To understand HDR, we first have to look at what it replaced: Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). SDR was built on the limitations of the old Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) televisions.

These heavy, flickering boxes could only get so bright and could only display a tiny fraction of the colors the human eye can see. HDR removes those handcuffs.

• Higher Peak Brightness (The Specular Highlights)

In the real world, light is intense. When the sun reflects off the chrome bumper of a car or a laser beam cuts through a dark room, that light is incredibly bright. SDR content “clips” these highlights, turning a brilliant reflection into a flat, gray blob. HDR allows a TV to hit much higher levels of brightness in small areas, known as specular highlights, making the image look three-dimensional and “real.”

• Infinite Contrast and Shadow Detail

Contrast is the difference between the darkest part of an image and the brightest. Because HDR can push highlights higher and (on technologies like OLED) keep blacks perfectly dark, the “dynamic range” expands significantly. This isn’t just about brightness; it’s about seeing the texture in a black leather jacket during a night scene—details that would simply vanish into a “crushed” black mess in SDR.

• Wide Color Gamut (WCG)

HDR almost always travels with its best friend, Wide Color Gamut. While SDR is limited to a color space called Rec. 709, HDR content is mastered in the much larger DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020 color spaces. This allows for deeper reds, more electric greens, and millions of shades of purple and gold that simply cannot be reproduced on an older TV.

The Bit-Depth War: 8-bit vs. 10-bit vs. 12-bit

One of the most complex parts of HDR is Bit Depth. This refers to how much data is used to describe the color of each pixel.

• 8-bit (SDR): Provides 256 shades per color (Red, Green, Blue), resulting in roughly 16.7 million possible colors. In a clear blue sky, you’ll often see “banding”—ugly, stair-step lines where the TV ran out of shades to make a smooth transition.
• 10-bit (HDR10 / HDR10+): Provides 1,024 shades per color, or about 1.07 billion colors. This virtually eliminates banding for most viewers.
• 12-bit (Dolby Vision): Provides 4,096 shades per color, or a staggering 68 billion colors. While no consumer TV today can natively display a “true” 12-bit image, the extra data allows the TV to process the image more accurately, preventing errors before they reach your eyes.

Understanding Metadata: The Instructions for Your TV

Think of HDR content like a complex recipe. To cook it correctly, your TV needs an instruction manual. These instructions are called Metadata. Metadata tells the TV how bright the master was, what the color limits were, and how it should adjust its own backlight to match the filmmaker’s intent. There are two main types:

Static Metadata (The “One-Size-Fits-All” Approach)

Used by the baseline HDR10 standard, static metadata provides one set of instructions for the entire movie. It tells the TV the brightness of the single brightest pixel in the whole film. The Problem: If a movie has one scene in a bright desert and another in a dark basement, the TV has to find a “middle ground” setting for both. This often results in the dark scenes looking too dark or the bright scenes looking washed out.

Dynamic Metadata (The “Frame-by-Frame” Approach)

Used by Dolby Vision and HDR10+, dynamic metadata provides instructions for every single scene—or even every single frame. As the scene changes from a dark cave to a bright meadow, the TV receives new instructions to adjust its contrast and brightness on the fly. This ensures that every shot looks exactly as the director intended.

The Format Breakdown: HDR10, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HLG

Now that you’re an expert in nits, bits, and metadata, let’s look at the actual formats you’ll see on your 4K Blu-ray boxes and streaming menus.

HDR10: The Universal Baseline

HDR10 is the “floor” of the industry. It is an open, royalty-free standard, which means any manufacturer can use it without paying a cent to a licensing body.

• Metadata: Static.
• Bit Depth: 10-bit.
• Pros: It is supported by every HDR-capable TV, console, and streaming box on the planet. If you see an “HDR” logo, it includes HDR10.
• Cons: Because it uses static metadata, it doesn’t look as refined as the premium formats, especially on mid-range or budget TVs that struggle with high brightness

Dolby Vision: The Master Class

Developed by Dolby Laboratories, this is the premium “gold standard” of HDR. It is a proprietary format, meaning TV manufacturers (like Sony, LG, and TCL) must pay Dolby a licensing fee to use it.

