CES 2020: TV makers quibble over the products there’s no need to buy yet

Television makers are competing to sell you the latest and greatest panels, but they can’t even decide among themselves what they are.

When shopping for a new television it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the options.

Some of us just want a cheap panel to watch the cricket on, others want a cinematic experience for our Netflix and movies.

And some, for bragging rights or otherwise, simply demand the biggest screen at the highest possible resolution.

That is a demand manufacturers are falling over themselves to meet.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this year, as in previous years, 8K televisions, the latest and greatest resolution panels that pack in around 33 million pixels, are being rolled out once again.

LG has shown off its new models with a third generation of its A9 processor chip.

Samsung and TCL have also shown off their chip powered displays, as has Hisense.

Processor chips upscale non-8K content to an 8K resolution, so in theory the better a brand’s chip the better its televisions will be.

They can also have your television recognise what content is being shown and tune its display to best represent it, be it a film, sporting event, or reality show (the idea of artificial intelligence being used to enhance such brainless content could be a whole topic of discussion in itself but let’s just make the observation and move on for the moment).

LG demonstrated deep learning capabilities that also allow you to ask your television where a show you’re watching takes place, and can even identify what the characters in a show are wearing and show you similar options, should you want to copy their style.

This capability is in its infancy and will only be offered in the US for the moment.

It also doesn’t work for live television like news broadcasts or sporting events, which you’d think are the main places you’d want to use it.

People take pictures of a display of LG Signature OLED R TVs at the LG booth during the CES tech show in Las Vegas. Picture: John Locher

CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 10 and features about 4,500 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 170,000 attendees. Picture: Mario Tama

Sci-Fi AI capabilities aside, these chips are really the driving force behind modern televisions, given how little 8K content is currently available.

The content drought is even worse for Australian consumers as not only do none of our local broadcasters transmit that high a resolution, our third-world internet also makes it impractical if not impossible to stream it over the internet, poking holes in what is supposed to be the next generation of televisions; a marriage between broadcast and broadband, as the slogan goes.

Further complicating things; beyond a lack of content, there’s also a lack of agreement on what makes an 8K television an 8K television.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA; the organisation behind CES), recently announced their new 8K Ultra HD certification.

The idea is to help consumers and retailers be able to easily identify what is truly an 8K television and what is merely branding.

Unfortunately this certification is … merely branding.

LG is the first and so far only company to receive this certification.

News.com.au understands its chief rival Samsung is now eligible to receive the certification too.

Samsung Electronics America Senior Vice President Dave Das announces the new Samsung QLED 8K television during a Samsung press event. Picture: Justin Sullivan

Samsung might not be all that interested in receiving the CTA stamp of approval though, given its part of a rival certification program.

The competing certification is conducted by the 8K Association, which counts powerhouse brands like Samsung, Hisense and TCL as some of its members.

All this begs the question: how are consumers expected to pick an 8K television when the industry making them can’t even agree on what that is?

Well, that depends who you ask.

Aaron Dew, director of product development at TCL North America, for one, doesn’t agree with such a characterisation.

“There’s different ways of certifying and we certainly participate with the CTA, we support their certification. I would say the 8K Association has a more comprehensive certification; it’s not just about counting the pixels it’s really about the whole experience, including the number of pixels, the brightness, and the input speed that’s required on the TV so the customer can have the full experience.”

Mr Dew agreed the 8K Association’s certification was more thorough, but he said it wasn’t a case of there only being room for one type of certification.

“I think multiple standards can exist and I think working together those will build and gain momentum. We like the 8K Association certified logo because it’s a little bit more comprehensive, but for somebody who’s just looking to make sure they are counting the number of pixels, I think the CTA has that,” Mr Dew told news.com.au.

People look at OLED 8K television screens at the TCL exhibit on opening day of the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Picture: David McNew

The CTA, in announcing its certification last year, disputed that’s all that it’s doing.

Its certification also covers digital inputs, HDR up-conversion, bit depth, support for YouTube’s 8K streaming format, and something called contrast modulation.

Contrast modulation is a measure of how easy it is to tell the difference between columns of alternating white and black lines to show how effectively the pixels can differentiate between the two contrasting colours.

The CTA certification requires at least a 50 per cent score for a television to call itself “real 8K”.

LG claims scores over 90 per cent.

Further clouding things, not all of the requirements to meet the minimum standard for the 8K Association will be made public, giving its roughly 22 members a distinct advantage over those outside the association seeking to make a television that can achieve the certification.

The seeming idea behind the certifications is to make it easier for consumers to know what they’re getting.

If a television is approved by either organisation, that makes them a certified 8K television and not simply one that has the required amount of pixels, but until the industry can settle on one certification, or even just make clear what the certification means, that’s pretty much all they can be guaranteed.

Ultimately if you want to decide which 8K television is right for you, provided you actually want one at this stage in the game, your best bet is still to go into a real store and look at them side-by-side.

The reporter travelled to CES with assistance from LG and TCL