[Interview] Two Years On: How Samsung Has Brought Immersive Viewing Experiences to More Viewers with HDR10+

In 2017, Samsung Electronics introduced HDR10+, the latest and most advanced high dynamic range (HDR) technology yet that provides a truly immersive viewing experience thanks to its dynamic tone mapping and enhanced intrinsic dynamic range that allows TVs to faithfully reproduce the intended HDR appearance of the master.

In the two years that have passed since its introduction, HDR10+ has not only been revolutionizing the home entertainment market but has also debuted on a variety of other devices, including smartphones.  Bill Mandel, Vice President of Samsung Research America’s Digital Media Solutions Lab, sat down with Samsung Newsroom to provide an update on how far HDR10+ has come since 2017.

Building a HDR10+ Ecosystem

The biggest innovation for HDR10+ since its introduction in 2017 has been the expansion of the types of devices that can support the revolutionary picture technology, as well as the number of partners that have adopted it.

Over the past year, the number of HDR10+ certification program adopters has tripled, including many TV makers and various ultra-high-definition (UHD) device and System on Chip (SoC) makers. As Mandel affirms, the technology has become crucial to providing the best possible big screen television experience. “The additional picture information that comes with HDR10+ enables the TV processor to best recreate the color tones, brightness and contrast details with the highest precision and respect for the creative intent,” he notes. “Every scene and frame of a viewer’s content is delivered to the highest possible quality on larger screens thanks to HDR10+ and QLED TV processors.”

Samsung’s US-based Digital Media Solutions Lab are constantly aware that, just as the number of HDR10+-certified devices is constantly growing, so is the amount of content available. “We develop technologies like HDR10+ to be stable over a long time so that we can ensure we offer consistency across all available picture qualities as well as synergy between content producers and the viewing ecosystem,” explains Mandel of their development process, “and we work to provide a roadmap to enable the industry to develop and grow with these and other new video tools and enhancements.”

Providing High Picture Quality Across the Board

Back in 2017, Samsung partnered with 20^th Century Fox and Panasonic to create a logo and certification program that allows displays to be certified for having HDR10+ implementation. Since then, many more displays and much more content have been developed to support HDR10+ by a wide range of partners and collaborators who see the benefits this picture technology has to offer viewing quality.

“Device adopters see the picture quality benefit to HDR with HDR10+, service providers are finding that they can easily update their existing HDR services, and content providers are finding they can achieve greater consistency of quality across a wider variety of televisions,” comments Mandel on the path HDR10+ has forged in the industry. “Recently, at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Jose, we showcased samples of HDR10+ across a variety of devices including mobile, tablets and TVs to many interested developers.”

Looking to the future, Mandel notes that HDR10+ is set to revolutionize not only TV viewing experiences for users, but potentially also cinematic experiences. “Starting with HDR10+ technologies, we are currently working to understand the needs of filmmakers, post-production facilities and studios in order to help post-production workflows and future generations of displays provide even more capabilities and options to consumers and the media industry.”

The Most Vivid Viewing Experience Yet

What sets HDR10+ apart is that it has been designed to reproduce images faithfully by taking advantage of the brightness, darkness and contrast elements of content paired with the performance range of a viewer’s television. Thanks to its advanced tone mapping technology, HDR10+ is able to better reproduce HDR content with the appearance as intended by the creator. “Not only can users enjoy this quality on HDR10+-certified devices, but HDR10+ technology can enable any TV, even with differing sets of performance characteristics, to provide an immersive HDR content experience that fully showcases the care creatives put into their HDR source masters,” explains Mandel.

Mandel recommends dimming the lights in your home when watching HDR10+ content to make the most of the experience. “HDR10+ works with all the picture modes available on Samsung TVs,” adds Mandel, “and our ‘Movie’ picture mode has been optimized by the picture quality engineering team to deliver colors and cinematic texture as envisaged by the original content creators.” Mandel encourages consumers to look for HDR10+ support when considering their next device, “so that they can be sure they are getting the best HDR viewing opportunity possible.”

HDR10+, along with 8K resolution, stands at the forefront of display technology innovation. “Samsung is committed to continuously expanding the capabilities offered by TV screens,” affirms Mandel. “Through industry collaboration with technology initiatives such as HDR10+ and partners throughout the media ecosystem, we are continuously striving to deliver the best possible viewing experience to consumers now as well as in the future.”