HDR Formats - A Cornucopia
There is more than one - get used to it
It has been over a decade since High Dynamic Range (HDR) displays and content first reached the hands of consumers. In that time, the landscape has evolved from a nascent promise of better pixels into a complex, multifaceted ecosystem. HDR is not merely about brightness; it is inextricably linked with Wide Colour Gamut (WCG), and together they represent the most significant leap in visual fidelity since the transition from Standard Definition to HD.
The Foundations: BT.2020 and the Departure from SDR
The HDR revolution was built upon the introduction of the BT.2020 colour space. This standard enabled the reproduction of dynamic ranges far beyond what was common in the HD era and offered a palette of wider colour possibilities. BT.2020 joined an established lineage of colour spaces, including BT.709 (the color space brought in for HD) and the retroactively defined BT.601, which brought a formal definition to the colour and dynamic range of SD content originally found on CRTs.
With these advancements came the formal definition of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). In strict technical terms, SDR describes content graded for displays with a peak luminance of 100 cd/m^2, conveniently ignoring that modern displays regularly tone map content to be much brighter than this, at times well over 200 cd/m^2.
Conversely, HDR/WCG has been defined as anything exceeding that 100 cd/m^2 threshold with a colour space wider than BT.709. Exceeding these means you do support HDR/WCG, but that feels only a technicality. The industry avoided stating key performance targets as ‘HDR/WCG’, except in the work of the UHD Alliance which defined a certification that had 1000 cd/m^2 and 90% DCI-P3 as a target.
The Ultra HD Forum did, in an early version of its Guidelines documents, defined HDR more precisely - in specific technical terms as video having a contrast ratio greater than or equal to the ratio derived from 13 f-stops. However this has not been something that has gained acceptance and ground in the production of content, or the manufacture of displays.
Today you will find that displays do vary greatly with performance, from being just above SDR as defined by BT.709, through 400-500 cd/m^2 and 85-90%DCI-P3, right up to more capable displays that can have peak luminances approaching 4000 cd/m^2 and colour capabilities right up to BT.2020, with some provisos. The important thing to note is that other performance criteria apply for display performances beyond peak luminance, but that is something for another article.
Distribution Formats: HLG10 and HDR10
While early industry debates focused on capture formats (which vary based on whether the content is a movie, drama, or live sports), the distribution landscape coalesced around two HDR formats defined within the BT.2100 specification:
HLG10 (Hybrid Log-Gamma): This format found its primary use case in broadcasting and environments with “mixed” device populations. Its unique curve allows for a degree of natural backwards compatibility, and minimal impact (of sorts) on the production workflow for live events, sharing similar concepts to the production of SDR content.
HDR10: This became the lingua franca of the HDR world, particularly in streaming. It is the preferred choice for closed networks (like cable), new broadcast environments like ATSC 3.0, and streaming platforms where service providers can be certain of device support.
The industry initially struggled with this dual-format reality, hoping for a single distribution standard similar to the reign of BT.709 and AVC. However, we have instead returned to a “multi-format soup” reminiscent of the 2000s—an era filled with MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, and RealVideo. Today, we navigate a world of DCI-P3, sRGB, and BT.2020 colour spaces, paired with a diverse array of codecs including HEVC, AV1, VVC, and LC-EVC.
Beyond HDR - Dynamic Metadata: SMPTE ST 2094
As hardware evolved, it became clear that static HDR was not enough. To aid the rendering of content on displays with varying capabilities, the industry turned to metadata. While SMPTE ST 2086 provided static descriptors, the SMPTE ST 2094 family introduced Dynamic Metadata, along with a number of ‘application’ specifications.
This allowed for frame-by-frame or scene-by-scene instructions to adapt content to the specific peak brightness and colour volume of a viewer’s screen. This family includes:
ST 2094-10: Defined by Dolby (Dolby Vision).
ST 2094-20 & -30: Defined by Philips and Technicolor (Advanced HDR).
ST 2094-40: Defined by Samsung (HDR10+).
The Market Leaders: Dolby Vision vs. HDR10+
Dolby Vision was first to market with a robust campaign targeting service providers, manufacturers and most importantly consumers. By defining itself as the “premium” tier of HDR, Dolby made significant inroads into the consumer consciousness.
