Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Google Play sides with team Samsung in the HDR format war

Josh Levenson
By

Designed to rival Dolby Vision, HDR10+ is the brainchild of Samsung, which teamed up with Panasonic and 20th Century Fox to bring it to life. Together, these brands make up an initiative known as HDR10+ Technologies, and it’s this initiative that has announced that HDR10+ will soon expand to Google Play Movies and TV. This means customers will have the option to both download and stream 4K Ultra HD content in HDR10+ through the service.

lg-55-inch-4k-ultra-hd-smart-led-hdr-tv

What’s interesting, though, is that Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are equal in the real-world. Both utilize dynamic metadata to optimize content on a scene-by-scene, or even frame-by-frame basis. So, why was it created? Well, it’s an advancement on HDR10 — one of the first and most basic forms of HDR, which uses static metadata to set the viewing standard for the entire movie instead of optimizing each frame. Alas, it couldn’t rival Dolby Vision.

Recommended Videos

However, Dolby Vision is the more advanced out of the two. It supports up to 68.7 billion colors (12-bit), versus the 1.07 billion (10-bit) that HDR10+ can tap into, and has a peak brightness of 10,000 cd/m². HDR10+, on the other hand, doesn’t exceed 4000 cd/m². Here’s the kicker: There aren’t a whole lot of 4K TVs or even 8K TVs on the market that can stretch above 1000 cd/m², and there certainly isn’t a single one that can render 12-bit color. Sigh.

Related

As it stands, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ are pretty evenly matched — for now, at least. But this isn’t something Google Play Movies & TV viewers need to worry about, seeing as it doesn’t support Dolby Vision (though it’s said to be working on adding it in the not-too-distant future). So the fact of the matter is, HDR10+ is going to mark a massive improvement in viewing when it arrives on the service in the coming months, if not weeks.

This news comes after Vizio announced that it will be arming its 4K TVs with HDR10+ out of the box moving forward, starting with the new Vizio P-Series Quantum X, Vizio P-Series Quantum, Vizio M-Series Quantum, and Vizio V-Series.

Follow our live blog for more CES news and announcements.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Josh Levenson
Josh Levenson
Having spent half a decade writing about the latest AV, mobile and social news for some of the world’s largest…
2018 TVs from Samsung, Panasonic are getting HDR10+ via firmware updates
SAMSUNG-Q9FN

As it currently stands, there are two major high dynamic range (HDR) technologies: HDR10 and Dolby Vision. While many TV manufacturers support both, some like Samsung and Panasonic have left out support for Dolby Vision. TVs from both manufacturers still display HDR just fine, but Dolby Vision offers a few things that HDR10 doesn't, including per-frame metadata. Now, TVs from both Samsung and Panasonic are catching up in a big way, thanks to a firmware update that brings a new HDR technology called HDR10+.

As the name implies, HDR10+ builds on HDR10 by adding dynamic metadata to each frame, which lets the TV adapt the picture on a per-frame basis, making for an even more life-like picture. Among other things, this fixes a potential problem with standard HDR10 where night scenes can end up looking too dark. Dolby Vision still has some advantages -- it supports 12-bit color while HDR10+ only supports 10-bit, for example -- but HDR10+ also has the advantage of being royalty free, while Dolby Vision is not.

Read more
Google Play Movies & TV gets new features and a fresh coat of paint on Roku
walmart back to college sale best streaming devices roku ultra

If you're the proud owner of a Roku streaming device or a Roku TV and use the Google Play Movies & TV channel, you might have noticed it's starting to feel a little long in the tooth. That's all about to change, as on Thursday, May 24, Google announced that the Google Play Movies & TV Roku channel is receiving a major update to breathe new life into it.

One of the first things you'll notice about the updated Roku channel (on any other platform, it would be called an app) is that Google Play Movies & TV now has a fresher, more modern look. This isn't just a new coat of paint, though. The user interface as a whole has been overhauled to make navigation easier and simpler, with a focus on helping you find what you want to watch quickly.

Read more
Google’s Play Movies and TV app tells you where to stream your shows
Google fix cheeseburger emoji

Play Movies & TV: Searching to Streaming in Seconds

There was a time when you either watched something on a physical disc, or you streamed it through one of the very few services available. There was a choice, but it was also easier to keep track of. Now with so many streaming services available, it can be tough to figure out where a show is streaming. Google is looking to make that easier with a major update to its Play Movies and TV app for Android that shows you where you can stream the show or movie of your choice.

Read more