Table of Contents

What is HDR?

Before we know what is HDR10 and other technologies, let us have some info about HDR. HDR is a widely used feature on 4K and full HD TVs. Both, full 4K and HD TVs provide great picture quality in comparison with traditional techs. HDR is designed to make things appear livelier and improve picture quality more.

In a nutshell, HDR plans to make a realistic picture, which is nearer to that seen by people. This indicates people see a wider range of depth and colors in contrast between darker and lighter shades. Apart from only balancing contrast and colors, this technology combines adjusting and dimming brightness levels to create pictures at the highest levels of nit. Nit levels are the brightness a device can produce.

hdr10:What is HDR?

What are HDR10 and HDR10+?

In this battle between HDR 10 vs HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision, let us first know what HDR10 and HDR10+ are. Both of them are the newer standards of HDR. HDR 10 was first launched by the Consumer Technology Association and HDR10+ was rolled out by Amazon Video and Samsung. Both the techs assist in enhancing picture quality, but in somewhat different manners. HDR 10 standard transmits static metadata to the video stream, which is color calibration settings’ encrypted data needed to make a picture appear real.

HDR10+ operates differently as compared to HDR10. It transmits dynamic metadata, which let TVs adjust brightness and color levels frame-by-frame. This makes the picture appear realistic. HDR10 plans to create 1000 nits of utmost brightness, whereas HDR10+ provides 4000 nits. Also, both the techs support 10-bit color depth, which is almost 1024 shades of primary colors. Both the standards are the two most widely used standards, offered in mid-high-end TVs.

hdr10:What are HDR10 and HDR10+?

What is Dolby Vision?

It is time to know about Dolby Vision in this battle between HDR10 vs HDR400 vs Dolby Vision. This standard is another new branded HDR version, launched by Dolby Laboratories. Most of the high-end OLED and4K TVs come with this feature, apart from HDR10. LG has begun adding this feature to most of its high-end devices. Similar to HDR10+, Dolby Vision also transmits dynamic metadata to the device.

It also shows support for 4096 shades of primary colors, which is a 12-bit color depth. Apart from this, Dolby Vision plans at creating 10,000 nits of utmost brightness. This shows that TVs with this standard can create 10 times more brightness as compared to HDR10. However, there are very few devices that support a nit value of 10,000. Dolby Vision is a powerful technology that is getting implemented slowly in high-end devices.

hdr10:What is Dolby Vision?

Differences Between HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision

If you're comparing the HDR10+ vs HDR10 vs Dolby Vision, there are a few things you require to pay attention to, including bit depth, color depth, metadata, and supported devices. HDR10 is the most widely used format out of the three standards, and any modern device supports HDR10. Dolby Vision vs HDR10+ is the more enhanced format, and while many devices have either Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support, some devices support both, so they are not mutually exclusive. Let's use the difference between these standards in detail.

Bit Depth

Bit depth or color depth is the amount of data the TV can use to inform a pixel which color to show. If a device has more color depth, it can reduce banding and show more colors in scenes with shades of the same colors. An 8-bit TV displays 16.7 million colors, which is normally utilized in SDR content, and a 10-bit color depth comes with 1.07 billion colors. A 12-bit TV takes comes with a shopping 68.7 billion colors. Both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision can technically support videos with more than 10-bit color depth, but that video is restricted to Dolby Vision of Ultra HD Blu-rays.

Metadata

In this battle of HDR vs HDR10, metadata can be considered of as a user guide manual that tells different aspects of the content. It is contained together with film or series and assists the TV deal with the videos in the most effective manner.

Supported Platforms

The availability of the new formats of HDR has radically enhanced over time. All HDR content is at any rate available in HDR10, and Dolby Vision comes with most streaming platforms. Even though not as widely used, HDR10+ is developing in popularity with Blu-rays and specific streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video.

Supported TVs

While most TVs show support for HDR10 and many devise support minimum of one of the more enhanced formats, only a few companies such as Hisense, Vizio, and TCL show support for both on their models. In the US, LG and Sony show support for Dolby Vision, while TVs from Samsung have HDR10+ support. Users should not expect the inexpensive HDR TVs to use all the additional features of the formats. For most of them, users will not even be able to see a difference, as only high-end models can take benefit of HDR and show it to its entire capabilities.

