5 Reasons HDR Telly is The Beautiful Future of Home Cinema

source// Samsung

“What the 4K is HDR TV? And what’s with all these acronyms when it comes to top-notch tellies?” Both good questions, at least one of which will be answered by this article.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and it’s the future of TV picture standards.

You might be familiar with HDR if you’re into photography or own a certain smartphone. In photographic terms, HDR images deliver a much broader exposure range in a single picture, achieved either with software trickery or the merging of several real snaps of varying exposures.

When it comes to TVs, HDR works a little bit differently, aiming to deliver images that are far closer to those that the eye can see in the real world – but it does still produce that same stunning range in a single scene: think deep blacks, saturated colours and a cracking contrast ratio.

Want to know more? Read on.

5. It’s A Whole Lot Brighter

Visual light intensity is measured in nits (no, not the itch-inducing kind), and for a TV to be HDR-equipped it has to pack a pretty hefty number of nits indeed.

Most current HD tellies have a nit number of around 400. HDR TVs? The best of the bunch deliver in excess of 1000 nits.

What does that mean for the next TV you take home? Scenes will look dazzling. They won’t simply burn your retinae, so much as produce pictures that truly pop with luminosity: lights will be truly bright, and outdoor scenes should be suitably stunning.

4. It’s A Technicolour Triumph

Well, colour me clear: that added brightness also means that colours will be more captivating than ever.

The UHD Alliance (yes, that exists) recently announced the conditions of its UltraHD Premium badge, a new gold standard awarded to only the best in TV tech. One of the requirements is that the screen be HDR-equipped, alongside a cinema quality colour gamut and a resolution of at least 3840 by 2160 pixels – a combination that should pack a properly pretty punch.

Whether a TV is UltraHD Premium or not, though, HDR itself ought to mean much crisper, more captivating colours in your living room. Most HDR tellies will be able to process 10-bit colour – meaning over a billion individual colours – as well as displaying a broader range of the RGB colour spectrum.

The result? A true technicolour triumph.

3. It’s A Complete Contrast

Or, rather, its contrast is completely stunning: alongside that high peak brightness level, HDR tellies will offer incredibly deep blacks. The two side-by-side? A match made in contrast heaven.

Black levels are, like brightness, measured in nits, but, here, the lower the figure the better – and HDR TVs can go truly low. Think blacks that pull you in deeper than an Interstellar hole.

Better still, those deep blacks will be displayed directly next to the ultra-bright highlights, meaning contrast that’s out of this world.

2. It’s Good At Any Size

For 4K to properly make an impact it needs to be big. Think wall-spanning panels.

HDR, on the other hand, looks great however big or small. HDR will be captivating whether on an 18in screen in the kitchen or 50in flat panel in the living room.

Because the focus of HDR is on better picture quality and colour delivery, as opposed to cramming more pixels into the same space, it matters not the size at which it works its magic.

Of course, combining 4K and HDR would make for an incredible double act – and most future 4K panels will indeed be HDR-equipped – but the novelty of HDR is that it takes the pixels that are already there and makes them look a whole lot better.

1. It’s Here, Now!

Want in? HDR is here now. Almost.

So, you can buy HDR TVs from plenty of places – provided your wallet is prepared. Unfortunately, true HDR requires both the source material and display method to be equipped with the Highly Dynamic good stuff, and that’s a bit of a stumbling block at the moment.

Whilst HDR TVs are becoming two a penny, actual HDR content remains a little elusive. Until the kingpins of the TV world take a preference as to how they want to deliver 4K content – which is HDR’s likeliest partner – widespread HDR programming looks set to remain a tad tricky to come by.

The good news is that at least some HDR motion picture magic is set to arrive soon. Limited streaming of HDR content is set to take off shortly on both Amazon Instant Video and Netflix, whilst UHD discs, when they finally hit the mainstream, will have sufficient space to carry the extra data necessary to instruct HDR TVs as to how to handle the added colour info.

Feeling HDR happy? Good.