Samsung Shows Off a Video Unicorn at IFA: A TV Series in 8K

BERLIN–Giant TVs in 8K resolution have been a show-floor staple at the IFA tech convention here since 2018(Opens in a new window), but entertainment in that ultra-high-def format has remained video vaporware.

But this year’s edition of Europe’s biggest gadget gathering breaks with that pattern by having a TV vendor show off not only 8K screens but tout some native 8K content to watch on them: season 3 of Sky’s drama Das Boot, available since July 6 on Samsung’s TV Plus streaming app.

Samsung elected to submerge this news, instead using its press conference Wednesday and its TV exhibit to highlight(Opens in a new window) it offering 8K previews of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, even though Amazon doesn’t offer that new Prime Video series in a resolution higher than 4K. But an “Ahoi 8K” sign in one of the quieter corners of Samsung’s IFA booth offers a more appealing invitation: “Experience the first TV series in native 8K on your Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV.”

Das Boot
(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung’s press release(Opens in a new window) for the Das Boot news notes that this highest-resolution option requires a 2020 or newer Samsung 8K set, plus at least a 40Mbps internet connection. But we’d recommend something much faster if other people in the house will also be online at the time. 

Aside from limited 8K coverage of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics by the Japanese broadcaster NHK, there’s been precious little content to watch in that 7,680-by-4,320-pixel resolution. YouTube hosts some 8K clips that you can watch on a set with Google’s Android TV software, game consoles support 8K output, and there’s always the option of recording it yourself using the 8K-capable cameras on newer high-end smartphones.

Manufacturers have had to tout how well their 8K sets can upscale 4K and even HD fare. That remains the case with other exhibitors at IFA. And, it appears, for Samsung’s US customers, as the company has yet to announce a comparable 8K exclusive for them. 

Industry boosters of 8K have suggested that as more sets make their way into living rooms, the entertainment industry will take note and start providing content in that resolution as well as 4K. But even as set prices have declined—Samsung’s 8K lineup(Opens in a new window) now starts with a 65-inch model discounted to $2,800—sales do not appear to have picked up accordingly. 

In April, research firm Omdia reported scant 2021 sales of 8K sets(Opens in a new window)—a bit more than 350,000 sets worldwide, just 0.15% of total TV shipments—and estimated that only 2.7 million households around the globe would have an 8K set by 2026.  

Omdia analyst Maria Rua Aguete noted that even in Japan, the one market with 8K content readily available at the time, customers have shunned the format. 

“No regions hit the level of 1% of households with a large enough audience to become commercially interesting,” she said. “With TV providers struggling with the economics of 4K UHD, it really seems that 8K TV’s small audience appears unattractive to content producers.” 

Disclosure(Opens in a new window): IFA’s organizers are covering most of the travel costs of a group of invited US journalists and analysts, myself included.