If you find yourself watching a TV show or movie on your current TV and thinking ‘Why is this so dark? I can’t see what’s going on’ then you’re far from alone.

Several years ago, people famously complained that an episode of Game of Thrones was too dark to see: even the best TVs struggled! Due to the extremely dark scenes used, details were crushed in dark areas so shapes couldn't be differentiated, and it really demonstrated how important shadow detail can be on a TV.

While TVs are getting much brighter, with some of the best OLED TVs now surpassing 2,000 nits of brightness and some mini-LEDs easily hitting over 4,000 nits (!), dark scenes can still be an issue for a lot of TV owners, with crushed blacks and mirror-like reflections causing real problems with making out what's actually happening.

As TechRadar’s TV reviewer, I’ve had my fair share of issues with TVs being too dark in certain modes, or without changing some settings. So, here are some quick fixes as well as more in-depth settings that will hopefully help you solve, or at the very least reduce, your ‘too-dark’ TV problems.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll be using our reference LG G5 OLED TV to show you some settings to tweak, and while settings may vary on your TV, there will likely be an equivalent of these picture settings on your TV with similar names.

Easy fixes

The following options will be available on pretty much all TVs, and are your most direct route for fixing a picture that's too dark.

Picture mode

Probably the most obvious and easy change is to check what picture mode your TV is in. Most companies now ship TVs in an ‘Eco’ mode by default and, as you guessed it, this mode limits brightness as an energy-saving measure. While helpful for bills, it’s limiting your TV’s potential brightness and contrast.

While I typically use Filmmaker Mode during TV testing and for my own personal viewing at home, it can also be quite dim (in the name of accuracy rather than energy saving, though) and some TVs can really struggle in brighter rooms in this mode.

Cinema/Movie mode is often a brighter alternative to Filmmaker Mode that’s still accurate and is great for movie viewing.

In the example above, Dark City, a movie with plenty of dark and high-contrast scenes, really benefits from the G5’s brighter Cinema mode in a brighter room, whereas Filmmaker Mode results in more obvious mirror-like reflections and loss of detail. Filmmaker Mode can work well in the right viewing conditions, however.

While it might be tempting to opt for a TV’s Vivid mode, this is often an overly bright, oversaturated mode that I recommend avoiding. If you want brighter than Cinema/Movie, Standard is the next best alternative, and is the mode I often use for sports viewing.

Picture settings: brightness

The most conventional setting you can change on your TV to try and fix murky pictures is the brightness setting. In SDR mode, I’ve found most TVs won’t have this setting turned to its maximum, and usually for good reason. Some, such as the Samsung S95F I tested as part of a four-way OLED comparison, are set to 12 out of 50, and they can definitely handle a brightness adjustment without resulting in inaccuracies.

In HDR modes, TVs will most likely be at their highest brightness. If you’re struggling in this mode too, there is another setting you can look for: peak brightness. Typically featured on mini-LED TVs, peak brightness (or peak light) can provide a hidden bonus boost to your TV’s brightness. While some are set to Maximum by default, some can be set to Medium, meaning there’s some extra brightness to be found.

In the above example with the pocket watch displayed on the LG G5, peak brightness was set to High in Cinema Home mode by default, but I turned it off to experiment, and there was a difference. The gold and white colors of the pocket watch were significantly punchier with peak brightness set to High.

It’s worth checking to see if your TV has this setting and if you can adjust it. I’ve found Hisense and TCL models often carry this setting.

Related to the Eco picture mode I discussed above, it’s worth checking to see if there are any ambient light or eco brightness settings hidden. These settings use the viewing environment to judge how much brightness the TV should output. In darker rooms, it’ll dim itself and in brighter rooms, it’ll push the brightness… in theory.

I’ve still found these ambient light settings can still limit brightness, even in brighter rooms, so if you keep having problems with it turned on, it's worth experimenting with this setting to see if turning it off and manually boosting brightness works.

The G5, for example, has its Energy Saving Step setting turned on by default, which limits its brightness output. Turning this off can really add a big brightness boost to the picture and help with brighter rooms and darker movies.

In-depth fixes

These settings require a bit more experimentation and they won’t be on every TV. If they are, they may have a different name and it will vary how intuitive they’ll actually be.

Picture settings: contrast

Another setting, or sometimes group of settings, that can help brighten a picture are contrast-enhancement tools. These settings can have a variety of names such as 'shadow detail', 'black level enhancement', 'dark detail' or even just 'contrast'. Their purpose is to enhance contrast, by making black tones bolder and bright tones brighter at the same time.

While this can sometimes compromise the authenticity of a picture on screen, it can be very useful for TVs struggling in bright rooms or more budget sets.

The amount you’ll be able to do with these contrast settings will vary from TV to TV, but on our reference G5 we’ve got a couple of options available. Above, I tried out a few of the G5’s numerous contrast settings with The Batman in HDR Cinema Home. The Batman is a torture test for some TVs, as its low-mastered brightness can make it really tough to watch in bright rooms – I use it in reviews all the time for this reason.

Auto Dynamic Contrast was turned off by default in Cinema Home, and while the picture was accurate, some details in shaded areas were difficult to pick out. Setting Auto Dynamic Contrast to High brought more details of Batman’s face into view, such as his eye. While having this off is more accurate, that doesn't matter much if you can't see what's going on.

Another here is the Expression Enhancer setting. While not as obvious a difference maker as some of the other settings, changing its default setting from Detail to Brightness has made the whites on the owl a little bolder in the example above. This could be useful again for bringing more brightness to scenes.

Another setting you may find is Black Level (sometimes called Shadow Detail). Boosting this can add some brightness to the overall picture as well by adjusting black levels.

In the example above with the eagle, changing the black level setting from 50 to 65 again adds some more brightness. With the G5, it did negatively affect the accuracy of the blacks, giving them more of a gray hue, but this may be more limited on your TV, or may simply be a compromise you need to live with to be able to see what's going on.

• Samsung TVs will be the first to support HDR10+ on Disney+, Disney confirms
• Samsung TVs support HDR10+ in place of Dolby Vision
• Disney joins other streaming services like Prime Video in supporting HDR10+

Disney has confirmed that Samsung's TVs will be the first to support HDR10+ on Disney+ and Hulu.

Disney first announced it was going to support HDR10+ at CES 2025 but has now confirmed that Samsung's TVs, makers of some of the best TVs and a real supporter for HDR10+, are first in line to support the enhanced HDR format on the popular streaming service.

While no actual date for the HDR10+ rollout has been confirmed, we do know that all of Samsung's TVs from 2018 onwards, from its 'Crystal UHD' LED sets to its flagship OLEDs, will support HDR10+ on Disney+.

Disney+ joins some of the best streaming services such as Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, and YouTube in supporting the premium HDR format. Disney+ will continue to offer Dolby Vision HDR streaming as well.

HDR10+ is a premium HDR format that allows for a more dynamic, brighter, and more contrast-rich picture than SDR and HDR10. It is not only supported on streaming but also on 4K Blu-ray as well.

Why is this good news for Samsung TV owners? Until now, Disney+ has only offered Dolby Vision HDR quality, and as Samsung TVs don't support Dolby Vision, instead opting to support HDR10+, viewers couldn't get the most out of their hardware. With HDR10+ support coming to Disney+, Samsung TVs, some of the best TVs around, will now get an upgraded picture when watching the best Disney+ shows.

Samsung TVs aren't the only TVs to support HDR10+. Hisense, TCL, Panasonic, as well as Philips in the UK, all offer models that support HDR10+ as well as Dolby Vision. LG and Sony however do not support HDR10+, not even on more premium sets such as the LG C5 OLED or Sony Bravia 9, instead opting for Dolby Vision HDR support only.

Great news for Samsung

It has always seemed like an odd decision by Samsung to continuously forego support of Dolby Vision in its TVs; a decision that hasn't changed with any of its 2025 TVs.

Many streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ originally opted to only support the Dolby Vision HDR format, meaning Samsung owners would miss out on the best possible picture quality on their TVs. A TV like the Samsung S95F for example, one of the best OLED TVs of 2025, deserves the best quality on a streaming service.

But this decision by Disney means that Samsung TV fans - and crucially potential customers - can now buy with a bit more confidence knowing another streaming service has joined the seemingly growing group of streaming sites to offer HDR10+ streaming.

Whether other streaming services will offer HDR10+ support (looking at you, Netflix and Max) remains to be seen, but until then, Samsung lovers now have one more service they can watch on the best Samsung TVs in the optimum quality.

How important is High Dynamic Range (HDR) on TVs?

In case you're unfamiliar, HDR is a type of metadata that enables a display to show content with extended contrast and a wider range of colors compared to Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). HDR is mainly featured in 4K Blu-ray, 4K streaming and current-gen video games, with the most common format being HDR10, followed by the more advanced Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

Dolby Vision is the more popular of the two major formats (though more services are now including HDR10+ support), and is featured on some of the best TVs from brands like LG, Sony, Panasonic, Hisense, TCL and Philips. Samsung does not support Dolby Vision on its TVs, instead favoring HDR10+.

With the best 4K Blu-ray players and best streaming services supporting Dolby Vision, are you missing out when you buy a Samsung TV? Or is the handling of HDR on Samsung TVs effective enough to calm your FOMO for Dolby Vision? I got the chance to test this out by putting the LG B5 and Samsung S85F, two of 2025’s best OLED TVs, side by side.

Both these TVs use the same W-OLED panel (although the S85F does use a QD-OLED panel for its 55- and 65-inch sizes in the US). For my test, I played the same content on both TVs, with the B5 displaying in Dolby Vision and the S85F in the baseline HDR10 format. I made sure to use the same source material and near-enough the same 4K Blu-ray player, the Sony UBP-X700 and its 2025 version, the UBP-X700K, attached to each TV.

What does Dolby Vision do?

First, a quick summary of what Dolby Vision does. Unlike HDR10, which uses static metadata to tell a display how to show content based on its maximum brightness level, Dolby Vision uses dynamic metadata. This lets a compatible display adapt the picture’s brightness, color, and contrast on a scene-by-scene basis to optimize the picture.

Dolby Vision also uses 12-bit color and supports up to 10,000 nits brightness, whereas HDR10 uses 10-bit color and supports up to 4,000 nits brightness. (Dolby recently announced the arrival of Dolby Vision 2, and while we’ve only seen brief demos so far, with its focus on brightness optimization, Dolby Vision 2 is an exciting step forward.)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I started my test with a 4K stream of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Disney+, focusing on the throne room fight scene. The LG B5 was set to Dolby Vision Cinema Home, whereas the Samsung S85F was set to HDR Movie.

During testing, it was clear that the B5 and its Dolby Vision picture had superior contrast and black depth. A shadow cast across Rey’s face from a light to the side created much stronger shadows and contrast on her face, while the S85F and its HDR10 picture delivered a brighter image, making Rey’s skin look paler.

For colors, the reds of the walls, the guards' uniforms, and lightsabers appeared much bolder and richer on the B5. The colors looked brighter on the S85F, with highlights such as the blade of the lightsaber packing a more vivid punch. On both TVs, however, the colors felt natural and true-to-life. The B5 may have had a slight edge thanks to its greater black depth, but both TVs looked very good overall.

Playing this scene in each TV's respective Filmmaker Mode, however, revealed how much work the S85F’s Movie mode was doing. In Filmmaker Mode, the S85F's brightness and contrast took a hit, and while the picture didn’t look bad, the Dolby Vision picture on the B5 was more appealing.

The Batman

The Batman is a disc I often use as a ‘torture test’ for TVs, as its low overall brightness makes it a challenge for TVs to display. The 4K Blu-ray of the movie supports Dolby Vision, so I was curious to see how it fared on both screens.

With the TVs set to the dimmer Filmmaker Mode, it was clear the B5 had more accurate blacks and more powerful contrast, with a greater range between the light tones from lamps and torches and the dark surroundings in both the subway fight scene and the crime scene at Mayor Mitchell’s house. Shadows also appeared elevated on the S85F, taking on a gray hue in places. Both TVs demonstrated good shadow detail, with photos on the dark walls still visible on both screens.

Switching the TVs to their respective movie modes (Dolby Vision Cinema Home for the B5 and HDR Movie on the S85F), the S85F’s HDR tone mapping improved the picture. Contrast was stronger, and blacks looked deeper than they had previously, bringing it much more in line with the B5’s Dolby Vision picture. Still, the B5 had the superior picture of the two, showing how effective Dolby Vision was for The Batman.

Ready Player One

Next up was Ready Player One, a movie with a blend of colorful animation and live action. Putting both TVs into Filmmaker Mode once again, the biggest difference between the two TVs was brightness. Despite having similar measured HDR brightness to the B5, the S85F appeared much duller. Colors also didn’t have the same vibrancy on the S85F, with the red headlights and gold coins during the opening race appearing far punchier on the B5.

