Europe is about to ban most of the best TVs you
can buy and if you think that doesn't affect you think again
welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and let's just get into this I'm wow okay look here's what's
happening as of right now on March 1st 2023 a revised restriction on TV power consumption goes
into effect in EU Nations and if nothing changes between now and then there isn't a single 8K TV
that can be sold in the EU a handful of 4K OLED TVs will also be banned 65-inch cutie oleds will
be off the shelves and even a few 4K qled TVs they won't make the cut either so yeah most of
the best TVs that you can buy today simply won't pass muster can't be sold in the EU and would
effectively be banned now I don't know about you but when I first heard this I kind of dismissed it
as ridiculous as in no way is this true well it turns out it is true I still think it's
ridiculous but it is definitely not something we should just shrug our shoulders at this has some
huge implications which I'm going to get to in a moment but first how did we get here well there's
a lot of mystery around that as well but here is what I do know several years ago the EU developed
what it calls the Energy Efficiency index or eei for short 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. so TVs that are now 7 to 10 years old now I haven't dug into the methodology of how
they determine these efficiency numbers did they measure the power use of a TV when it displays a
10 white window is it a full screen white window is it a giant bright moon on a black background
I don't know I will find out but what I can say for now is that the TV industry generally felt
like the numbers the commission came up with were sound and fair and that meeting those efficiency
standards was totally doable and they have been meeting those standards for a few years now now
keep in mind that these efficiency standards were developed for HD and UHD or 4K TVs and
things have been fine but fast forward to a few months ago when the EU decided it was going to
not only increase the efficiency requirement meaning HD and 4K TVs will have to consume
less power than they do now but they also decided that after reducing that number by like 0.20 they
would also just copy and paste the exact same power efficiency standard to apply to both 8K
and micro LED TVs and therein lies the problem either somebody in this governing body doesn't
understand the fundamental science behind how TVs and displays work or they just don't care
because AK TVs consume a lot more power than 4K TVs because they have to and in fact several 4K
TVs like the 65-inch versions of the Samsung s95 QD OLED the Sony a95k QD OLED and the Samsung qn
95b consume enough power that while they pass the requirement before as of March 1 2023 they're not
gonna and where 8K TVs are concerned it's not like they're just barely over the line most 8K
TVs on the market blow past the limit by like 300 percent they consume three times more power than
the limit so they aren't even close to being okay now at this point I can practically hear some of
you out there saying well 8K TVs are stupid anyway so I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for this
situation and besides sucks for Europe but I live in America and there's no shot we'd pass such a
restrictive law here to which I would respond well a don't forget that this also bans the best 4K
TVs on the market and micro LED TVs it's not just about 8K and B it could absolutely affect us here
in the U.S and in pretty much every other country I'll explain why in a moment but first why is it
that 8K TVs consume triple the amount of power of most 4K TVs I mean that can't be right can it oh
but it's true I spoke to Chris Chinook who heads up the 8K Association and penned a paper on this
very topic you'll find a link to it down in the description and he points out that as most of us
know an aktv panel has four times the pixels of a 4K TV panel and because of the way LCD panels work
it is a lot 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 backlight
which as you can imagine requires a lot more power three times the power as it turns out so
8K TVs necessarily need way more power just to be as bright as 4K TVs let alone a bit brighter
if we're talking about a premium TV changing this would require Reinventing the LCD panel as
we've known it for decades that's not happening overnight if it happens at all so what could be
done well one idea that's been floated is that TV makers could come up with what would basically be
an EU picture mode see the way the EU rules work the TV just has to pass the efficiency standard by
drawing no more than a certain amount of power as the TV comes out of the box for an SDR signal you
can change it to power guzzle mode later if you want to but in this case the out of box picture
mode would be a super duper Ultra eco mode for SDR made just for the EU and again because of how
8K TVs work the resulting picture would be so dim it would be laughable this is such a bad Solution
on so many levels first off can you imagine the average consumer going to the store and seeing
this amazing TV buying it getting it home turning it on and getting a super ridiculously dim picture
on their TV I mean they might think it was broken and then return it so how do you solve for that
nightmare problem well I suppose salespersons could warn their customers that when they get
their TV home they're going to need to click the settings button then go to picture settings then
scroll down to this menu and turn this thing off and then go into this other menu and select
you know what we have actual data that shows that the overwhelming majority of folks never
change the picture mode on their TV they just use whatever it's set to as it comes out of the box
that's another kind of tragedy but can you just imagine but you know what maybe the problem isn't
the 8K TVs or the super bright 4K TVs crap we haven't even talked about micro LED TVs rest in
peace but maybe the problem is the rule maybe you can't just copy and paste standards from 4K TVs
to 8K TVs yeah I'm pretty sure that's the case this standard needs to be reviewed and revised
but unfortunately sources close to the commission responsible for this standard are reportedly not
really interested in revisiting this and that's not okay I mean I can't hear you it's so childish
now before you attack me in the comments for being against energy saving and efficiency understand
that I as a tree-hugging dedicated composter and recycler who supports wind and solar energy
and drives a tiny little electric car here in the Uber Green State of Oregon I'm all about
energy conservation I do think TVs need to be as efficient as possible I'd like to see energy
consumption during an energy crisis go down yeah that's not just reasonable it's smart but there
are better ways like what about this idea what if TVs didn't just stay on all day whether you were
watching them or not what if there was a feature on TVs that was something like Netflix's hey you
still watching feature where you would click a button every hour or so to confirm that you are
actually watching the TV as opposed to having just left it on all day for Giggles or maybe
forgot to turn it off before you left the house I bet that would save a lot more energy because
as you've probably figured it out by now you can just take a TV out of its eco mode and have it be
an electricity guzzler if you want to there's no stopping that perhaps stopping the waste of energy
would be a better tactic anyway for all of you out there who might be like haha Europe sucks to
be you I wouldn't be so quick to chuckle in your little bubble okay look at what just happened with
apple the EU just said yeah from now on USBC is the charging port on phones in our Nations that's
just how how it is you think apple is going to make one USBC iPhone for the EU and another phone
for Every Other Nation well since it is Apple maybe at first they will just as a big middle
finger to the whole situation but ultimately no apple will make one phone that it sends to
All Nations this illustrates how the EU has the power to make Global changes when it makes policy
also look at California emissions do car makers make one car for Californians and another for the
rest of the US not anymore all cars have to pass California emission standards off the production
line whether they're headed to California or Connecticut so yeah if this EU rule goes into
effect without any modification it is going to seriously rattle a number of Industries not just
the TV makers but the folks who make content and every other organization in the middle the
ramifications of this move are massive and I would argue this whole debacle is just irresponsible
so make some noise about this get the word out share this video send some emails to officials
make it known that this poor ham-handed short-sighted ignorant policy making isn't
going to slide we can affect change if we make an effort thanks as always for watching everyone
what do you think about this whole issue leave me a comment about that down below
don't forget to like And subscribe and here's two other videos that I think you might like
thank you