What is HDR and How To Activate It on Your TV?

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Buying a television a few decades ago was relatively easy. You just needed to know the resolution of the TV. More resolution, bigger, better. But over the years came the acronyms for LED, LCD, OLED screens and, later, High Definition or HD Ultra High Definition or UHD, 4K, 8K, HDR.

Quite a gibberish that, from now on, has become an essential element in the consumption of television content. In Movistar +, and thanks to your UHD Decoder, you will be able to take advantage of all the advantages of taking advantage of all the advantages that your television offers you.

If you are thinking of getting a new TV or you already have one at home, you have heard of the acronym HDR. What does it mean? Is it related to 4K or UHD quality? They’re synonyms?

Below we explain the meaning of HDR and its relationship with the new video formats that exceed the current HD or High Definition. It may seem a bit confusing at first, but let’s try to clarify their similarities and differences.

What is HDR

What is HDR

Fast response: HDR stands for High Dynamic Range or High Dynamic Range. This technology improves the quality of the image you see on the screen by optimizing light, contrast and colour. These parameters, which are what you will have in your Movistar + subscription, are closely associated with photography, and HDR has been talked about for years in digital photography.

With smart TVs and, more specifically, with HD and UHD TVs, HDR technology has become a powerful ally to get the best of the image we are seeing on the screen. In particular, you will see dark scenes more clearly and get more detail in daytime scenes.

At present, if you are going to buy a smart TV with UHD or 4K quality, you will see that along with these characteristics it also speaks of HDR. And although HDR is not synonymous with UHD or 4K, it is a feature that we find exclusively in televisions of this quality. That is why if your television offers HDR, it is surely a 4K or UHD TV.

Specifically, an HD television offers a resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels. A Full HD TV goes up to 1920 × 1080 pixels. And finally, a 4K UHD TV offers 3840 × 2160 pixels. But, I insist, do not confuse UHD with HDR. However, streaming services such as Netflix or Disney + usually combine different labels, so that sometimes we will find content with the HDR label and on other occasions, UHD or 4K UHD content.

HDR or Dolby Vision?

Once we have resolved the HDR problem, it is time to enter another. Are all HDR the same? Apparently not. Nowadays, smart TVs in 4K or UHD resolution have HDR10 or HDR10 +. But is that next to the standard HDR there is a commercial alternative called Dolby Vision.

HDR is an open standard that can be used by all manufacturers. Currently, we can find the HDR10 version or its improved version, HDR10 +. But we can also run into Dolby Vision, a less widespread commercial technology but that offers more brightness than the HDR standard. So, if your TV offers HDR you can be satisfied, but if, in addition, it is also compatible with Dolby Vision, much better. That is, you will find Dolby Vision in the technical sheets of high-end UHD televisions.

To get an idea. Dolby Vision reaches a maximum brightness of 10,000 nits, while HDR10 reaches only 1,000 nits. This can greatly change the quality in which we will see the night scene of a movie. What’s more, there are those who believe that the availability of HDR is more important than UHD resolution, since, under certain conditions, we will obtain better image quality in one case than in the other.

Activate this option on your television

If you have decided to purchase a 4K UHD television compatible with HDR technology, be it the HDR standard or the Dolby Vision trademark, you probably want to take advantage of it to obtain the best image quality. Especially if the videos you are going to see are in 4K resolution and are landscapes or nature, examples in which HDR technology and UHD resolution are more enjoyed.

There are many manufacturers on the market, each with dozens of models. However, there are two details that we must keep in mind in order to obtain the best result. The first is to activate HDR on your television. The second is to use the appropriate image modes for each type of content.

To activate HDR technology on your television, you will surely have to go to the Image options within the Settings or Configuration of the television. In Image, you will find both HDR and Dolby Vision if you have that option. It may be disabled by default.

Once you have this technology activated on your TV, it will automatically remain active for whatever content you watch on TV. As a complementary measure, depending on what you are watching, you will be interested in configuring the television with the help of the image modes.

The picture modes are usually in the same menu image. They usually have

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