Samsung TVs get access to more HDR10+ content

(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung smart TV owners now have another way to access HDR10+ content. Samsung has expanded its video app offering to include Google Play Movies' HDR10+ service, which launched in July.

The HDR10+ material on Google's subscription-free film and TV rental store – also in 4K – is now available on Samsung smart TVs in 117 countries, including across Europe, North America and Korea. Blockbuster titles include Joker, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Shazam!, and Crazy Rich Asians.

So what is HDR10+ anyway? Essentially it's an HDR format rival to Dolby Vision, created by Samsung. Both formats build on the standard HDR10 format, which uses static metadata, meaning the boundaries of brightness are set at the start of a film or show and don’t budge for the duration. HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, meanwhile, use dynamic metadata, so those brightness boundaries can be set and changed on a frame-by-frame basis and the full colour range deployed even in scenes that contain only dark or only light elements. The result is subtler gradients and therefore more detail.

While Dolby's HDR standard has found its way onto 4K Blu-rays, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+, and some movie and TV stores, the adoption of HDR10+ by video services has been comparatively slower. HDR10+ content can currently be found on Amazon, Rakuten, a number of 4K discs and, now, Google Play Movies. Hardware support is already stronger, with HDR10+ found on Amazon streamers and Samsung, Panasonic, Philips and Vizio TVs.

Google Play Movies also plans to support HDR10+ on "additional platforms" in the future.

TOPICS

Becky is a hi-fi, AV and technology journalist, formerly the Managing Editor at What Hi-Fi? and Editor of Australian Hi-Fi and Audio Esoterica magazines. With over twelve years of journalism experience in the hi-fi industry, she has reviewed all manner of audio gear, from budget amplifiers to high-end speakers, and particularly specialises in headphones and head-fi devices.

In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.