You haven’t experienced breathtaking home theater visuals until you’ve watched a movie or played a video game in HDR (High Dynamic Range). HDR is a display technology that uses metadata to help your TV optimize brightness, colors and contrast. Compared to standard dynamic range (SDR), HDR can provide a more vibrant and impactful image, but there are several HDR formats on the market. The leading format is HDR10, a video standard that uses static metadata to tell your TV how to display a movie, show, or video game.
If you’ve ever heard of HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, these are the other two common HDR formats that use dynamic metadata to communicate with your TV. Generally speaking, Dolby Vision is more widely supported by TV manufacturers and also used more frequently by content creators, but HDR10+ is just as capable of delivering bright, colorful picture quality. It is also the only dynamic HDR format supported by Samsung TVs.
If you’re wondering whether Dolby Vision or HDR10+ is better for your home theater, the answer largely depends on the TV you own, the AV components you use, and the apps you stream from. If all you care about is broad hardware and software support, Dolby Vision tends to be the gold standard. Not only is the format supported by popular streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max, but it is also supported by many brands of TVs, 4K Blu-ray players and Xbox consoles.
Dolby Vision is much more universal and offers a few additional tools for content creators
Major smart TV brands like LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL rely entirely on Dolby Vision. The format actually has two main versions that content creators can work with: Dolby Vision Profile 5, which is primarily used for streaming, and Dolby Vision Profile 7, which is used by 4K Blu-rays. Some 4K Blu-rays even contain a Full Enhancement Layer (FEL) that allows some TVs to process and downsample 12-bit video for smoother colors.
When you break things down, HDR10+ isn’t that different from Dolby Vision, but the format doesn’t have use case profiles and doesn’t support manual adjustments to its metadata. While this isn’t necessarily a problem, colorists using Dolby Vision are able to change tone mapping settings, allowing some TVs to deliver stronger black levels and richer colors. HDR10+ also doesn’t enter FEL territory, meaning you’ll still be working with 10-bit color data.
Are there any benefits to HDR10+? Not really. The only advantage we can think of is that TV and AV brands are not liable for licensing fees when using HDR10+, as they are with Dolby Vision. The royalty-free approach is a large part of why Samsung kept this format. Of course, this matters less to the consumer than it does to the TV manufacturer or content provider.
Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are better than HDR10
The gap between classic HDR10 and Dolby Vision or HDR10+ is much greater than the difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Most of this comes down to static or dynamic metadata. Static and dynamic metadata are how often the HDR format provides visual instructions to your TV. Static metadata does this once at the start of your movie, show, or game, while dynamic metadata can be processed scene by scene, or even frame by frame. Both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are dynamic, meaning either format looks better than HDR10.
But ultimately, what matters even more than which HDR formats are supported is the quality of your TV. A bright and colorful Mini LED flagship displaying regular HDR10 support can easily look better than a mid-range LED TV with Dolby Vision support, as the former relies more on panel technology and native image processing than the latter. It’s also worth mentioning that HDR isn’t always pushed to its limits by content creators, so some movies, shows, and games may not look much different in HDR than they do in SDR.
One thing’s for sure: if you’re buying a brand new TV, HDR compatibility is something to start thinking about. When it comes to visual bravura, there really is nothing like it, so prepare yourself for the best experience possible. Make sure HDR is enabled on all your home theater technology, and don’t be afraid to experiment with the TV’s picture settings when watching or playing HDR content.
