4K TVs have dramatically come down in price recently, and with the holidays approaching, you may be thinking about picking one up. But before you buy, here`s an important PSA for you: Don`t buy a 4K TV without HDR.There`s no doubt that watching 4K content can look really crisp. With it being four times as sharp as 1080p, 2160p (4K) is the emerging resolution standard for good reason. But having access to a panel that can produce more realistic and vivid colors is arguably more important. That`s where HDR comes into play.HDR stands for high-dynamic range, which is a term you might have heard in the camera realm, but it`s somewhat different as it pertains to TVs. When cameras shoot in HDR, they typically take multiple exposures to highlight the contrast between light and dark information in a shot. From there, they process the exposures together to deliver a balanced image that`s more representative of how we, as humans, perceive light and color.In this image, you see a representation of Dolby Vision HDR on the left contrasted with standard RGB.HDR TVs also aim to represent hues in a more realistic way, but instead of using multiple exposures and processing to combine images together, HDR TVs simply use displays that offer a much wider color gamut compared to standard RGB panels.The black triangle represents HDR, and encompasses roughly 75 percent of colors that the human eye can see. The Yellow triangle represents the color gamut of more traditional sRGB screens.According to Nvidia, compared to sRGB, HDR can expand the color gamut by a factor of two, which makes up roughly 75 percent of the visible color spectrum. It allows colors to provide more granularity, so you can get tones that are more subtle or vibrant. Watching content like Planet Earth II, for instance, exemplifies how video can look much more colorful and lifelike with HDR enabled.Many new high-end TVs are now bundling 4K and HDR together, but there are several that don`t, so it`s important to check t ...
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