Have you ever wondered why it is a fantastic experience to watch movies in cinema halls rather than at home? It is because the movie theaters deliver the perfect lighting, picture quality, and audio to deliver an experience as intended by the movie maker. It is possible to control the ambient light in the cinema theater to highlight the scenes perfectly. One cannot replicate the same effect on TVs at home because it is challenging to control the amount of light inside your house.
Samsung 2021 Neo QLED TVs come equipped with HDR10+ Adaptive technology that optimizes picture quality and brings it as close to a movie theater-like experience as possible.
The HDR10+ Adaptive Technology – Comparison with HDR10+
Samsung introduced its proprietary and open-sourced High Dynamic Range technology, HDR10+, in its UHD TVs in 2017. These features are also present in the latest 2021 Neo QLED TVs.
HDR10+ uses dynamic mapping (instead of static mapping) to enhance the color quality and contrast to display HDR content on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis.
HDR10+ Adaptive technology improves the existing HDR10+ technology to provide a high-quality movie theater-like experience at home, irrespective of the lighting conditions. This technology supports Filmmaker Mode while adapting to brighter rooms, especially during the daytime.
The AI engine analyzes the viewing environment at home, including the lighting, brightness, and screen reflections using specially-equipped sensors on the TV. It incorporates the dynamic metadata and optimizes the brightness and contrast levels through four additional steps.
While HDR standards are ideally suited for dark rooms, HDR10+ Adaptive technology ensures excellent performance even during the day. It guarantees that the viewer can watch the content precisely in the manner the content creator wanted it to be.
While HDR10+ is a premium technology designed to fine-tune and optimize the TV picture while preserving the original content’s quality, HDR10+ Adaptive improvises by accounting for the surrounding lighting conditions. Thus, it allows viewers to experience the same effect as they get in dark environments, like cinema theaters.
HDR10+ Adaptive – Is it the same as Dolby Vision IQ?
While HDR10+ Adaptive is an exciting technology, it is not new because LG and Panasonic TV models already use similar technology in Dolby Vision IQ.
Dolby Vision IQ was touted as a ‘Beyond HDR’ technology at the time of its launch at CES 2020. Dolby Vision IQ is an updated version of Dolby Vision, an HDR format alongside HDR10+, HDR10, and HLG. Dolby Vision HDR does not deliver the best performance, especially when watching extremely dark scenes in the daytime. One can increase the TV brightness to improve matters, but it results in condensing the contrast levels. Dolby Vision IQ aims to rectify this issue for Dolby Vision HDR.
Dolby Vision IQ uses light sensors embedded inside the TV and the dynamic metadata from Dolby Vision to adjust the picture dynamically to suit the ambient lighting conditions in your room. This technology is similar to what is available in HDR10+ Adaptive.
The 2020 OLED models from LG and Panasonic use Dolby Vision IQ, whereas Samsung 2021 QLED TVs come equipped with HDR10+ Adaptive technology.
Comparison between HDR10+ Adaptive and Dolby Vision IQ
| HDR10+ Adaptive | Dolby Vision IQ |
| HDR10+ Adaptive is a proprietary Samsung technology available only on Samsung OLED TVs (2021 models). | Dolby Vision IQ is available on LG, Panasonic, TCS, and Sony OLED TVs. |
| HDR10+ Adaptive is an improvised version of HDR10+, another Samsung proprietary technology. | Dolby Vision IQ improves Dolby Vision HDR, a standard similar to HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. |
| HDR10+ Adaptive technology improves upon HDR10+ by considering the lighting conditions in the room and using sensors to adjust the picture quality accordingly. | Dolby Vision IQ works on similar technology to HDR10+ Adaptive. |
| HDR10+ Adaptive technology works only on compatible TVs that display HDR10+ content. | Dolby Vision IQ is a licensed technology similar to Dolby Vision HDR. |
| Amazon Prime Video content is available on HDR10+. | |
| Panasonic has also pledged to support HDR10+ Adaptive technology. | |
| HDR10+ Adaptive is an open-source technology like HDR10+. | |
| HDR10+ Adaptive supports Filmmaker Mode |
Final Thoughts
While TV manufacturers subscribed to HDR, HDR10, and Dolby Vision, Samsung has never subscribed to Dolby’s licensing rules. It has introduced HDR10+, a proprietary technology to match HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR.
Dolby Vision HDR has its limitations in that it can be challenging to view dark scenes properly in brightly lit rooms. Dolby Vision IQ addresses this concern by using sensors and Dolby Vision HDR metadata to optimize the TV picture screen-by-screen or frame-by-frame.
Samsung’s HDR10+ Adaptive uses similar technology and supports Filmmaker mode to deliver the movie theater-like experience on its latest QLED TV models. Thus, it enhances the TV viewing experience, regardless of the lighting conditions in the room.
Technology-wise. Samsung’s HDR10+ Adaptive technology is equal to Dolby Vision IQ.
