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Is an 8K Display or TV Worth It?

8K is the next great resolution standard on TVs and monitors for professionals, media lovers, and gamers alike.

It may take a few years to become as ubiquitous as 4K or 1080p, but it's coming and that means sooner or later you're going to be enjoying the beauty of a near life-like picture on an 8K screen.
If 4K, HDR, high refresh rates, and OLED technology seem like old hat, you may be considering upgrading your TV or monitor to 8K. It's the next big upgrade for display technology, right? It might be expensive, but surely all those extra pixels are worth upgrading to if you can afford it, right?
But you can only make the most of that new monitor on your 8K-ready PC or console if you have the right cable for the job.

Comparison: 8K vs 4K

There's no denying that 8K TVs look astonishing. You can be mere feet away and not see a single dividing line between the pixels. People, animals, and vistas all look near lifelike, and even expansive screens that are 75 or even 82-inches diagonally, look crisper than even modest-sized 1080p and 4K screens.
 
It looks fantastic, but is 8K worth it in 2020? That first depends on whether you want one of the limited models available. Samsung, Sony, and LG all have 8K TVs they launched in 2019, and Dell has an 8K monitor that's first and best in its class. But there's not a whole lot else out there. The TVs at least come in varied sizes (though the larger versions will certainly show off the technology at its best and give you a greater viewing depth to enjoy the added clarity), but there isn't a lot of choices out there at this time.
 
If you're wondering, can the human eye see 8K? The answer is yes. Although the human eye doesn't work in pixels, there is still a little extra room in the eye's understanding of detail before we're looking at truly lifelike visuals on screens. It won't be obvious, but when they're available, a 16K TV will still look a little better than an 8K one. 4K to 8K is noticeable, although the closer you sit to the screen the more of the detail your eyes can appreciate.

Cost and Content

Buying any new technology is always expensive, but for next-generation display standards like 8K, cost is a major factor. However, it's important to note that these kinds of prices do drop once adoption starts to increase, and they do so quickly . The first 8K TV hit Japan in 2015, and although it was designed for professional users, it cost more than $130,000. The more than 90% price cut in just five years shows that 8K is getting cheaper all the time.

8K cabling solution

Although there is unlikely to be any physical 8K media due to the storage demands of such a detailed video source, dedicated streaming services and games consoles will still need to connect to the 8K TV to give you access to the content to display on it in the first place. That's where a next-generation of cables comes in.
 
HDMI is still the dominant standard among living room equipment, so if you're planning to buy an 8K TV, a high-quality, fiber optic HDMI 2.1 cable is the way to go. These cables are available up to 1000 feet(303m ) in length and support higher refresh rates and HDR content too.
 
If you're buying an 8K monitor, however, you may want to consider an 8K-ready DisplayPort 1.4 cable instead. It has broader support among desktop PC graphics cards and offers the best support for higher resolutions and refresh rates outside of the upcoming DisplayPort 2.0 standard. There are also DisplayPort adapters, which give you a little more flexibility when it comes to your connections.

The best HDMI 2.1 cables

Whether you use the USB-C to HDMI 2.1 adapter or a native HDMI 2.1 port to connect your PC, gaming console, laptop, or other devices to your 8K, or 4K 120Hz TV, you need a good quality HDMI 2.1 cable to do it. As the most powerful display cable available today, HDMI 2.1 is the best way to enjoy next-generation gaming and movie experiences.
 
If you need a particularly long HDMI 2.1 cable, then you need to choose a pure optical HDMI cable. Compared to other HDMI fibers, fiber optic HDMI 2.1 cable can be up to 1000 feet in length. No matter what you're watching or playing, you can enjoy excellent shielding for the highest possible signal quality, making it more suitable for a wider range of entertainment setups.
Home Theater 8K HDMI 2.1 fiber optic cable