HDR10+ followed as a collaborative effort led by Samsung. While it has a smaller market share, it is critical for the millions of Samsung displays that notably don’t support Dolby Vision.
Today, the Venn diagram of service providers supporting both is overlapping significantly; some providers realising they must support HDR10+ to reach Samsung users, even if they primarily lead with Dolby Vision.
A common partial misconception is that these metadata formats overcomplicate distribution. They do in some ways - mainly the workflows to create live content, and the multiple versions necessary for providing the capabilities. In reality, they are “enhancements” built upon a base layer—usually HDR10. If a device doesn’t support the metadata, it simply ignores it and renders the base HDR signal. In other words, it is possible to build single assets that provide one, two or even all three formats.
Compatibility and Smartphone Capture
This has led to interesting developments in mobile smartphone video capture:
Apple (Dolby Vision Profile 8.4): Uses HLG10 as a base. This offers “double” compatibility: devices supporting Profile 8.4 get the full experience, HLG-capable devices get a standard HDR render, and older devices still see a viewable (though SDR-mapped) image.
Android (HDR10+): Often favors HDR10+ capture. While it lacks the native device-centric backwards compatibility of HLG, it plays back as standard HDR10 on non-HDR10+ displays by ignoring the ST 2094-40 metadata.
The “New Kids on the Block”
The second half of the 2020s has introduced new contenders to the cornucopia.
HDR Vivid
Hailing from the UWA in China, HDR Vivid is a dynamic metadata format combined with HDR10 and even HLG10 base formats, designed to match creative intent through a different algorithmic approach than its Western counterparts. Notably, it supports “specific looks” via inbuilt LUT (Look-Up Table) approaches. Looking in detail at it, it is less of a HDR format, more of a new dynamic metadata approach enabled on top of HDR10 which has learned from the need to have backwards compatibility that has taken time to settle down in the original formats. A key aspect of its usage, is having the custom rendering capability in devices and displays that uses the metadata to render both in SDR and HDR modes from the same source.
Inside China, hardware support for Vivid is growing as THE homegrown solution with backwards compatibility, and is available in devices, displays and services used domestically.
Outside of China, the availability of silicon enabled with the format is still very unclear. Expansion outside of China to a global footprint depends on the classic “chicken and egg” problem of content availability versus hardware support. This is something that the UWA does seem to be working hard on with focus on standards adoption approaches, and ensuring silicon is available. However there is definitely a lot of work needed in persuading service providers to use the format, particularly as it has not learned from Dolby’s approach, and to a lesser degree HDR10+’s approach, that consumers need to be able to desire the premium capability. In consumers eyes today, HDR Vivid is pretty much unknown.
Next-Gen SMPTE Applications
SMPTE continues to expand the 2094 family to solve modern broadcast and content headaches:
ST 2094-50: Solves the “mixed-content” problem. It allows broadcasters to blend HDR live feeds with SDR graphics (like scoreboards) without the graphics looking “gray” or “blinding,” using an HDR Reference White anchor.
ST 2094-60: Focuses on precision tone mapping and interoperability across heterogeneous displays (OLEDs vs. mobile vs. PC monitors), providing even finer control over how an image is artistically preserved when scaled.
The two additions are blindingly new, with ST2094-60 being released only in December 2025 and ST2094-50 (although named, and some details available publicly), does not yet seem to have been released.
Conclusion
The HDR landscape is defined by an uneasy but functional alliance. HLG10 remains the bedrock of broadcast, while HDR10 is the universal baseline for streaming. This last point is particularly important as various markets move towards the migration to full streaming platforms.
Dolby Vision maintains its status as the “premium” heart of the consumer market through clever marketing and its flexible Profile 8.1/8.4 compatibility. HDR10+ persists as the vital alternative for the Samsung ecosystem. Meanwhile, HDR Vivid stands as a powerful regional outlier with the potential for global expansion if it can replicate Dolby’s marketing success.
