Samsung have announced a new partnership that’ll see them work alongside Amazon in an effort to popularize and standardize a new version of HDR called HDR10+.The two companies say that HDR10+ will improve on its predecessor by
leveraging dynamic metadata to produce enhanced contrast and colors on
an expanded range of televisions.
Put more plainly, it sounds like it’ll allow HDR to add more of what
it already does by allowing content to be optimized on a scene-by-scene
or even frame-by-frame basis.
“As an advanced HDR10 technology, HDR10+ offers an unparalleled HDR
viewing experience – vivid picture, better contrast and accurate colors –
that brings HDR video to life,” said Kyoungwon Lim, Vice President of
Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics.
“We’re excited to work with world-class industry partners, including
Amazon Video, to bring more amazing HDR content directly to our 2017 UHD
TVs, including our QLED TV lineup.”
While HDR has been quickly hailed as the next big step forward for
picture quality (at least until the jump to 8K arrives), it’s quickly
become a crowded field with plenty of competing formats. There’s generic
HDR, HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG and now HDR10+.
It remains to be seen which format of HDR will emerge dominant but
this new partnership has the potential to tilt the odds unfavorably away
from LG who have put Dolby Vision front-and-center when it comes to
their OLED range.
Samsung say that their 2017 range of premium QLED and UHD TV ranges
are pre-built to support the new standard and that their 2016 offering
will receive support for the format later in the year through a software
update.
All of Samsung’s 2017 UHD TVs, including its premium QLED TV lineup,
support HDR10+. In the second half of this year, Samsung’s 2016 UHD TVs
will gain HDR10+ support through a firmware update.
Amazon’s Vice President of Amazon Video Greg Hart was no less excited about the partnership.
He says that “together with Samsung, we are excited to offer
customers an enhanced viewing experience on a broad range of devices.”
“At Amazon, we are constantly innovating on behalf of customers and
are thrilled to be the first streaming service provider to work with
Samsung to make HDR10+ available on Prime Video globally later this
year.”
