What Is HDR in TVs?Many new TVs highlight features like HDR in their branding and marketing packages. Previously, this feature was limited to only the high-end 4K TVs.
However, today, even the most affordable of TVs comes loaded with the HDR feature. So, what is HDR and how can it help in enhancing a TV’s picture quality?
In this post, we will discuss what HDR is and dive into the various HDR standards, as well as how to distinguish them from each other.
What is HDR in TVs?
High Dynamic Range, popularly referred to as HDR, is one of the most iconic improvements in TVs in a while.
TVs fitted with HDR are able to highlight deeper colors, deliver higher brightness, and display a wider color gamut.
All of these together give a more immersive video quality when compared to the older Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) TVs.
Unfortunately, not every TV that has HDR delivers optimally. In fact, higher-end TVs still offer better HDR performance compared to the lower-end variety.
Furthermore, HDR has different standards including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG).
With all of these, you can be forgiven if you get lost in the universe of HDR especially when it comes to picking the right TV for you.
Benefits of HDR on TVs
As reiterated earlier, HDR delivers a wider spectrum of colors, enhanced brightness, and a true-to-life dynamic range.
1. Wider Dynamic Range
A unique thing about HDR TVs is that they can show the bright and dark aspects of the image without distorting details.
For instance, a complicated scene such as sunset as you can see in the picture here. An SDR television will find it difficult to display the scene without either squashing the shadows (the darker areas of the image) or blowing out the highlights (the lighter areas of the image).
When you take a closer look at the SDR TV on the left, you’ll notice that the sun’s outline is blown out while the HDR TV on the right side handles the sun in a more impressive way.
A common feature of SDR TVs is that they mostly come with 6-bit or 8-bit displays, unlike their HDR neighbors that usually boast 10-bit or 12-bit displays.
Additionally, the HDR TV’s higher-quality panel, in comparison with the SDR TV’s lower-quality screen panel, helps it in displaying higher brightness as well as a broader range of brightness stops.
What this means is that the TV will be able to easily display both the bright sun and the shadows in the scene without distorting the details or hues of both parts of the picture.
2. Enhanced Brightness
Theoretically, HDR TVs can deliver higher brightness levels, hence scenes that are closer to how they’d appear in reality are reproduced.
Take the scene of a bright sun, for instance, HDR TVs can improve the level of brightness exponentially such that it would look natural to us.
Basically, this means that with the HDR TV, your eyes would experience nearly the same level of brightness from the screen as they would while watching the same scene in real life.
3. Wider Colour Gamut (WCG)
WCG (Wider Color Gamut) in TVs allows them to display more colors compared to TVs that do not have WCG.
A TV with WCG, for example, can show more shades of red than a TV that has SCG (Standard Color Gamut).
Usually, WCG-compatible TVs can display intense greens and reds than non-WCG-compatible TVs. When you look at the image here, you can easily notice the deeper colors of the WCG than the SCG.
Although WCG isn’t necessarily a requirement for an HDR TV, however, the feature still goes hand-in-hand with HDRs. Generally, TVs with HDR and WCG can display all types of scenes in a more immersive and natural way.
The Various HDR Standards
There are four major HDR standards and these are HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG. All TVs today make use of these standards but the most commonly used is HDR10.
1. HDR10
This royalty-free HDR standard can be used by any type of screen as manufacturers can make use of the technology without the need to pay a licensing fee.
However, when compared to HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, it has a rather lower set of requirements. This means that TV brands have the power to set tone mapping according to their preference.
Because HDR10 features static metadata, the entire video is bound to use the same tone mapping. The problem with this is that you may not get an accurate representation of the actual scene.
Since no licensing fee is required, HDR TVs are compatible with HDR10 as they’re more affordable and also easier to implement.
2. HDR10+
Similar to HDR10, HDR10+ is also a royalty-free standard, however, instead of static metadata, it features dynamic metadata.
Thus, it makes room for scene-by-scene and frame-by-frame tone mapping while also rendering frames more intensely than static metadata.
Although the HDR10+ standard was developed by Samsung, several TV makers, video streaming apps, and production houses currently support HDR10+.
Lastly, HDR10+ is a bit more difficult to implement and it also needs better screen panels and processors to reproduce HDR10+ scenes.
3. Dolby Vision
Developed by Dolby, the Dolby Vision standard is similar to HDR10+ because it also features dynamic HDR metadata.
However, it isn’t royalty-free making it a proprietary HDR standard. In addition, it also has a set of strict rules that must be adhered to as well as certain performance metrics.
All of these make Dolby Vision the most challenging and expensive HDR standard to implement. Thus, it comes as no surprise that only a few TVs today are Dolby Vision-certified.
Indeed, there are only a handful of Dolby Vision videos out there and only a small number of TVs and streaming apps support it presently, nevertheless, its support is gradually growing.
Dolby Vision is currently supported by Disney+, Google, VUDU, Amazon, Apple, and other video streaming devices. A few smartphones also have support for Dolby Vision.
4. Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG)
Presently, HLG is supported by the majority of HDR TV makers however, it is mainly intended to be used for satellite, broadcast cable, and live TV channels.
HLG is unique because it simplifies things by syncing SDR and HDR metadata into a single signal. This allows all TVs, whether SDR or HDR, to use the same HLG signal.
Now, SDR TVs do not use the HDR signal but if a TV supports HDR, it will use the HDR metadata from the HLG signal to show HDR content.
However, because of its simplicity, the HLG’s performance doesn’t measure up to the standard of HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.
| HDR10 | HDR10+ | Dolby Vision | |
| Licensing | Royalty-Free | Royalty-Free | Proprietary, License |
| Bit Depth | 10-Bit | 10-Bit | 12-Bit |
| Peak Brightness | 4,000 Nits | 4,000 Nits | 10,000 Nits |
| Metadata | Static | Dynamic | Dynamic |
| Tone Mapping | Varies By TV Brand | Better | Best |
| Content Availability | Best | Decent | Limited, But Growing |
Best HDR TVs to Buy
Below are some excellent quality TVs to choose from if you’re out to get a richer view from your screen.
Royal 75″ QLED TV (RTV75D6T-A1)
Royal 65″ 4K UHD TV (RCTV65UEP6000)
Royal 55″ Curved UHD TV (RCTV55DU4)
Conclusion
In terms of technical superiority, Dolby Vision appears to be the most advanced HDR format currently. However, because there isn’t that much Dolby Vision mastered HDR content and HDR10+ content available, you most likely won’t be making a mistake if you opt for a TV with the HDR10 format.
