14 DAY TRIAL // Sharp, one of the first companies to offer 4K TVs, has now announced a Super Hi-Version 8K TV, which is set to go on sale on October 30.
Called the LV-85001, the new TV is basically a monitor that also comes with a tuner, so you can call it whatever you want, but unfortunately it won't receive any 8K signal as there is none available. Sharp has originally displayed the new screen at CES 2015, but back then, it did not mention any pricing or availability details. Now, we have info on both, and the price seems pretty out of our mortal wallets' reach.
If you wonder where on earth would people find 8K resolution footage to display on this screen, you should know that there are some professional editing studios that will find this sort of monitors quite useful.
Although quite impressive, you can't do anything with it at the moment
Coming at 16 times the resolution of 1080p screens, meaning 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, the new monitor/TV consists of an LCD panel that uses Sharp's IGZO tech. The funny part comes when you think about the connectivity to transmit the massive 8K signal, as you'll need four HDMI inputs plugged at once just to have enough bandwidth.
This might seem the sort of stuff people would immediately feel compelled to throw money on, but it's worth keeping in mind that for now there is nothing to watch on it except some benchmark videos on YouTube.
However, if you do need such a panel, either to uselessly display wealth in your living room or because you are a photo/video editing studio with deep pockets, maybe throwing away $133,000 (€118,000) on this new Sharp screen might not be a bad investment on the long run after all.
Keep in mind that you'll need some serious equipment to run 8K footage, and more so for video editing. As for 8K gaming, though, forget it! There is no AMD or NVIDIA card to run games at that resolution.