The TV trade lastly concedes that the long run might not be in 8K

Expertise firms spent a part of the 2010s making an attempt to persuade us that we’d need an 8K show someday.

In 2012, Sharp introduced the primary 8K TV prototype to the CES commerce present in Las Vegas. In 2015, the first 8K TVs began promoting in Japan for 16 million yen (about $133,034 on the time), and in 2018, Samsung launched the first 8K TVs in the US, beginning at a extra cheap $3,500. By 2016, the Video Electronics Requirements Affiliation (VESA) had a specification for supporting 8K (Show Port1.4), and the HDMI Discussion board adopted swimsuit (with HDMI 2.1). By 2017, Dell had an 8K computer monitor. In 2019, LG launched the primary 8K OLED TV, additional pushing the industry’s claim that 8K TVs have been “the future.”

A advertising and marketing picture for 8K TVs that’s (nonetheless) on LG’s US web site.

Nonetheless, 8K by no means proved its necessity or practicality.

TV firms are quitting 8K

LG Show is now not making 8K LCD or OLED panels, FlatpanelsHD reported at the moment. Earlier this month, an LG Show consultant told FlatpanelsHD that the panel provider is “taking a complete view of present show market developments and the developments inside the 8K content material ecosystem.”

“As our technical readiness is already full, LG Show is absolutely ready to reply instantly every time the market and clients decide that the timing is true,” LG Show’s consultant stated.

LG Electronics was the primary and solely firm to promote 8K OLED TVs, beginning with the 88-inch Z9 in 2019. In 2022, it lowered the price of entry for an 8K OLED TV by $7,000 by charging $13,000 for a 76.7-inch TV.

FlatpanelsHD cited nameless sources who stated that LG Electronics would now not restock the 2024 QNED99T, which is the final LCD 8K TV that it launched.

LG’s 8K abandonment follows different manufacturers distancing themselves from 8K. TCL, which launched its final 8K TV in 2021, said in 2023 that it wasn’t making extra 8K TVs as a consequence of low demand. Sony discontinued its final 8K TVs in April and is unlikely to return to the market, because it plans to promote the bulk ownership of its Bravia TVs to TCL.