Switching again to Movie mode, the S85F’s image was much brighter, giving colors a more vivid look and textures enhanced detail. Black depth on the B5 was still better, however, which gave textures a slightly more 3D-like quality.

Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray

For my last comparison, I used demo footage from the Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark 4K Blu-ray. There are various selectable HDR options for this footage, and I selected Dolby Vision 10,000 nits. This footage is an extreme example, as the highest maximum brightness you’ll generally see with real-world movies and TV is 4,000 nits.

With both TVs set to Filmmaker Mode, the results here were a mixed bag. In more colorful scenes, such as one of an orange butterfly opening its wings, the S85F’s picture was much closer to the B5. The color did appear slightly washed out on the S85F in comparison, but it was true-to-life enough, and details such as black spots on the wings and the butterfly’s body were all intact.

The most surprising and extreme example of the difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10 on the TVs was a shot of some horses in a snowy field. Not only did the white of the snow appear dull on the S85F, but details in the background of the scene, such as hillsides and houses, disappeared altogether. On the B5, the scene looked as I expected, with plenty of depth and detail.

Other scenes from the disc demonstrated a similar loss of detail on the S85F. Switching to Movie mode helped somewhat, but there ultimately wasn't much of a difference between it and Filmmaker Mode, particularly on the shot of horses in a snowy field..

Are you missing out?

So, if you buy one of the best Samsung TVs, are you missing out? From my testing, it depends on the content. When displaying streamed Dolby Vision content, the S85F fared well with colorful scenes, really only lacking a little picture depth compared to the LG B5. With 4K Blu-ray however, the B5 looked superior, with crisper textures, stronger contrast, bolder colors, and, in the case of Ready Player One, higher brightness.

However, it was also clear from my test that picture mode is important. While Filmmaker Mode is my go-to for testing due to its accuracy, the S85F clearly benefited from the tone mapping provided in its Movie mode. This brought it more in line with the B5 and, in some instances, actually made Dolby Vision seem irrelevant. I do believe Dolby Vision support is an important feature, but the picture processing in Samsung TVs can do a good job of compensating for its absence.

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The Samsung S95F is currently sitting in TechRadar’s testing labs being put through its paces, with a full review imminent. My impressions so far are very positive, and although it’s got a tough opponent in the LG G5, its rival flagship OLED, the S95F has some very strong attributes.

We use both subjective and objective testing when evaluating TVs at TechRadar. Subjective testing involves watching movies and TV shows in both standard dynamic range (Blu-ray, broadcast TV, and DVD) and high dynamic range (4K streaming and 4K Blu-ray) formats to evaluate a TV's picture quality and sound quality. We also use gaming consoles to see if a TV can be counted among the best gaming TVs.

Objective testing involves measurements of peak and fullscreen brightness; color and grayscale accuracy; and HDR color gamut coverage, which tells us how much of the BT.2020 and UHDA-P3 color spaces the TV can display.

(You can learn more about how TechRadar tests TVs here.)

100!

When I used Portrait Displays’ Calman color calibration software to record measurements, the S95F showcased impressive figures across the board, hitting 2,132 nits HDR peak brightness and 390 nits fullscreen brightness in Filmmaker Mode. The latter is a record-high result for an OLED TV we’ve measured.

Fullscreen brightness is important for content like sports, where large areas of a single color – the green turf of a playing field, for instance – need to be evenly displayed without looking washed out. It is also useful for reducing reflections when viewing in bright rooms. Paired with its OLED Glare-Free screen, the S95F's high fullscreen brightness makes it one of the best OLED TVs for bright room viewing.

The S95F also clocked a color accuracy average of 2.6. The human eye is generally incapable of registering a result lower than 3, so this is a good score for the S95F.

During testing, the S95F also achieved a never-before-seen landmark in my experience: its UHDA-P3 HDR color gamut coverage clocked in at 100%. The P3 color space is used for mastering 4K Blu-ray and digital cinema releases, so the greater range of this color space a TV can cover, the more accurate a reproduction of a movie you’re going to see.

Not only that, but the S95F hit 89.3% coverage of the BT.2020 color space. For most of the best TVs we’ve tested in recent years, this result typically ranges between 71% and 82%.

Although BT.2020 isn’t as common as P3, more movies and 4K Blu-rays are starting to use it, such as Blade Runner: 2049, La La Land, John Wick 3 and Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse. So, as TVs improve BT.2020 color space coverage, they are better future-proofed for new movies down the line.

Unlike TVs, it's not uncommon for some projectors to clock in at over 100% BT.2020 coverage, something made possible by their use of a light engine with separate red, green and blue lasers.

A P3 coverage of around 95% is the minimum for accurately rendering a movie’s color, and the best mini-LED TVs we’ve tested have clocked in at that level, while OLED TVs generally hit between 96% and 99%. But the S95F is the first TV we’ve measured to hit the 100% mark.

Getting the balance right

During my time testing the S95F, its stunning color display has been one of its highlights, with movies like Elemental and Wicked popping off the screen with real vibrancy and flair.

An area where it would be great to see Samsung improve its OLED panels is black levels. The S95F is an improvement over its S95D predecessor here, but for real-world viewing, the S95F’s black levels still come up short of the richness of those found in OLED TVs with glossy screens, such as the LG G5.

But, it's difficult to imagine giving up the OLED Glare-Free screen, as it is so effective at removing mirror-like reflections, as I found testing it with three of the darkest 4K Blu-rays I use for testing.

I hope Samsung enhances its Glare-Free screen in future versions, and that we’ll eventually see equally deep black levels as with glossy-screen OLEDs.

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• Google Photos is adding an Ultra HDR feature to some Android phones
• This lets you increase photo vibrancy in a few taps
• It can be applied to regular photos even after they’ve been taken

If you’ve taken a bunch of photos but wish they could be jazzed up with a little HDR magic, you’re in luck. That’s because Google has just added the ability to enhance your images with Ultra HDR effects in Google Photos. Better yet, the HDR changes can be applied to regular pictures, even if you’ve already taken and uploaded them.

As noticed by Android Authority, the feature has rolled out to a number of Google Photos users in recent days. It can’t yet be used by everyone, and it’s not clear whether it’s limited to the best Android phones or will soon be available more widely.

Google Photos’ Ultra HDR mode lets you take photos with a wider range of colors than standard pictures. That can boost image vibrancy, but you’ll usually need a device with an HDR display to fully appreciate the effect.

Yet the good thing about Google’s Ultra HDR feature is that it’s backward compatible, so your photos will revert to using standard color ranges on regular Android screens.

It also works the other way, too. Google Photos appears to have added the ability to convert normal photos into HDR equivalents, boosting their saturation and helping them pop much more than they previously did. That means There’s no need to remember to take the pictures in HDR mode in the first place.

Better photos in HDR

Ultra HDR mode had been spotted as far back as September 2024, but it wasn’t fully functional at the time. Now with version 7.24.0.747539053 of the Google Photos app, it looks like it’s beginning to roll out to a range of Android users.

Once it becomes more widely available, you will find the feature in the Adjust section of the Google Photos editor. There, you’ll be able to change the strength of the HDR effect using a slider. It is set to replace the HDR Effect option currently in Google Photos.

You can see a preview of the Ultra HDR effect on GitHub. Make sure you’re viewing it on an HDR-compatible device to be able to observe it properly.

Still, there’s no reliable indication of when the feature might arrive for everyone. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before it rolls out.

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On its website, Samsung lists this monitor as the S90PC ViewFinity 5K Smart Monitor, but it feels more like a smart TV on first “boot”. It asks to be connected to your Wi-Fi network, and once you’ve jumped through various hoops you’ll find yourself in Samsung’s TV Plus section with a huge selection of live channels. Just to hammer home the point, your first interactions are via a remote control rather than an OSD.

The remote offers dedicated buttons for Disney Plus, Netflix and Prime Video. We watched the first few minutes of Top Gun: Maverick and the detail was so rich on the 5K panel that we picked up several details we didn’t spot in the cinema. Samsung backs up the visuals with the best speakers here by some distance. Whisper it, but there’s even bass on show.

You can also play games via Samsung’s Gaming Hub, with an option to sync your Amazon account via Luna. It supports Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia’s GeForce Now services, too. Games look great, despite the S9’s modest 60Hz refresh rate.

But we’re getting this the wrong way round, for Samsung is promoting the ViewFinity S9 as a work first, play later monitor, so let’s head to the Workplace area of its Tizen OS interface. Here, you can wirelessly connect to a PC, a Samsung phone (using DeX) and even log in to your Microsoft 365 workspace.

The latter is aggravatingly slow, though, and there’s also annoying lag on the wireless connections to your PC and phone, so you’ll reach for the Thunderbolt cable where possible. And at this point, finally, it becomes a normal monitor. Albeit one with a 5K (5,120 x 2,880) resolution, which gives a quite stunning 218ppi density. Overkill, but photographers will love the detail, and it makes the 109ppi of a 1440p 27in screen feel distinctly average.

At this price we expected mini-LED technology, but IPS is in place as usual.

It’s an 8-bit panel with FRC, giving 1.07 billion colors, but what will matter for professional users is that it comes pre-calibrated for sRGB and DCI-P3. Not Adobe RGB, though, which is a surprise as the ViewFinity S9 lists Pantone validation among its many features.

There are also two slots available in the OSD for hardware calibration via recent Samsung phones. Using the Smart Things app, you can opt for a simple 30-second calibration for basic colors and brightness, or complete a ten-minute “professional” calibration to either the sRGB or DCI-P3 color spaces. The result was little better than the pre-calibrated versions, but could be useful if the colors drift over the years.

Most of the time, though, you’ll find the default “Eco” mode does the job, which uses the panel’s native color profile and covers 99% of the DCI-P3 space. We’re not sure “Eco” is the correct term, however, as this is the most power-intensive 27in display here, consuming 42W at 200cd/m² and 61W at its peak 629cd/m². Films benefit from even higher peaks thanks to support for HDR.

The monitor itself looks stunning. Its thin bezels and stylish finish remind us of Apple’s Studio Display, and while we would have liked more tilt than 15° back and 2° forward, at least it includes 120mm of height adjustment. Only an ambient light sensor interrupts the clean lines of the front display, with the traditional OSD controls tucked next to a sprinkling of connectors at the rear: a miniDisplayPort, one USB-C input (complete with Thunderbolt 4 support), and three USB-C connectors for peripherals. The main USB-C port delivers 98W of power but the others a miserly 4.5W, which is surprising when you consider the gigantic power brick – think cigar case – that you’ll want to hide under your desk.

There’s one final bonus here: a 4K webcam. It comes with a privacy cover, albeit one that’s easy to lose, but for ultimate privacy simply disconnect it. The slimline unit attaches magnetically to the rear of the panel via pogo pins, so you can chuck it in a drawer when not in use. When it’s time for calls, its superb detail capture will surely impress.

Whether it’s great enough to justify the price is a different matter. If it included mini-LED technology we could understand the £999 tag, but the S9 – while a lovely monitor – only makes sense for those with money to spare and the need for a 5K work screen during the day and an entertainment center at night.

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In 2025, anyone looking for the best TVs will likely have encountered the terms HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, both of which are high dynamic range (HDR) formats that promise incredibly realistic visuals for all types of content.

High Dynamic Range has revolutionised the way we experience movies, TV shows, and video games, bringing more vivid colors, deeper contrast, and brighter highlights to our screens.

Among the HDR formats available, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision stand out as the two leading options, each promising to deliver the ultimate visual experience on your new TV.

However, these formats aren’t identical, and understanding their differences is crucial for anyone looking to make an informed decision about their next TV, streaming service, or 4K Blu-ray disc purchase.

From how they handle brightness and color depth to the content and devices they support, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision have unique strengths and limitations that can significantly impact your viewing experience.

Today, we're diving into the details of these competing formats, comparing their technologies, compatibility, content availability, and real-world performance, to help you make the smart TV purchasing choice. Let's dive in.

HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: What are the HDR formats?

To start, HDR10+ is an advanced high dynamic range format developed by a Samsung-led consortium that builds on the base HDR10 standard.

HDR10+ introduces dynamic metadata, which allows the brightness and contrast of individual scenes to be optimised on a frame-by-frame basis, ensuring that darker scenes retain detail without appearing washed out (and vice versa).

An advantage of HDR10+ is its open standard, which is royalty-free, making it an attractive option for manufacturers aiming to provide premium HDR experiences without the added cost of licensing fees.

Dolby Vision is a proprietary HDR format created by Dolby Laboratories. Known for its cutting-edge features, Dolby Vision supports a higher bit depth of up to 12-bit color compared to HDR10+’s 10-bit standard.

Dolby Vision also utilises dynamic metadata, like HDR10+, but includes advanced tone mapping algorithms, enabling optimal performance across various display technologies, from entry-level LED TVs and projectors to the best OLED TVs.

