Not All HDR Is Equal: Here’s What Budget Buyers Need to Know
1 min read
Summary
HDR, or high dynamic range, is an image technology that is increasingly becoming a standard feature in mid and lower-range televisions, but its presence in a television does not necessarily denote a high-quality image
Cheap televisions might have the label HDR ready or HDR10+ but this could be a marketing tactic as they may not have the ability to display true high dynamic range images
True HDR images depend on a wide colour gamut, high levels of peak brightness, and high contrast
A way to test whether a television that claims to have HDR is displaying true HDR images is to test its colour range, for which a suitable website exists
TVs with HDR should be calibrated using modes such as Cinema or Movie setting to ensure saturation and brightness is reduced to more natural levels
Images viewed on a budget HDR TV will only be as good as the quality of the source
