Now it is clear: TVs of the quality class 8K will continue to exist in Europe. For months, it looked as if they might disappear from the shops, because all known figures on their electricity consumption suggested that they would fail because of the new EU directive on energy efficiency, which has been in force since 1 March.

However, we had not ruled out that the manufacturers could find a loophole. After all, Samsung had already confidently announced at the CES trade fair at the beginning of the year that all 8K models of the year 2022 would meet the requirements of the EU. Sony made similar announcements, and now even LG, the only company that builds its 8K devices with relatively energy-hungry OLED screens, has promised EU compatibility. This is how it is now done: All manufacturers deliver their devices with energy-saving Eco presets. If the customer wants more light on the screen, he can override the energy-saving specification.

More than 33 million pixels

As a reminder: On an 8K screen there are four times as many pixels as on a 4K TV and 16 times as many as on a TV set with Full HD resolution. 8K skeptics point out that there is still no adequate content for this ultra-fine display capability – apart from self-made works from highly potent photo and video cameras. And a comparison with all the material that the public TV stations bring into the living room in this country is downright sobering: 921,600 dots per frame are transmitted by the TV stations, more than 33 million can display 8K televisions.

Nevertheless, 8K is the next step in the technology evolution. It is closely related to the development of screen sizes: the more powerful the image area, the larger and thus more visible the individual pixels become – if they do not multiply accordingly. For screens with a diagonal dimension of 65 or even 75 inches, the fine grid is an opulent but plausible solution, because even low-resolution material looks smooth, fine and detailed, scaled up accordingly, even from a short distance. But: 8K on maxi displays stands for the absolute luxury class with only marginal sales figures so far, and it will stay that way for the time being.