Samsung have announced a new partnership that’ll see them work alongside Amazon in an effort to popularize and standardize a new version of HDR called HDR10+.
The two companies say that HDR10+ will improve on its predecessor by leveraging dynamic metadata to produce enhanced contrast and colors on an expanded range of televisions.
Put more plainly, it sounds like it’ll allow HDR to add more of what it already does by allowing content to be optimized on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis.
“As an advanced HDR10 technology, HDR10+ offers an unparalleled HDR viewing experience — vivid picture, better contrast and accurate colors — that brings HDR video to life,” said Kyoungwon Lim, Vice President of Visual Display Division at Samsung Electronics.
“We’re excited to work with world-class industry partners, including Amazon Video, to bring more amazing HDR content directly to our 2017 UHD TVs, including our QLED TV lineup.”
While HDR has been quickly hailed as the next big step forward for picture quality (at least until the jump to 8K arrives), it’s quickly become a crowded field with plenty of competing formats. There’s generic HDR, HDR10, Dolby Vision, HLG and now HDR10+.
It remains to be seen which format of HDR will emerge dominant but this new partnership has the potential to tilt the odds unfavorably away from LG who have put Dolby Vision front-and-center when it comes to their OLED range.
Samsung say that their 2017 range of premium QLED and UHD TV ranges are pre-built to support the new standard and that their 2016 offering will receive support for the format later in the year through a software update.
All of Samsung’s 2017 UHD TVs, including its premium QLED TV lineup, support HDR10+. In the second half of this year, Samsung’s 2016 UHD TVs will gain HDR10+ support through a firmware update.
Amazon’s Vice President of Amazon Video Greg Hart was no less excited about the partnership.
He says that “together with Samsung, we are excited to offer customers an enhanced viewing experience on a broad range of devices.”
“At Amazon, we are constantly innovating on behalf of customers and are thrilled to be the first streaming service provider to work with Samsung to make HDR10+ available on Prime Video globally later this year.”
