HDR can significantly enhance full HD content, not just UHD 4K, providing a better viewing experience on HD TVs. This approach improves color, contrast, and overall image quality, making it a valuable proposition for streaming providers. By utilizing HDR for HD content, providers can achieve bandwidth savings while delivering brilliant video content, expanding the possibilities for high-quality visuals accessible to a broader audience.

We caught up with Rick Dumont, Head of Business Development for Wireless and HDR at Philips to learn more. Here is what he had to say:

Q: Streaming service providers account for a growing share of how people worldwide enjoy their entertainment experiences. As this market evolves, what are the major challenges streaming providers face?

Rick Dumont: Streaming service providers have indeed been experiencing rapid growth in recent years, driven by several factors, including increasing internet connectivity, advancements in technology, changing consumer preferences, and the proliferation of mobile devices. But they do face some challenges that must be addressed head-on.

For instance, streaming providers must ensure that their content can be delivered smoothly and with limited buffering, even in areas with limited internet bandwidth. They need to maintain a high-quality viewing experience for their users, including consistent video and audio quality, regardless of the device or network connection. Similarly, streaming providers need to efficiently deliver their content to a wide range of devices and platforms, including smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, and gaming consoles.

And while the category is growing, the market is extremely crowded and competitive. Numerous providers are vying for users’ attention. Streaming providers need to differentiate themselves and offer unique content or features to attract and retain subscribers by continually improving the user experience, including better and consistent video quality, faster load times, intuitive interfaces and seamless integration with other devices and services.

The team behind Advanced HDR by Technicolor—which includes Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor—strongly believes that intelligent adoption of high-dynamic range (HDR) strategies for content creation, distribution and delivery can address many of these issues.

Q: Why is it important to understand that HDR can enhance full HD and not just UHD 4K?

Dumont: It is essential because the market does not understand that HDR—especially Advanced HDR by Technicolor—allows for a better viewing experience on HD TVs. This is significant because, globally, the lion’s share of available content is still in HD (2K) and not UHD (4K).

Many people assume that HDR is married with 4K content, but that is not the case. By implementing HDR technology on full HD content, viewers can enjoy improved color, contrast, and overall image quality. They can have a more immersive and visually appealing experience. In fact, HDR over HD has a more significant visual impact than SDR over UHD because HDR presents more accurate colors, smoother light and color shading, and more detailed images. Indeed, utilizing HDR over HD content reduces bandwidth requirements by a factor of four simply because HD uses only one-fourth of the pixels.

This leaves us with the challenge of providing high-quality HDR with 8-bit coding when, theoretically, a 10-bit color depth is needed. However, this issue can be effectively addressed.

The bottom line is that HDR on HD is ideal for meeting the requirements of broadcasters and service providers that seek a bandwidth-efficient streaming or broadcasting solution for delivering significantly more vibrant video content.

Q: Can you be more specific about the differences in the data and processing effort required for delivering HD versus UHD content?

Dumont: HDR uses 10-bit bit depth to prevent coding artifacts like “banding”. However, with SL-HDR preprocessing as in Advanced HDR by Technicolor, the dynamic or adaptive nature allows coding to be used more efficiently compared to the static coding allocation of formats like HDR10 and HLG. Hence where HDR10 needs a 10-bit bit-depth and typically HEVC coding, SL-HDR can use AVC in 8-bit as used by legacy systems, making it less bandwidth hungry and at the same time backward compatible with legacy SDR systems.

So, from a content creation perspective, HDR over UHD content creation means more data is processed during editing, color grading, and special effects rendering. This requires more powerful hardware and storage solutions to efficiently handle the increased data volume.

In contrast, HDR over HD content involves smaller file sizes and less demanding processing requirements. The single-layer HDR (SL-HDR) pre-processing done by Advanced HDR by Technicolor optimizes 8-bit quantization, leaving no visible coding artifacts like banding. In addition, the HDR and SDR formats can be stored and distributed in a single stream, halving storage space for the coding ladders.

The metadata transmission in the SL-HDR stream allows optimal use of the TV’s dynamic range by adjusting the HDR quality to the TV’s capability. This avoids overexposure on TVs with limited dynamic range capabilities while maximizing the capabilities of TVs that support high dynamic range.

Advanced HDR by Technicolor can deliver an extremely high-quality, high-dynamic-range image in HD without compromising content creators’ intent or viewers’ experiences. Dynamic conversions accomplish this outcome in a stable manner—at scale—while minimizing the factors that typically add cost and complexity to the creation, storage and distribution process.

Q: Why is dynamic HDR content conversion necessary to provide a stable viewing experience?

Dumont: Most TVs in viewers’ homes today are only SDR capable, even though most newly sold TVs support HDR already. The transition period to have all TVs in homes support HDR will take another 5 to 10 years in the USA. Therefore simultaneous support of SDR and HDR for video streaming and broadcast will remain imperative for quite some time. Unlike static (LUT) conversion from HDR to SDR. dynamic conversions allow native HDR video to remain uncompromised and be distributed at the best possible quality, while also making sure that the SDR video is of optimal quality and remains consistent.

Dynamic conversions are also critical when capturing content, especially for live outdoor sporting events. Without dynamic conversion, the brightness levels of the HDR content would need to be manually adjusted continuously as lighting conditions can dramatically change when the action moves from a bright sunlight to shaded area. Consider a soccer ball or a golf ball (or any ball), or a race car moving from bright sunlight to a shaded place of a stadium or a place with trees; or the camera position moving from facing towards the sun to facing away from the sun. Without a dynamic conversion from HDR to SDR this results in compromised viewing experiences for consumers with HDR TVs and suboptimal viewing experiences for those with only SDR-capable TVs.

Hence, by automating the conversion process, HDR content can be delivered to the viewer in a stable and reliable manner, regardless of the viewing conditions or changes in lighting conditions.

Q: How do these features of HDR in general — and Advanced HDR by Technicolor in particular — benefit streaming service providers?

Dumont: The value proposition for streaming providers includes reduced storage requirements and improved stability for lower bandwidth connections. By utilizing HDR to enhance HD video, streaming providers can save significant bandwidth compared to 4K HDR video while still delivering the same brilliant quality for the vast majority of video content.

Instead of transmitting content at over 20 megabits per second, they can achieve the same experience at less than ten megabits per second.

This results in a significant reduction in storage requirements. Additionally, lower bandwidth connections, such as those over Wi-Fi, become more stable and reliable when streaming HDR content at a lower bit rate. For those viewing over a 4G or 5G cellular connection, the monthly data package for mobile use will last much longer while allowing subscribers to enjoy much better video quality. 

To listen to the full Interview with Rick Dumont, visit:

https://bit.ly/HDRonHD