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What is HDR TV?

High Dynamic Range (HDR) presents images and videos with more luminance, contrast, and brighter colors. Most TVs today have HDR features to enable improvement and appeal.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is an extended dynamic range and a general name for the technology.

HDR is available in four formats, namely HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG.

HDR TV stands for extended dynamic range video on the TV screen. It shows the difference in brightness between the lightest and darkest points.

The human eye can better perceive differences in brightness than television equipment can convey. This is why HDR technology is needed to bring the image on the screen closer to the original.

Technical Features of HDR

The task of the extended dynamic range is to increase the video’s detail. Details of the picture disappear in the dark or light areas of the image. For example, the sun is bright in the frame, so nothing is visible until the brightness decreases. However, with HDR, there will be visible details in the colorful area, such as sunlight and clouds.

Some might think that if all TVs have HDR, they’re equal, but that’s not true. A test involving some consumers and justified by the manufacturers agreed that not every HDR TV can produce equally rich and unique lifelike images. This happens because of specific technologies designed within a particular TV.

Which is better, LED or HDR TV?
Is HDR video better quality?

There is an ISO 9241 specification that governs video matrix dead pixel tolerances.

Unlike SDR (standard dynamic range), HDR provides sharper contrast, brighter highlights, and more prosperous, vibrant colors.

HDR technology enhances the naturalness and realism of video.

Also read:  SDR (Standard Dynamic Range): Standard dynamic range brightness works for regular TV and video. It’s what we are used to.

Note the amount of information in the video stream (pictured below) at SDR quality and HDR. The red line indicates this video stream.

HDR is bright whites and deep blacks, and even more detail within those areas.

It’s impossible to show what this looks like if your TV doesn’t support HDR, but consider the simulated photo below (from Dolby). The extended range is on the right.

Imagine seeing bright sunlight reflections on metal surfaces or flowers in a field with a coloring that a regular TV would not reflect.

Increase dynamic range by increasing brightness and the number of gradations of each color. That’s why HDR video plays back on screens with a maximum brightness of at least 1000 nits, and the color gamut of such screens is increased to Rec 2020.

It’s not just about increasing brightness; it’s about improving the dynamic range to reflect more gradations of color so we see more detail in the bright or dark areas of the screen.

The screen matrix has 10 bits per color channel, producing 1024 shades per subpixel—almost a billion shades of color per pixel. These are all characteristics of advanced and expensive televisions.

Conventional SDR matrices have 8 bits and 16 million shades.

What is HDR TV
What is HDR TV

The Rec.709 color gamut is used for HD content development, and Rec. 2020 for Ultra HD production and sales.

To understand just how big of a leap this is, it’s worth mentioning that Rec.709 covers about 36% of color visible to the human eye, while Rec.2020 covers about 75%.

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For LED TVs with a liquid crystal matrix, matrix backlighting accuracy is crucial for proper extended-range operation. Local dimming allows the display to increase brightness and contrast, which is necessary for HDR. It would help if you had Full Array backlighting with more dimming zones.

A simple TV cannot display minor differences in brightness. Halftones merge into a single bright spot (in the case of a colorful area of the image).

As the dynamic range increases, the peak brightness becomes greater. The color space, the number of colors and tones increase, and details on the bright or dark part of the image become distinguishable.

Well-implemented HDR significantly impacts image quality more than going from Full HD to 4K.

Values for Luminance, Black Level

One nit is equivalent to the light produced by a single candle, and a nit is a unit of the measure of brightness and equal to one candela per square meter (cd/m²).

An HDR TV can theoretically deliver up to 5,000 nits of brightness, while a standard TV delivers about 100-300 nits.

Is HDR better than 4K?

While 4K UHD provides increased resolution and detail, HDR improves the color and contrast of the picture. Look for displays with these two technologies simultaneously for the best picture quality. They will give you the sharpest and brightest picture on your TV screen.

For HDR, the main parameters are at least 1000 nits of peak brightness and a black level of fewer than 0.05 nits. This is for LCD TVs.

OLED screens have a low average brightness and much lower black levels than LCDs. Their peak brightness is 600 nits, and their black level is less than 0.0005 nits.

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What Does HDR Mean in Video and Photo

Unlike HDR in photography, video is shot in HDR immediately if you want to increase the dynamic range.