A key distinction between the two formats lies in their approach to licensing and adoption: HDR10+ is royalty-free, which has led to its widespread support among manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic, Hisense and TCL, while Dolby Vision requires licensing fees, which can increase the cost of devices but also ensures strict quality standards.

The split has resulted in Dolby Vision becoming synonymous with premium home entertainment products, including TVs from LG, Sony, and Vizio, as well as Apple devices.

HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: Technical features

When it comes to brightness and contrast, Dolby Vision has a clear theoretical edge, supporting peak brightness levels of up to 10,000 nits. While no consumer TVs currently achieve this level (though two new models announced by Hisense at CES 2025 have a specified 10,000 nits peak brightness), Dolby Vision’s capabilities future-proof it for emerging display technologies.

In contrast, HDR10+ is typically implemented with a practical brightness ceiling closer to 4,000 nits, which aligns with the best current-generation TVs. This difference may not be noticeable on mid-range TVs, but on high-end displays capable of pushing brightness limits, Dolby Vision’s ability to handle extreme highlights can theoretically provide a more impactful viewing experience.

In terms of colour depth, Dolby Vision again leads with support for 12-bit colour, offering a vastly expanded palette of colours and smoother gradations between shades. HDR10+, like HDR10, supports 10-bit colour, which is currently used for most content, and matches the 10-bit capability of consumer displays.

Both formats use dynamic metadata, a significant advantage over the static metadata of standard HDR10, and which enables the optimisation of brightness and contrast for each scene or frame.

While HDR10+ and Dolby Vision both use this feature, Dolby Vision’s tone mapping algorithms are often considered more advanced, delivering superior performance across a wider range of display tech, from entry-level LED TVs with limited screen brightness to flagship OLEDs.

Finally, backward compatibility is another important consideration.

Both formats are built on the HDR10 baseline, ensuring that content mastered in HDR10+ or Dolby Vision can still be viewed in HDR10 on devices that do not support the advanced formats. However, while this fallback exists, the benefits of dynamic metadata are lost, which may impact the viewing experience.

HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: What content is available?

Content availability is a crucial factor when choosing between HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, especially as streaming platforms dominate how most people access HDR content.

Dolby Vision leads in this space, being widely supported by major streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and HBO Max, offering a vast library of films, series, and documentaries. HDR10+, while gaining traction, is primarily supported by Prime Video, Paramount+, Hulu and Apple TV+ with a smaller selection of compatible titles. At the recent CES 2025, it was announced that HDR10+ support would be coming to Disney+, though a specific timeline wasn't cited.

In the physical media space, 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays often favour Dolby Vision, thanks to its early adoption and partnerships with major studios. Many discs include both HDR10 and Dolby Vision for broader compatibility, while HDR10+ support is less common but gradually increasing.

Dolby Vision’s dual-layer approach, which includes HDR10 fallback, makes it particularly versatile for physical media collectors who use a mix of older and newer devices.

Gaming represents a growing area for HDR content, and Dolby Vision is making significant inroads with support on Xbox Series X and Series S, enhancing visuals for compatible games. In contrast, PlayStation 5 only supports HDR10, and HDR10+ adoption in gaming remains limited to select PC setups and titles.

HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: Performance, licensing, and future-proofing

When it comes to real-world performance, both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision deliver excellent HDR experiences, but their differences can become apparent depending on the display and content.

Dolby Vision tends to excel in scenarios where precise brightness control and colour accuracy are critical, thanks to its 12-bit colour depth and advanced tone mapping algorithms. HDR10+, while slightly less refined, still offers impressive results, particularly on compatible mid-range and high-end TVs that can make the most of its dynamic metadata.

In terms of licensing and costs, HDR10+ holds a distinct advantage. Being royalty-free, HDR10+ is less expensive for manufacturers to implement, allowing for more affordable TVs and devices without sacrificing core HDR performance.

Dolby Vision, on the other hand, requires licensing fees, which can contribute to higher costs for compatible products. While this cost is often passed on to consumers, the strict quality standards enforced by Dolby Vision ensure a consistent and premium experience across certified devices, making it a worthwhile investment for home theatre enthusiasts.

Looking ahead, future-proofing is a key consideration, and both formats are evolving to meet the demands of emerging technologies.

Dolby Vision’s theoretical support for 10,000 nits of brightness and 12-bit colour ensures compatibility with future display advancements, such as 8K TVs and next-generation panels. HDR10+ benefits from its open standard, which encourages widespread adoption and innovation.

One thing to note is that that content is commonly mastered within the 1,000–4,000 nits range, which reduces the theoretical advantage of Dolby Vision's 10,000 nits peak. Overall, many of the practical differences for consumers today are minimal due to content mastering standards.

HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: So which is best for your TV?

Choosing between HDR10+ and Dolby Vision ultimately depends on your needs, devices, and viewing habits.

For home theatre enthusiasts with high-end TVs and access to platforms like Netflix or Disney+, Dolby Vision is the clear winner, offering superior colour depth, brightness control, and a wider library of content. Its premium experience makes it ideal for cinephiles who want the best possible visuals.

HDR10+, on the other hand, is a fantastic option for those seeking a cost-effective yet impressive HDR experience. It is widely adopted by brands like Samsung and Panasonic, and has also been implemented by budget TV brands including Hisense, TCL, and Amazon.

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The ColorEdge CG2700X stands out from other monitors in this group test for many reasons. First, this is a monitor absolutely and unapologetically designed for creative professionals. Second, and tied to that, its huge top bezel contains a built-in calibrator (more on that in a moment). Third, its price, which is six times that of the BenQ PD2706U – which is also a 4K 27in monitor with its eye on the creative market.

A 10-bit panel sits at this monitor’s foundation. As we mentioned in the buyer’s guide (in PC Pro), this means it can cover 1.07 billion colors without the use of FRC, and it’s one of the indicators of professional-level quality here. Years ago, you would have needed a pro-quality graphics card to supply a 10-bit signal, but the rising quality of consumer graphics cards (and Nvidia’s Studio driver) means this is no longer the case.

However, the ColorEdge still needs to be part of a color-managed system if you want to maximize your investment. Eizo’s ColorNavigator 7 software is here to help, as it not only helps end users set up an individual monitor but also means a company can ensure all the ColorEdge monitors, in all their offices, will display the same colors.

It enables them to control the brightness, too, and Eizo is keen to promote the sustainability of its ranges. A big part of that is power consumption, and while this monitor can push all the way up to 545cd/m²it still looks great at 200cd/m²(and, unusually, you can push it right down to 40cd/m², while the OSD even tells you how bright it is). Using the supplied monitor hood helps to control the appearance of colors.

Eizo promises that this monitor will be up and running, producing accurate colors, after three minutes rather than the 30 minutes creatives are used to waiting, which will help if you need to set it up on shoots.

Then there’s its most unique feature: the built-in calibration tool.

You can set this to swing down automatically after a set number of hours (50 to 500) or at regular times – this could be daily, weekly, monthly or even annually. You can even keep working as it performs the calibration. The other brilliant feature for designers is that you can so easily jump between pre-calibrated color spaces. These include the expected sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts to those favored by video editors: BT.2020 and BT.709. If you’re using a BT.2020 clip, it can even warn you that it can’t be reproduced in BT.709 and can show you how it will look to audiences who have more standard TVs.

Anyone who needs to edit HDR footage will also appreciate its support for hybrid log-gamma (HLG) and the perceptual quantization (PQ) curve, and you’ll even see a warning if areas of an image – think extreme whites – can’t be accurately displayed as they go beyond the peak brightness of the monitor itself.

Eizo is also notorious for its attention to detail, and that extends to its support for 100W when powering devices over the USB-C connection. Power equals heat, and that affects colors unless you dissipate it fast. And that’s why there are two metal grilles at the rear of the monitor: not merely to look good, but to allow any excess heat to be removed without recourse to noisy fans.

We also love the OSD. It’s by far the most informative on test, and it’s packed with options that allow you to switch to different gamuts, gamma settings, ICC profiles and color temperatures within seconds. You can also prioritize contrast deviation.

Alternatively, so long as you have a USB connection, you can use ColorNavigator 7. The rear offers a USB-B port next to the RJ45 connector (vital if you want to manage this monitor across a network), plus DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 inputs. Over on the left-hand side you’ll find four USB-A ports, with two in blue supporting the faster USB 3.2 Gen 1 standard, but note the lack of a second USB-C port. The only other missing feature is a pair of speakers.

We’ve covered a lot of technical detail, but ultimately what Eizo is offering is trust. Trust in the colours you see, but also that this monitor will keep on delivering the goods for years. That’s reflected in the build quality of the monitor and in the five-year on-site warranty, where Eizo will come and replace the faulty unit.

Clearly, you’re paying for this in the up-front price, and many creative companies will get more value out of six BenQ PD2706U screens instead. Ultimately, though, the CG2700X is the pinnacle of quality and, so long as you support it with the right hardware and color management system, it’s worth the investment.

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• Android 15 and iOS 18 both display images in full HDR
• Both operating systems have adopted the ISO 21496-1 standard
• Support is still dependent on specific apps

To see all the benefits of HDR (High Dynamic Range) in photos, you need the right software and hardware tech to display the images – and when it comes to software, the latest versions of Android and iOS are now on the same page, so HDR snaps will now look consistent across both mobile platforms.

As explained in detail by Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority, this is due to the adoption of the ISO 21496-1 standard in Android 15 and iOS 18. In simple terms, it just means an agreed upon way of interpreting and displaying HDR information in a picture.

Apple announced at WWDC 2024 back in June that support for ISO 21496-1 was coming to its software platforms, and reports from users suggest that support is now being enabled. On the Android side, ISO 21496-1 is part of the Android 15 roll out – the software is now available for Pixel phones.

Further testing from Android Authority and display analyst Dylan Raga has confirmed that HDR photos are appearing as intended across both Android 15 and iOS 18, whether they were taken on an iPhone or an Android device.

Apps, standards, and displays

The key difference HDR makes is extending the range of luminance levels in a picture – practically, that means being able to see details in the darkest and lightest parts of a photo, rather than having them washed out or too dark to see.

While brightness is the main focus, colors often improve too: HDR images typically look more vibrant and rich than their SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) equivalents. On devices without the necessary HDR support, HDR images are shown in their SDR form.

And to truly see an HDR photo properly on a device – once it's been correctly captured in HDR form – you need HDR support baked into the device's operating system, the app you're using to view the photo, and the device's display. To make matters even more complicated, there are multiple HDR standards out there.

Apple and Google have now made the situation slightly less confusing, though app support is still required. Right now, Google Photos (on Android and iOS) and Apple Messages and Apple Photos (on iOS) should all display HDR pictures correctly.

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Dolby Vision HDR support is finally coming to Disney's future 4K Blu-ray releases, as reported by Forbes – and the first two releases to include this are both summer blockbusters.

Disney has announced that Deadpool & Wolverine, set for release October 22, and Alien Romulus, set for release on December 3, will both support Dolby Vision HDR, marking the first Disney releases (other than some James Cameron titles) since Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in 2018, to support Dolby Vision.

Dolby Vision is a popular HDR format that is seeing increasing support in the best TVs available – even budget models such as the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED support it. Dolby Vision improves picture quality on Dolby Vision compatible displays by improving color, contrast and brightness to give a wider dynamic image and better handling of highlights and dark tones in difficult scenes depending on what your TV's capable of.

Disney initially only used the standard HDR10 format on its Blu-rays, and it's not entirely clear why it has now decided to support Dolby Vision (considering it supports it on the Disney Plus streaming platform already) – although it's possible that Sony's acquisition of Disney's physical media production may have something to do with it, as Sony itself is a big user of Dolby Vision in its TVs, including the Sony Bravia 9, and some of the best 4K Blu-ray players.

Whatever the reason why, it's great news for home theater fans.

More 4K Blu-ray good news

It's no secret that the state of 4K Blu-ray and physical media has been looking bleak in recent years, with Disney all-but-signaling a shift away from it when it announced it would no longer sell 4K Blu-ray in Australia last year. It came down to the efforts of publishing houses such as Arrow Video, Criterion Collection and more to keep 4K Blu-ray from dying.

However, earlier this year, 2 big stores in the US announced they would stock discs and in the UK, HMV, a major AV retailer, announced that its physical media sales were on the rise.

With the arrival of Dolby Vision on Disney's 4K Blu-rays, it hopefully signals even more investment into the field that seemed to be in its 'dying days' not too long ago. Starting with a major Marvel release in Deadpool & Wolverine could bring more exposure into the benefits of Dolby Vision in home media, and in turn lead to a further resurgence in the physical media sector – showing streaming sites such as Netflix, Prime Video or Disney Plus and Hulu, both of which recently announced further price hikes, that making streaming platforms more expensive is not a good look.

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Roku wants to make its Ultra streaming set-top box even more Ultra; at least, that’s the aim of its next-generation device. The new Roku Ultra keeps a very familiar look, with a basically identical build and – more importantly – sticks to the same $99 (about £75 / AU$145) price. 

