HDR10 vs HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: Which is best?

So, last time we discussed the different display types in televisions currently being employed and how you could choose the perfect one according to your need and budget. And today we're here to discuss another important feature which you should look for before buying a new television. In the past few years, the television or technology behind television improved drastically from old CRT televisions to LCD televisions and then modern-day LED televisions, a lot has been changed throughout the years, especially in the picture quality and a TV feature which makes the images and videos more appealing and life-like on your TVs is 'HDR'. And today we're going to discuss:-

What is HDR?

How does HDR work?

And, different types of HDR formats/standards.

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The term HDR has been thrown around quite a bit, yet many of us don't know what is HDR actually? HDR is now quite a popular feature you'll see in televisions, streaming devices, gaming consoles, and even some smartphone companies also producing HDR-compatible smartphone displays.

But before we start exploring HDR, we must know the basics like what is dynamic range? and what is SDR?

Read Also: LED vs QLED vs OLED: Which TV you should buy?

What Is Dynamic range In Televisions?

The Dynamic range of something indicates the difference between the extreme lowest and highest values it can deliver. And dynamic range on television is the difference between how dark and how bright the television display can get. Television dynamic range is a contrast between the brightest light and the dimmest light it can produce, and the HDR is a feature to enhance the capacity of a television.

What is SDR in televisions?

SDR an acronym for Standard Dynamic Range was the maximum contrast limit between the most bright and most dark color output of old televisions and was replaced by HDR in 2014 with the upgrading of TV tech and standards. back then SDR was the parameter of particular television to show how bright and dark the display can get, which is sort of limited with artificial colors in images and videos displayed on the television screen.

What is HDR?

Due to the limitations of SDR, HDR (High Dynamic Range) comes into play. HDR surpasses the limitations of old SDR video signals and provides more brightness and darkness to the television with a wide range of colors. HDR videos are simply more color accurate than SDR and you'll be able to see life-like colors and images on your television. HDR enhances the contrast ratio between the bright and dark shades significantly to look more appealing and eye-popping.

To put it simply HDR helps you see a more natural, realistic, and life-like picture with a wide range of colors and a high contrast ratio between the lighter and darker shades of your television. HDr enhances the depth of dark and light colors, meaning the light and dark objects can be as much as light or dark as you are seeing them in real life. This means you won't notice grayish patches or empty spaces in the darker scenes of a picture or video, you'll be able to see a more accurate black color with much more details, and similarly, you'll be able to see more details in the brighter sevens as well.

Different types of HDR formats 

Three main types of HDR formats are being employed in modern-day televisions right now - HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. But the most common and widely adopted format of HDR is 'HDR10' and we'll see why in the latter part of the article.

What is HDR10?

HDR10 was first introduced by the Consumer Technology Association, a USA-based consumer company. HDR is a royalty-free format, which means TV companies don't need to pay any sort of licensing fee to adopt this format in their televisions. Basically, an HDR signal carries a 'Static metadata" with the video signal, which in fact is sort of encoded additional information on color saturation, range, and contrast calibration settings to make the picture or video real, close to that of a human eye can see. HDR10 is capable of producing 1000nits of brightness to the television display. And because it's free & easy widely spread adaptation, almost all TVs that support HDR are HDR10 capable  TVs.

What is HDR10+?

See, both HDR10 and HDR10+ aim to improve the picture quality, but in different ways. HDR10+ format was first developed and employed by the South Korean giant Samsung, It's a royalty-free HDR HDR format too. It works similar to the HDR10 but increases the maximum brightness of the television up to 4000nits and it sends 'dynamic metadata' instead of static metadata with the video signal. This allows TVs to just the color and brightness frame-by-frame, ultimately producing more accurate and precise colors with a great contrast level of deep blacks and white shades. As result creating a picture more life-like and natural. Additionally, HDR10 and HDR10+ supported TVs are capable of displaying 10-Bit color depth, which means the TVs are capable of showing 1.07 billion color shades.

What is Dolby Vision?

Dolby Vision is another proprietary HDR format, created and introduced by Dolby Laboratories. Dolby Vision is capable of displaying 12-Bit color depth, which is 68.7 billion color shades and it is also capable of producing 10,000nits of brightness levels. It also sends dynamic metadata to TVs with video signals. This dynamic metadata adjusts the specific levels of brightness based on the scene you're watching or by each frame, thus showing you more details in between the very bright and dark scenes. Dolby Vision is not a royalty-free HDR format, in fact, it is the costlier and more challenging HDR format to implement. But there are no 12-Bit supporting displays or content available to watch yet, so Dolby Vision downgrades its color depth to 10-Bit, which however has still an edge over the original 10-Bit color depth scheme. There is a very limited number of TVs that support Dolby Vision and very streaming services have Dolby Vision ready content to watch, that's why you'll find Dolby Vision in very high-end TVs with video streaming platforms like Apple TV+, and Disney plus, and VUDU which currently supporting Dolby Vision.

Comparison: HDR10 vs HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision

Format	HDR	HDR10+	Dolby Vision
Licensing	Free	Free	Proprietary Licensing
Bit Depth	Great (10-Bit)	Great (10-Bit)	Best (12-Bit)
Peak Brightness	1,000 nits	4,000 nits	10,000 nits
Metadata	Static	Dynamic	Dynamic
Content Availability	Best	Good	Decent (growing)
TV Support	Best	Good	Limited

 

Conclusion

The HDR is sure one of the most advanced features in the television industry right now and Dolby Vision is the most advanced HDR format in terms of picture quality and technical parameters but the lack of supported TVs and the lack of Dolby Vision content is holding it back a bit in comparison of HDR10 and HDR10+. 

And the HDR10 is the most common and widely adopted HDR format worldwide right now. Almost every television, video streaming platform, gaming console, monitor, and now some smartphones out there is HDR10 certified.

I hope this article will help you to choose the perfect TV as per your need and budget. And if you find this article helpful and informative, then share it with your friends and family and if you have some questions regarding this, let me know in the comment section below.