HDR TV Formats Explained

Nearly all new TVs and projectors have the ability to decode HDR, or high dynamic range, video. In most cases, HDR content looks better than non-HDR material, though an individual display's ability to deal with the extra data can vary greatly. There are multiple HDR formats, including Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision 2, HDR10, HDR10 Plus and HLG. Most displays can only decode one or two of these. Likewise, streaming services and 4K Blu-rays typically offer only one or two.

Fortunately, all HDR displays can play HDR content -- just not always in the best format available. Here's what to keep in mind when shopping for a new TV or deciding which streaming service to use for a movie or show.

The basics

These images attempt to illustrate, on your standard dynamic range screen, what HDR can do on HDR displays. The top left shows how the image appears on an SDR display, tuned so the shadows are visible. Notice how the highlights in the clouds are "blown out," meaning they lack detail. The upper right shows the HDR version with detail preserved in the clouds. The lower left shows the same image adjusted to preserve the highlights, which causes the shadows to disappear. HDR displays showing HDR content have a wider dynamic range -- the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image. HDR10plus.org

In CNET's TV and projector reviews, we've found that both the capabilities of the TV itself and the way HDR is used in the movie or TV show have a greater impact on image quality than the specific HDR format. In other words, just because a display supports a "better" HDR format doesn't mean it will look better than one that doesn't. Here's a tour of the HDR landscape today.

Everything supports HDR10, but many TVs and sources will also have at least one of the other formats.

Dolby Vision and HDR10 Plus can look better in specific ways compared to HDR10. All will look better than non-HDR, standard dynamic range content.

One format might look "better" than another on paper, but in the real world, image quality depends far more on the TV's overall performance and how the content was made.

Most new TVs can display HDR content, which preserves more detail in both bright and dark areas of an image, creating a greater "dynamic range" than non-HDR content (i.e., pretty much everything you've ever watched). That older format is now called SDR, or standard dynamic range. On an HDR TV, HDR content can look far more punchy and vibrant than traditional video.