• Metadata: Dynamic (Frame-by-frame).
• Bit Depth: Supports up to 12-bit.
• Pros: It offers the most accurate picture. Because Dolby works with the Hollywood studios from the filming stage to the final playback, the “Dolby Vision” logo is a guarantee of cinematic quality. It also features Dolby Vision IQ, which uses the TV’s light sensor to adjust the picture based on how bright your room is.
• Cons: Samsung, the world’s largest TV manufacturer, refuses to support it (to avoid the licensing fees), opting for HDR10+ instead.

HDR10+: The Open Challenger

Led primarily by Samsung, Panasonic, and Amazon, HDR10+ was created to provide the benefits of dynamic metadata (like Dolby Vision) without the licensing costs.

• Metadata: Dynamic.
• Bit Depth: 10-bit.
• Pros: It’s “free” for manufacturers and offers a significant upgrade over standard HDR10. It is the primary high-end format on Samsung TVs.
• Cons: Content support is thinner than Dolby Vision. While Amazon Prime Video is a big supporter, giants like Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+ have largely sided with Dolby Vision.

HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma): The Broadcast Bridge

Co-developed by the BBC and NHK, HLG is a unique beast. It was designed for live television broadcasting (like sports or the news).

How it works: Unlike other formats, HLG doesn’t use metadata. Instead, it “bakes” the HDR and SDR signals together into one stream. An old SDR TV will see a normal picture, while a new HDR TV will see the extra brightness and color.

• Pros: It’s royalty-free and much easier for broadcasters to send over satellite or cable.

Tone Mapping: The Art of the “Squeeze”

One of the most misunderstood concepts in A/V is Tone Mapping. Imagine a movie is mastered on a professional monitor that can hit 4,000 nits. Now, imagine you are watching it on a mid-range TV that can only hit 600 nits. How does the TV fit that “big” signal into its “small” capabilities?

Your TV has to perform a mathematical “squeeze.” A bad TV will simply “clip” the brightness, turning everything above 600 nits into solid white. A great TV with good tone mapping will intelligently lower the brightness of the whole scene while preserving the relative difference between light and shadow, so you still see the individual clouds in a bright sky. This is where the processing power of brands like Sony and LG really shines.

The Hardware: Which TV Tech Does HDR Best?

Not all screens are created equal when it comes to HDR. Your choice of display technology fundamentally changes the HDR experience.

OLED: The King of Contrast

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is unique because each individual pixel is its own light source. When a pixel needs to be black, it simply turns off. This gives OLED “infinite” contrast. In HDR, this means a tiny star against the blackness of space can be dazzlingly bright without any “halo” or “glow” around it.

The Trade-off: OLEDs generally aren’t as bright as LED TVs. Most top out around 1,000–1,500 nits.

Mini-LED: The King of Brightness

Mini-LED TVs use thousands of tiny backlights behind an LCD panel. They can get incredibly bright (sometimes over 3,000 nits), making them ideal for living rooms with lots of windows.

The Trade-off: Even with thousands of dimming zones, you may still see some “blooming” (light leaking from bright objects into dark areas) compared to the pixel-perfect control of OLED.

Buying Advice: Which Formats Should You Care About?

As we head through 2025, here is my expert recommendation for your next purchase:

Don’t worry about HDR10: Every TV has it. It’s the baseline.

• Aim for Dolby Vision: If you watch a lot of Netflix, Disney+, or 4K Blu-rays, Dolby Vision is a game-changer. It takes the guesswork out of calibration and ensures you’re seeing the “director’s cut” of every frame.
• The Samsung Dilemma: If you buy a Samsung TV, you won’t get Dolby Vision. You’ll get HDR10+. While Amazon Prime Video looks great in HDR10+, you’ll be missing out on the optimal versions of most other streaming content. If you are a cinema purist, this is a major factor.
• Gaming Matters: If you’re a gamer, look for HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group) support. It’s not a format like Dolby Vision, but a set of guidelines that ensures your console and your TV are “talking” correctly to avoid over-brightening your games.

Conclusion: Better Pixels are the Future

HDR is more than just a marketing buzzword; it is a fundamental shift in how we perceive digital stories. It brings back the depth, the texture, and the raw power of light that was lost in the SDR era. Whether you choose the universal compatibility of HDR10, the premium precision of Dolby Vision, or the open accessibility of HDR10+, you are stepping into a world where your television is no longer a window into a flat, digital world — it’s a window into reality.

At TelevisionCafe.com, we always say: once you’ve seen a properly mastered Dolby Vision film on a high-end OLED, there is no going back. The pixels aren’t just more numerous—they’re finally alive.