What you need to know
- HDR10+ is expanding to the Google Play Movies and TV app later this year.
- Users who purchase Ultra HD content will gain HDR10+ support for compatible displays.
- The standard is already supported by OEMs like Samsung and OnePlus with their latest devices.
You'll be able to enjoy HDR10+ content from the Google Play Store later this year, as per an announcement from HDR10+ Technologies( a group formed of 20th Century Fox, Panasonic Corporation, and Samsung Electronics.)
While Google already supports HDR10 for UHD content, the company will be adopting the new enhanced standard going forward.
What's HDR10+? Well, to borrow words from our explainer article (which you should also read):
HDR10+ is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) format created by Samsung designed to expand on the HDR10 format by allowing for dynamic metadata to continuously tweak the display settings so that you're always seeing the most and best color possible. Unlike Dolby Vision — which also adds dynamic metadata to the HDR signal — HDR10+ is royalty-free and open so that any company which makes displays can adjust it to best suit its product.
In essence, you'll also get deeper blacks and brighter colors on a per-scene basis. This is because the intent of HDR10+ is to ensure that whatever you're seeing is as close to the director's vision as possible. So instead of sticking to one vision of what the image on your screen should look like, HDR10+ is dynamic and adapts to the scene.
While Google Play is a new entrant in this space, Amazon Prime Video has been offering HDR10+ content in the U.S. for a while now on compatible displays.
Fortunately, HDR10+ is also supported by fan-favorite devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 as well as the OnePlus 7 Pro. We're likely to get more devices supporting the standard as 2020 goes on.
