4K VS 8K: What's the Difference Between 4K and 8K?

8K resolution stands for 7680 x 4320 pixels, also known as 4320p. When 4K has not been popularized, 8K comes into people’s view and becomes a hot spot soon. The new UHD is literally prospective although it is still in the development stage. It’s no doubt that 8K resolution displays higher picture quality than 4K resolution and the image will be more delicate. The 100° viewing angle empowers you to catch every frame and enjoy videos with an immersed sense. However, for many people, 8K is still a new advent, so is it worth to pass by 4K and upgrade to 8K directly? Let’s see the details of 4K VS 8K for reference.

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Technically, both 4K 8K are the ultra-high definition television (UHDTV) resolution in digital television and digital cinematograph. They’re the advanced Super Hi-Vision (SHV) TV video technologies and also remarked as the next generation TV video processing methods. Many people may think that the relation between 8K and 4K is the same as 1080p and 720p. Not exactly, 8K is the current highest UHDTV resolution standard yet 4K is the entry-level one.

1. 8K vs 4K – Resolution

8K UHD means a horizontal resolution of 7680 pixels and a vertical resolution of 4320 pixels. It has 2 times the horizontal and vertical resolution of the 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) with 4 times as many pixels overall and 16 times as many pixels as Full HD (1920 x 1080). Generally, 8K UHD has 33.2 megapixels (1 megapixel is either 1 million or 1,048,576 pixels), while 4K UHD has 8.3 megapixels. An example should make this easier to understand. If you look at Blu-ray movies without changing resolution on a 8K TV, the screen will only take up 1/16 of the screen as Blu-ray always stores video in 1080p. If you play 4K videos on an 8K TV, the image cannot be played in full screen, as well. And the higher the pixel counts within a digital image, the sharper the image displays.

2. 8K vs 4K - Frame Rate

Different from resolution that is closely related to quality, frame rate refers to the number of individual frames or images that are displayed per second in a movie, computer game display or TV. It is widely used in synchronizing audio and pictures. A common argument claims that the higher the frame rate is, the more natural the motion that you can capture from the movie. As opinions vary, it’s hard to verify. Anyway, 8K supports frame rate up to 120 Hz progressive, while 4K is at 50-60 frames per second.

3. 4K vs 8K - Audio Channel

8K Ultra HD supports 22.2 audio channel, yet the audio channel for 4K Ultra HD is 5.1. Besides at the front of the room left, center, and right speakers placed in the traditional arrangement way, two sub woofers—providing localized LFE information—also will be placed at the front. Such three-dimensional arrangement has been developed by NHK and users can experience the Super stereo via 8K TV in the near future.

4. 4K vs 8K - Viewing Angle

Another difference between 4K 8K is that 4K offers a 55-degree viewing angle, as opposed to horizontal 100-degree viewing angle available in 8K. Viewing angle is the maximum angle that people can view with acceptable visual performance on a monitor. So 8K TV allows you to watch videos via more visual angles.

The contrast of 8K 4K shows that 8K is obviously superior to 4K. If you’re planning to buy 4K TV, you may struggle for the right choice. 4K or 8K? Actually, every new technology needs a process of acceptance and adaptation. 4K is the case, and so will 8K. We have to admit that in 8K VS 4K review 8K TV has better performance and is a compelling tech that will replace the currently pop 4K TV and got the whip hand. However, not for now, because 8K technology also has some defects and shortcomings:

1. There are few 8K video contents: As I mentioned before, 1080p and 4K videos can’t be displayed on 8K TV perfectly so there should have enough well-supported 8K videos for playback. Due to the restriction of camera equipment, it’s hard to shoot enough such videos.

2. One thing needs to be noticed that most 4K TVs are too expensive. Let alone 8K TV. So for people who don’t have enough budgets, they will be put off by the price of 8K TV.

3. The large size of 8K videos is still a problem. It’s a great challenge for hard disk capacity and bandwidth.

As long as all the technology, production, cost and related problems are solved, 8K TV will soon be available for people. However, the improvement of the entire industrial chain will not be achieved overnight, and continuous efforts are needed. We all expect 8K TV will be popularized so we can have better experience in watching videos.