What is HDR and why is it cool

HDR is not a video resolution like HD or FullHD, it's a slightly different kind of cinema. In English, this abbreviation means High Dynamic Range, that is, the high dynamic range of the image, which indicates the difference between the darkest and brightest pixel.

It didn't get any clearer, did it? Let's take a photo example. There it simply means that a camera with good dynamic range captures richer and more detailed colors. In dark scenes, blacks are more natural, deeper and richer in detail. In light, on the contrary, they are brighter. If you translate the conversation into the mainstream of the movie, then imagine a scene in which the characters of the film walk through a cave where nothing is visible. And then someone turns on the flashlight. On a regular TV, you will not pay attention to this moment, but on a panel with HDR, the flashlight will sharply hit the eyes accustomed to the dark with light, just like in real life. At the same time, in the unlit parts of the cave, it will still be black black, as if you yourself were walking through it.


In the video above, you can see the difference between SDR and HDR. But it definitely needs to be seen live, photos or video comparisons that we watch from the screen of a monitor or smartphone do not convey all the coolness of HDR. It is to look through a window covered with dust: the light breaks through normally, and the courtyard is clearly visible, but as soon as it is wiped, the landscape will sparkle with new colors. In this imaginary scene, SDR was the dirty window, while HDR was the clean window.

How HDR works and what are the varieties

HDR technology uses a minimum of 10 bits (more than 1 billion different shades) to encode color, while the regular format uses 8-bit color and only reflects 16 million colors. That is, such a screen will display a much more realistic picture. Not more saturated, namely realistic. The brightness level must be at least 1000 cd/m².

If you come across a TV with an HDR sticker without additional numbers, then we are talking about HDR10. It's something of a gold standard and is commonly referred to as a direct competitor to Dolby Vision. Its use does not require a license and is free for electronics manufacturers. Every HDR TV can decode HDR10 signal. 99% of HDR content is released in HDR10 version.

Popular HDR TVs

A little later, TVs appeared with HDR10 Plus and dynamic metadata almost like Dolby Vision. Where conventional HDR is one size fits all, setting the same color brightness settings, Plus gives authors complete freedom to decide how this or that frame should look. There are no restrictions - on one frame you can set different parameters for maximum brightness, even for individual drops that flow down the glass.

Recently, low-cost TVs with an HDR Pro sticker have started appearing in orbit out of nowhere. It's kind of a half-hearted HDR that's better than regular SDR, but it doesn't meet all the requirements of the standard. For example, a 10-bit matrix, everything is OK, but the brightness is only 800 cd / m², which is slightly below the standard.

Popular HDR10 Plus TVs

How cool is Dolby

Dolby Vision is a more advanced standard from Dolby that, like HDR10 Plus, supports dynamic metadata. They contain instructions for each frame that the display uses to recreate content as accurately as possible. That is, a TV with Dolby evaluates the resulting picture with an eye to its own parameters of brightness, contrast and color palette. And regular HDR10 only gets static metadata in the form of baseline settings that apply to the entire movie.

On the reverse side of the coin are high requirements for technology. To unleash the coolness of the format, we need a super TV with a 12-bit panel, 4000 nits of peak brightness and support for a wide Rec.2020 color gamut (not DCI-P3 as is the case with HDR10). There are very few TVs in the world that fully meet these requirements, which are prohibitively expensive, which leads to sad thoughts about the imminent oblivion of this format.

However, any format war always ends unexpectedly. A horse was once faster than a train, and everyone had VCRs, unlike DVD players, but today we ride trains, and occasionally we remember about cassettes and DVDs on social networks. On paper, Dolby looks much more interesting. Yes, and the serious attitude of Dolby is optimistic. Back in 2016, they created the Pulsar reference monitor with an 800,000:1 contrast ratio and a peak brightness of 4,000 nits, which should become a role model for home theaters in the future, and its list of partners includes literally every important player in the video market from LG and Samsung to Amazon and Netflix.


At CES 2020 in Las Vegas, the guys from Dolby showed Dolby Vision IQ, which uses the TV's built-in light sensors to automatically calibrate the image on the screen depending on the level of lighting in the room. The fact that the format is based on the same underlying technology as HDR10 may play an important role in the success of Dolby Vision. This allows content producers to master both formats and release them on the same disc. No confusion like in the days of Blu Ray and HD-DVD.

