Sales of 8K and 4K TVs could be hit if the Albanese Government follows the lead of the EU who after forcing the use of USB C cables for devices is now set to force TV manufacturers to restrict power use in TV’s a move that could see some 4K and 8K TV’s banned next year.
A revised restriction on TV power consumption will go into effect in 27 European nations on March 1, 2023, that will stop manufacturers from selling 8K TV’s unless they have lowered the power consumption.
ChannelNews understands that the Albanese Government who are desperate to cut power use in Australia is aware of the move by the EU with the real possibility that similar bans could be put into effect in Australia.
According to observers there won’t be a single 8K TV that can be sold in the EU when the ban is applied.
The rule also will affect 4K OLED TVs, 65-inch QD-OLED TVs, and at least one high-performance 4K QLED TV.
If this rule was applied in Australia today most of the best TVs that consumers are buying today wouldn’t pass the new power efficiency restrictions and would effectively be banned.
Several years ago, the EU developed what it calls the Energy Efficiency Index, or EEI for short with several European appliance brands such as Electrolux, Bosch and Miele applying the regulations to several of their appliance products.
In order to figure out what the energy efficiency of a display was, the commission looked at data from displays that were sold between 2012 and 2017.
The numbers the commission came up were seen by manufacturers as being acceptable and like appliances the proposed new efficiency standards was manageable.
Now TV’s have changed with Ultra High-Definition TVs that use more power hitting the market.
8K TVs, today consume considerably more power than 4K TVs.
Earlier this year EU decided to update these standards, resulting in increased efficiency requirement, now UHD and 4K TVs will have to consume less power with 8K TV’s a serious problem for brands.
Some claim this is a good thig due to the limited amount of content available for 8K TV screening.
— it also decided that it would copy and paste the power efficiency standard for 4K TVs to apply to both 8K and micro-LED TVs.
8K TVs, by nature consume considerably more power than 4K TVs which prior to the new regulations were acceptable, as of March 2023 they will face bans or restrictions in Europe which is a market that Australia follows.
According to FlatpanelsHD, no 8K as presently manufactured has an EEI low enough to pass the currently proposed standard.
Some 65-inch 8K TVs are just over the line, while others would have to see their EEI cut in half in order to pass.
It also appears, based on current EEI, numbers, that neither Samsung’s S95B QD-OLED or Sony’s A95K QD-OLED would pass, nor would Samsung’s QN95B 4K QLED TV.
Research shows that 8K TVs fail to meet the new standard by close to 300%, resulting in them being nowhere close to compliance according to Digital Trends.
The 8K Association admits that an 8K TV panel has four times the pixels of a 4K TV panel and because of the way LCD panels work, it is significantly harder to pass light through the tiny aperture of those tiny pixels.
The harder it is to pass light, the harder you have to push, and that means increasing the brightness of the TV’s backlight system resulting in major problems for manufacturers going forward.
Observers claim that whatever TV manufacturers do to make their TVs marketable in European countries it will most likely apply to the televisions sold in Australia due to the small size of the Australian market.
Whether intentional or not, the EU is making decisions that will affect what your TV looks like in the years to come, they claim.