, measuring in at around 34 million total pixels across the entire screen. But more pixels should equal more quality, right? Unfortunately, it isn't that simple at all.

While the jump from standard resolution to 1080P and then subsequently to 4K were extremely noticeable, the jump from 4K to 8K isn't nearly so, and a big part of this comes down to how our eyes see things.

According to research from scientists at the University of Cambridge, the average human eye is only capable of seeing 94 pixels per degree. This means, to fully enjoy the sharpness of your TV, you need to have a display that lines up close to that PPD. To put that into a bit more perspective, according to a tool created by the aforementioned researchers, a 65-inch 4K TV viewed from roughly seven foot away carries an average of 100ppd. That means it is slightly higher than the average PPD that the human eye can detect.

To get down toward the correct PPD, you'd need to move the TV even closer. By using that information and the tool itself, we can then surmise that to correctly view an 8K TV at the average human's PPD, you'd need to be much, much closer — three to four foot away from the screen for a 75-inch 8K display. And we can't think of anyone that is going to want to sit that close to their TV all the time, especially if they are using a huge 75-inch TV.

Beyond the fact that most people's eyes just can't comprehend the PPD of 8K TVs at realistic and usable distances, there's also the fact that 8K content has been extremely lacking. Where streaming services and Blu-ray discs have evolved to often include 4K video content as a staple, 8K content is not even a selling point for popular brands like Netflix, Disney+, etc. There are a few reasons for this, the most notable of which is the overall cost of storage to not only hold this content on discs, but also to stream it across the internet, as 8K video files can be massive.

See, 4K content, which is the current norm, takes upwards of 7GB of data to stream just one hour of content. So, if 8K is twice that resolution, then you can estimate that it will take at least twice that amount, with some estimating upwards of 15GB or more for every hour of 8K content that you stream. However, since nobody offers 8K content, there aren't any official breakdowns from Netflix or other companies to look at right now. The overall cost of 8K TV sets has likely also helped demand for the content fail, as 8K TVs are much more expensive than 4K, making it almost never worth it to invest in 8K TVs. Ultimately, the reason that 8K TVs have failed is mostly the same reason why 3D TV panels failed — there just isn't enough demand for them, and 4K + HDR-enabled TVs continue to rule the living room.