HDR (High Dynamic Range) video images offer a higher contrast and color depth than is possible in today’s SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) video. The resulting images may feature areas that are both darker and brighter than conventional images and still have realistic detail. No wonder HDR is seen as the next step forward in video, one of the promising viewing modes that will offer viewers a better, more realistic experience.
The world over, movie production houses, TV broadcasters and A/V outlets are ready to jump on the HDR bandwagon. However, the equipment to produce and display HDR content is still largely lacking. Also, a move to HDR is not so obvious for cinemas, as higher brightness requires powerful and expensive laser sources. In addition, the perceived dynamic range of a projected image depends not only on the projector, but also e.g. on the interior design of the theatre.
HD²R has led to the realization of the following four outcomes:
- Production of a short movie in HDR
- Development of algorithms to expand video to HDR
- User perception tests
- Guidelines for the design of movie theatres and HDR projectors
Within this project, IDLab-MEDIA mainly contributed to the standardisation of the HDR-standard, as well as to the user perception tests.
Project information
HD²R is an imec.icon research project. It ran from 01.10.2015 until 30.09.2017.
The research consortium
Industry partners:
- Barco
- Barco Silex
- Grass Valley Nederland
- Grid
- Limecraft
- VRT
Research partners:
- ETRO (imec – VUB)
- IPI (imec – UGent)
- MICT (imec – UGent)
- IDLab (imec – UGent)