When you take a photo, you combine photos of different light levels (different exposures) into an HDR photo. When shooting video, there is no signal processing; the image is rendered naturally.

Like photos and videos, HDR aims to display different tones to bring the image closer to reality.

The human eye has a vast dynamic range, can capture high brightness values, and distinguishes details. Television technology is just trying to improve its performance to match human vision, but the end of the road is still a long way off.

Fake HDR

What is being done to fake HDR?

Content creators artificially increase chromaticity and contrast to improve the picture. The colors look lush, and the image is contrasted, but details in bright and dark scenes are lost.

In this case, turning on HDR on the TV can be detrimental to the image quality on the screen.

This is also what TV manufacturers do when regular SDR video increases brightness and contrast after analyzing the picture. Here, the colors get richer, but it’s a far cry from the enhanced range that the video’s detail suffers.

HDR Formats

HDR video means transmitting and reproducing pixels with more information about the color and brightness of each pixel. This information is stored in metadata. There are dynamic and static metadata.

Video metadata is additional data embedded in the video stream. This information can be anything from the file name to technical data, such as the date or geographical information about where the file was created.

Static metadata in HDR video stores information about the entire movie and does not change over time. Such data can be brightness, contrast, etc.

Dynamic metadata provides information about brightness, contrast, color, and everything else for each scene in the movie or each frame. This is much better than static data.

There are currently four varieties of HDR: HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision.

When buying a TV, it is necessary to focus on the name of the standard itself, as all other names (HDR Effect, Quantum HDR, and so on) will be no more than a marketing ploy.

Do all TVs support HDR?

In 2025, most high-end and mid-range TVs will support HDR. Some different HDR formats include HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG. HDR10 is the most common format and is supported by all HDR TVs.

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HDR10

It’s widely used because any HDR TV can support HDR10. Since it is open source, it is the de facto HDR standard, implying that manufacturers can implement it on their TVs without paying a fee.

It has also received official backing from major industry-standard bodies like the UHD Alliance. It is an open standard adopted by numerous manufacturers and streaming services from Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Disney+, and the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA).

This version offers improved image quality. However, it is not as sophisticated as other versions.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), HDR10 must meet specific standards, including 4:2:0 color subsampling, 10-bit depth, and the Rec.2020 color space.

HDR10 is the original and currently the most common form of HDR. It is an open standard that has been adopted by:

  • Numerous manufacturers
  • Amazon, Netflix, Apple and Disney+ streaming services
  • Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)

HDR10:

  • All support it
  • It has better picture quality than SDR but not as good as HDR10+ or Dolby Vision.
  • Uses static metadata

HDR10+

This is an improved version of HDR10. It supports dynamic metadata, although it is limited to 10 bits of colors.

HDR10+ is designed as an enhanced format, so devices that cannot interpret this signal see the HDR10 stream they can decode.

hdr video formats sdr-hdr-hdr10

HDR10+ can be supported through HDMI 2.0b. HDMI 2.1 is not a requirement.

The catch is that it is in Samsung format. This is a stumbling block despite the promise of no licensing fees (so anyone can use it for free). It’s hard to imagine a world in which LG willingly supports a new format supported by Samsung. Other broadcasters are probably hesitant to maintain it for the same reason.

Companies such as Amazon, Panasonic, Hisense, and Philips use HDR10+ to stream on their devices. Currently, the manufacturers have supported 4K UHD Blu-ray on HDR10+.

What is HDR10+ Adaptive?

HDR10+ Adaptive is a TV technology used in many high-quality televisions.
It is a way to calibrate picture settings for HDR10+ content based on the intensity of light in the room around the TV screen.

Dolby Vision

Dolby Vision HDR is a copyrighted option from Dolby and requires a license.

This is the best format in comparison to the two mentioned above. Dolby Vision has the potential to display vibrant and beautiful calculated images on a scene basis and is dynamic. It’s among the newest formats after HDR10+, and it’s ideal for home entertainment as it provides a better solution.

Scene-by-scene addition is added to improve image viewing. The darker black brightness improves, enabling the TV to display a full range of colors in the Rec.2020 standard. The Dolby feature will blow you away.