The Ultra is still a simple, rounded square streaming box that comes in one color, black – though it does sport a flash of color with a purple tag displaying the Roku logo. It’s all familiar on the outside, and speaks to the fact that unlike, say, the new Google TV Streamer, the Roku Ultra isn’t necessarily designed to be seen. It can sit alongside the TV on a home entertainment cabinet, or just be shoved behind it. 

All the changes lie under the hood – and they're all centered around speed.

The fastest Roku yet

The new Ultra is powered by a quad-core processor that Roku says was built from the ground up for "cinematic streaming," and which promises to be 30% faster than other players in the Roku lineup. 

It should make the Roku OS platform run smoothly and enable faster, more instantaneous application openings, but it also lets this player support more formats. With HDR10+ and Dolby Vision on board, this Ultra is the first to support all the major HDR formats – in addition to its 4K and Dolby Atmos support. This means that if you pair this with the right TV, streamed content will look especially nice.

Like the Roku Ultra (2020), the Ultra still features an HDMI 2.1 port. It also supports Quick Media Switching, which should reduce slowdowns if the refresh rate changes. Inside is Wi-Fi 6 for faster streaming, assuming you have the right Wi-Fi access points. Roku uses machine learning and AI to predict what you might want to watch next, and queue up the respective app or show for a faster start to streaming. It keeps an Ethernet port for a wired connection as well.

If you want to listen privately, you can now connect a pair of the best Bluetooth headphones to the Roku Ultra. This levels the playing field with the Apple TV 4K and the Google TV Streamer, and it’s a long-awaited and welcome addition.

Roku adds two buttons to the Voice Remote Pro and adopts USB-C

In the box, you get Roku’s second-edition Voice Remote Pro, which keeps an ergonomic design and buttons for easy TV control, including power and volume. All of the buttons are now backlit, and there are two new ones. The Quick Launch button is shaped like a rocket ship and gives you easy access to shortcuts, such as engaging closed captions or opening your favorite streaming service. The other addition is a Live TV button, which gives you access to all over 400 channels that are available for free.

Perhaps the biggest change is the Voice Remote Pro second-edition gaining a USB-C port for easy re-charging. It still has a speaker built in for easy locating it should get lost in between the couch cushions. The new Roku Ultra features a dedicated button to ping the remote, as on the Google TV streamer. Lastly, the remote again has a microphone, so that you can easily control your Roku Ultra with your voice.

Roku is taking orders now for the new Roku Ultra at $99 in the United States and Canada. It will be available from additional retailers in the coming weeks, and we’ve contacted Roku for comment on whether it will launch in additional territories. 

We’ll be back soon with our full review of the Roku Ultra, as soon as we’re done testing the streaming box to see how well it stands up against our current best streaming devices. 

Roku also teased some software enhancements and feature drops arriving in the coming weeks as part of Roku OS 14. Building off the voice control functionality enabled by the Voice Remote Pro, Roku will eventually let you access a laundry list of settings with your voice. Teased was the ability to adjust home screen tiles, check for software updates, and even switch to a guest mode. 

Additionally, Roku is focusing more on content for families and children, with a new spot on the home screen that should make finding family-friendly content easier, including adding familiar characters including the Cat in the Hat and Peppa Pig to the home screen tiles.

The Roku app for Android and iOS is also getting a bit more powerful. It lets you keep your TV controls while browsing for content on the same screen. You can also search for content here, then make the call and have it start playing on your Roku streaming player or Roku-connected TV. 

Roku isn't giving a specific timeframe for the rollout of these features, but says the software improvements will arrive in the coming months.

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With bleeding-edge technology comes, on occasion, a few bumps in the road – and that's what Apple is finding out with its gorgeous, new 'tandem OLED' Ultra Retina XDR display on the new iPad Pro 13-inch.

It turns out that in some very specific instances, this sandwich OLED technology over-enhances some HDR content, particularly a certain shade of blue, which it turns, at least to our eyes, purple or chartreuse.

Our colleagues at iMore made this exclusive discovery, reporting that the "iPad Pro OLED display has a weird HDR highlights bug." They say that some shades of indigo and navy blue in HDR content are "blown out" and "appear almost white."

Apple has acknowledged the issue to iMore, and says it's prepping a software fix.

I'm a big fan of iMore but I didn't want to take their word for it, so I loaded up Netflix on my iPad Pro 13-inch test unit (Apple did not provide 11-inch Pro models for review) and hunted down the specific episode of Stranger Things they used to demonstrate this bug. Like dozens of other shows on one of the best streaming services, the show is presented in HDR (high dynamic range), which brings out extra detail in light and dark areas of the picture.

In Season 3, Chapter 5: Flayed of the popular streaming show, the intrepid kids are working their way through cavernous hallways under the Starcourt Mall. Villain-turned-hero Steve Harrington (played by Joe Keery) is wearing his Scoops Ahoy! employee uniform, which looks vaguely naval and is mostly dark blue.

Sure enough, in multiple scenes, Steve's uniform seems to come alive. In my viewing, there appear almost chartreuse squiggles dancing on the costume. It happens almost every time his uniform is in view, but doesn't affect any other character's costume.

It's an odd but not very distracting issue, and when I played through other HDR content, like Dead To Me and Lucifer, I couldn't recreate the effect.

This is what could best be described as an edge case, and it's no wonder Apple didn't catch it before shipping the 13-inch tablet this week.

As my TechRadar colleague Matt Hanson's notes in his iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) review, "The iPad Pro 13-inch (2024) is the best tablet Apple has ever made, and the company has clearly thrown everything at it." Among those things is the incredible new screen technology. In almost every aspect, the new iPad's Ultra Retina XDR display is an improvement over the mini-LED screen of the previous iPad Pro generation. Using it, I marvel at the inky blacks and unusually bright highlights.

Put another way, this minor issue, which could be resolved by the time you read this, is no reason not to choose the pricey but remarkable tablet if you already have your eyes on it.

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I've never understood the obsession with HDR. High dynamic range (or more specifically, its initialism) has become an industry buzzword in recent years – from photography to computing, HDR is the hot topic.

"Does this display support HDR content?" is now a question I have to ask myself when I review a laptop or monitor. There's even a certain degree of mystique surrounding the technology; most people wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between HDR10 and HDR10+, beyond ‘10+ is better’. Until yesterday, I was one of those people.

Well, Nvidia, you did it. You've actually changed my mind about HDR – not because you convinced me that it's a necessary feature, but because you've successfully demystified it.

I attended a showcase of Nvidia’s latest AI-powered tech in London, and the software on show was a mixed bag, ranging from the mundane to the impressive. While it wasn't the focal point of the event – that honor went to the impressive Nvidia ACE gameplay demo – one thing that caught my attention was a new program for AI-powered HDR upscaling.

For the uninitiated, HDR is basically a categorization that denotes a wider range of color outputs for an image or video, compared to SDR (standard dynamic range). In practice, that means more detailed contrast and more vibrant and true-to-life color replication. If you want to enjoy the improved colors of HDR, you'll need two things: a display that supports at least some level of HDR, and content that has been produced in HDR. On the bright side, many of the best monitors these days do indeed feature HDR support.

Right now, that second requirement is the catch – whatever you want to watch or play has to be captured or rendered in HDR to begin with. It's possible to convert SDR video content to HDR (say, to upscale an old SDR TV show), but that requires actual work, and it's not applicable to games right now either. And that's where Nvidia comes in, with a new AI-powered RTX feature that can effortlessly convert any SDR content to HDR in real time, as simple as turning on a filter.

RTX On

I've largely ignored HDR because it's simply too complicated for me, as someone who doesn't professionally edit photos or videos. It sounds nice, but it doesn't really matter – I'm not going to go out of my way to seek out HDR content just because I have an HDR-capable monitor. But flipping on a filter and instantly getting better, brighter colors in my games? That I will do.

The live demo I was shown by Nvidia featured both a short video loop and a game, Remnant II. The difference was subtle but noticeable; Nvidia had set up two identical displays showing SDR and HDR content side-by-side to demonstrate. Remnant II was visibly more vibrant with RTX HDR turned on – and the best part of all was that it had effectively zero impact on performance.

Because this HDR upscaling is powered by AI, the machine-learning Tensor Cores in the RTX graphics card powering the demo handle the upscaling workload in the background, while the GPU’s primary graphics cores render the actual game itself. The result is that switching on the HDR filter – a remarkably quick and easy process using the Nvidia RTX overlay – doesn't reduce your frame rates or render quality by any meaningful amount. It's vanishingly rare for any feature that improves visual fidelity to not impact frame rates in some way, so I was suitably impressed.

Beyond that, this is also a way to make HDR content accessible to everyone. As long as you have an HDR-compliant screen (and HDR support is only becoming more common among the best gaming monitors), Nvidia assured me that literally anything can be upscaled from SDR with this simple tool. Old movies? Easy. Any random indie game? Done. You can even adjust specific elements of the RTX HDR filter with simple sliders, in case you want to up the contrast or peak brightness, for example.

It's a remarkably effective yet straightforward tool, and while as a PC gamer I'm excited to think about the gaming applications, I imagine this technology will have a major impact across other industries too. While some of the stuff Nvidia had to show off left me unconvinced, this is one area where Team Green has knocked it out of the park.

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Magical first-person shooter Immortals of Aveum is set to get some pretty meaningful updates to its console versions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in the coming weeks thanks to the addition of high dynamic range (HDR) and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR3) frame generation support.

As reported by Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter, the news came via a press release detailing these additions coming to Immortals of Aveum over its next couple of major updates. Coming up first is the addition of HDR support in patch 1.0.6.3. This will allow players with compatible gaming TVs to enjoy a higher-contrast image with more vibrant colors and deeper, more accurate blacks. This update should be rolling out soon; as early as later today (April 2).

Following this will be patch 1.0.6.4 which will see AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 frame generation tech come to the console version of Immortals of Aveum. This should allow the game to achieve more stable, smoother performance on compatible displays by inserting frames for an overall less choppy experience.

FSR 3 will also benefit displays that support variable refresh rate (VRR). This is a feature that helps your display's refresh rate to stay in sync with whatever game you're playing. In turn, this leads to smoother performance and helps to reduce distracting screen tearing brought about by unsynced frames. When enabled in tandem with FSR 3 frame generation, Immortals of Aveum is likely to see a big upgrade in performance on console, at least on compatible displays.

We can expect the 1.0.6.4 update and FSR 3 support to come to Immortals of Aveum "in just a few short weeks" according to Digital Foundry's reporting. So if you've been holding off playing the game until now, you can expect its performance to likely be greatly improved on console soon.

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How bright does a TV really need to be? As TechRadar plows steadily through our testing of new TVs introduced in 2023, it's a question that regularly crops up.

Something many of this year’s best TVs share in common is improved light output, with even the best OLED TVs exceeding the brightness of last year’s models by as much as 40% at times. A prime example of this is the Samsung S95C, the company’s flagship QD-OLED, and one that improves on its S95B predecessor in several key ways.

Pricing is another area where the S95C tops last year’s model. Samsung’s new flagship costs $3,299 /  £3,599 / AU$4,999 for a 65-inch screen whereas the S95B cost $2,799 / £2,999 for the same screen size at launch. Given the S95C’s high price, you might be looking at other high-brightness TV options, and you’ll easily find them in the mini-LED TV category, with budget models such as the TCL QM8 and Hisense U8K providing even higher peak light output than the Samsung S95C but at a considerably lower cost.

But is brightness the most important factor when it comes to picture quality? And why would you want your TV’s screen to be blazingly bright in the first place? 

Daytime TV

Let’s tackle that second question first. High screen brightness is helpful for viewing in environments where there is a high level of illumination from lamps, overhead lights, and undraped windows. In such situations, extra brightness helps to reduce the negative effect of light reflected off the screen – otherwise known as screen glare –  and make image highlights pop in a dynamic manner. 

In a similar environment, a TV with more limited light output will look comparatively dull, and unless it has anti-glare coating – a feature typically reserved for higher-end models – you may see distracting screen reflections that obscure detail, and that can even further dull the picture’s impact by elevating the brightness level in dark parts of the picture.

High screen brightness is also helpful for fleshing out highlight details in 4K movies and TV shows with high dynamic range. Many HDR programs, whether on disc or from streaming services, are mastered for 1,000 nits of peak brightness, though some may have even higher brightness peaks – as high as 4,000 nits. 

If your TV is unable to fully display content that extends into the 1,000 nits or above range –  typically bright white highlights like sunlight reflected on water – it will use “tone mapping” to downscale brightness peaks in the image to a level it can handle. But with a TV that’s capable of displaying brightness peaks higher than 1,000 nits, tone mapping won’t be engaged and the same program will have a more naturally dynamic, high-contrast look.

How bright is bright enough? 