Dolby Vision TVs

Comparison of HDR10 and Dolby Vision on the same TV

If you take a theoretical TV that meets all the Dolby specifications, then it will definitely outperform HDR10. However, in reality, you may not notice visible differences in modern TVs. So, the full implementation of the Dolby Vision standard is planned only in the future.

In real life, Dolby Vision shows more accurate gradations in brightly lit subjects, more balanced and natural colors across the range, better contrast management, and more detail as a result of improvements in color and light management. In particularly colorful films like Ready Player One, there is a difference in detail in some scenes. If you pause some battle scene with explosions and special effects, then the Dolby picture looks, for lack of a better word, more correct and detailed. It's like you've taken a very nice video game with ultra graphics settings and cranked it up to ultramax.

But the difference is very small and you don’t really pay attention to it in dynamics - both HDR10 and Dolby Vision look equally impressive. Especially when you sit at a distance of several meters. Therefore, as usual, everything depends on the price, it seems to us inexpedient to overpay twice for a panel of the same level with DV.

And what is all this to look at? And what content is already available?


Both HDR10 and Dolby Vision place high demands on technology. Both formats require the TV to have a minimum resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, support for a wide color gamut (at least 90% DCI-P3) and 10-bit color depth. Now content. Ordinary films with standard dynamic range will not reveal the capabilities of a good OLED panel. The trick is that many manufacturers artificially expand SDR to HDR, but the result of this process is a picture that still cannot be compared with "normal" HDR. Therefore, on most intelligent streaming sites, the ability to watch content in 4K HDR has long been added to the load of a premium account. As for Dolby Vision, until recently only Netflix supported it, but now there is much more such content on other streaming services like Disney+ and Amazon Prime.

HDR in monitors

In the computer market, the holiday was a little delayed not only because of the lack of devices, but also because of the chaos in the field of standards. If everything is clear with TVs, then monitors were more difficult to fit into the HDR10 standard. At least because of the banal margin of brightness, which they rarely exceed 350 - 400 cd / m². As a result, only at the end of 2017, 20 large companies, including AMD, Nvidia, Intel and Samsung, together with the VESA association, developed a single standard. He proposes to divide monitors into several basic classes. among which the most common are DisplayHDR 400, DisplayHDR 600 and DisplayHDR 1000. HDR400 requires a monitor that provides up to 400 cd/m² brightness and 8-bit color. DisplayHDR 600 is more demanding: at least 600 cd / m² brightness, 10-bit color and Local Dimming support. Well, for HDR1000 and higher standards, you need a hi-end monitor that meets high requirements for brightness, color reproduction and backlight.

So far, everything is ambiguous with “computer HDR”, since it essentially evaluates only LCD matrices, taking OLED out of the brackets. The certification requirements are also confusing, and you might run into a 300 cd/m2 max brightness monitor that somehow passed the HDR400 certification. Yes, yes, we are talking about you, MSI Optix MAG272CQR 27 " gray . At the same time, the lack of a DisplayHDR label does not mean that the monitor is bad, just not every HDR monitor is tested according to this standard. Because of this confusion, the network is full of complaints in the spirit of "the monitor without HDR looks cooler than with it." The problem is not in the standard, but in the requirements for its evaluation.

HDR capable monitors

HDR in smartphones

HDR on smartphones is a completely new toy and there are even more white spots here. Therefore, we will quickly go over this topic for a better understanding.. So what's wrong with "mobile HDR"? And the fact that for true HDR10, which is worth equaling, you need a 10-bit matrix with an extended color space and powerful peak brightness. Current flagships like Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max 256 GB Price from 15 878 up to 40 275 ₴ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 128 GB / 12 GB Price from 17 475 up to 24 219 ₴ at best support a little more colors than the DCI-P3 space covers, and the peak brightness there never reaches 1000 cd / m² simply because it is not necessary in a smartphone . And yet, they all proudly claim support for HDR, HDR10+, or even Dolby Vision.

Conclusion and what to choose

A quick recap: HDR10 is by far the most popular format, and that's not likely to be true for the foreseeable future. On the HDR side, there is a simpler technical implementation, low cost and availability.

Dolby Vision, if it is not promoted more actively (more content, lower royalties), will probably remain a kind of “advanced HDR for geeks”. If we talk about the quality of the picture on an average TV, then right now there is no big difference between HDR and Dolby, there is much less content under Dolby, and such TVs are more expensive.