HDR技术

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_mapping

tone mapping 技术实习

Netflix may have a lot more content available to stream in 4K than Amazon, but Amazon's Instant Video streaming service now offers infinitely more HDR content than anybody else.

Amazon has announced that its original series "Mozart in the Jungle" Season 1 is available to stream today in high dynamic range (HDR) toSamsung's SUHD televisions. An Amazon rep we spoke with said the pilot episode of "Red Oaks," another Amazon original, is also available in HDR, and that the company will continue to add more in the future.

This is the first instance of any HDR movie or TV show becoming widely available.

HDR video, not to be confused with HDR for photography, promises better picture quality thanks to brighter, more realistic highlights and other improvements. It's widely viewed as the next step beyond4K, which addresses only resolution, or picture sharpness, and not contrast or color. In our tests of 4K TVs and video, we've found it difficult to appreciate any difference compared to high-definition TV. With the HDR demos we've seen, the improvement is more evident, so we're excited to see HDR in the real world.

Netflix says it will begin its own HDR streams later this year, but hasn't made any further announcements as far as timing or which shows will be available. Samsung also says that a forthcoming "UHD Content Pack," would offer two HDR Hollywood movies, but pricing and availability (and which movies they are) have not been announced. HDR will also be supported by 4K Blu-ray.

To watch Amazon's HDR shows you'll need a Prime subscription and you'll need to use the Amazon Instant Video app built into one of Samsung's 2015 SUHD TVs, namely the JS9500, JS9000 orJS8500.

In a separate announcement, LG also promised an upgrade soon: "Amazon HDR streaming will be available on this year's LG OLED 4K ULTRA HD TVs in the coming weeks."

Update Monday July 13: I tested Amazon's HDR content as part of the review of theSamsung JS8500. It didn't look better, and often looked worse, than the same video in non-HDR on other TVs. It suffered from relatively washed out black levels without the punchy highlights I've seen on other HDR demos.

The issues have a lot to do, as far as I can tell, with the TV's own display technology and implementation of HDR. Higher-end TVs than the JS8500, including Samsung's models, might do the content more justice, but I haven't tested those yet. My early findings aren't an indictment of HDR in general or Amazon's HDR in particular--it's still very early days for HDR.

For more details, check out the HDR section of CNET's JS8500 review.

Are high dynamic range TVs the future?

HDR TV: It's supposed to be the next big thing to hit TVs after 4K, but is it really something to get excited about? Our TV expert John Archer takes a look at the curious case of high dynamic range televisions.

The rise of high dynamic range (HDR) TV technology has been explosive to say the least. It only really started to ‘bubble under’ at the IFA 2014 Show in Berlin last September.

By the time we rolled into Las Vegas for the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show at the start of January HDR had arguably usurped 4K UHD as the key TV tech story of the season – not least because one massive TV brand, Samsung, revealed that it was launching TVs capable of handling HDR as early as this March.

So what exactly is this new HDR tech that’s causing such a stir, and is it really as good as the TV makers want us to think it is?

HDR Explained: The Basics

In its most basic form, HDR is a photographic technique that produces brighter and more detailed photos. It takes multiple exposures and then combines them, retaining detail in the brightest and darkest parts of a scene that are often lost. HDR photos, in effect, have a much wider luminance range – i.e. they contain more light information. You can see what this looks like below.

image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000031026/0595/hdr-0-7.jpg

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The HDR mode on the Samsung Galaxy S5 helps produce more detail

The idea of HDR video is essentially the same, but on a grander, more sophisticated and actually more effective scale. For while HDR video should still deliver greater luminance extremes – inkier blacks and blazing whites – within the same frame like an HDR photography does, a great quality HDR video will also deliver much more subtlety and finesse at every stage between the black and white extremes.

We’re not just talking about blacks, whites and shades of grey in between here either. Perhaps the most exciting thing about HDR is the impact having a much larger luminance range to draw on can have on colours, opening up a far wider and more nuanced colour palette.

Sounds good in theory, but how does it actually look?