Now to the question of whether brightness is the most important factor for picture quality. We’ve already established the benefits of high light output for bright room viewing and capturing HDR highlight detail. But when watching in a dim or dark environment, there’s less need for high peak brightness, and an overly bright TV can cause eye fatigue. 

I was reminded of that scenario when reading TechRadar contributor John Archer’s review of the Samsung S90C, a step-down QD-OLED model in the company’s lineup that has lower peak brightness than the flagship S95C. To quote from John’s review: “...I can actually see some home theater fans, especially those fond of watching films in darkened room settings, potentially preferring the slightly gentler, less explosively dynamic look of the S90C’s pictures to those of the blazingly intense S95C.”

That perspective mirrored my own experiences when reviewing the TCL QM8, a TV capable of reaching 2,321 nits in its Movie picture mode. When watching movies and TV shows in a dimmed room, the TCL’s brightness seemed excessive – I needed to lower that setting by as much as 50% from the maximum setting in order to view comfortably. At the new brightness level, the set’s image still retained its dynamic quality, and I didn’t once feel shortchanged when viewing content with HDR.

The takeaway here for me is that a TV that can manage around 1,000 nits should be fine given the  “theater style” lighting conditions I usually opt to view in – ie, not letting sunlight stream in and wash the picture out. With its 1,100 nits peak light output, I think the Samsung S90C would be a perfect contender for placement in my home theater. Also, when I reviewed the LG C3 OLED, a TV that, with its 830 nits peak light output, is on the lower end of my target brightness range, I found it to have great overall picture quality, with notably punchy contrast due to OLED's perfectly deep blacks.

Are there significant differences between high-brightness OLEDs like the Samsung S95C and models with a more modest light output like the LG C3? Aside from the S95C being able to hold up as well as a mini-LED model in bright rooms, you should see a finer degree of highlight detail in some programs. That comes down to the tone mapping situation discussed above, with brighter TVs having less need to engage tone mapping when displaying shows with HDR.

The full-screen story

Along with peak brightness, another TV specification relevant to this discussion is full-screen brightness, which gets measured using a full white window covering 100% of the screen. As you might expect, mini-LED TVs such as the TCL and Hisense models mentioned above cruise past the competition on this spec, with both models delivering full-screen brightness in the 700-750 nits range as compared to the 260 nits you can expect from top-end OLEDs like the Samsung S95C.

Mini-LED’s full-screen brightness advantage will ensure that content with lots of light areas in the image – sports, for example – looks plenty bright even in well-lit rooms, busting past even the toughest reflections. But here again, we get an example of how extreme brightness isn’t everything when it comes to TVs. Typical objects in HDR images – a red car, a human face – fall in the 1-250 nits range. A good OLED TV can easily cover that in small areas, while top OLED models such as the Samsung S95C can manage it across their full screen area.

Conclusion

To sum up, having high TV brightness on tap is very useful for viewing in well-lit rooms or for daytime viewing of sports. Full-screen brightness makes a huge difference for stopping reflections overcoming what you're trying to actually look at.

But sets that deliver more modest light output – in the 1,000 nits range, for instance – are more than adequate for viewing programs with HDR in dimmer light environments, and they’ll also look good enough with the lights turned up, especially if they have an anti-glare screen coating. 

Any brightness beyond that is icing on the cake, really, and will help give you that last, extra picture quality push when viewing in any lighting conditions, including if you have a room that gets flooded by sunlight.

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• The best QLED TVs are catching up to OLED TVs
• The end for regular OLED TVs is nigh

Ask a die-hard home theater enthusiast to recommend a Blu-ray test disc for adjusting a TV’s picture and there’s just one response you’re likely to get: the Spears & Munsil UHD HDR Benchmark. 

I’ve used the Benchmark for testing the best 4K TVs and 4K projectors since it was first released in 2019, and it remains an indispensable tool for evaluating picture quality and fine-tuning displays for optimal performance. And while the best streaming services have far surpassed 4K Blu-ray players in popularity as a source for viewing movies at home, Blu-ray has remained a resilient enough format that Stacey Spears and Don Munsil, the engineering duo behind the original disc, have released an updated version: the Spears & Munsil Ultra HD Benchmark.

Whereas the first Benchmark was a single-disc package, the new version is a three-disc set with an expanded array of video test patterns. Another change is that the test patterns are provided in the HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ formats, and they are accompanied by helpful pop-up descriptions – a feature that was lacking in the first Benchmark release. 

Another new Benchmark addition is Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio test tones, which can be used to calibrate immersive audio systems ranging from 5.1.2 channels to 9.1.6 channels. As with the previous version, tones are included to test and adjust A/V sync. 

The tests are designed to be used by hobbyists and professional calibrators alike, and they feature a new peak luminance pattern that, according to Spears and Munsil, allows for more accurate maximum brightness measurements than the patterns on the previous disc. There’s also a pixel ageing pattern designed specifically for OLED TVs, which will let them break in properly and help to prevent OLED screen burn-in issues.

A fantastic feature of the original 4K test Blu-ray was a visual montage section that provided clips mastered at various peak brightness levels to evaluate HDR tone mapping. The new version features an expanded range of clips shot in 8K resolution, and they have been mastered with an eye toward giving TVs and projectors an HDR workout. In the words of the disc’s creators:

“HDR represents a new way of thinking about video, with a completely different approach to transfer functions, or what we used to call ‘gamma,’ and that meant that a bunch of old patterns just plain didn’t work anymore. Video is now encoded for very-high-brightness devices, and then has to be remapped by the display to fit that display’s actual capabilities. Needless to say, every display does it a little differently—now, with the Ultra HD Benchmark, enthusiasts and professionals will be able to get insight into exactly what the display does when it makes those important remapping decisions.”

Opinion: HDR can be all over the map, and a test disc can help ensure your TV is handling it properly 

A TV reviewer owning a 4K Blu-ray test disc is understandable, but do you need one? The answer to that question is yes – if you want your TV or projector to display images that come close to what a film's director intended for them to look like when the movie was originally mastered.

Some TVs provide a Filmmaker or Movie mode intended to present an “accurate” picture. But the reality of the situation is that even the most accurate TV preset picture modes can be inaccurate, and in some cases by quite a bit.

The effect of this may be that dark details in pictures get swallowed in the shadows, or that black levels are elevated, causing pictures to have reduced contrast and visual impact. Conversely, highlight detail can be lost due to pictures being overly bright. 

Using a video test disc like the Ultra HD Benchmark is the only way you’ll know if your TV or projector’s picture settings have been calibrated properly, and that you’re objectively seeing it in its best light. Otherwise, you’re fumbling in the dark, making tweaks to your TV’s settings until its picture looks subjectively good.

Not only does the new Ultra HD Benchmark provide both basic and advanced video test patterns for calibrating your TV’s picture settings for viewing regular HD and 4K video with HDR (in Dolby Vision and HDR10+, no less), but it now has audio test tones to set up the best Dolby Atmos soundbars and speaker systems built around the best AV receivers. As interested as I am in the new video test patterns, there so far hasn’t been a good Dolby Atmos test disc available, and I’m looking forward to using the Benchmark’s audio tones to set up and evaluate soundbar systems and speakers.

The Ultra HD Benchmark is available from MediaLight Bias Lighting and other dealers and is currently priced at $47.95 (around £39 / AU$72).

Disney has announced the blockbuster hit movie Avatar: The Way of Water will be available for digital streaming purchase March 28 in the US (April 4 in the UK). That should be good news for those who didn’t have an opportunity to catch the Oscar-nominated movie in theaters, or did catch it and want to revisit Pandora, with its eco-conscious inhabitants and soulful, communicative sea creatures.

As expected, the Disney home video release will be in 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos, meaning it should look and sound great when viewed on the best TVs and best soundbars. But will it really look great? That’s something I’ve been wondering following the Disney announcement, which didn’t confirm any release date for a 4K Blu-ray version of the movie.

Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the most technologically advanced films ever produced. The reason why 13 years elapsed between the original Avatar and its sequel is that James Cameron is a painstakingly detail-oriented director, and he seeks out and also develops new processes to bring his vision to the screen rather than relying on available technology. 

One of the technologies used in the production of Avatar: The Way of Water is high frame rate (HFR). And while high frame rate cinema isn’t new – films including Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) was shot in that format – Avatar: The Way of Water uses Pixelworks’ TrueCut Motion, a fresh take on HFR tech that lets creators “motion grade” movies in post-production by varying frame rates on a shot-by-shot basis, and it also provides tools to adjust blur and judder angles.

The Hobbit was widely considered to be an HFR failure – viewers appreciated the visual crispness of the film, which was shot and projected at 48 frames-per-second, but found that its fast motion scenes had an uncomfortable “video-like” look. Avatar: The Way of Water, in contrast, is an HFR triumph. Seeing it laser-projected in motion-graded HFR and 3D in my local IMAX theater, the film’s abundant action scenes looked wonderfully crisp, and there was none of the video-like quality that ruined The Hobbit for me and many others.

Disney’s digital Avatar: The Way of Water release will not be in 3D, though I’d hope any future physical media release would include a Blu-ray 3D disc version. James Cameron is one of the few directors who actually uses 3D in a creative and effective way, and 3D cinematography brings many scenes in both the original Avatar and its sequel vividly to life.

The company’s press release also curiously doesn’t mention high dynamic range support, Dolby Vision or otherwise, for the digital Avatar: The Way of Water that will go on sale later this month.

As for HFR, although that’s technically possible within the existing streaming ecosystem, the version that we’ll be getting isn’t likely to be 48fps. A clear indicator why that’s the case comes from a comment made by Kim Beresford, vp integrated planning and motion pictures operations at Walt Disney Studio, at the Hollywood Professional Association Tech Retreat in February. According to a post in The Holllywood Reporter, when questioned about the possibility of an HFR digital release, Beresford replied, “I think there are roadmaps … even if that might not be available today.”

Avatar watered-down… and possibly a wash 

An Avatar: The Way of Water with no 3D, no motion-graded HFR, and possibly even no HDR – is that even worth watching at all? Many people did see the Avatar sequel in theaters without those cinematic extras (the The Hollywood Reporter post noted that there were a “whopping 1,065 unique delivery versions of the movie,” with “combinations of 2D, 3D, HDR, 4K, varying light levels, aspect ratios, a high frame rate of 48 frames per second, a range of audio formats”). But there’s a big difference between viewing movies in theaters and at home.

IMAX and Dolby Cinema theaters excepted, a typical movie venue puts out a significantly dimmer image than what a recent-model TV is capable of. On such dim screens, the judder artifacts that accompany films shot at 24 frames-per-second, something that HFR serves to reduce, will be less noticeable. 

But screens with high brightness serve to emphasize motion judder. That’s one of the reasons why a Filmmaker Mode gets implemented in some TVs – the judder-reducing motion interpolation processing that set makers apply as a default in other, brighter picture presets makes movies look like daytime soap operas (or like the The Hobbit projected at 48fps), and the Hollywood filmmakers don’t want that. 

Filmmaker mode removes all motion interpolation and also reduces picture brightness, making pictures look significantly dimmer. And while I’m speculating here, in the case of Disney’s digital release of Avatar: The Way of Water, that’s the way you’re going to want to view it, because with no motion-graded HFR, the film’s many fast-action sequences are likely to be filled with visual judder.

Of course, this is all film and tech nerd stuff I’m talking about. If you want to see Avatar: The Way of Water and are unable to catch it in a theater, by all means stream it when the digital release hits on March 28. It’s a great film, and deserving of its Best Picture Oscars nomination. But for me, it’s also one that’s best experienced in a theater with 3D, HFR, and extra-bright laser projection. I can’t imagine seeing it any other way, in a theater or otherwise. Maybe Apple's new Vision Pro headset, which can stream movies and does support 3D, will be the best way to watch Avatar 2 at home.

The best TVs are constantly evolving: think higher resolutions, better picture and sound quality, and smarter Smart TVs. However, with so many specs to sift through and so many TVs on the market, narrowing down your choices can be a daunting task.

That’s why we’ve rounded up today’s 5 best TVs, and the TechRadar team has tested all of the TVs in this guide – from the OLEDs to the mini-LEDs – measuring the peak and full-screen brightness levels, HDR color gamut coverage, color accuracy, and input lag (an important factor for gaming). We also dig into the TV's sound quality and feature set, as well as its overall value for money, distilling all of our findings into the shortlist below. Currently, we think that the LG C5 is the best overall TV, edging out the newer (and more expensive) C6.

Regardless of what you plan to watch on your TV, this guide showcases the best products for specific purposes, a variety of screen sizes, and options to suit all budgets.

The TV market moves fast, constantly leveling up with sharper resolutions, cinematic sound, and smarter features. But with a sea of specs to dive into, finding the perfect screen can feel overwhelming.

To cut through the noise, the TechRadar team has rigorously tested the top displays on the market. From premium OLEDs to bright mini-LEDs, we put every TV through its paces, measuring:

Picture Quality: Peak brightness, full-screen luminance, and HDR color accuracy.

