Current 8K TVs for 8K HDR Mastering?

[Zack Birlew]

Hey, everybody, just curious if anybody has experimented with the current 8K television sets available for 8K HDR mastering purposes? I know the LG 4K OLED models are pretty good but since 8K is starting to drop down more, I was thinking the investment would be better going for an 8K model but I just don't know if they are there yet compared to the nicer 4K HDR TVs. Thoughts?

 

[Zack Birlew]

Alright, we have 8K TVs hitting the $2,000 mark! Has anybody tried using any of these new 8K TVs for pro use or cheap HDR grading? I'm looking at a Mini LED solution as the difference is supposedly not too far off from OLED, which is the best, but unlike OLED, Mini LEDs won't suffer from burn-in over time. Being 8K, I may also switch to using one as my main monitor if the reviews turn out well but I'm holding off on that idea until I hear more pro voices in the mix. Any thoughts or advice?

 

[Zack Birlew]

By the way, I was at CES and saw the Leica/Hisense Laser TV example, very bright and nice but at $8,000+ is clearly too far off for affordability so even though the next big thing may be in sight, being able to spend around $2,000 now to get a big screen 8K HDR monitor just sounds much more practical.

 

[Björn Benckert]

I think as far TV´s goes LG Oled UHD is what's preferred due to their color rendition. As I see it with the cameras, screens and bandwidths that are available today I do not really see a reason to master in higher resolution than UHD. The cameras does not really hold up for more and if wanted, sure you can output a 8k version of your film even if you only sit with a 4k screen. Most of the professional colorists still sit with their Dolby 2k screens when they do their work.

 

[Phil Holland]

I use several 4K and 8K screens for mastering. Will likely be upgrading a few of my displays mid-year as well. Suffice to say there's a wide variety of what to expect, even how the image is drawn. But the largest factor is the base technology and how it represents color across the luminance range. I have various screens using OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED, and more traditional LCD tech.

I'll underline that calibration is the most important factor. Cheapest is rarely best when it comes to professional application as well. But there are good value displays out there that at their current performance level dance circles around things people were using 5-10 years ago.

The only displays I own, and this has been true for years now, that are under 4K resolution are on camera or small field monitors. Pretty much all my 4K and 8K screens handle HDR well to reasonably well.

Key things to lookout for with HDR mastering. ABL and the quality of Local Dimming if applicable. Some HDR screens produce far from natural or ideal results. Also be aware of purity and accuracy of black levels. Some tech leans blue or has issues with the absolute floor accuracy of deep blacks.

If you're doing this work professionally, I do recommend having more than one type of display technology to QC your grades on. Particularly shadows, but also notably highlight representation is a variable that is hard to quantify here. Won't sugarcoat it, but many post houses work within confines that don't represent the real world, which may or may not be a bad thing. But when it's a bad thing, it's one of those why didn't you solve that so you could keep your client sort of scenario.

 

[Zack Birlew]

I hear you on that, Phil, my brother and I always knew starting out to double check our work on a normal house TV before finalizing anything, whether we were color correcting on an Apple Cinema Display, a traditional computer monitor, or the fancy projectors at Chapman film school, we knew there would be differences. We still carry that to today as I'm finishing up our first feature on an LG HDR PC monitor and Panasonic HD broadcast screen and, when I'm done, I'll be double checking on our house TVs on HDR and SDR modes and even our phone screens if necessary to make sure it looks good. Going 8K+ on the next movie though so now we have to think about 8K monitoring so that's why I'm thinking we'll be able to get an 8K TV first before the PC monitors get to an ideal place for price/quality. Still, we don't know how these 8K monitors are stacking up aside from resolution so all advice and hands on experience feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

[Björn Benckert]

I use several 4K and 8K screens for mastering. Will likely be upgrading a few of my displays mid-year as well. Suffice to say there's a wide variety of what to expect, even how the image is drawn. But the largest factor is the base technology and how it represents color across the luminance range. I have various screens using OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED, and more traditional LCD tech.