HLG

HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HDR10 are not the only HDR standards. There is also HLG, also dubbed as Hybrid Log-Gamma. All modern devices support it, and HLG plans to simplify things by mixing HDR and SDR into a single signal. It is perfect for live broadcasts, as any TVs getting the signal are compatible with it. If the TV supports HDR, it will show it in HDR; if it does not, the SDR part of the signal is shown. As it is aimed for live broadcasts, there is very little HLG content available.

Backward Compatibility

Both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are compatible backward with normal HDR formats on Ultra HD Blu-rays. Hence, if users are watching older content in HDR, they will not have to be concerned about which format it's in as their new model will be able to show it. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are both compatible backward, but they use separate techs to develop upon earlier HDR formats.

HDR10+ includes dynamic metadata to HDR10 content. Hence, if an HDR10+ device requires to show HDR10 content, it does so with no need for the dynamic metadata. Dolby Vision is more complex since it can use any standard HDR format as a base layer and develop from it. Since it develops from static metadata, TVs supporting Dolby Vision can read the standard metadata separately, making it compatible backward.

Bonus: Use PlayerFab All-In-One Player to Enjoy HDR10+, and Dolby

hdr10:Bonus: Use PlayerFab All-In-One Player to Enjoy HDR10+, and Dolby

Devices that support these HDR formats come at a cost. Hence, it is not easy for some users to buy such expensive devices. But what if we said that you can watch HDR content on your devices, regardless of the fact that it supports HDR content or not. Yes! This is possible. At such times users can use PlayerFab All-In-One player. The player makes it simple for you to watch HDR formats on your device, irrespective of the fact that it supports it or not. In addition to this, the player also supports playback of DVD/Blu-ray/UHD discs, videos from Netflix and Amazon, as well as local videos. Have a look at some of the awesome features that this tool offers.

Features

  • The player is capable of playing HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision format.
  • It allows playback of videos in high audio and video quality
  • It can play local MOV videos as well as videos in different formats apart from DVD/Blu-ray/UHD disc
  • It allows users to select the languages of subtitles and audio on the basis of their preference.
  • It supports streaming videos from Tubi, Netflix, Peacock, Amazon, and many more
  • The player allows controlling playback speed
  • It can auto-skip the intro when playing the videos
  • It comes with the autoplay feature

FAQs

What amount of tone mapping do HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision offer?

First of all, tone mapping offers details on how well a device can show colors that it does not show. In simple terms, if an HDR video has a bright red in a scene, but the device cannot show that specific shade of red, what does it do instead? There are two methods for a device to tone map colors to cope with the situation. The first is dubbed clipping, where a device gets so bright that you do not see a difference above a specific level of brightness, and there are not any visible colors above that level.

The other common way is where the device remaps the color range, meaning it shows the needed bright colors with no clipping. Even if it does not essentially show the needed shade of red, at least the picture will still appear good. There is more of a gentle roll-off as colors get to their highest luminance. Hence, users do not lose any details, but the general highlights are dimmer as compared to on a TV that utilizes clipping.

Between the three HDR standards, the differences are how each device deals with tone mapping. Dynamic formats such as HDR10+ and Dolby Vision can tone map on a frame-by-frame basis, and sometimes the video is tone-mapped by the source. This saves processing power needed from the device. As the question remains for HDR10 since it utilizes static metadata, the tone mapping is the same all over the entire video, so the content does not seem as good.

Conclusion

In this battle between HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, clearly the enhanced formats win. Between HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, there is no clear winner from a technical point of view since they both utilize dynamic metadata to assist enhance the quality. HDR10+ almost matches the Dolby Vision level but lacks content, and not as many devices support HDR10+ as Dolby Vision.

HDR10 has the distinct benefit of having more available content and being supported by every 4k device. In addition to this, if you do not have a compatible device, you can always use the PlayerFab All-In-One player to play and watch HDR formats. The player makes it simple for you to watch HDR formats on your device, irrespective of the fact that it supports it or not. In addition to this, the player also supports playback of DVD/Blu-ray/UHD discs, videos from Netflix and Amazon, as well as local videos.