Calibrating a new TV takes a lot of work as you work to dial in the proper settings, and I don’t blame people for throwing their hands up and calling it a day. However, that’s bad practice, and you can do some basic calibration in a few seconds. The big thing I want to talk about is your brightness. A lot of people like to crank up the brightness on their TV, and while that works in some scenarios — like HDR content — it’s not ideal for most of your viewing experience.
I love watching movies, especially in the 4K Blu-ray format, but I also have a wide range of regular Blu-ray movies, and I watch a lot of stuff on YouTube TV as well. Those latter examples are all shown in standard dynamic range, better known as SDR. SDR is typically mastered around 100 nits of peak brightness, so the content isn’t designed to pop off your screen. As a result, you want to actually lower your brightness as low as it can go for SDR content.
HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
Trivia challenge
Dynamic metadata, tone mapping, and peak brightness — how well do you really know the battle for HDR supremacy?
HDRDisplay TechStreamingStandardsPicture Quality
What key feature distinguishes HDR10+ and Dolby Vision from standard HDR10?
Correct! Both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision use dynamic metadata, meaning tone mapping instructions can change on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis. This allows displays to render highlights and shadows far more accurately than static HDR10, which applies a single set of instructions to the entire film.
Not quite. The defining difference is dynamic metadata. Unlike base HDR10, both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision carry tone mapping data that adapts throughout the content, ensuring each scene looks as the creator intended on a wide variety of displays.
Which company developed and licenses the Dolby Vision HDR format?
Correct! Dolby Laboratories, the audio and imaging technology giant, created Dolby Vision. Because it is a proprietary format, manufacturers must pay licensing fees to include Dolby Vision support in their TVs, projectors, and streaming devices — a cost that has influenced some brands to favour alternatives.
Not quite. Dolby Vision is owned and licensed by Dolby Laboratories. The proprietary nature of the format means device makers pay a fee to support it, which is one reason rival formats like HDR10+ exist as royalty-free alternatives.
HDR10+ was developed as a royalty-free alternative to Dolby Vision. Which company is primarily credited with creating it?
Correct! Samsung developed HDR10+ and launched it in 2017, largely in response to the licensing costs associated with Dolby Vision. Samsung made the specification royalty-free and later partnered with Amazon and Panasonic to help grow its adoption across TVs and streaming platforms.
Not quite. HDR10+ was created by Samsung. The company wanted a dynamic metadata HDR format that manufacturers could adopt without paying royalties, and it launched the standard in 2017 alongside partners including Amazon and Panasonic.
What is the maximum peak luminance specification that Dolby Vision supports?
Correct! Dolby Vision’s specification supports peak luminance up to 10,000 nits, far exceeding what current consumer displays can actually achieve. This future-proofed headroom means the format is designed to remain relevant as display technology continues to improve over the coming years.
Not quite. Dolby Vision supports up to 10,000 nits of peak luminance. While no mainstream consumer TV today reaches that level, the generous ceiling ensures the format won’t become technically obsolete as display brightness capabilities continue to advance.
Which major streaming platform was among the first to offer HDR10+ content, helping drive early adoption of the format?
Correct! Amazon Prime Video was an early and enthusiastic adopter of HDR10+, working closely with Samsung to bring the format to streaming audiences. Amazon’s involvement was significant because it gave HDR10+ a high-profile platform at a time when Dolby Vision had a strong lead in streaming content availability.
Not quite. Amazon Prime Video was a key early partner for HDR10+, collaborating with Samsung to bring the format to its streaming library. Netflix, by contrast, has been a strong supporter of Dolby Vision rather than HDR10+.
Dolby Vision IQ is an enhanced version of Dolby Vision that adds which additional capability?
Correct! Dolby Vision IQ uses a TV’s built-in ambient light sensor to adjust the picture’s tone mapping in real time based on the lighting conditions in the viewing environment. This means the image stays optimally calibrated whether you are watching in a darkened home cinema or a bright living room.
