Gadgetory

more than anything else CES is always a show about new TVs from 4k HDR TVs that roll up when you're not watching anymore all the way to transparent prototypes the week that we spend here is a showcase for the present and the far-off future but 8k the hottest trend at CES 2019 is still little more than a fantasy don't get me wrong 8k TVs are very real you can walk into a store today with $5,000 and buy one for yourself and here at CES we're seeing a whole new wave from Samsung Sony LG and more companies but listen the idea that anyone should buy an 8k TV today is sheer stupidity there's just no content your favorite Hollywood films and your favorite Netflix shows they don't exist in 8k and there's no sign that's gonna change this year or next let me start off by acknowledging that 8k TVs are an incredible technical achievement they have 33 million pixels which means you can get your face right up in there real close and you can't make out individual pixels it's more true to life than ever before and genuinely feels like you're staring through a window not some giant TV screen let's see that right there is your first problem you're gonna need a really big TV to tell any difference between 4k and 8k 55 inch TVs won't do the job 65 inch won't work we're talking 75 inches and above and here at CES companies are going bigger and bigger and bigger Sony just announced a 98 inch LCD TV and LG has an 88 inch OLED I don't even want to think about how much those will costs that's just one example Samsung's 82-inch Hewlett 8k TV runs ten thousand dollars but the most pressing problems facing 8k is content because there's just none of it honestly right now your best hope is maybe some mkbhd videos Nate Kay or random YouTube scissor wheels there's just not a lot happening from Netflix to Amazon to Hulu no one's announced any firm plans to stream anything in 8k and most films even when they're shot in 4k get mastered down in 2k and as for cable TV or satellite well how much do you watch in 4k on those things right now exactly there's virtually nothing now Samsung and Sony and all these companies are gonna tell you that a I can help upscale 4k content so it looks just like 8k I'm not convinced quality's not quite the same but if spending ten thousand dollars to watch drone footage or nature YouTube content is your kind of thing by all means buy an 8k TV maybe by the time a Betar 2 comes out someday this will all be better but right now it's not I don't trust it and neither should you there having said all that there's definitely some TV tech here at CES that is worth getting very excited over I mean did you see LG's Robo TV I think it's unreal and Apple's AirPlay 2 is coming to all the latest TVs from brands like Samsung vizio LG and Sony that's a big deal and the payoff is coming this year as opposed to sometime down the line and finally we're seeing many TVs make the long-waited upgrade to HDMI 2.1 and that lets much more data pass through the HDMI cable so you can watch 4k at 120 frames per second or 8k at 60 frames per second now yes that means we're all going to buy new HDMI cables at some point in the future but right now you're fine all this leads to the future there are new technologies on the way and the most exciting one to me far and away is called micro LED micro LED has the potential to be even better than Ola which is the best picture quality on the market right now it has millions of tiny self emissive LEDs that put out a superior picture with none of odds drawbacks like burn in or natural degradation over time micro LED displays are modular so you can make them into any size in the aspect ratio or any resolution that you want last year we saw Samsung's giant the wall and for 2019 they're showing off a 4k micro LED TV that it can actually fit inside your living room now it's gonna be a while before you or I can buy a micro LED TV these displays require a painstaking precise manufacturing process and few companies can do that at scale right now but it's still damn exciting because we I have been waiting for a true OLED killer for years now and it's almost here it is fun to get excited about the future that's what CES is all about but if you plan to buy a new TV either this year or next you should go 4k without even considering anything else I am a self-professed home theater nerd all the way I want 8k to do very well but now is not the time to buy or even consider an 8k TV the card has gotten so far ahead of the horse that it's silly there's just no content to watch on these amazing looking TVs all of these companies keep making more and more 8k TVs because they can they look great but they're coming out before anybody else is ready for it hey thank you so much for watching all of our CES coverage this week we're starting to wind things down but for all of our great tech videos as always subscribe at youtube.com slash The Verge