HDR monitor: You can buy it, but it is not recommended to turn on HDR

With the popularization of domestic smart TVs, the application of HDR technology in the TV industry has become quite mature. From the so-called "HDR" technology that is mixed with good and bad luck to the VESA DisplayHDR standard that can be traced to Samsung's HDR10/HDR10+ standard and later Dolby Vision standard, HDR and its related technologies are already very common in the TV industry. Even the entry-level smart TVs of Internet brands are indispensable in their selling points.

However, HDR performance is a completely different situation in the field of computer monitors. In September 2018, ROG released the ROG STRIX XG32VQR monitor that supports HDR technology in Beijing, which was one of the few monitors that supported HDR and passed the VESA Display HDR400 certification at that time. At the same time, game developers such as Blizzard and Ubisoft have also released a series of games that support HDR technology. Hardware and software have joined forces. The HDR era seems to be ready to go, and it will soon become a new era in the gaming field.

Image source: ROG

But things went against my expectations. Under the combined influence of various reasons, HDR not only failed to become a new star in the gaming industry, but also its performance in daily use was not ideal enough, so many users' awareness of HDR was still at the stage of "the color will turn gray when turned on." This bad experience has also led many users to turn off the HDR function even if they buy a monitor that supports HDR technology at a high price.

What exactly hinders the development and popularization of HDR technology in the field of displays?

Users do not buy premium accounts

As a user, the reason why you don’t buy HDR can be summarized in one sentence: the display effect of buying HDR monitors at a high price may not be as good as some non-HDR monitors. Simply put, it is high price and low power. In theory, in order to correctly display HDR images, HDR displays need to use a screen panel with higher brightness and a motherboard that can handle HDR signals. At the same time, they must also obtain technical authorization from relevant HDR protocol organizations to claim that their screen supports HDR technology.

Take the most common "VESA DisplayHDR 400" on the market as an example. To achieve this standard, the minimum peak brightness of the monitor must reach 400cd/m2, the minimum color depth is 8 bits, and the maximum black brightness cannot exceed 0.4cd/m2. Don't forget VESA DisplayHDR400 is just the most basic threshold for "branded" HDR, and many monitors that have not been certified by HDR have actually met the requirements. To have a slightly more qualified HDR experience, you need at least a standard HDR500/600 monitor.

Image source: Wikipedia

The VESA DisplayHDR600 requires that the display peak brightness is at least 600cd/m2, and the black brightness is at most 0.1cd/m2. It also supports wide color gamut, 10-bit color depth and partition dimming. High brightness, wide color gamut and other features all mean higher prices.

For example, LG's 27-inch 4K monitor supports HDR400 for only 2,099 yuan, while the 27-inch 4K monitor supports HDR600 standard costs 5,199 yuan. It is undeniable that the HDR600 model also supports high refresh rate and other features, but this also confirms from the side that high standard HDR is often bundled with other high standards, and the terminal price of the product will also be higher.

Did you buy high-end monitors, such as miniLED e-sports monitors, which will definitely show excellent HDR effects? Unfortunately, HDR is not that simple, and the most direct example is "the picture turns gray after turning on HDR". In the conceivable, if the HDR-enabled monitor can output a higher dynamic range when displaying HDR screens, it will make black black, whiter whiter, and richer colors.

But such display effect requires the joint efforts of the operating system, graphics card, games and monitor. If any of these four links does not work properly, it will lead to problems in the final HDR picture. The "HDR image turned gray" mentioned just now is the result of at least one part of the operating system, graphics card, game or monitor that does not correctly process the color information of HDR, and map the original color in the wrong way.

Reasons Beyond Consumer

In addition, the early "false publicity" of HDR promotion also lowered users' favorability for HDR. Because HDR technology increases the cost of products, some brands have started to play the "edge ball" of HDR, proclaiming that their monitors or TVs support "HDR effects". This is not to say that this product supports HDR and can correctly display HDR content, but that the TV can "simulate the effect of turning on HDR" by increasing the contrast. This situation is quite common among low-priced smart TV productsAs common, it not only allows consumers to buy products that are incorrectly made, but also leaves users with an impression of inaccurate color of HDR technology.

