The fight for real 8K: Samsung and LG get at each other's throats

This should be the year in which 8K makes its great appearance on the global stage. Even if most TV channels produce their content in Full HD resolution – if at all. Streaming platforms offer content in UHD resolution. But this usually only concerns their in-house productions. For now, nobody really seems to think about 8K just yet.

But the TV manufacturers don’t mind. They keep proclaiming that 8K is the future. I beg to differ. Whatever. The main TV feature which was advertised at the CES in Las Vegas was 8K.

Go figure!

The manufacturers in question are Samsung and LG. And the two South Korean companies are waging for power in the field of 8K: which one produces «real» 8K televisions, and which company is actually just blowing smoke?

We’re excitedly following this battle.

LG’s battle cry: we make «real» 8K

At the CES, LG couldn’t emphasise enough that its line-up of 2020 TV models dominates the «Real 8K» segment. A clear dig at Samsung: because LG is the first TV manufacturer to be granted the «8K Ultra HD» label from the Consumer Technology Association – or CTA in short – for this year’s range of 8K TVs. The CTA? This is the trade association organising the CES each year.

«8K Ultra HD» was introduced last September. Since 1 January 2020, TV manufacturers are allowed to use the coveted label for their 8K televisions as long as they meet the requirements. In a nutshell: LG not only met these requirements, but actually exceeded them in part. Samsung didn’t. That’s why LG already stated last September that Samsung doesn’t have the right to market its 8K TVs as such.

We believe that Samsung 8K TV is not truly 8K. Consumers should not be deceived this way, they should examine closely what is inside of what they are buying.

Samsung clearly doesn’t share this view.

Here’s the problem: what exactly does 8K mean?

Both manufacturers agree that 8K is a resolution of 7680 horizontal and 4320 vertical pixels (7680×4320). This makes up a total of 33 million pixels. The companies, however, have different interpretations of the way in which the number of pixels – or resolution – is measured.

The answer seems trivial: counting pixels. Makes sense, right?

The counting of pixels is called the «addressability». Until now, this has been enough for the trade associations when measuring the resolution of UHD. By this logic, UHD, which is often erroneously taken as a synonym for 4K, equals 3840 × 2160 = 8,294,000 addressable pixels.

Things look a bit different with 8K. The ICDM, an international committee of display experts, manufacturers and certification authorities – which both Samsung and LG are members of – already determined in 2016 that the classification of 8K resolutions should not just relate to the mere number of addressable pixels. Instead, it should additionally take into consideration how clearly the pixels can be distinguished from each other.

This is a real game changer.

Simply put: as two neighbouring pixels become harder to distinguish from each other, the image becomes more «blurry» for the viewer. In extreme cases, 8K would actually present the same image as UHD, even if it boasts 33 million pixels. Or worse. I’ve already addressed this issue in greater detail in my discussion about the ideal sitting distance from the television set.

To allow TV manufacturers to build their panels in line with ICDM requirements, the important question of how the distinguishability of pixels can be measured in the first place must be answered.

Here’s where LG and Samsung have different opinions.

The measurement: contrast modulation.

The conflict between LG and Samsung is caused by the fact that there is no clear answer to this question. «Distinguishability» is not an attribute which can be easily expressed in a number. There is, however, a method available to measure the resolution as intended by the ICDM, which is also used by the CTA body which awards the «8K Ultra HD» label. It’s called «contrast modulation». The

contrast modulation is a measurement of the capacity of a display to represent a pattern of white and black lines, each one pixel wide. The higher the percentage of distinguishable lines – the degree of contrast modulation (Cm) –, the sharper images and texts appear on the display.

A perfect display with a Cm of 100 per cent would therefore show a row of perfect white lines with pure black lines in between. This is not realistic; light which makes its way through the white pixels will at least partially be distributed over the neighbouring black pixels. For example because of reflections on the display glass located underneath the pixels. This results in grey areas.

For 8K televisions to be allowed to carry that label, international standardisation organisations such as the CTA, ISO, and ANSI recommend a contrast modulation percentage of at least 50 with 33 million addressable pixels. LG’s 8K TVs clearly exceed this recommendation, even managing 90 per cent. Samsung’s 8K TVs on the other hand only clock in at 13 per cent.

According to Vincent Teoh, TV Reviewer at HDTVTest,, Samsung’s poor performance is attributable to the Vertical Alignment panels (VA) they use.

These VA panels do produce good contrast values, but at the expense of the viewing angle. Because this causes greater problems in your living room than it does with PC monitors, TVs use filters to partially undo these effects and increase the angle of vision, which negatively affects the contrast – and that’s why the televisions get poor scores when it comes to contrast modulation.

This is the weak spot attacked by LG.

According to LG, Samsung might be selling televisions with 33 million addressable pixels, but these are not as distinguishable as demanded by the CTA for its 8K-UHD label. Therefore, Samsung 8K TVs wouldn’t be «real» 8K TVs. Hence: «Fake 8K».

Does this mean that LG builds better 8K televisions?

Samsung’s response: there are more important things than contrast modulation

Samsung immediately responded to LG’s 8K-UHD label announcement of 1 January 2020. A press release, published on the same day as LG’s announcement was used to inform the media about a collaboration with the 8K Association (8KA). This trade association is specialised in 8K, and comprises major players such as Samsung, TCL and Panasonic – but not LG.

Samsung is certain to receive the 8K label of the 8KA which the company helped found, because the trade association disregards contrast modulation and doesn’t include it into its 8K requirements. Instead, they decided to include other aspects, such as the display’s maximum brightness, which must exceed 600 nits. The technology behind LCD televisions will make it easier to meet this requirement than it is for OLED televisions.

And this in turn shows just how great the influence Samsung has on the 8KA is: it’s no secret that the South Korean manufacturer likes to take jabs at OLEDs.

Samsung’s response to LG’s «Fake 8K» accusations has essentially been to found its own label, which is awarded by a pseudo-independent trade association, and to additionally downplay the general importance of contrast modulation.

Or, in other words: the overall impression is what counts. It’s not about the sheer number of pixels. I’m even inclined to agree with Samsung here: the number of pixels by itself says nothing about the picture quality. With a greater number of pixels, the image does become sharper, but to really benefit from this, one has to observe the minimum sitting distanace. And that’s very close to the set. Especially with 8K. Aspects such as the colour rendering and frame rate, on the other hand, determine how realistic an image appears. This is why that’s much more important then the resolution in pixels or the contrast modulation percentage.

After all, Samsung’s unusually defensive argument isn’t as trite as it seems.

To conclude: nobody wins, but 8K loses

In the end, the ICDM itself actually criticises using contrast modulation as a sole method of measurement in its own hefty, 563-page report on display standards. That is, if it’s taken as an instrument to assess the picture quality.

New display technologies (pixel layouts) make the current measurement and calculation of display resolution [...] incomplete. Care should be taken when interpreting the results. New resolution measurement methods should be added.

The animosities between LG and Samsung only serve to confirm what I – and many other TV experts – have been saying for a long time: the time is not yet ripe for 8K TVs. Even if we disregard the fact that there is virtually no real 8K content available: what’s the use of a technology which first needs to define its generally applicable standards?

The answer to the question of who builds the better 8K television set is in the eye of the beholder. When looking at a comparison between LG and Samsung 8K at a trade fair stand of LG, the winner is LG. If you then visit the Samsung trade fair, Samsung will win. In line with the motto: the only comparisons you can trust are those you falsified yourself.

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Both LG Switzerland and Samsung Switzerland prefer not to comment on this issue.