Building the HDR Economy Nit by Nit

UHD has been touted as the de facto format. While Ultra HD 4K TV shipments are exceeding initial estimates, UHD has yet to captivate Hollywood as a format that delivers a highly differentiated experience. This is evident by the limited number of new releases in the UHD format. HDR is widely considered to be a much better viewing experience. — However, CE manufacturers and distributors see the UHD format as compelling to drive new TV sets and launch new services. As such, the entertainment industry can ill afford to ignore UHD. Some level of UHD format support is necessary to continue to drive consumer excitement and momentum while preparing for HDR. To address near term demand for UHD, the optimal experience at acceptable bitrates to support today's networks and bandwidth is dependent on the relationship between the source material, size of the master file and the quality of output in the transcoding process. — While HDR provides a never before seen increase in contrast, color and luminance across all screens, the pace in which content will roll-out is dependent on several factors: HDR projector footprint to drive theatrical; HDR TV deployments to drive HDR live sports broadcasting, followed by TV episodics and then movies. Add to this other factors such as market confusion around the various 4K/UHD/HDR “brands”, lack of standards, and new business models grounded in outsource vs. internal investments, building the HDR economy will be nit by nit and not a wholesale roll-out.

Published

2015-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

4K, Ultra HD, UHD, High Dynamic Range, HDR

DOI

10.5594/M001649

ISBN

978-1-61482-956-0