Amazon to launch 100 HDR10+ titles for the Samsung TV on December 13

By Kris Wouk Updated December 12, 2017

Earlier this year, Amazon and Samsung partnered to announce HDR10+, a new High Dynamic Range (HDR) video format that built on the original HDR10, offering features more similar to the competing Dolby Vision. Now Samsung TV owners will finally get a chance to see the new format, with around 100 titles coming to Amazon Prime Video, according to Yonhap News.

You won’t have to wait long either, with the titles scheduled to arrive on the service on December 13. The full list of titles isn’t yet available, but a number of high-profile Amazon titles including The Grand Tour, The Tick, and The Man in the High Castle are reported to be among those adding HDR10+ support. Amazon plans to add more titles in the future.

Recommended Videos

The original HDR10 standard uses simple metadata that only allows brightness to be set for an entire video. Dolby Vision, on the other hand, allowed for metadata on a per-scene or even per-frame basis, meaning that brightness and other video details could be adjusted for the best results throughout and entire show. HDR10+ adds Dynamic Tone Mapping, allowing for adjusting metadata per scene or per frame, just like Dolby Vision. Unlike Dolby Vision, though, HDR10+ is an open standard, meaning TV manufacturers don’t have to pay to license it.

Samsung says that all of its 2017 UHD TVs, including its premium QLED TVs, support the new HDR10+ standard. There’s good news if you bought a Samsung TV last year, too, as Samsung’s 2016 UHD TVs got support for HDR10+ via a firmware update released over the summer.

When it comes to content, Amazon Video is the first major video service to provide HDR10+ programming. Samsung has also partnered with MulticoreWare to integrate HDR10+ into the x265 High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) codec, which is used in many commercial encoding systems, making it easier for video providers to offer the new standard. The Netflix senior product manager of its partner ecosystem, Richard Smith, recently told TechRadar that the service would possibly be open to supporting HDR10+ in the future, but this is not currently planned.

HDR10+ is far from the only HDR standard available, so if you’re feeling a little confused, we’ve taken a look at the various formats and how they compare to each other.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Computing

Samsung’s forgotten HDR gaming format is finally here after two years

Hogwarts Legacy running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

Better late than never. Samsung has just announced that The First Descendant will be the inaugural title to support the HDR10+ Gaming standard. Although it's been two years since Samsung initially introduced HDR10+ Gaming, and there are already devices that support it, it took this long for the first HDR10+ game to arrive. Here's what we know.

The First Descendant is going to be a free-to-play game. Developed by Nexon, this is a third-person shooter that's set to begin its open beta on September 19. While the HDR10+ standard isn't strictly a PC feature, it's looking like the game will support it on PCs first, or maybe even exclusively. The game is going to be available on a wide range of platforms, though, including the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X/S, so it's possible that these consoles might also expand to allow HDR10+ at some point.

Audio / Video

Amazon celebrates 200 million Fire TV devices by launching more

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Series TV.

Amazon today announced that it's bolstering the high end of its Fire TV Omni Series line of televisions with new sizes and entry into new international markets, while also bringing new sets to the more affordable side of the equation. And the news comes as the company also announced that it's sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices worldwide. For context, that number was around 150 million in January 2022.

First up: The — heretofore available in 65- and 75-inch sizes — gains options at 43, 50 and 55 inches. They're up for preorder at Amazon starting today (at $449, $529, and $599, respectively), and will be available at Best Buy on May 11. These are fundamentally the same as what we reviewed previously, Amazon says, only with fewer local dimming zones because of the smaller size.

Audio / Video

What is Dolby Vision? The dynamic HDR format fully explained

A split-screen example of Dolby Vision vs. SDR.

Of all the new TV technologies to emerge over the last few years, it's arguable that none has had as big an impact on overall picture quality as High Dynamic Range, or HDR. When properly implemented, HDR makes everything pop, while enhancing details and improving color. We think it has been more impactful than the move from Full HD (1080p) to 4K Ultra HD or even 8K resolution.

But not all HDR is created equal; in fact, HDR is a catch-all term that refers to several distinct and competing technologies. The one with the biggest brand recognition is Dolby Vision. Dolby Labs has done such a good job of marketing Dolby Vision as its own platform, many consumers aren't even aware that it's an HDR format. That shouldn't be a surprise: TVs that have Dolby Vision technology are often labeled as "4K HDR TV with Dolby Vision," making it seem as though HDR and Dolby Vision are different things.