For users, the uneven and diverse HDR standards leave room for the brand to fill in the gaps. But for brands, the unconsistent HDR annotation also hinders the brand's promotion of HDR displays.

The common HDR standards at this stage are mainly divided into two camps: VESA DisplayHDR and HDR10/10+. Among them, the VESA DisplayHDR standard is formulated by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association, Video Electronics Standards Association), and includes four basic standards: HDR400/500/600/1000/1400 and three advanced standards: 400TrueBlack/500TrueBlack/600TrueBlack. Due to the low threshold, HDR400 is also the most common HDR standard on the market.

But in addition, the Consumer Electronics Technology Association (CES) also released its own HDR standard - HDR10 in 2015. The HDR10 file contains HDR static metadata, while the HDR10+ standard jointly established by Samsung, 20th Century Fox and Panasonic has been improved on the basis of HDR10, including dynamic metadata, allowing dynamic adjustments.

Image source: www.hdr10plus.org

Just when GSync and FreeSync were first launched, due to the different "camps" of different brands or panel suppliers, the HDR formats supported by different brands and even products of the same brand are different, and the complex HDR format support has brought great challenges to the software and hardware collaboration of HDR. For example, for a long time, Samsung's TVs or display panels from Samsung usually only support HDR10/10+ format, and are "turning a blind eye" to Dolby Vision.

The chaotic HDR standard not only brings difficulties to the display brand, but also affects the content ecosystem related to HDR. Hardware development cannot be separated from the content ecosystem, and the same is true for HDR. The reason why users buy HDR monitors is ultimately to experience HDR content. However, due to the confusing industry format, how to accurately transmit and present HDR content to consumers has become the biggest obstacle to promoting HDR.

Taking the popular overseas video platform as an example, YouTube joined HDR video in 2020Support for frequency, allowing users to upload HDR10+ videos. Do you still remember the HDR10+ feature mentioned in the introduction just now? In HDR10+ files, it can contain dynamic metadata, allowing videos to adopt different mapping schemes at different points in time.

But after the video is uploaded to YouTube, YouTube will not process the video uploaded by users in the way HDR10+ suggests. For the purpose of controlling the overall cost, YouTube will use a mapping scheme to play videos uploaded by users, which will lead to incorrect rendering and color casting of the screen.

Image source: Google

Most websites do not provide any form of support for HDR videos at all. Any HDR video uploaded will be ruthlessly compressed into standard dynamic range (SDR) videos. The wide color gamut characteristics introduced by the HDR standard are likely to become color bars or false colors after being compressed into SDR videos, affecting the user's viewing experience.

The lack of this supporting measure has made most video creators choose to "bypass" HDR and directly create brightly colored SDR videos. The lack of HDR content has also made consumers turn a blind eye to HDR monitors, and even if they buy HDR monitors, they will be used as general SDR screens.

How to promote HDR?

After all, the fundamental reason why HDR screens are difficult to promote is that the immature HDR ecosystem at this stage cannot attract users to actively turn on HDR, and the product premium brought by HDR technology cannot be reflected in the product experience. To solve this problem, we also need to start with the content.

First of all, video platforms should actively give content creators greater creative space. Only by actively participating in the HDR camp can the value of HDR screen be reflected. For example, Bilibili has good support for HDR and has a better impression on mobile devices.

In addition, the industry also needs to come up with a set of recognized HDR standards as soon as possible to allow the content ecosystem to follow. Since the current confusion of HDR ecosystem is the result of the mixed HDR standards, the unified HDR standard can also provide a stable reference for hardware brands.

Image source: ASUS

Only by connecting the entire link of the ecosystem and hardware, allowing consumers to truly experience the excellence of HDR technology, can HDR technology be truly promoted. And by then, HDR technologyIt will also become the second "high refresh rate" and will be popular among PC players. I believe that by then, no one on Zhihu will ask questions like "Why does the HDR picture turn gray after turning on?"