Gaming Performance: Input lag and refresh rates.

Everyday Usability: Sound quality, smart features, and overall value.

Our hands-on testing shows that the LG C5 OLED remains the best overall TV, offering a better price-to-performance ratio than the newer, pricier C6. No matter your budget, room size, or viewing habits, you'll find the perfect match in our curated list below.

Grab a Prime Day TV deal

Amazon's Prime Day is here running through to June 26 and we think it's a great time to grab a new TV. Whether you're due for a TV upgrade or want a second television for another room, there are deals to be hand on some compelling TV.

So We've put in five of the deals we think are worth your consideration right now. And for more, take a look at our best Amazon Prime Day TV deals roundup, especially if you want a great TV to play GTA 6 on when it's released in the Fall.

Ready for the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

We're fast approaching the start of a stacked summer of sport - headlined by the 2026 edition of the World Cup (June 11 to July 19). Whether you're following your nation's team throughout the tournament or just want to join in on the good times, we've highlighted a few TVs that'll keep up with the action:

Samsung QN90F. A five-star set with outstanding motion handling and the Glare Free anti-reflection matte screen. It's a great option for daytime watch parties and evening matches, though stocks are running low across big retailers.

TCL QM7K/C7K. If you're looking for an affordable upgrade, TCL has you covered. The name varies depending on the retailer, but the set delivers a solid, vibrant picture that'll ramp up any game's atmosphere.

LG C5. A longstanding favorite of ours, the LG C5 balances fantastic performance with a picture that well and truly pops - as you'd expect from an OLED. Its motion handling keeps up with all the twists and turns, and it's available at a great price.

For more soccer-ready TVs, check out our guide to the best TVs for sport.

Why you can trust TechRadar

At TechRadar, TVs are tested on-site, by our TV review team led by an ISF-trained video calibrator with 20-plus years of AV product-testing experience.

We've trained our staff reviewers to use industry-standard testing equipment to measure parameters such as TV brightness and color accuracy, and to balance them with subjective aspects of picture and sound quality. That's because measurements can only take you so far in determining a TV’s overall performance.

Our evaluation process goes beyond just picture quality to encompass features, audio, gaming performance, and overall value. Ratings are provided for various sections in our tests, and measurement graphs that also feature comparable TVs, so you can see how well – or not – a TV fares against its competition to aid your decision-making.

TechRadar has been conducting product tests for 17 years and reviews more than 1,300 products per year. Our team alone reviews on average 35 TVs each year, and that includes everything from budget 32-inch models to 100-inch-plus size TVs.

The best TVs, listed

The best TV for most people

If we had to choose a single TV that fits every viewing need, from movies to sports and gaming, it'd be the LG C5. The C5 is the ultimate all-rounder, offering superb picture quality and the kind of features we'd typically expect from more premium models at an affordable, mid-range price point.

The main benefit of the LG C5 is its OLED display panel. During our hands-on testing, we queued up a variety of content, from vibrant animated films to fast-paced live sports. The C5 delivered on all fronts. Color reproduction was totally accurate and punchy, black levels were deep without swallowing up details, and rapid motion was handled without distracting artifacts.

On the features front, LG’s new Alpha 9 Gen 8 AI Processor in the C5 brings a modest picture brightness boost over its LG C4 predecessor. The C5 also features a 2.2-channel, 40W Dolby Atmos speaker array, and it can be counted on to deliver reasonably punchy sound, though the overall audio quality didn't blow us away.

It's also disappointing to see that the C5 lacks support for HDR10+ – one of the more widely used HDR formats used by streaming services and games.

On that note, the C5 does stand out as a gaming TV. Input lag is an impressively low 9.2ms, and all four of its HDMI ports support 4K 144Hz, Dolby Vision gaming, FreeSync Premium, and Nvidia G-Sync.

Read our full LG C5 review

LG C5 test results

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The best OLED TV for bright rooms

When we first laid eyes on the Samsung S95F, we knew Samsung had created something special: an OLED TV with a bright enough picture to compete with mini-LED TVs. The S95F’s bright picture and its Samsung OLED Glare Free screen, a tech that proved very effective at eliminating screen glare in bright rooms when we reviewed it, combine to make this a TV that can do double duty for movie watching and sports viewing.

Now in its second generation, the Glare Free screen used in the S95F not only eliminates distracting mirrored reflections but also maintains strong contrast and deep black levels. Beyond that, Samsung’s NQ4 AI Gen 3 processor for the S95F brings a range of AI-based enhancements to improve detail, upscaling, and motion handling, and it can even upscale standard dynamic range content to high dynamic range.

Gaming is another S95F highlight. It features Samsung’s Gaming Hub, which houses apps from Xbox, Nvidia GeForce Now, and others, and provides four HDMI ports that support 4K165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, ALLM, and HDR10+ gaming. A built-in 4.2.2 channel, 70W speaker array delivers clear dialogue, and Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound+ system ensures that sound effects accurately track the onscreen action.

The most overt downside to the S95F is its hefty price tag. While it's par for the course for a flagship Samsung OLED, the S95F is an undeniably expensive choice that'll strain the budgets of bargain hunters. It's also worth noting that there's no support for Dolby Vision HDR – though the upside here is that the set is HDR10+ compatible, instead.

Read our full Samsung S95F review

Samsung S95F test results

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The best TV under $500

The Roku Plus Series is our go-to recommendation for anyone looking to pick up the best budget-friendly TV. The Plus Series is Roku's mid-range line, offering a decent balance of performance and value.

The mini-LED backlight drives that performance and, at this price point, the quality is hard to find elsewhere. Combined with the QLED display panel, the Plus Series delivers crisp pictures with strong contrast, rich dark tones, and vibrant colors. And sure, other TVs offer those same factors, but the 55-inch Plus Series model manages to do so for less than $500.

With a standard 60Hz refresh rate instead of the 120Hz rate preferred by Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 gamers, the Plus Series provides just average gaming specs. However, an Auto Game Mode kicks in when a gaming console input is selected, and the TV’s measured 11.5ms input lag is impressively low for a TV at this price.

There are some compromises to be made with the Plus Series. It's a budget-friendly pick, sure, but we found it decidedly average in some of our tests. The brightness, for example, is generally good, but struggled in bright rooms where glare and reflections could come into play. The Plus Series' audio is middle-of-the-road, too, and we noticed that some finer details were washed out during volume peaks in movie soundtracks. Adding a soundbar will help, but it's an added expense to factor in.

Read our full Roku Plus Series review

Roku Plus Series test results

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The best TV under $1,000

Hisense TVs typically deliver outstanding picture quality for the price, and the Hisense U8QG is no exception. We were thoroughly impressed with the picture quality when we reviewed the U8QG, but also awarded it a rare five-star rating for its overall value. If you want a fantastic TV but want to keep to a budget of less than $1,000 (the 55-inch model currently sells for that amount, and the 65-inch regularly drops below $1,000 during sales events), the Hisense U8QG is one we’d easily recommend.

The U8QG's screen brightness is dazzling, rivalling (and perhaps even beating) TVs that cost significantly more. Its mini-LED backlight’s precise local dimming control works well for high dynamic range images – both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats are supported – making shadows look deep and bringing out fine detail in picture highlights. Colors also looked rich on the U8QG when we tested it, and its anti-reflection screen, along with its high brightness, makes it a good choice for daytime sports viewing.

Gaming support includes 4K 165Hz, along with FreeSync Premium Pro, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+ gaming across the TV’s three HDMI 2.1 ports.

When we tested the U8QG, we were less impressed with its 4.1.2-channel, 72W speaker array, which doesn't match up to its excellent picture. It delivered clear dialogue and good immersion with movie soundtracks, but we found issues with the TV’s built-in subwoofer.

Read our full Hisense U8QG review

Hisense U8QG test results

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The best cheap big-screen TV

We're not usually prone to recommending a brand’s top model when splurging on an ultra-big-screen TV, but we're also not going to suggest you buy the cheapest model just to make the purchase somewhat affordable, because the results won't be great. What makes the TCL QM6K special is that it's the least expensive TCL TV with a mini-LED backlight, a feature that, in our experience, helps immensely to improve picture brightness and contrast, especially at large sizes.

The QM6K is also feature-packed compared to other budget big-screen TVs we’ve tested. Along with its mini-LED backlight, it supports both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ high dynamic range formats and is IMAX Enhanced.

Gamers will be pleased, too, thanks to the QM6K's support for up to 4K 144Hz VRR (with Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync) and 288Hz at 1080p resolution.

As is the case with most budget-friendly TVs, the QM6K comes with some pretty average stats that could deter folks looking for cutting-edge performance across the board. It's not the brightest set we've tested, for example, and we noticed some vignetting during our tests. There's also a boxy quality to the audio that can detract from movies and shows – and it's why we recommend pairing the QM6K with an external soundbar.

Read our full TCL QM6K review

TCL QM6K test results

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The best TV for sports viewing

When we reviewed the QN90F, we were impressed with how good its picture looked when viewing sports in both bright and dim viewing conditions. Much of that had to do with this flagship Samsung mini-LED TV’s high brightness, but another aspect was its Glare Free screen, which virtually eliminated any reflections from our room’s overhead lights and lamps.

High brightness and glare reduction aren’t the only things that contribute to the QN90F’s excellent picture. A Wide Viewing Angle feature makes pictures look uniformly good from any seat in the house. And there’s also Samsung’s excellent AI-enhanced motion processing, which, in combination with its high refresh rate screen, makes fast action plays look solid and blur-free.

Other features that add to the QN90F’s appeal are a 4.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos speaker that delivers clean, well-defined sound and a built-in ATSC 3.0 tuner to receive NextGen digital TV broadcasts in the US.

Samsung TVs are among the best for gaming, and the QN90F features four HDMI ports that support 4K 165Hz, FreeSync Premium Pro, ALLM, and HDR10+ gaming. And don’t worry if you don’t have a gaming console, because the TV’s Gaming Hub houses Xbox, Nvidia GeForce Now, and many other cloud-gaming apps.

You’ll pay more for the Samsung QN90F than you would for many competing mini-LED TVs, and it is a shame that there's no support for Dolby Vision HDR (although we are glad to see HDR10+ compatibility in its place).

Read our full Samsung QN90F review

Samsung QN90F test results

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Comparison charts for the best TVs

Measuring the objective performance of the TVs in our shortlist is an important part of our testing process. We use the results to inform our rankings, compare products, and make a judgment on the picture quality. The following measurements were all taken by our labs or testers, using professional-level equipment and software.

Specs and stats aren't the be-all and end-all, though. These numbers can help you make quick comparisons between TVs, which is handy if you're weighing up your options, and it's why we've included the results for all of the TVs we tested below.

The first metric we test is brightness, measured using both HDR and SDR video, in small areas and full screen (which makes a big difference).

Next, we test how close the TVs come to supporting 100% of the P3 color range. This is the gold standard for HDR content, ensuring that the shows and movies you tune into appear as vibrant as intended on your screen. The BT.2020 range is used in pro video work, but is less important to day-to-day viewing.

Input lag is the delay that occurs between an image entering the TV's HDMI port and that image appearing on-screen. It's a particularly important consideration for gamers, who'll want to see an action play out on screen as soon as they press a button or move their mouse, and not have to sit through frustrating delays. Minimal input lag ensures a smooth, frustration-free experience.

We measure input lag using a piece of specialist equipment that rapidly fires a blinking image on the screen and detects the delay.

More TVs to consider

We couldn't fit all of the TVs we've tested into this shortlist of today's best options – but there are several other sets that are worth checking out.

These are the TVs we tried ourselves and enjoyed, including a quick rundown of what we liked and why they didn't make the cut.

New TVs to look for in 2026

A range of new TVs was announced at the CES 2026 show held in January, with higher-end models that showcase new technologies taking center stage, as usual. Here are the new models that were announced at the show.

Along with the G6 series, LG will release a new LG W6 ‘Wallpaper TV’ series in 77- and 83-inch screen sizes. This ultra-thin TV will use the same Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 OLED panel as in the G6 series, along with LG’s new Zero Connect Box, a 35% smaller version of the company’s wireless connection box that supports streaming at up to 4K 165Hz.

LG also announced two new C-series TVs for 2026, the LG C6H and LG C6. The C6H will be available in 77-inch and 83-inch sizes and uses the same Primary RGB Tandem 2.0 display panel found in the G6 and W6. A key difference between it and the C6H and W6 series is a lower-grade anti-reflection screen coating on the C6. The C6 series also features the same display panel used in last year’s LG C5 and will be sold in 42-65-inch screen sizes.

All of the new OLED TVs that LG announced will use the same Alpha 11 Gen 3 AI processor.

Samsung’s new OLED TV launches at CES include the Samsung S95H and Samsung S90H. The first will be available in a 48-83-inch screen size and features an enhanced QD-OLED display panel that Samsung says has 35% higher peak brightness than last year’s Samsung S95F.

