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

Luca Fontana

29.1.2020

Translation: Eva Francis

8K is set to make its real breakthrough soon. If it were up to the TV manufacturers, at least. Two of them are currently exchanging some blows in the marketing department. Which one of them actually delivers on 8K – and which one just pretends to?

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.

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.

This is a real game changer.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

To conclude: nobody wins, but 8K loses

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.

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

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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