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HDR has quickly become one of the most marketed features on displays of all shapes and sizes—from mobile screens to TVs. However, new HDR variants and implementations keep showing up from time to time, which can make it confusing to figure out what you’re buying.
HDR10+ is one of the latest versions, building upon the promise of HDR10 and aiming to provide even better visuals… but what exactly does that mean?
What Is HDR10+?
Developed in partnership by 20th Century Fox, Panasonic, and Samsung, HDR10+ first launched in 2017. It builds upon the same feature set as HDR10 but makes two important improvements.
First, it increases the maximum brightness to 10,000 lumens. This means you get far better contrast as there’s more brightness for the display panel to play around with.
Samsung has taken this one step further by implementing HDR10+ Adaptive tech in its TVs, allowing them to detect the viewing space’s brightness and make changes to the TV’s brightness, contrast, and, more accordingly, for the best possible viewing experience regardless of the lighting around you.
Second, HDR10+ improves information handling by carrying “dynamic” metadata. Previously, HDR10 carried “static” metadata for content. This meant that there was only one set of values like brightness, contrast, saturation, and more for an entire piece of content. So while this metadata might work for most of a movie, some scenes would appear too dark, too bright, or oversaturated.
Dynamic metadata means the format now carries metadata for each specific frame. It keeps changing display values as the content plays out, giving each frame its own set of color, brightness, and contrast values, among other things. This makes each frame look much more realistic and detailed, with accurate colors and lighting.
These changes combined ensure that you get the best possible color accuracy and dynamic range from your content. Other benefits of HDR10+ include support for 8K resolution and up to a 16-bit signal, allowing for a staggering ~280 trillion colors. TheHDR10+ whitepaper[PDF] is a great place to start if you’re looking to get into the serious technical details.
This also applies to the gaming industry, alongside benefits like no impact on game performance, better visuals (and hence higher immersion), and easy implementation as well as optimization.
What Do You Need to Get HDR10+?
As is the case with any other HDR format, you need a couple of things to view HDR10+-enabled content:
While TVs remain the mainstay for HDR10+, the technology is starting to become more accessible in other devices, such as smartphones and laptops. Most flagship phones, including the Samsung S24 Ultra, Google Pixel 8/8Pro, and even the Xiaomi 13T Pro, support HDR10+. Presently, the iPhone 15 Pro/Plus only supports HDR10.
Nvidia has also partnered with HDR10+ to bring support for the format using its GeForce RTX line of graphics cards. However, on a PC, you will need to have a compatible display from the likes of Alienware, Benq, Dell, and Lenovo. HDR10+ adoption is rising, so expect this list to grow. Currently, the format has been adopted by over 150 adopters.
For laptops, expect flagship machines from the companies mentioned above to have compatible displays, but unless specified otherwise, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with an HDR10 panel anyway.
TheHDR10+ websitehas a complete list of certified products you’re able to check to ensure the device you’re planning to buy supports the format. That said, finding a device in that list can be a tiring task considering it’s 972 pages of serial codes, but at least you have the option.
Is HDR10+ Better Than Dolby Vision?
If you look at the spec sheet, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are practically the same, with the exception that Dolby Vision can only use 12-bit signals for a maximum of over 68 billion colors. Practically speaking, you’ll need superhuman eyes to tell a difference.
That said, Dolby Vision is currently the more popular format of the two, likely because it’s been on the market for four more years (launching in 2014). It has received multiple updates since then, making it into the format it is today, and consequently, it has won a large chunk of the market in the process.
Thankfully, we’re not being tugged into another format war here. Unlike previous conflicts in the video industry like Blu-ray versus HD-DVD, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision aren’t mutually exclusive. This means that a display manufacturer can support both formats at once providing maximum compatibility to the user.
Generally speaking, it’s pretty easy to find a combination of HDR10 and Dolby Vision on a lot of consumer TVs today, with HLG also thrown into the mix. Not sure about HLG? We’ve previously looked athow HLG, HDR10, and Dolby Vision compareand why HLG is preferred by some broadcasters.
Dolby Vision
Maximum Brightness
Up to 10,000 nits
Color Depth
Up to 16-bit (280 trillion colors)
Up to 12-bit (68.7 billion colors)
Resolution Support
Dynamic Metadata
Yes, per-frame
Static Metadata
Backward Compatibility
HDR10, SDR
HDR10, HLG, SDR
Year Introduced
However, while it’s relatively easy to support different HDR formats, very few manufacturers actually do. So it’s always a good idea tocheck a product’s specifications and supported HDR formatsbefore buying a new monitor, TV, or otherwise..
HDR10+ sources work the same way. For example, streaming services like Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV can support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. You can also find it on streaming devices from Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and even Google Chromecast. Even Unreal Engine natively supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision (alongside Dolby Atmos), and there areother ways you can find HDR content.
Regardless, with a little bit of reading the fine print, you should be able to put together a setup that greatly enhances your viewing experience. Since you don’t necessarily have to choose between the two formats, you also have a wide variety of sources and hardware to choose from.