Ultimately, these are not competing “formats” in the traditional sense, but layers of metadata. As we move deeper into the 2020s, the ability to package a single HDR10 video stream with multiple layers of metadata (Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and beyond) ensures that the consumer receives the best possible experience their specific display can muster.
the most significant leap in visual fidelity since the transition from Standard Definition to HD.
The Foundations: BT.2020 and the Departure from SDR
The HDR revolution was built upon the introduction of the BT.2020 colour space. This standard enabled the reproduction of dynamic ranges far beyond what was common in the HD era and offered a palette of wider colour possibilities. BT.2020 joined an established lineage of colour spaces, including BT.709 (the color space brought in for HD) and the retroactively defined BT.601, which brought a formal definition to the colour and dynamic range of SD content originally found on CRTs.
With these advancements came the formal definition of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). In strict technical terms, SDR describes content graded for displays with a peak luminance of 100 cd/m^2, conveniently ignoring that modern displays regularly tone map content to be much brighter than this, at times well over 200 cd/m^2.
Conversely, HDR/WCG has been defined as anything exceeding that 100 cd/m^2 threshold with a colour space wider than BT.709. Exceeding these means you do support HDR/WCG, but that feels only a technicality. The industry avoided stating key performance targets as ‘HDR/WCG’, except in the work of the UHD Alliance which defined a certification that had 1000 cd/m^2 and 90% DCI-P3 as a target.
The Ultra HD Forum did, in an early version of its Guidelines documents, defined HDR more precisely - in specific technical terms as video having a contrast ratio greater than or equal to the ratio derived from 13 f-stops. However this has not been something that has gained acceptance and ground in the production of content, or the manufacture of displays.
Today you will find that displays do vary greatly with performance, from being just above SDR as defined by BT.709, through 400-500 cd/m^2 and 85-90%DCI-P3, right up to more capable displays that can have peak luminances approaching 4000 cd/m^2 and colour capabilities right up to BT.2020, with some provisos. The important thing to note is that other performance criteria apply for display performances beyond peak luminance, but that is something for another article.
Distribution Formats: HLG10 and HDR10
While early industry debates focused on capture formats (which vary based on whether the content is a movie, drama, or live sports), the distribution landscape coalesced around two HDR formats defined within the BT.2100 specification:
HLG10 (Hybrid Log-Gamma): This format found its primary use case in broadcasting and environments with “mixed” device populations. Its unique curve allows for a degree of natural backwards compatibility, and minimal impact (of sorts) on the production workflow for live events, sharing similar concepts to the production of SDR content.
HDR10: This became the lingua franca of the HDR world, particularly in streaming. It is the preferred choice for closed networks (like cable), new broadcast environments like ATSC 3.0, and streaming platforms where service providers can be certain of device support.
The industry initially struggled with this dual-format reality, hoping for a single distribution standard similar to the reign of BT.709 and AVC. However, we have instead returned to a “multi-format soup” reminiscent of the 2000s—an era filled with MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX, and RealVideo. Today, we navigate a world of DCI-P3, sRGB, and BT.2020 colour spaces, paired with a diverse array of codecs including HEVC, AV1, VVC, and LC-EVC.
Beyond HDR - Dynamic Metadata: SMPTE ST 2094
As hardware evolved, it became clear that static HDR was not enough. To aid the rendering of content on displays with varying capabilities, the industry turned to metadata. While SMPTE ST 2086 provided static descriptors, the SMPTE ST 2094 family introduced Dynamic Metadata, along with a number of ‘application’ specifications.
This allowed for frame-by-frame or scene-by-scene instructions to adapt content to the specific peak brightness and colour volume of a viewer’s screen. This family includes:
ST 2094-10: Defined by Dolby (Dolby Vision).
ST 2094-20 & -30: Defined by Philips and Technicolor (Advanced HDR).
ST 2094-40: Defined by Samsung (HDR10+).
The Market Leaders: Dolby Vision vs. HDR10+
Dolby Vision was first to market with a robust campaign targeting service providers, manufacturers and most importantly consumers. By defining itself as the “premium” tier of HDR, Dolby made significant inroads into the consumer consciousness.
HDR10+ followed as a collaborative effort led by Samsung. While it has a smaller market share, it is critical for the millions of Samsung displays that notably don’t support Dolby Vision.
