Definition: HDR

(1) (High Data Rate) For CDMA technology, see Qualcomm HDR.

(2) (High Dynamic Range) For photos, see HDR for photos.

(3) (High Dynamic Range) For video, HDR generates more colors and greater contrast than standard dynamic range (SDR). HDR is achieved by techniques within various TV brands and with TVs that support any of the HDR encoding standards. See SDR, VESA DisplayHDR and tone mapping.

In the TV
OLED TVs are known for their high contrast ratio; however, backlight techniques employed on LED/LCD TVs also create a high dynamic range. For example, a common method is "local dimming," in which the light is reduced to the dark pixels in real time. See OLED, LED TV and Dolby HDR.

Added to Content
HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG are HDR encoding methods that are added to the video format. Introduced in the mid-2010s, the effects are rendered on TVs that support any of these standards.

HDR10, HDR10+
HDR10 is part of the Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray standard. It supports 10-bit color, which renders 1,024 shades, one billion colors and 1,000 nits of brightness. Sometimes, the nits value is used as the designation because it is a bigger number and sounds better. HDR1000 and HDR10 are the same specification. However, HDR10+ adds metadata and supports 12-bit color (4,086 shades) and 8K resolution. See nit.

Dolby Vision
Dolby Vision supports 12-bit color, which equates to 4,096 shades, 68 billion colors and 10,000 nits, although most displays cannot handle more than 4,000 nits. See Dolby HDR.

Both HDR10 and Dolby Vision use metadata that compliant TVs interpret but non-HDR TVs ignore. However, HDR10 metadata affects the overall content, whereas Dolby Vision metadata can change from scene to scene.

HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma)
Developed by the broadcast industry, HLG does not use metadata but adds a logarithmic curve to the standard dynamic range (SDR) gamma curve. HLG is compatible with old and new TVs. See contrast ratio and PQ.