Netflix has announced that it is adding support for HDR10+ streaming in addition to the existing HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats already offered on the streaming service. HDR10+ is supposed to provide greater visual fidelity on a frame-by-frame basis for Netflix‘s original programming, which is often dark in color.
The company supports HDR10+ with the AV1 codec, a specification released in 2018 that has gradually become the standard for data-intensive 4K video streaming. Netflix first adopted AV1 to help users save data when watching on their phones, but the compression technology works just as well for streaming large HDR files. Netflix is currently enabling HDR10+ for some popular movies and hopes to eventually offer all HDR content in the new format. Anyone with a Netflix Premium subscription and a device that supports HDR10+ and AV1 (which is most modern mobile phones and tablets) will be able to watch compatible content in HDR10+.
After 4K, High Dynamic Range (HDR) has become a defining feature of modern television and movies, especially in streaming. HDR content makes it possible to see sharp differences between light and dark parts of an image. The underexposed, muddy quality of today’s streaming TV is often due to the expectation that viewers will watch it on HDR-enabled devices. Without it, you can’t see anything. With it, you can capture all the different shades of gray that have become the norm in prestige television.
Netflix first rolled out HDR support in 2016 with the debut of Marco Polo, and has since made Dolby Vision and HDR10, the most common HDR format, the norm for its service. If you’ve been watching Netflix on a display that already uses Dolby Vision, you probably won’t notice the difference, but if your TV only supports HDR10+, adding support for this format will make the viewing experience a little better.