Today, the Venn diagram of service providers supporting both is overlapping significantly; some providers realising they must support HDR10+ to reach Samsung users, even if they primarily lead with Dolby Vision.
A common partial misconception is that these metadata formats overcomplicate distribution. They do in some ways - mainly the workflows to create live content, and the multiple versions necessary for providing the capabilities. In reality, they are “enhancements” built upon a base layer—usually HDR10. If a device doesn’t support the metadata, it simply ignores it and renders the base HDR signal. In other words, it is possible to build single assets that provide one, two or even all three formats.
Compatibility and Smartphone Capture
This has led to interesting developments in mobile smartphone video capture:
Apple (Dolby Vision Profile 8.4): Uses HLG10 as a base. This offers “double” compatibility: devices supporting Profile 8.4 get the full experience, HLG-capable devices get a standard HDR render, and older devices still see a viewable (though SDR-mapped) image.
Android (HDR10+): Often favors HDR10+ capture. While it lacks the native device-centric backwards compatibility of HLG, it plays back as standard HDR10 on non-HDR10+ displays by ignoring the ST 2094-40 metadata.
The “New Kids on the Block”
The second half of the 2020s has introduced new contenders to the cornucopia.
HDR Vivid
Hailing from the UWA in China, HDR Vivid is a dynamic metadata format combined with HDR10 and even HLG10 base formats, designed to match creative intent through a different algorithmic approach than its Western counterparts. Notably, it supports “specific looks” via inbuilt LUT (Look-Up Table) approaches. Looking in detail at it, it is less of a HDR format, more of a new dynamic metadata approach enabled on top of HDR10 which has learned from the need to have backwards compatibility that has taken time to settle down in the original formats. A key aspect of its usage, is having the custom rendering capability in devices and displays that uses the metadata to render both in SDR and HDR modes from the same source.
Inside China, hardware support for Vivid is growing as THE homegrown solution with backwards compatibility, and is available in devices, displays and services used domestically.
Outside of China, the availability of silicon enabled with the format is still very unclear. Expansion outside of China to a global footprint depends on the classic “chicken and egg” problem of content availability versus hardware support. This is something that the UWA does seem to be working hard on with focus on standards adoption approaches, and ensuring silicon is available. However there is definitely a lot of work needed in persuading service providers to use the format, particularly as it has not learned from Dolby’s approach, and to a lesser degree HDR10+’s approach, that consumers need to be able to desire the premium capability. In consumers eyes today, HDR Vivid is pretty much unknown.
Next-Gen SMPTE Applications
SMPTE continues to expand the 2094 family to solve modern broadcast and content headaches:
ST 2094-50: Solves the “mixed-content” problem. It allows broadcasters to blend HDR live feeds with SDR graphics (like scoreboards) without the graphics looking “gray” or “blinding,” using an HDR Reference White anchor.
ST 2094-60: Focuses on precision tone mapping and interoperability across heterogeneous displays (OLEDs vs. mobile vs. PC monitors), providing even finer control over how an image is artistically preserved when scaled.
The two additions are blindingly new, with ST2094-60 being released only in December 2025 and ST2094-50 (although named, and some details available publicly), does not yet seem to have been released.
Conclusion
The HDR landscape is defined by an uneasy but functional alliance. HLG10 remains the bedrock of broadcast, while HDR10 is the universal baseline for streaming. This last point is particularly important as various markets move towards the migration to full streaming platforms.
Dolby Vision maintains its status as the “premium” heart of the consumer market through clever marketing and its flexible Profile 8.1/8.4 compatibility. HDR10+ persists as the vital alternative for the Samsung ecosystem. Meanwhile, HDR Vivid stands as a powerful regional outlier with the potential for global expansion if it can replicate Dolby’s marketing success.
Ultimately, these are not competing “formats” in the traditional sense, but layers of metadata. As we move deeper into the 2020s, the ability to package a single HDR10 video stream with multiple layers of metadata (Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and beyond) ensures that the consumer receives the best possible experience their specific display can muster.
It seems that our friends in HDR10+ have adopted the Eclipsa brand for SMTPE 2094-50 Dynamic Metadata data driven ecosystem.