Viewing HDR Content

HDR (High Dynamic Range) refers to images with a significant difference in brightness between the highlight and shadow areas (dynamic range). It is a technology that enables faithful and realistic reproduction of the original colors as well as glitter and details of shadows that could not be expressed by the conventional SDR (Standard Dynamic Range). The international standard for HDR is set forth in the ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union – Radiocommunication Sector) BT.2100. Enhancements have been made in many aspects compared to ITU-R BT.709, which was the conventional Full HD standard.
HDR can largely be divided into two different formats, namely HDR10 which is employed by UHD-BD and video streaming services, and Hybrid Log-Gamma which is employed for broadcasting. Compared to the conventional SDR, the standard HDR format HDR10 delivers a higher resolution, higher luminance and higher gradation as well as a wider color gamut to reproduce images more realistically in combination with the wide dynamic range. HDR10+, which is an extension of the HDR10 standard, embeds brightness information for each scene into the content as metadata. This allows tone mapping based on the scene, and makes it possible to faithfully reproduce the HDR video according to the intention of the producer.