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Poll: How Often Do You Watch HDR Content?

SV Staff  |  May 29, 2019

Not to take anything away from the benefits of 4K Ultra HD over standard HD, but increased resolution alone pales in comparison with high dynamic range). Simply put, HDR is a game-changing technology that increases brightness to make TV images more life-like. With that in mind, we’d like to know how often you watch movies and TV shows in 4K HDR. And, as always, we encourage you to leave a comment to share your impressions and experiences with HDR.
Poll: How Often Do You Watch HDR Content?
Never. My TV doesn’t support HDR and that’s fine with me.
13% (121 votes)
Never. My TV doesn’t support HDR but I wish it did.
21% (192 votes)
Every now and then but not very often.
15% (142 votes)
Once or twice a week.
13% (121 votes)
Three or four times a week.
9% (88 votes)
I watch as much HDR content as I can find.
29% (271 votes)
Total votes: 935

COMMENTS
hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 29, 2019 - 10:49am

*Never. My TV supports HDR, but I don't care for it.
To me HDR looks very artificial- Yeah it makes the picture look better, but very unreal, almost as bad as "vivid" picture mode some TVs offer.

tommylee's picture
Submitted by tommylee on May 30, 2019 - 8:35am

...something wrong with your TV. Also, have you had your eyes checked recently?

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 30, 2019 - 9:50am

Nothing wrong with my TV, or my eyes! HDR is fake and only a means to keep buyers coming back and "upgrading". I almost feel the same about location based surround formats, but at least with those, you do try to approximate reality. with HDR, you're throwing reality out the window. bring up a scene where you're looking at an object with the sun behind it- you're seeing the sun and the highlights of the object, in reality, that's impossible for the human eye, but with HDR? sure, why not!!!

tommylee's picture
Submitted by tommylee on May 31, 2019 - 7:58am

Reality rules, I know, but all TV is "fake". I fail to see how 4K is more fake that any other display medium. It just bothers you for some reason...just like color TV drove some people nuts when it began. Don't worry, you will get used to it.

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 31, 2019 - 9:32am

It's not 4K that bothers me. I love 4K UHD resolution. My TV makes even old shows look great by up-converting to 4K. What bothers me is HDR. again, it's not for lack of improving the visual experience, but the fact that it makes things unrealistic, like the example I gave above. If technology comes up with ways to make you see a most vividly beautiful image for a night scene that in real life, you would barely see shadows of the subjects, would you want that enhancement of night scenes in movies so that the movie looks very clear from beginning to end? It surely would look great, but very unrealistic- Maybe it is all fake, but I'd rather the one closer to reality.

utopianemo's picture
Submitted by utopianemo on May 31, 2019 - 9:56am

If it was impossible for the human eye to see, you wouldn't see it anyway to be able to complain. The point is that it can produce bright, specular highlights in a way that more closely mimics reality, instead of a back-lit photograph. When you're looking at a specular highlight in an HDR image, the end goal is to make those highlights bright enough that your own irises begin to behave as they would in real life. OLED and projection fail at it miserably, but LED-based flat displays do a lot better job.

Personally,I find HDR nighttime scenes, with traffic and streetlights to be much more lifelike and realistic than their SDR equivalents.

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 31, 2019 - 10:54am

You guys will never get it, so fine. Enjoy it....

hk2000's picture
Submitted by hk2000 on May 31, 2019 - 11:01am

The sun in the image is not as bright as the real sun, If you were standing in place of the camera and looking at a person standing in front of you with the sun behind him, you would not see the facial features because the sun is in your eyes, but what HDR does is highlight the face as if there was no sun, and since the image of the sun is not going to blind you like the real thing, you do see the face. In reality, you wouldn't be able to. I never argued HDR doesn't produce spectacular imagery.

LDBetaGuy's picture
Submitted by LDBetaGuy on May 30, 2019 - 1:27pm

For me, the best part about HDR video is the wider color gamut. At times, HDR can look amazing and, at other times, can be distracting. I only wish there were an SDR with wide color gamut option.

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