Samsung partners up with SK Telecom to develop the 'world's first' 5G-supported 8K TV

[Polycount]

In brief: High-speed 5G wireless technology has already begun to roll out for smartphones, but for some tech companies, that isn't good enough. They want to bring 5G to a much wider variety of devices, including smart TVs. Samsung and SK Telecom are two such firms: the pair have teamed up today to develop the world's first-ever 5G, 8K TV.

To achieve that goal, Samsung and SK Telecom will be racing against time. As we reported back in May, Huawei is planning to unveil a similar device later this year, so the companies could be in close competition over the coming months.

Of course, whether or not this product will find an audience in the first place remains to be seen. Current 5G coverage is spotty at best, and meaningful 8K content is almost non-existent. It doesn't help that 8K TVs tend to be quite expensive -- combine that with a 5G implementation, and who knows how many mortgages you might have to take out to pay for one of these devices.

Interestingly, it sounds like the device won't rely on true 8K content to operate. SK Telecom stated in an announcement that the TV will use "AI Upscaling" to boost the resolution of full HD and UHD images to 8K.

Unfortunately, we have no idea how much the TV will cost, what specs it might boast (beyond the ones mentioned above), or when it might launch. The partnership between Samsung and SK Telecom is still new, so we could be waiting quite some time before the device gets so much as an official tease. Regardless, if you have any interest in this idea at all, stay tuned -- we'll keep you updated on the product's development.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81819-samsung-partners-up-sk-telecom-develop-world-first.html

 

[Lew Zealand]

Samsung R&D: Internal think tank which comes up with a list of every feature possible, with an attached division required to build all devices containing every permutation and combination of said features.

 

[Uncle Al]

Considering the current state of televisions I have to wonder what it the goal? I still have a basic Sausung LED television that is extremely sharp and crisp. It runs Roku streaming off a 200mb wireless that breaks down to about 45mb streaming and rarely do I see anything like noise in it. Not trying to poo poo their efforts but seriously, how fast is fast? How sharp is sharp? And do we really need it???

 

[loki1944]

This seems pretty pointless.

 

[yRaz]

What do you mean how many mortgages? They'll probably tak on an extra $100 onto their current line up of 8k QLEDs

 

[toooooot]

This seems pretty pointless.

Imagine how epic it ll be using video calling and looking at this baby: You ll see hair birth marks red spots, even early signs of skin cancer on this 5k beauty when you talk to a person!

 

[RaXoR]

Considering the current state of televisions I have to wonder what it the goal? I still have a basic Sausung LED television that is extremely sharp and crisp. It runs Roku streaming off a 200mb wireless that breaks down to about 45mb streaming and rarely do I see anything like noise in it. Not trying to poo poo their efforts but seriously, how fast is fast? How sharp is sharp? And do we really need it???

It's not about speed but about compression. With 5G not only are we gaining bandwidth, we are decreasing latency. Both of these pave the future for uncompressed streaming. Believe it or not, streaming services such as netflix, hulu and amazon compress the data streamed. So far we have had improvements for visual fidelity but on the sound quality end of things, we are behind. Have a dolby atmos compatible sound system? well you're SOL unless you purchase 4k blu ray.

 

[Lew Zealand]

It's not about speed but about compression. With 5G not only are we gaining bandwidth, we are decreasing latency. Both of these pave the future for uncompressed streaming. Believe it or not, streaming services such as netflix, hulu and amazon compress the data streamed. So far we have had improvements for visual fidelity but on the sound quality end of things, we are behind. Have a dolby atmos compatible sound system? well you're SOL unless you purchase 4k blu ray.

Believe it or not Blu-Ray is compressed.
Believe it or not 4K Blu-Ray is compressed.
Believe it or not DCP you watch in the movie theater is compressed.

Everything is compressed and everything will continue to be compressed. You will not get access to uncompressed video, much less ever stream it.

 

[RaXoR]

Believe it or not Blu-Ray is compressed.
Believe it or not 4K Blu-Ray is compressed.
Believe it or not DCP you watch in the movie theater is compressed.

Everything is compressed and everything will continue to be compressed. You will not get access to uncompressed video, much less ever stream it.

First step is lossless audio. This is a step forward towards that possibility. It will also help video fidelity. Streaming 8k will be far more taxing than 4k. Also, in 4k Blu Ray video is compressed but audio tends to be lossless. It really does make a difference with the appropriate sound system.