Netflix announced that it is adding support for HDR10+ streaming, in addition to the existing HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats, which already offer streaming services. HDR10+ should provide greater visual fidelity based on Netflix’s often darker original programming.
The company is enabling HDR10+ using an AV1 codec, which was originally released in 2018 and has gradually become the standard for streaming 4K video without swallowing data. Netflix first adopted AV1 as a way to help customers save data while watching on their phones, but compression technology can also be used to stream large HDR files. Netflix can now enable HDR10+ on some popular titles and hopes to eventually deliver all HDR content in the new format. Anyone with a Netflix Premium subscription and devices that support HDR10+ and AV1 (including most modern phones and tablets) should be able to watch compatible content in HDR10+.
After 4K, high dynamic range (HDR) defines the look of modern TV and movies, especially on streaming. The HDR content clearly indicates the huge difference between the light and dark parts of the image. Modern streaming TVs have underexposed, muddy quality is often due to the expectation that viewers will watch on HDR-enabled devices. Without it, you can’t see anything. With it you can pick up all the various shades of gray that have become the norm for Prestige TV.
Netflix first launched HDR support in 2016 Marco Polothe most common HDR formats have provided services that support Dolby Vision and HDR10 in the years since. If you’ve been watching Netflix on a monitor that already uses Dolby Vision, you probably won’t notice the difference, but if you only offer HDR10+, you’ve added support for the format, which should make watching everything better.
