The technology for optimizing the contrast ratio of the screen, i.e. ‘High Dynamic Range (HDR),’ is forecast to establish itself as the performance standard for next-generation TVs this year. It results from TV manufacturers’ efforts to break out of the competition for resolution and pixels and compete for picture quality with the quality of the screen itself.

Over the years HDR has been used to compensate the contrast ratio when still images are shot with a camera. This technology has been used to make what is bright brighter and what is dark darker to get the best screen. As the UHD TV and 4K (3840×2160) contents are widespread, however, researches have been done to apply this technology to video too, and an increasing number of TV manufacturers are adopting the HDR technology starting this year.

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<The SUHD TV, released by Samsung Electronics in 2015, is the first Samsung TV to apply the HDR technology. / Electronic Times DB>

Samsung Electronics applied HDR first to the new SUHD TV this year, and LG Electronics also added it to its OLED TV. Kim Hyeon-seok, head of the Visual Display (VD) Business Division of Samsung Electronics (CEO) introduced the SUHD TV at CES 2015, and said, “We applied HDR to meet the picture quality standard of the SUHD TV,” emphasizing that HDR is an important technology for implementing high definition.

Foreign manufacturers are also active in applying the HDR technology. Sony added the HDR technology called ‘X Dynamic Range Pro’ to the X930 and X940C scheduled to be released. Panasonic put the HDR function not only in its TVs, but also the prototype of the 4K Blueray player it introduced for the first time in the world so that HDR can be applied from the video signal supply stage. China’s Hisense and TCL also made HDR one of the basic functions of the UHD TV.

In particular, latecomers are adopting ‘Dolby Vision’ as the solution for implementing HDR. They intend to apply this technology, introduced last year, from the TV manufacturing stage so that they can implement HDR more easily. Hisense, TCL, TP Vision (formerly Philips) and Toshiba will release TVs with Dolby Vision starting this year. As a number of contents, such as movies to which Dolby Vision has been applied, are produced, it is expected to be popularized.

The industry forecasts that HDR will become one of the main features of the TV market in 2015. Aside from its conventional use, i.e. controlling the brightness (local dimming) of the display with HDR, this technology is expected to be spread to various other areas, including production and transmission of contents and compressed decoding. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), MPEG, DVB and ATSC are planning to establish standards by 2017~2018.

“HDR can be implemented not only in displays, but also in production and transmission of contents,” said a broadcasting and media industry researcher. “As development and standardization of related technologies are discussed around the world, it will become the main current in TV and contents production.”