It is shown that YouTube’s 8K streaming service is only available with TVs from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics at the moment.
According to the industry, it is confirmed that 8K TVs from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are the only ones that support hardware decoding AV1 that is the codec for YouTube’s 8K service.
AV1 is the latest video codec developed by AOMedia and it is royalty-free. AOMedia is made up of multinational corporations such as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Intel, Netflix, and Microsoft.

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<It is shown that 8K TVs from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are the only ones that support hardware decoding of AV1, which is the codec for YouTube’s 8K service, enabling owners to watch 8K streaming videos on YouTube. A consumer at Lotte Hi-Mart’s megastore is looking at an 8K TV from Samsung Electronics. Staff Reporter Lee, Donggeun | foto@etnews.com>

YouTube became the first streaming contents provider to provide 8K videos that are based on the AV1 codec. During “CES 2020” that was held in Las Vegas early this year, YouTube stated that consumers need to purchase 8K TVs that support hardware decoding of AV1 in order to watch 8K videos on YouTube.
It is expected that more streaming contents providers will begin to use the AV1 codec as other streaming contents providers such as Netflix and Amazon are part of AOMedia.
2020 TVs from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are the only ones at the moment that support hardware decoding of AV1. Fact that they support YouTube’s 8K contents when there are not many 8K contents at the moment will be a key to separating themselves from other products within the global 8K TV market.

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<It is shown that 8K TVs from Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are the only ones that support AV1 hardware decoding, which is a codec for YouTube’s 8K service, enabling owners to watch 8K streaming videos on YouTube. Consumers at Lotte Hi-Mart’s megastore is looking at an 8K TV from LG Electronics. Staff Reporter Lee, Donggeun | foto@etnews.com>

Although other multinational TV manufacturers are also working on products that support the AV1 codec, they have yet to develop such products. Although TCL, which is the world’s third biggest TV manufacturer, announced that its new 8K TV that was released this year would support the AV1 codec, it announced that such update will take place after the “Android 10” update that is scheduled in the near future. It is heard that Philips are also working on developing TVs that support the AV1 codec.
“Although more TV manufacturers are beginning to launch 8K TVs, codecs of their TVs that support 8K videos are all different from each other.” said a representative for the industry. “One needs to confirm whether a product can support many formats in order to watch various 8K videos.”
Staff Reporter Kwon, Geonho | wingh1@etnews.com