Philips has only just announced its lineup of 4K OLED TVs for 2020, but the company is likely to go one better as its been “confirmed” that it’s also planning to launch its first 8K OLED later in the year.
WhatHiFi claims to have seen a prototype of Philips’ first 8K OLED TV, and says the only confirmed detail is that it will be an 88-inch size screen. There’s no model number, price or technical specifications available at this time, and Philips probably won’t announce anything more until the second half of the year. But it is on it’s way.
“The very brief demo we saw has certainly whetted our appetite, with the overhead, nighttime footage of a city looking almost insanely detailed, crisp and dynamic. Of course, this is exactly the sort of clip that's made for an 8K OLED, but the pristine image was breathtaking nonetheless,” WhatHiFi reported.
As well as an 8K OLED, Philips is also reportedly working a new technology designed to prevent so-called “burn in” problems with OLED TVs. The same website separately reported that Philips is developing a “logo identifier” that’s meant to eradicate burn-in once and for all.
Burn-in is a somewhat controversial topic because the problem hasn’t been widely reported by consumers. Still, it’s a pressing issue due to its seriousness. Screen burn occurs when a persistent part of the image, such as a logo, lingers on screen as a ghostly background even after the image has gone or the device has been switched off. In some cases the ghostly image burn may remain on the screen permanently.
Although the risk of burn-in is probably overstated in most cases, with the vast majority of issues occurring with TVs used in stores or as public displays, few will deny that the issue is real.
And so Philips is attempting to fix it. According to WhatHiFi, the logo identifier works by scanning the screen for any static images before mapping their location. Once a logo has been identified, it uses a localised dimming effect to prevent the logo from damaging the panel.
Philips reportedly demonstrated the new feature at its OLED launch event earlier this month, with WhatHiFi reporting that it’s far from perfect, as a much larger part of the screen was dimmed than necessary. But Philips says the dimming will be much less noticeable by the time its ready for its future TVs, and that it should fix around 95% of burn-in issues.
Philips said it hopes the logo identifier feature will be ready sometime later this year, but it will only appear on future models as it requires a more powerful processor than its existing TVs have.