The S95H features a metallic ‘art frame’ for wall-mounting and supports the same Art Mode found in the company’s The Frame TVs. Notably, Samsung opted to include built-in ports on its new flagship TV, though the One Connect Box, its predecessor used for external source hookups, is an optional add-on.

Samsung’s S90H series will also be sold in 43-83-inch screen sizes and features improved brightness over last year’s Samsung S90F, and they will be upgraded with the same Anti-Glare screen found in Samsung’s 2025 and 2026 flagship TVs.

The company’s Neo QLED mini-LED TV lineup for 2026 will be led by the Samsung QN90H series, which will now be available in screen sizes up to 115 inches, with new processing used to improve the look of upscaled pictures on the larger screen sizes.

Samsung’s Micro RGB series TVs, which were announced before CES, will see an expansion to smaller screen sizes in 2026, with the current Samsung 115-inch Micro RGB model joined by 55-100-inch options. Like other RGB mini-LED TVs introduced at the show, these will provide 100% BT.2020 color space coverage, and they will also feature the Glare Free screen tech used in its OLED and Neo QLED TVs.

At CES, TCL was showing its TCL X11L SQD mini-LED TVs, which use a “Super Quantum Dot” formulation that enables the set to deliver 100% BT.2020 color. These new flagship mini-LED models have a specified peak brightness of 10,000 nits and feature up to 20,000 local dimming zones to deliver near-perfect blacks.

The X11L series will be the first TCL TVs to feature four HDMI 2.1 ports for gaming, with support for a 4K 144Hz refresh rate. They will also support the new Dolby Vision 2 HDR format via an upgrade anticipated to arrive sometime in late 2026.

In 2026, TCL also plans to release its RM9L series RGB mini-LED TVs, along with the QM6L series, a budget mini-LED TV successor to last year’s TCL QM6K.

Like Samsung, Hisense plans to bring its RGB mini-LED tech, currently featured in the 116-inch Hisense 116UX, down to more mainstream sizes. The forthcoming Hisense UR9 and UR8 series will be sold in 55-100-inch screen sizes. Hisense also announced its new RGB mini-LED Evo tech, which introduces a fourth color, cyan, to the TV’s RGB backlight to boost BT.2020 color space coverage to 110%.

Hisense was displaying a 116-inch RGB mini-LED Evo TV at CES, but we expect this, too, will eventually be ported to smaller screen sizes.

The best TV brands to buy today

The best TV brand landscape has shifted somewhat over the past few years, with top brands shifting places to a degree on the power rankings chart, and upstart brands such as Hisense and TCL gaining traction. Along with these, we saw the reintroduction of Panasonic to the US TV market, along with new TV brands like Roku and Amazon putting out increasingly higher-quality sets. What follows is a summary of the various TV brands ordered according to their performance in TechRadar’s TV tests.

Judged by its overall performance in TechRadar’s recent TV reviews, Samsung is the leading TV brand. We rate Samsung TVs highly for their picture quality, though we regularly cite the lack of Dolby Vision HDR support as a downside. Samsung TVs are also the strongest when it comes to gaming performance and features, and each yearly iteration introduces new cutting-edge design innovations.

LG TVs earn strong praise for picture quality and features in our reviews, and they also provide one of the best smart TV platforms in webOS. Gaming performance and features are also regularly cited in our LG TV reviews, though the company lags far behind competitors when it comes to mini-LED TVs, leaning instead on OLED for its top TV brand status, which means it doesn't offer strong, cheaper options.

Sony shifted its focus from OLED to mini-LED tech for its flagship TVs last year. The company’s flagship TVs are the ones that provide the best picture quality, though they are generally pricier than equivalent flagship models from Samsung and LG. Sony TVs also provide excellent built-in sound quality, though they lag behind the competition when it comes to gaming features and performance, despite providing PS5-centric settings.

Hisense and TCL fit into the middle of our overall TV brand rankings. Both brands provide a range of high-value TVs, with the top models providing excellent overall picture quality and sound quality. Performance tends to drop as you move down the range for each respective brand, however, and the gaming features on their TVs aren’t quite as extensive as what you’ll get from Samsung and LG – but when it comes to good-quality large-screen sets that are affordable, these two are arguably the leaders right now.

Last but not necessarily least, Roku and Amazon both made good showings in our recent reviews. These were for the company’s mini-LED TVs, which offer impressive picture quality at a budget price. We generally praise Roku TVs for their excellent smart TV interface, which is easy on the eyes and intuitive to navigate, while Amazon Fire TVs earn marks for good overall performance and high value.

How to choose the best TV for you

There are lots of complicated terms you'll see when buying a new TV, including in this guide – so to start our generalized buying advice, here's a glossary of the big terms you'll see often.

120Hz/144Hz/165Hz: This is the ‘refresh rate’ of the TV, meaning how many image frames it can show each second. 120Hz means 120 frames per second maximum. Classified as high frame rate (HFR), 120Hz is ideal for next-gen gaming consoles such as PS5 and Xbox Series X, and can also benefit sports viewing. While consoles are capped at 120Hz, some TVs can support 144Hz or 165Hz for PC gaming.

4K: Also known as Ultra HD (UHD), a 4K image consists of roughly 4,000 horizontal pixels – 3,840 in the UHD standard specs used by streamers and 4K Blu-ray, to be precise – by 2,160 vertical pixels, which is four times the amount found in Full HD TVs. Most streaming services now support 4K, as do most 43-inch and larger TVs.

ALLM (auto low latency mode): A feature primarily used for gaming, where a TV will switch to the optimal game picture mode/settings when it detects a connected gaming console.

ATSC 3.0: Also known as “NextGen TV,” it is a broadcast TV standard created by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) that supports 4K resolution, high dynamic range, and immersive audio formats such as Dolby Atmos. ATSC is used by broadcast TV stations in the US, and it requires a TV with an ATSC 3.0-compatible tuner.

ARC: Audio Return Channel. This feature allows for audio signals to be sent from a TV to an HDMI ARC-supported device, such as a soundbar or AV receiver, via an HDMI connection.

Backlight: The light source that sits behind the display panel in an LED-based TV. Various backlight types include edge-lit, direct, and full-array.

Color gamut: The range of colors that can be displayed by a device within a particular color space, such as REC.709, BT.2020, and UHDA-P3. Supporting a wider color gamut means the TV should be able to show images closer to the original material.

Direct backlight: A type of backlight that sits directly behind a TV’s panel. Direct backlights can offer better dimming control and black uniformity (the ability to display black tones evenly across a screen) than edge-lit backlights

Dolby Vision: A High Dynamic Range (HDR) format that’s used to dynamically optimize image contrast on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis. Dolby Vision is widely used in movie theaters, 4K Blu-ray releases, streaming services, and video games.

Dolby Atmos: A 3D sound format that incorporates height channels to create a dome-like immersive effect. Dedicated speakers produce the most authentic Atmos sound, though some soundbars and built-in TV speakers can produce good ‘virtual’ Atmos sound as well.

eARC: Enhanced Audio Return Channel. An improved version of HDMI ARC that allows for transmission of higher-quality, uncompressed Dolby and DTS audio formats over HDMI from a TV.

Full Array Backlight: An advanced backlight design that improves local dimming by partitioning the backlight into small zones, each of which can have its light levels controlled individually. This results in better contrast, higher brightness, and reduced backlight blooming effects.

HDMI: A cable standard used to transmit audio and video from a source to a display device. It stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface, and is the standard connector for TVs now.

HDMI 2.1: The latest HDMI version, and one that allows for transmission of higher-quality, uncompressed Dolby and DTS audio formats, 8K video, and higher video frame rates such as 4K at 120Hz or higher for gaming.

HDR: High Dynamic Range. A video format that allows for images with improved brightness, contrast, and color detail. Most newer TVs support some format of HDR, which is used for video games, 4K Blu-ray discs, and streaming services.

HDR10: A common, widely used HDR format on 4K Blu-ray players, game consoles, TVs, and streaming services. Basically, any TV device with HDR will support this.

HDR10+: A less commonly supported HDR format with similar capabilities to Dolby Vision. HDR10+ is supported by TVs from Samsung, Panasonic, TCL, and Hisense, and is used by streaming services such as Prime Video.

HLG: Hybrid-Log Gamma. An HDR format developed by the BBC and NHK broadcasting services that was designed to simultaneously transmit both SDR and HDR signals. It is used for live HDR broadcasting and is supported on almost every TV.

Input lag: The time delay between a video or audio signal being sent and being actioned by a relevant device. In the case of TVs, it refers to the time between when the TV receives an image from, say, a games console, and when that image is shown on-screen. Input lag is measured in milliseconds (ms), with the lower the number, the better. This specification is particularly useful in gaming, where a measurement below 15ms is considered optimal.

Local Dimming: LED and mini-LED TVs with full array backlights may dim darker areas on the screen and accentuate brighter areas, resulting in better contrast by using this ‘localized’ dimming.

Mini-LED: A backlight tech that uses small, almost microscopic LEDs for more efficient and improved dimming and lighting performance over regular LED backlights.

Nits (brightness): A unit of measurement used to evaluate brightness. The peak brightness of LED TVs is typically around 500 nits, QLED TVs roughly 1,000 nits, OLED TVs between 600 and 2,000 nits, and mini-LED TVs may hit 3,000-plus nits.

Neo QLED: Samsung’s name for its range of mini-LED TVs, which combine a QLED display panel with a mini-LED backlight.

OLED: Organic Light Emitting Diode. A type of display panel that contains self-emitting pixels that generate their own light, eliminating the need for a backlight. OLED TVs typically have deeper, more accurate black levels than other TV types, because they can dim the light from each pixel individually

QLED: Quantum Light Emitting Diode. An LED display panel with a coating of ‘nanocrystals’ that can achieve higher brightness and brighter, more vivid colors than the ones used in standard LED TVs.

SDR: Standard Dynamic Range. A video production and display standard with more limited brightness, contrast, and color gamut coverage compared to HDR. Anything from before the HDR era can be considered SDR.

VRR (variable refresh rate): A tech used primarily in gaming where the display will adjust its frame rate to match the rate of the source device, such as a console or PC, to avoid judder and screen-tearing effects. VRR is particularly useful during high frame rate gaming.

So now you'll need to make a few further decisions. If you're looking at the mid-range or premium end of things, do you want an OLED TV or an LED/mini-LED TV? In sizes 55 inches and up, LED TVs tend to be brighter than OLEDs, and so are great for watching sports or TV during the day in bright rooms. But for movie nights, OLED TVs are the best, thanks to their unrivaled contrast – they just don't go as bright as LED TVs unless you get the most expensive models.

If you're buying a mid-range set, you'll need to decide if you need a 120Hz screen or not. This is great for gamers (especially those with a PS5 or Xbox Series X), and also good for movies because it can show more natural motion. But if you want to save cash, getting a 60Hz TV might be a better idea, because 120Hz TVs always cost more.

And then, spare a thought for sound. Most of today's thin TVs have weak built-in sound. If you don't mind buying one of the best soundbars too (or if you already have one), then don't worry about this. But if you don't want extra boxes in your setup, then focus on the TVs we've recommended where we mention the audio is stronger. Sadly, it tends to be higher-end sets that do this better – but even then, not all are created equal. Sony and Samsung are usually strong for audio, though, so they are a good place to start.

Sony is another major player in the TV space. Its screens boast stunning picture quality and build quality. Although, like other brands in this list, there's a wide range across the board. Sony's TVs tend to cost a premium compared to the other brands here for the same kind of features, except Sony's TVs contain some of the best built-in sound in the business, so you do get something extra for that price.

Hisense and TCL are the two makers who've really crashed the party, producing mini-LED TVs for unbelievably good prices that deliver astounding brightness and impressive contrast, with good features. They both use Google TV as their smart platform, which makes them fairly easy to use and ensures all the key streaming services are supported.

How we test the best TVs

Each TechRadar TV review involves a series of objective tests made using specialized test equipment. These are combined with extensive subjective evaluation using both test patterns and real-world sources such as 4K Blu-ray, streamed content, and broadcast TV.

For objective tests, we measure a TV’s peak and full-screen brightness levels, along with its HDR color gamut coverage. We also measure color and grayscale accuracy, as well as input lag for gaming.

After determining a TV’s most accurate picture preset using objective tests, we perform a subjective evaluation with that preset active to make a general assessment of picture quality, taking into account factors such as contrast, black level, screen uniformity, color, detail, and more. We also assess sound quality, features, design, smart TV and menus, gaming features and performance, and value, with individual scores for each section contributing to an overall rating.

You can get a fully detailed overview of our process in How we test TVs at TechRadar, but here's a summary of the key tests that get performed:

Brightness

Brightness is an important factor to consider when shopping for a TV, for two main reasons. The first is that movies and TV shows with high dynamic range (HDR) can contain super-bright highlights. A TV with a high brightness capability will be better able to reproduce those highlights, which give pictures an enhanced sense of depth and realism. The second reason is that brighter TVs can look better in a bright viewing environment, which is typically the case when watching sports or gaming.