Not quite. Dolby Vision IQ enhances the standard format by incorporating ambient light sensing. The TV reads the light level in the room and adjusts tone mapping accordingly, so the picture always looks its best regardless of the environment you are watching in.
What colour bit depth does Dolby Vision use, compared to the 10-bit depth of standard HDR10?
Correct! Dolby Vision supports up to 12-bit colour depth, which allows for over 68 billion possible colours compared to the roughly one billion available with 10-bit HDR10. In practice, most current displays are 10-bit panels, but 12-bit support future-proofs the format for next-generation screens.
Not quite. Dolby Vision supports up to 12-bit colour, enabling a dramatically larger palette than 10-bit HDR10. While most TVs on the market today are 10-bit, the 12-bit specification ensures Dolby Vision has room to grow as panel technology evolves.
Which of the following devices was notably the first smartphone to support Dolby Vision recording, not just playback?
Correct! Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro, launched in 2020, was the first smartphone capable of recording video directly in Dolby Vision HDR. This was a landmark moment for the format, bringing professional-grade HDR capture to a mainstream consumer device and significantly raising the profile of Dolby Vision beyond traditional cinema and television.
Not quite. The Apple iPhone 12 Pro made history in 2020 as the first smartphone to record video natively in Dolby Vision. Apple’s decision to bake this capability into its flagship camera system brought HDR video recording to millions of everyday users for the first time.
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As low as you can go when it comes to SDR
It goes against standard thinking
I first stumbled across this knowledge when I was calibrating my new Fire TV Mini LED. Like a lot of people, I went over to RTINGS, and the site recommended setting my brightness to zero in SDR content. I thought that it was a mistype, so I kept it at 50. After spending some time watching YouTube TV, I started to experiment with lowering the brightness. I went down in increments of 10, and after a few days, I got it all the way down to zero. The strange thing is that something I thought would be impossible now feels the opposite. I cranked the brightness back up to 50, and it felt like I was melting my eyes out.
You will eventually get used to the lower brightness, but you don’t have to set it to zero if you don’t want to. However, I’ve found that even in a dark room at night, I can still see everything happening on my TV just fine. I also get the bonus of almost perfect black levels thanks to the combination of low brightness and high local dimming on my Blu-ray discs. I love watching horror movies, so it’s nice to know something like this as I break out my Blu-ray discs. While I still prefer HDR in pretty much any situation it’s available, you can still make SDR content look good by lowering your brightness like this. If you’re like me and have a large Blu-ray collection, it’s nice to know that you don’t have to rush out and upgrade all of them to their 4K counterpart just to get a better-looking image.
Most TVs allow you to set specific settings for specific picture settings. Just because you set your brightness low in SDR doesn’t mean it’ll default to low brightness in HDR. Your TV automatically picks up the format you’re watching in, so you shouldn’t have to change any settings around if you watch something in HDR, which is definitely good news. A lot of this comes down to your viewing situation, and obviously, if your TV is too dark to see during regular viewing, you should turn up the brightness. In my situation, having a brightness level of zero works out just fine for SDR, during both the day and night, so that’s what it stays at. It also goes a long way toward making SDR content not look washed out.
Don’t follow this advice for HDR content
Brightness matters a lot for HDR
While you want to keep your brightness low for SDR, you want the opposite for HDR. HDR shines when it can take advantage of the contrast your screen offers, which is something that’s not really possible when your screen isn’t bright. Peak brightness is what really matters here, and if your brightness is at zero, then your peaks are very low. What I’ve seen is that using your TV’s Filmmaker mode is often a good place to start, and you can tweak things to your liking from there. SDR calibration is something I’ve seen TVs struggle with out of the box, and HDR is a lot easier to rein in.
You should still tweak things to your liking, but one thing I would recommend is to turn off all of those fancy motion smoothing and AI enhancements. A lot of TVs like to use dynamic brightness settings that tailor your screen depending on its conditions, but I’ve found those to be very distracting. The last thing I want to happen while I’m watching a movie is for the screen to get randomly brighter and darker at any given time. Many people don’t mind things like that, but I like to keep things as distraction free as possible, and that’s how I do it.
