The Technology Behind Dolby HDR Video
Compared to the images produced by LCD TVs, Dolby® Contrast and Dolby Vision create that “window on the world” experience with:
- Many backlights, rather than just one.
- Local—instead of global—dimming of individual backlights: each light may be on, off, or somewhere in between.
- Advanced 8-bit image processing using Dolby’s proprietary algorithms that optimally adjust the backlights as the TV image changes.
Why would you want those features? Flat-panel, HDTV LCD televisions are the most popular TVs. They use a fluorescent tube to light the entire screen to create the picture you see. Since that light is always on, LCD TVs cannot deliver a true black. Conventional TVs (those with cathode ray tubes) light the picture in intervals, so they can create a true black, but conventional TVs are bulky and don’t deliver high-definition pictures.
Dolby HDR video solves these issues by creating true blacks and truer colors that actually make the picture look even more clear than conventional HDTV pictures.
What is high dynamic range? The term refers to the range of light and dark that the human eye can see. In the photography industry, it is a well-known method, in which the photographer takes, superimposes, and blends multiple exposures of the same picture to produce a 16-bit image that approaches the human eye’s actual dynamic range. HDR video mimics such an experience for TVs. Learn more about high dynamic range.
More Tech, Please?
If you’re really interested in Dolby HDR video technologies, see what we’re telling our industry partners—TV and video display manufacturers—in HDR video for professionals and the Dolby HDR video technical overview.
Or for a really historical view (April 2007), see what we said at the time of Dolby’s acquisition of BrightSide Technologies, the originator of Dolby’s HDR video technology.
