I was intrigued by a recent article on streamingmedia.com that outlines innovations in home entertainment technology that are poised to make a big splash in the months ahead. These changes focus around dynamic range–the ability to express a much wider gamut of color information and luminosity than was possible using previous technologies. HDR expands the range between the brightest and the darkest pixels in a TV set, expanding the contrast to look more like film than video. As a result of this, the colors you see will look noticeably richer and deeper.
HDR technology will first arrive first in the living room, with followups for desktop media and mobile devices poised for arrival later (the article predicts several years for the technology to filter down).
In short, the article argues that 4k TVs aren’t really that big of a deal, and adoption hasn’t been all that great, given that you need to get a really huge TV in order to appreciate the difference between 4k and 1080p. The difference between current standards and HDR, however, is easily apparent.
Unfortunately, the picture is not all roses, as there are a lot of technical standards competing against each other in the implementation of HDR that will fracture the consumer marketplace and force consumers to make choices that necessarily limit their access to content.
For more information you can check out the full article here: http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/HDR-Is-Here-But-Dont-Rush-Out-to-Buy-a-New-TV-Just-Yet-105068.aspx
