What is HDR? High Dynamic Range, Explained

[neeyik]

When choosing your next monitor to buy, it might be worth considering one that offers HDR. Here's our explainer, giving you all the info you need on this amazing technology.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/2631-hdr-explained/

 

[bviktor]

Make 2160p 60 FPS the norm first.

 

[Stingy McDuck]

Auto-HDR isn't such a good option for old games, where in some cases even the bald head of a man can be as bright as a light source. I remember some games even adding bloom to those shiny heads.

 

[Benchsalyst]

HDR, the thing that added not natural halos around illuminated objects in old games. Since that, I don't like HDR, classified that as a suxing marketing.

 

[yRaz]

Hdr , the thing that added not natural halos around illuminated objects in old games . Since that , I dont like hdr , classified that as a suxing marketing .

I have really mixed feelings with HDR. I've essentially passed on it with the opinion, "I'd rather have a stand display that makes everything look good than an HDR display where only some things look good"

I noticed this when watching Blu-rays, a well mastered movie doesn't need HDR. HDR, in my experience, has mostly been used as a short cut to make games look better. Very few of the HDR shows or movies I've watched have taken full advantage of what HDR is made to do. I've even found myself turning off HDR on my display in dark movies. Now, I'll admit it isn't an OLED, it's a samsung QLED with full array local dimming. Something that they don't tell you is that with HDR off, the most a single zone is down to 20% brightness. However, with HDR it lowers it to 3% brightness in a zone but with a limit. When it is displaying HDR content at 3% the brightest something on the screen can be is 25% of max brightness. Now, it's more complicated than just that, Samsung's neural processor adjusts brightness all over the screen so if that max brightness goes higher it makes the rest of the image darker to create the illusion of brightness. This isn't as big of a problem in a dark room as I'm making it sound, but if you have so much as a light on in another room with the door open, dark content can easily become unwatchable.

That said, I absolutely love my Samsung TV but this is something to keep in mind if your TV costs as much as a down payment on a new car.

But going back to HDR, it allows people to be lazy. Instead of making something look good with SDR they add an HDR feature and it looks as if someone made good SDR content. If they put the work into HDR that people use to have to put into SDR then we'd have some really winners. And while Vesa has tried to standardize HDR every display that is "HDR" processes it differently. An HDR OLED has to send brightness data to the pixel where insomething like a MiniLED QLED the processor has to compensate to prevent Blooming around a dimming zone. The output data to each pixel is fundamentally different to whatever panel tech is being use

 

[KofeViR]

HDR is awesome but most people using HDR on a crappy monitor/tv that can't show HDR properly. It's pretty much garbage on LCD and OLEDs needs 1000 nits peak to be able to impress.

 

[KofeViR]

HDR, the thing that added not natural halos around illuminated objects in old games. Since that, I don't like HDR, classified that as a suxing marketing.

Only on LCD dated tech. You need high-end LCD or high-end OLED to take advantage of HDR. Most TVs and monitors claim HDR but can't show it properly.

LCD needs FALD/Mini LED backlight with 1000+ zones
OLED needs 1000 nits peak brightness