Netflix introduces HDR10+ streaming – is your TV ready?

Netflix has finally announced that it now supports HDR10+, a common HDR format found on many smart TVs, especially those from Samsung.

Netflix joins a handful of other streaming services that already support HDR10+, such as Apple TV+ and Prime Video. Disney+ recently announced support for HDR10+ as well. Up until now, Netflix has only supported Dolby Vision and the standard HDR10 format.

To watch HDR10+ content on Netflix, you will need a TV that is compatible with HDR10+ and also supports the AV1 codec, along with having Netflix’s Premium plan. While most smart TVs manufactured in recent years support AV1, if you have an older smart TV, you may need to double-check whether it supports it.

“We continue to enhance member joy while maintaining creative vision by adding support for HDR10+. This will further augment Netflix’s growing HDR ecosystem, preserve creative intent on even more devices, and provide a more immersive viewing experience,” Netflix said in a blog post.

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What is HDR10+?

It’s more accurate than HDR10

Samsung

If you’re not sure what the difference is between HDR10 and HDR10+, you’re not alone. The various HDR formats on smart TVs can indeed be puzzling.

The key distinction between HDR10+ and HDR10 lies in the use of dynamic metadata in HDR10+. This technology adjusts the brightness, colors, and contrast for each scene on a frame-by-frame basis, leading to a more detailed image with colors and brightness that closely reflect the creator’s intentions.

Conversely, HDR10 relies on static metadata, which applies uniform settings for color, contrast, and brightness throughout the entire movie. While the image quality is still appealing, it doesn’t achieve the same level of accuracy as HDR10+.

HDR10+ closely resembles Dolby Vision, which also employs dynamic metadata to adjust values for each frame. Samsung introduced HDR10+ in 2017 as an alternative to Dolby Vision. Since Samsung TVs utilize HDR10+ instead of Dolby Vision, viewers watching Netflix on them were limited to HDR10. This is why Netflix’s announcement today is significant, especially given that Samsung has been the largest TV brand in the world for almost twenty years now. Other brands, like Panasonic, Hisense, and Philips, support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, while LG and Sony smart TVs exclusively support Dolby Vision.

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