Dolby Laboratories Inc., founded in 1965, is a leader in sound processing, recording, and reproduction. You may have heard of Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround, and Dolby Atmos. These technologies are used in home audio equipment and cinemas, creating the most spacious and realistic sound possible with support for up to 64 speakers.

Dolby specialists began experimenting with video content delivery algorithms, and thus, Dolby 3D and Dolby Vision technologies appeared.

In simple terms, Dolby Vision is a proprietary color correction technology. To make the picture more realistic, colorists and editors in the film studio make changes in color, brightness, and contrast. These adjustments are recorded as auxiliary information—metadata. When you play a video, the TV can read this metadata and adjust the screen for the best effect.

Dolby Vision content is 4K (UHD) video plus dynamic metadata. Typically, two video streams are used – one in 4K resolution and the other in HD with local brightness and additional color information for each frame.

Do all 4K TVs have HDR?

Dolby Vision is Dolby’s proprietary HDR content format designed to enhance picture quality.

Dolby Vision has pushed hard for HDR, which, like HDR10+, can have dynamic metadata. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, and Apple iTunes support HDR, which can also be found on Blu-ray Ultra HD discs.

Samsung and Panasonic jointly developed HDR10+, the main innovation of which is the introduction of dynamic metadata. Thanks to this, the HDR10+ format became almost equally competitive with Dolby Vision despite losing color depth.

Visually, the difference between the two formats is difficult to determine. In any case, the quality of the picture will only be a subjective opinion.

Companies must pay Dolby to use this technology. However, Dolby will help ensure that their televisions improve the picture, so this is an easy way for some companies to improve the video quality on their TVs.

Depending on the distributed medium, Dolby Vision can be 12-bit or 10-bit. Dynamic metadata means that HDR parameters can change from scene to scene rather than being fixed for the entire object.

What is Dolby Vision IQ?

The principle behind Dolby Vision IQ is dynamic metadata encoded in Dolby Vision content. Combined with the TV’s built-in light sensor, which uses the encoded information to change picture settings, the picture in the frame is adjusted to provide a more accurate image.

HLG HDR Meaning

It’s a hybrid log-gamma, a dynamic range imagery standard designed primarily for broadcast TV use.

Broadcasters can massively transmit signals with a wide dynamic range to support SDR and HDR televisions, minimizing the complexity and cost of broadcast signal transmission.

It is royalty-free and doesn’t use metadata to display the HDR content like the other HDRs.

If you plan to watch broadcast TV on your new device, HLG will be ideal if supported. Many users are adopting podcast TVs; Sky UK is an example of these broadcasters.

On the other hand, streaming content sees the potential in HLG and is taking advantage of it.

BBC Planet II can stream series and movies using its iPlayer app and HLG HDR. Sony TVM, LG, Samsung, and Panasonic both support HLG.

If you’re considering buying a new TV for use, then this can be the best option.

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Things to Consider When Buying an HDR TV

There is a wide range of TVs on the market. If you’re looking for an HDR TV, ensure it supports HDR formats like those discussed in the article.

  • The mid-range should be between 600 nits for peak brightness and 450 nits for sustained brightness. It should support the local dimming zones and wide gamut and offer support for HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG.
  • TVs with high-end HDR must have a peak brightness of about 1000 nits or higher, and sustainable brightness is about 600 nits. Thirty-two local dimming zones will also be preferable.
  • TVs with a lower range will need about 400 nits for peak brightness and 350 nits for sustainable brightness. They must also be able to support HDR10 and HLG.

Is HDR Worthy?

If you plan to buy an expensive new TV set, then HDR cab is worth your money. Go for an HDR TV that is featured with Ultra HD Premium Certification. It will give you an authentic HDR viewing experience. This will entail a 4K resolution, 1000 nit peak brightness, 10-bit color depth, and a 20000:1 contrast ratio.

HDR images are much brighter and more appealing to watch. The wide color gamut is another critical feature of HDR TVs.

HDR is worth it, as it has gained popularity recently. It is now available on streaming services like Xbox games and PlayStation.

Bottom line

It is high time people jump into 4K models supported by HDR. If you haven’t bought your TV device, consider purchasing this set.

The above article shows that an HDR screen provides the ultimate viewing experience. Its high-quality images and maximum light are adjusted to favor viewing.

You can find a brand that fits your budget among LG, Sony, Hisense, Samsung, and other well-known brands.

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