Netflix expands HDR support with HDR10+

[Karlston]

Before, Netflix users could only stream HDR titles in Dolby Vision or HDR10.

A scene from the Netflix original movie The Electric State.

Credit: Netflix

 

Netflix announced today that it has started offering HDR movies and shows in the HDR10+ format.

 

Since December 2014, when season 1 of Marco Polo debuted, Netflix has supported the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats. Like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ is a more advanced form of HDR that uses dynamic metadata fine-tuned to specific content. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision let creatives set how each frame looks, enabling a final result that should have more detail and look closer to how the content's creators intended. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are especially impactful when watching HDR content on lower-priced HDR TVs that could suffer from poor black levels and other performance gaps.

 

You have to subscribe to Netflix's Premium ad-free plan to stream content in HDR and 4K resolution. The plan is $25 per month, compared to $18 per month for the Standard ad-free plan that limits users to 1080p resolution.

 

Netflix's blog post says:

 

To enhance our offering, we have been adding HDR10+ streams to both new releases and existing popular HDR titles. AV1-HDR10+ now accounts for 50 percent of all eligible viewing hours. We will continue expanding our HDR10+ offerings with the goal of providing an HDR10+ experience for all HDR titles by the end of this year.

The streaming service added that it has "over 11,000 hours of HDR titles."

 

Dolby Vision came out in 2014, three years before HDR10+. The HDR10+ rival also offers more control over color through its support of 12-bit video. Combined, this has led to Dolby Vision enjoying wider adoption than HDR10+.

 

However, HDR10+ is still important for Netflix to offer to stay competitive with other streaming services supporting the format, like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Hulu, and Disney+, which announced in January that it would start supporting HDR10+.

 

HDR10+ is also important to HDR viewers who have devices that don't support Dolby Vision. That includes TVs from Samsung, which sells more TVs than any other brand. People who try to watch HDR content on Netflix on an HDR TV that doesn't support Dolby Vision have been streaming the lesser HDR10 base standard, which uses static metadata.

 

HDR has also grown in popularity since 2020, with HDR streaming increasing "by more than 300 percent" and the number of devices streaming Netflix and supporting HDR more than doubling, per Netflix's blog.

 

Netflix adding HDR10+ support to its service at no extra cost is a welcome change from other streaming announcements, which often include price hikes, pulled content, and removed features. However, this latest move comes about three months after Netflix raised its Premium subscription price from $23 per month to $25 per month.

 

Source

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