Samsung, LG, Sony And Panasonic TVs Adopt HDR

High Dynamic Range (HDR) video playback is a feature that allows screens to display million more colours and many more shades of brightness ranging between black and white. Both Samsung and LG have claimed that all their new TVs are going to support this feature. HDR allows the TV to show more detail.

This announcement was made after a new scheme was created for defining HDR standards that a 4K TV must comply with to be sold with an ‘Ultra HD Premium’ sticker. Apart from LG and Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, HiSense, TCL and Sharp too have announced that their upcoming TVs are going to come with this feature.

Trends – It has been seen over the years that the Television industry has been keen on marketing 4K as the reason for upgrading. This means that a television has four times the pixels than a 1080p high definition set. However, experts have added that the addition of HDR makes a difference to the picture and enables the TV to come closer to mimicking the level of detail our eyes can see in the real world.

According to David Mercer from the research firm Strategy Analytics, “The combination of having the extra levels of contrast between white and black and the increased range of colours really does take TV to next level. We’ve always said selling Ultra HD to the public had to be about more than just the number of pixels. Once you’ve seen the full capabilities of HDR you never want to go back.”

OLED to quantum pixels –

There have been issues in coming up with a new standard as different brands use different display technologies. Samsung uses LCD’s with quantum dots for creating a picture while LG uses OLED screens. It users a carbon-based film allowing the panel to emit its own light once an electric current is passed via it. The problem being that OLEDs begin at black levels working its way up to wider than normal dynamic range while LCDs cannot go so dark but compensate by having a higher maximum brightness level from where their dynamic range can come down. Finally, the UHD Alliance established two brightness ranges and stated that so long as a TV complied with either one, it would qualify.

Other parameters being the ability to process 10-bit signals in lieu of 8-bit ones that are utilised by normal TVs. 10-bit images can show64 times more colours than 8-bit ones implying that televisions show smoother transitions between similar shades and avoid banding effects in dark scenes. Finally, the TVs must show about 90 percent of the colours in a set range that exceeds what TVs were capable of showing.