A brief analysis of the amazing role HDR technology plays in the display industry!

HDR, one of the hottest technologies in the display industry, boasts the ability to enhance image quality perceptibly to the human eye. Monitors equipped with HDR technology are essential for designers, video creators, and esports players.

What is HDR?

HDR, which stands for High Dynamic Range Imaging, primarily enhances visual fidelity by improving a display's color processing capabilities, making images appear more realistic.

Compared to standard dynamic range (SDR), HDR captures colors in bright areas while preserving details in darker areas. Similarly, higher brightness allows these bright areas to stand out from the rest of the image, resulting in better contrast, accuracy, and vibrant colors.

Categories of HDR Standards

For displays, there are different HDR standards, including HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG. While all aim to produce more realistic images, they have different requirements, specifications, and properties.

1. HDR10

HDR10 was the first standard to enter the market in 2015. Developed by the Consumer Technology Association, it is completely open and free. It provides displays with metadata describing the brightness and color levels of specific content. Due to its long-standing first-mover advantage and relatively low technical requirements, HDR10 has become a benchmark standard for displays and content.

2. HDR10+

The HDR10+ adaptive standard uses sensors to detect the ambient light in a room and adjust the display's image settings accordingly. It can be considered an incremental update to the HDR10 standard, with the main difference being that HDR10+ includes support for dynamic metadata.

3. Dolby Vision

Dolby Vision is currently the highest standard format for HDR, capable of displaying 12-bit color depth and supporting brightness up to 400 nits, resulting in images with greater detail and depth.

4. HLG

HLG is a free HDR standard developed specifically to address the limitations of broadcast television. Unlike other standards, HLG doesn't rely on metadata to communicate with displays. Instead, it implements HDR using a combination of traditional gamma and an additional logarithmic curve embedded in the content itself.

HDR Standard Certification Levels

We often see DisplayHDR certification logos on displays, such as DisplayHDR400, DisplayHDR600, or DisplayHDR1000. What do these mean? They are, in fact, HDR format certification specifications specifically developed by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) for displays.

VESA is an international non-profit corporation comprised of over 200 companies worldwide that develops and maintains technical standards for various displays. They have developed two certification specifications, DisplayHDR and DisplayHDR True Black, to ensure that HDR content is displayed vividly and accurately with accurate color and contrast reproduction.

DisplayHDR True Black is a standalone standard with a brightness range of 400 to 600 nits. It is suitable for self-emissive display technologies—including organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and future microLED displays—and can provide a wider dynamic range for a superior visual experience.

DisplayHDR is categorized into multiple levels, including DisplayHDR 400, DisplayHDR 600, and DisplayHDR 1000, based on characteristics such as brightness, color gamut, color depth, and rise time. Generally speaking, DisplayHDR requires a display panel with 8-bit color depth, and different levels have different requirements for parameters such as center screen brightness and color gamut coverage.

DisplayHDR 400 requires 400 nits of brightness and 95% coverage of the ITU-R BT.709 (sRGB) color gamut;

DisplayHDR 600 requires 600 nits of brightness, 99% coverage of ITU-R BT.709 (sRGB), and 90% coverage of the DCI-P3 65 color gamut;

DisplayHDR 1000 builds on DisplayHDR 600 by increasing the screen brightness requirement to 1000 nits.

Monitors that support the DisplayHDR standard are also compatible with HDR10 formats. Considering that most HDR videos and games currently support HDR10, it's important to consider the DisplayHDR standard when purchasing a monitor.