I'll underline that calibration is the most important factor. Cheapest is rarely best when it comes to professional application as well. But there are good value displays out there that at their current performance level dance circles around things people were using 5-10 years ago.

The only displays I own, and this has been true for years now, that are under 4K resolution are on camera or small field monitors. Pretty much all my 4K and 8K screens handle HDR well to reasonably well.

Key things to lookout for with HDR mastering. ABL and the quality of Local Dimming if applicable. Some HDR screens produce far from natural or ideal results. Also be aware of purity and accuracy of black levels. Some tech leans blue or has issues with the absolute floor accuracy of deep blacks.

If you're doing this work professionally, I do recommend having more than one type of display technology to QC your grades on. Particularly shadows, but also notably highlight representation is a variable that is hard to quantify here. Won't sugarcoat it, but many post houses work within confines that don't represent the real world, which may or may not be a bad thing. But when it's a bad thing, it's one of those why didn't you solve that so you could keep your client sort of scenario.

So what 8k tv brand / make do you recommend? I have not seen or tested it but can only assume the LG 8k oled signature 88” is not to chabby.

 

[Phil Holland]

So what 8k tv brand / make do you recommend?

What do you want and what is your budget?

 

[Björn Benckert]

What do you want and what is your budget?

Im not into buying a professional 8k screen.Possibly top schelf consumer screen. As of now I’m happy with what I got. Using a HDR philips uhd 45” as.my “flame” screen and right above it I got a 65” lg oled fed from my decklink ultra.

 

[Phil Holland]

Im not into buying a professional 8k screen.Possibly top schelf consumer screen. As of now I’m happy with what I got. Using a HDR philips uhd 45” as.my “flame” screen and right above it I got a 65” lg oled fed from my decklink ultra.

Sounds like you don't want a new screen.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Sounds like you don't want a new screen.

I have had no need for such yet, correct. But in the consumer range of 8k HDR screens I'm curious which one would you recommend?

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

This is certainly an interesting time for monitor tech. The best consumer screens I've seen in terms of blacks/gamma/color accuracy are the LG OLEDs. Sony is embracing mini-LED these days as is Samsung, though Samsung is still primarily iterating their quantum dot tech.
Note: Screen size is the strongest driver on the consumer side, so deals can be found on 65" or smaller TVs that use the latest tech.

In theory, all the R&D (and volume production capacity) for consumer displays should spill into the professional space to support better value options. That said, companies like Sony have a lot of financial incentive to keep their markets segregated.

Cheers - #19

 

[Phil Holland]

curious

I'll echo Blair's statement on 8K OLEDs. Though a bit biased as I've been producing work for the Z series for several years. From there, Sony and Samsung have good options. TCL has a very good value option as well. That pretty much spans the pricing gamut. All of them have pros and cons.

With a nod to the highest end grading displays, they also have their pros and cons, which hurts harder than anything when you are low to mid 5 figures invested in a tool like that.

QD-OLED is very exciting, but we are still in generation 1 or 1.5 depending on how you look at that.

Apple side, XDR is very impressive for what it is and that can do enough to keep you dangerous. It's not uncommon to have those and Sony's on set. Or even an LG EP950. But none of those are 8K.

I still own and use the Dell 32 inch 8K and that sucker could use a hardware update for higher refresh rates and connectivity. I have a box that is dedicated to that and one of my much larger screens.

I'm an odd duck as I'm delivering 24-120fps content in 8K now. Not everybody needs that for sure.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

Couldn't agree more with Phil about the potential for QD-OLED with the same caveat - it might be a bit early to jump on that train. To some extent I see mini-LED the same way, early iterations have some nice qualities but, IMHO, still too many flaws for professional grading in January 2023.

If you need something sooner than later, I'd go for the more mature OLED tech. One positive for the LG OLEDs is the ability to turn off the "helpers". Filmmaker mode gets rid of motion smoothing and color "enhancement". Beyond that, there's a hack (search online) that allows even greater control.

Cheers - #19