Despite many TV brands already talking about HDR like it’s the second coming of video, it’s still pretty early days for the format. Even so, the majority of the demos of HDR in action we’ve seen so far have been impressive. And even those that weren't so hot show bags of potential.

For starters, the ability of HDR content and displays to deliver a much wider luminance range helps them produce images that look much richer in contrast. They also focus your attention far more than the actually quite muted pictures produced by most current, well-calibrated LCD TVs, and deliver an almost luminous quality to their images that resembles the sort of experience you get at a good digital cinema.

SEE ALSO: OLED vs LED LCD – What's the difference?

image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000030f19/aab7_orh616w616/Sony-HDR-vs-conventional-TV.jpg

Sony demonstrates the difference between a HDR screen and a conventional TV screen

It’s not just the sheer brightness range that impresses, though; in fact, it’s the stuff in between the deepest blacks and brightest whites that really makes HDR exciting. For starters, dark scenes look hugely more convincing in HDR than they do on normal LCD TVs because of the stunning amount of extra greyscale and shadow detail information HDR makes possible.

Colours, too, look vastly improved as richer, punchier saturations combine with more nuanced tonal shifts and blends – especially in darker areas of the image. What’s more, during the best HDR demos these colours don’t look at all overblown or unnatural – on the contrary, they look much more lifelike than those of today’s LCD TVs.

The only real problems we’ve encountered with HDR so far are:

1. It can go too far, causing you to almost wince at the intensity of bright parts of the image, distracting you from the action.

2. Some TVs seem less clever than others at ‘tweaking’ HDR sources to fit with the capabilities of their screens.

Overall, though, while care needs to be taken not to make HDR so aggressive that it’s distracting or even painful to watch, our feeling so far is that it can have a potentially even more dramatic impact on picture quality than 4K. Unlike 4K, it doesn’t need a particularly big screen to make its mark, either.

OK, I’m convinced. How do I get HDR TV?

This is where things get a bit complicated. Chiefly because a true HDR experience depends on both a source being made in it and a TV being able to show it. Sadly, experience of other technologies that depend on content and display combinations – for instance, 3D and 4K UHD – show that content delivery usually lags far behind the hardware. With HDR, though, there are signs that the content world – i.e. film and TV studios – is already surprisingly enthusiastic about this latest TV tech.

Let’s look at the hardware first, though. Samsung looks set to be the first out of the HDR traps with its imminent JS9 and JS8 series. But basically all the main TV brands are promising to have some sort of HDR-capable TVs on sale before the end of this year. The exact specifications of these TVs is still up in the air, but all will offer higher brightness outputs than ‘normal’ LCD TVs, and most of the truly premium HDR sets will achieve the necessary brightness and contrast performance by using a rear-mounted LED system with local dimming.

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Samsung's JS9 and JS8 series to be among the first HDR TVs to launch

Many argue that OLED technology isn’t a great option for HDR due to its difficulties in producing a very bright image versus LCD/LED. But LG has shown a selected few – including us – a specially developed OLED TV running HDR that actually looked pretty handy, especially given OLED’s currently peerless ability to deliver rich, deep black colours. Though it should be said that running an OLED screen very brightly could have a seriously negative impact on its lifespan and power consumption.

What can you watch in HDR?

On the content delivery side we’ve been encouraged by the apparent willingness of a wide range of content creators to engage already with HDR. The leading light is Netflix. The video streaming giant has already declared that most of the shows created by its own studio arm will from here on in be produced for HDR. The recent release of Marco Polo has already been given the HDR treatment. HDR streams will start this year, with Netflix simply stepping a stream down to the non-HDR version of a show if it detects that your TV isn’t HDR ready.

Interestingly, Netflix believes that adding HDR to a video stream will only add around 2.5Mb/s to a consumer’s broadband requirements, versus the 12Mb/s or so of extra broadband speed you need to enjoy 4K over HD. Netflix has also stated that if there’s a dip in broadband speed that makes 4K HDR impossible, it may well opt to drop the resolution to HD and keep HDR rather than dropping the HDR, as it believes this will be the least disruptive option for viewers.

TV brands heavily invested in 4K are apparently ‘in discussion’ with Netflix over this approach.

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