high times
small screen’s guide to Hdr…
You’ve just got your head around HD and 4K… and then HDR comes along to join the party. But what the hell is it? Well, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and almost all new high-end and most mid-range TVs will have it, especially if they’re 4K. Essentially, it’s designed to boost the colour and contrast on your TV for a more realistic image. You’ll see more detail in the brightest and darkest parts of the picture and colours will be much closer to what you would actually see in real life.
What are the different types of hdr and Why does it matter?
By far the most common type of HDR is HDR10, which is what you’ll find on most new 4K TVs. The downside to HDR10 is that the entire film will be set at the same brightness level, even though one scene could be set in bright daylight and the next in murky darkness.
HDR10’s arch-rival, however, is Dolby Vision, which does enable filmmakers to vary the level of
brightness frame-by-frame, not just scene-by-scene, so that you get to see exactly what the director intended.
Throwing an extra spanner in the works is the new Samsung-developed HDR10+ format. Like Dolby Vision, it can boost the picture frame-by-frame.
The other key type of HDR is HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma), which was developed by the BBC and Japanese firm NHK specifically for TV broadcasts. Most big-name TV players already have HLG-ready sets and are providing firmware updates for some older models to bring them up to speed.
Where can you Watch hdr?
It’s not as simple as just having an HDR-ready TV, as the content needs to have also been filmed in HDR in the first place. But where can you watch it? Thankfully, HDR content is becoming more common. UltraHD Blu-ray (4K Blu-ray) leads the charge with major titles such as Logan and Blade Runner 2049. UHD Blu-rays have HDR10 as standard, but some also feature Dolby Vision as well, and HDR10+ is increasingly likely to pop up in future.
You’ll find both HDR10 and Dolby Vision supported on iTunes’ HDR titles, while Netflix offers a growing range of HDR titles, including Stranger Things 2 and Jessica Jones, supporting both formats. Amazon Prime Video is also backing both HDR10 and Dolby Vision and is set to offer HDR10+, though this will be US-only at first. Libby Plummer