THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO… Next gen TV tech
Goggle boxes are ever evolving and your televisual experiences are about to be enhanced in different exciting ways
Words: Steve May
Photography: Neil Godwin
Could 2025 be the year that 8K finally comes of age? Once seen as the natural and inevitable successor to 4K UHD, the ultra high resolution format appeared to flounder when the sheer cost of 8K production put an end to any dreams of a native 8K ecosystem for programme makers and movie studios.
But now, there’s new impetus in the shape of AI. Suddenly, advances in AI-powered upscaling are opening up fresh avenues when it comes to 8K home viewing.
Offering four times the resolution of 4K TVs, that’s a pixel density of 7680 x 4320, the appeal of 8K video has always been ultra fine detail presentation, and with it the ability to scale screen sizes up with no compromises when it comes to picture presentation.
The brand is leading the charge here is Samsung. The TV giant first launched 8K back in 2018, with the Q9F QLED model, and it’s refined the technology consistently on its Neo QLED 8K models ever since.
Not only have 8K UHD panels evolved to better showcase the detail and dynamic range of 8K content, picture processing chips have grown exponentially more powerful.
Samsung’s latest TVs, including the Neo QLED 8K QN900D and the Neo QLED 8K QN990F, are powered by the NQ8 AI Gen3 Processor, an advanced processor with 512 AI neural networks able to upscale 4K (and lesser resolution) picture quality by analysing and optimising content in real-time. It does a remarkably good job emulating native 8K. AI-powered 4K upscales look very like the real thing.
The broadcast industry may have shied away from 8K, because of the demands it puts on bandwidth and infrastructure, but smartphone makers have been far more receptive.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 can shoot 8K resolution video, albeit at 30fps. This has opened the door to content creators. There’s already a fair amount of honest to goodness 8K video content on YouTube.
When viewed on a Samsung 8K display, YouTube quality setting can be set to 4320p. Some content flagged as 8K is actually 4K, so approach with caution. Rather than rely on thumbnail art, look to the little badge, next to the views counter, for accurate info on resolution.
Unfortunately, when it comes to physical media, 8K remains a bust. UHD Blu-ray is only just holding on by its fingertips as it is, so another iteration of the beloved silver disc looks out of the question. Gaming is much more encouraging.
Of the current crop of consoles, your best bet for 8K is the PlayStation 5 Pro, although this comes with caveats. Currently only a select number of games support 8K, including No Man’s Sky, Gran Turismo 7 and F1 24.
PC gamers with rigs kitted out with high spec graphics cards can also deliver 4320p action. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 supports 8K 60Hz HDR, as does the step down RTX3090, while AMD offers the Radeon RX 7900 XTX. They can all connect to a compatible TV via HDMI 2.1, which supports 8K resolution at 60Hz with HDR.
 BRIGHTER BETTER OLED IN 2025Of course, 8K isn’t the only new TV technology in town. There are significant developments on the 4K front which might give you pause, before embracing that next resolution jump.
OLED has long been a favourite of picture quality connoisseurs, rightly lauded for perfect blacks, nuanced near black shadow detail and vibrant hues. When it comes to watching in a fully dark room, OLED has no problem convincing with inky black scenes.
However, the technology has struggled to maintain these dynamics when viewed in rooms with high ambient light. 2024 may have seen incremental improvements, both from Samsung with its QD OLED initiative, and more recently MLA (Micro lens Array) OLED models, developed by LG Display, and used by LG, Philips and Panasonic.
However, 2025 will usher in a dramatic upgrade to the OLED experience, with far brighter screens capable of an HDR peak of 4000 nits, courtesy of all new primary RGB Tandem panels.
Developed by LG Display, this fourth-generation OLED is said to be 33% brighter than MLA, and better suited to the incoming AI TV era, which will see AI-powered algorithms used to drive HDR peaks higher and brighter than they were in the mastering suites, as well as imbue SDR content (the mainstay of most linear TV viewing) with HDR-like attributes.
The Primary RGB Tandem structure uses independent stacks of RGB elements to produce light. Previous OLED designs from LG Display used a three-stack light source, comprising two layers of blue elements emitting relatively short energy wavelengths, alongside red, green and yellow elements in a single layer. It also enhances colour brightness by as much as 40%.
Panasonic, with its incoming Z95B, LG with its flagship G5 and Philips with the OLED+950 and OLED+910, will all use the technology in 2025.
Of course, Samsung’s rival OLED proposition, QD-OLED, is also looking to up the ante when it comes to performance this year. Samsung’s OLED proposition already offers high brightness and an expanded colour volume, but in 2025, the brand promises to raise peak brightness by around 30%, hitting 4000 nits, again without increasing power consumption, all thanks to new organic materials and panel driving improvements. It’s worth noting that there’s also a new NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor behind this glass, working its own picture boosting wizardry.
Samsung’s upcoming S95F screen will be the first to utilise the new QD-OLED panel. It’s a belter: the greater brightness is not just limited to specular highlights, there’s a dynamic depth to its images which is almost three dimensional.
The S95F will also employ a derivation of the AI upscaling tech from the 8K QN900D, bringing a higher level of detail and refinement to its lower resolution upscales.
MAKE WAY FOR MINI LEDWhile OLED may remain a favoured TV technology for cinephiles, Mini LED is fast stealing a march. Unlike Full Array or edge-lit LED TVs, Mini LED models use sophisticated backlights with thousands of illuminating bulbs, coupled to advanced local dimming, to deliver an image with OLED-style black levels, high colour vibrancy and extreme HDR brightness.
2025 will usher in a dramatic upgrade to the OLED experience Mini LED models tend to be much brighter than comparably priced OLED panels, and are particularly well suited to gaming and daytime TV watching.
Mini LED is also behind a new generation of ridiculously large TVs from the likes of TCL and Hisense.
TCL showed the world’s largest QD-Mini LED TV, the 115in QM891G, as well as a 98-inch X11K QD Mini LED, at CES. Hisense countered with the 116UX, with RGB Mini LED backlight, capable of 10,000 nits peak HDR brightness.
There are also developments on the self emissive Micro LED front. Hisense had a 136-inch Micro LED screen at CES, while TCL trumped it with a 163-inch panel. Capable of 10,000 nits brightness, Micro LED currently only really makes sense at these super-large screen sizes, as evidenced by the pioneering work Samsung has done with its Micro LED proposition, dubbed The Wall. But price tags put the tech in the realm of sports personalities and oligarchs for the time being.
TV OVER WI-FIOf course, tomorrow’s binge watching isn’t just about the screen. It’s also about how you get your shows, and the direction of travel is clear: TV over Wi-Fi, with no aerial or dish involved, is the future - and it’s here today.
Freely, run by Everyone TV (formerly called Digital UK), a joint venture between BBC, ITV, Channel Four and Channel 5, is the latest OTT (Over The Top) kid on the block. Available on Panasonic, Hisense, Bush and Toshiba TVs already, it delivers a Freeview bouquet via the internet. But it’s currently hampered by a lack of channels.
That’s not the case with Sky Glass and Sky Stream. This premium OTT pay TV service offers a wider range of viewing, with a huge content library on demand, up to 4K HDR.
TV over Wi-Fi, with no aerial or dish involved, is the futureThe Sky OS runs on Sky Stream and Sky Glass. Choose the former if you want to watch Sky content on a TV you already own. Sky Glass, now in its Gen 2 iteration, is an all-in-one solution. This latest model improves on the original Sky Glass, with a brighter Full Array Quantum Dot LED panel, and retooled Dolby Atmos sound system.¦ |