Color gamut coverage

We measure color gamut coverage to get an indication of the range of colors a TV can display. These results are recorded as a percentage, with a 100% score confirming the TV can display the full range of colors that video content with HDR can include.

Color gamut coverage tests include two measurements: UHDA-P3 and BT.2020. The first is to see how well the TV tracks the UHDA-P3 color space used for mastering 4K Blu-ray and digital cinema releases. The second, BT.2020, is a more future-oriented standard, though some new displays, such as RGB laser projectors and RGB mini-LED TVs, are capable of displaying the full BT.2020 color spectrum.

Color and grayscale accuracy

We run grayscale and color accuracy tests to evaluate how well a TV can match the visual intent of the director when a movie was mastered during post-production. These measurements are run with the TV in its most accurate picture preset – typically Filmmaker Mode, Movie, or Cinema – and provide Delta-E values (the margin of error between the test pattern source and what’s shown on-screen) that indicate the TV’s level of accuracy. Any result under 3 is regarded as indistinguishable to the human eye from the source and can be considered excellent.

Input lag

Input lag refers to the time elapsed between a source sending a signal to a display and the display showing it on screen. A low input lag time is a crucial factor for competitive gaming, with a result of 13ms or lower generally considered to be an acceptable result.

To test input lag, we set the TV to its Game picture preset and use a special meter that outputs a test signal to the TV’s HDMI input. The meter is placed on the TV’s screen and measures the time it takes to detect the signal, with the result displayed in milliseconds.

Latest updates to our guide to the best TVs

June 9, 2026
Added our top recommendations for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

May 27, 2026
Moved the Samsung S95F to the #2 spot, and refreshed product entries based on most recent testing data.

May 14, 2026
Added the LG C6 to the 'Also consider' section.

April 15, 2026
Refreshed the FAQs to give you more context around what to think about when considering buying a TV.

January 13, 2026
Added 'New TVs to look for in 2026' section detailing new models announced by major TV brands at CES 2026.

November 6, 2025
Rewrote this guide from scratch to focus on a smaller number of TVs, to make it easier to choose a new model easily.

August 27, 2025
Replaced the Panasonic Z95A with the newer Panasonic Z95B as our 'Best for sound' top choice based on our recent testing.

July 29, 2025
Replaced the Samsung S95D with the Samsung S95F, a new model with an improved Glare Free screen, as 'Best OLED for bright rooms' option.

July 1, 2025
Replaced Samsung QN90D with newer model, Samsung QN90F, as 'Best TV for sports' option.

May 28, 2025
Replaced Hisense U8N with a newer model, the Hisense U8QG, as 'Best mid-range' option.

April 29, 2025
Replaced Sony Bravia 8 with Panasonic Z95A OLED as 'Best for sound.'

April 1, 2025
Added Quick List for easier guide navigation.

March 12, 2025
Added the Amazon Fire TV Omni Mini-LED and Hisense U9N to 'Also consider' section.

February 14, 2025
Added 'Best TV brands' section with ranked assessments of TV brands TechRadar has reviewed over the past year.

January 15, 2025
Added 'New TVs coming in 2025' section with details on new TV models announced at the CES 2025 tradeshow.

December 24, 2024
Removed the Samsung S90C due to falling stock levels. Replaced it with the LG C4. Removed the best for versatility category.

November 27, 2024
I added more information to the intro about our testing and selection process for this guide, as well as expanding our section of other TVs worth consideration.

November 6 2024
Added the Hisense U6N as the best super-cheap big-screen TV we recommend. We also added a new glossary of TV technical terms, to explain some of the info you'll see when buying a TV.

October 10 2024
Added more comparison tables for the TVs we recommend, based on our testing data and review scores.

September 27 2024
Updated the format of this guide, to provide more detailed information about our verdicts on each TV. Replaced the TCL QM851G with the Hisense U8N based on our review and recent pricing, and replaced the Sony A80L with the Sony Bravia 8 based on our review.

September 4 2024
Replaced the LG B3 with the LG B4 as 'best cheap OLED'.

August 5 2024
Replaced the Roku Plus series with the upgraded Roku Pro series as 'Best budget' TV.

June 10 2024
Replaced the LG C3 OLED TV as 'Best for versatility' with the new LG C4 due to improved brightness and enhanced gaming features.

May 13 2024
Replaced the Samsung S95C as 'Best premium OLED' option with the new Samsung S95D.

April 12 2024
Added a new 'More TVs to consider section', covering other models not in the list, and explaining why they missed the cut.

March 19 2024
Added benchmark charts for every TV, to make it easy to compare performance.

February 26 2023
Expanded the How we Test section to include a more in-depth breakdown of our testing methods for the TVs in this guide.

November 10 2023
Added author bio and link to TechRadar's Best Black Friday TV Deals page.

October 12 2023
Added this 'latest updates' section to keep readers informed of any changes to this buying guide. Updated several products in this list to reflect our latest reviews, and following price cuts and lack of stock of older TVs.

The high dynamic range format wars look to have taken a new turn, after a new update to the Apple TV app for Samsung TVs added fresh support for HDR10+.

The weekend saw multiple postings on social media and online forums from Samsung TV owners that a new software revision had brought support for the HDR format.

According to FlatpanelsHD, scores of users posted how a large chunk of Apple TV’s library movie rentals like Top Gun: Maverick and popular Apple TV+ shows such as Ted Lasso had newly become available to watch in HDR10+ within the app, while noting a big improvement in picture quality.

The development comes after Apple last week unveiled an updated and cheaper, third-generation Apple TV 4K streaming box, which includes support for HDR10+ as one of its key new features. 

Co-developed by Samsung alongside 20th Century Fox and Panasonic and first announced in 2017, the HDR10+ format is a direct competitor to Dolby Vision. 

Like Dolby’s rival, HDR10+ aims to offer a broader color gamut over Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) content, while also allowing higher levels of contrast and significant brightness.

Crucially, unlike Dolby’s proprietary standard, HDR10+ is royalty-free, meaning TV and set top box manufacturers do not have to pay a license fee to include the feature on their products.

Up until now, the only the main player in terms of streaming services to give meaningful backing to HDR10+ has been Amazon Prime Video, with the likes of Disney Plus and Netflix notable hold-outs on the format… except even Amazon has started including Dolby Vision content recently.

Analysis: Expect more streamers to follow in Apple’s wake

While the debate rages on about the pros and cons of both HDR formats – for me, Dolby Vision currently has the edge over HDR10+ thanks to better tone mapping – the truth is that there isn’t a huge amount separating DV and HDR10+ when it comes to picture quality.

What can’t be argued is that Samsung’s stance of continuing to back their own HDR format while stubbornly refusing to adopt the much better-supported Dolby Vision has up to this point left Sammy owners struggling to show off their TV at its best, thanks to the lack of content available in HDR10+.

Apple throwing further support behind the format will be a huge boon for Samsung. It provides the double whammy of giving HDR10+ the kudos of a major third-party backer, while also at last giving its TV users vast swathes of content in higher quality HDR via arguably the best online movie store for 4K HDR content.

It’s not difficult to see Apple’s motivations for getting onboard the HDR10+ bus as well. Samsung remains the biggest TV maker in the world, and with the large majority of the South Korean manufacturers 4K TVs made since 2016 compatible with HDR10+, it allows Apple to tap into an HDR-starved user base as it looks to build a firmer foot holding for its growing streaming service.

The competition between streaming services to retain and add customers has never been greater. With Apple and Amazon Prime Video both on board with HDR10+, the pressure now grows on the likes of Disney Plus and Netflix to follow suit, or find themselves out of favor with Samsung TV owners.

Perhaps this change in support will make a difference if you're looking to buy a top Black Friday TV deal this year…

To commemorate its 10 year anniversary, OBS Studio is launching version 28.0 of its app adding new features which include support for select features from NVIDIA Broadcast.

OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio is an open source streaming software that people use to record, compose, and broadcast a live stream. Twitch and YouTube streamers typically use OBS to pull together different audio and video sources to form a singular production environment. When it comes to creating a set, many streamers like to use a green screen so they can project the game behind them for a more immersive experience.

Now with OBS Studio 28.0,  live streamers no longer need a physical green screen or plugins thanks to the newfound integration with NVIDIA Broadcast. This is a software suite that comes with a lot of tools to enhance a videos or live stream with one of the key features being Virtual Backgrounds.  

Migrating from NVIDIA Broadcast

Powered by AI, Virtual Backgrounds can completely replace a streamer’s studio background with an image of space, a coral reef, or the video game that they’re playing. The tech isn’t perfect, however. If you look at NVIDIA’s official page for its Broadcast suite, you will see a noticeable flickering whenever the streamer moves too much. But since the live feed of a streamer is typically in the corner of the video, you probably won't notice.

OBS Studio 28.0 will also have Broadcast’s Noise and Echo Removal. This feature eliminates any and all “unwanted background noise” that can interfere with a live stream. This includes noises like annoying keyboard typing, loud PC fans, and distracting static. The same goes for room echo. The removal tools can be activated by turning on their respective filters in OBS, giving people a bit of flexibility on what they want to eliminate and from which source.

Codec support

Besides the Broadcast features, OBS is also getting the long-awaited support for the HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) codec and HDR (high dynamic range). 

HEVC is a codec that is highly efficient at compressing video, by up to 15 percent according to NVIDIA. This allows streamers to upload their videos in small files on HEVC-supported platforms like YouTube while maintaining a high quality.

The HDR support allows users to record and stream in the standard allowing for brighter colors and darker blacks, resulting in more visually stunning videos. NVIDIA states in the past users had to turn off the HDR feature on their computers because it would mess with the OBS recording. Videos would have washed out colors if recorded at different bits, apparently. But with new advancements in tech such as the prevalence of HDR displays, the developers saw it was a good time to add the support. 

Missing features

Going back to NVIDIA Broadcast, you may notice it has some features not found in OBS 28.0. Video Noise Removal, which enhances webcam quality, and Auto Frame, a feature that allows your camera to follow you while streaming, are not in the new OBS. We reached out to NVIDIA for information as to why these features were omitted.

A representative told us NVIDIA gave access to all of Broadcast’s features to the OBS developers, plus the resources and support to help integrate the tools. However, it’s up to the OBS developers whether or not they want to fully integrate all of Broadcast's features. Currently, it's unknown if they want to add more support.

If you’re a fledgling live streamer, we recommend checking out TechRadar's own NVIDIA Broadcast guide to help you get started with the software.

Dell is expanding its remote work options with the new, modestly priced Dell Pro Webcam: Model WB5023, which can shoot in 2K Quad HD (QHD) resolution. 

At $135, the Pro Webcam comes packed with features that ensures high-quality video and audio, so there’s a lot to cover here. First is support for Digital Overlap High Dynamic Range (DOL-HDR), a technology developed by Sony. The feature allows the Pro Webcam to take multiple frames simultaneously and stack them to reduce distortion. Next is Video Noise Reduction which greatly reduces the amount of static present in a stream; which can be pretty useful for those night time meetings. 

Facial Detection Auto Exposure is also present on Dell’s Pro Webcam to focus on a user’s face while also ensuring optimal lighting. Auto Exposure takes into account the ambient light in a shot so your face can be seen clearly. And the final notable software feature is AI Auto Framing allowing the camera to follow you around. As seen in the announcement, this can be useful if there are objects behind that are a part of your presentation.

Resolution and hardware

It’s also worth pointing out the Webcam’s resolution can be adjusted. The 2K QHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution mentioned earlier is locked at 30 frames per second, but the frame rate can be improved, according to a report by Windows Central. You can lower the resolution down to either Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) or regular HD (1280 x 720 pixels) and get a max frame rate of 60 FPS. But if your connection is particularly bad, you can lower the frame rate down to 24 FPS.

The software suite arguably houses the Pro Webcam’s best features, whereas on the hardware side, the quality is more scattered. First the good: Dell’s Pro Webcam comes with a built-in noise reducing microphone, blocking outside sound in order to focus on a user’s voice. This is something that the higher resolution Dell UltraSharp 4K Webcam lacks. 

However the Pro Webcam’s field of view (FOV) is rather lacking compared to the Ultrasharp. It only has two FOV configurations: 65 or 78 degrees. The Ultrasharp can go up to a full 90 degree view. If you don’t have a lot to show in your presentation, this probably isn’t a big deal, but if you do, you’ll have to cram as much as you can in a shot on the new Pro Webcam.

The other issue is it uses a USB-A connection instead of a USB-C. This narrows down the amount of capable devices that you can use with Dell’s Pro Webcam. There are adapters that you can use to make up for the lack of capability such as the Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock, but should you have to buy another device for something that should have been standard? At least it's long, as according to The Verge, the USB-A cable has a length of 4.9 feet (1.5 meters).

Ambiguous availability 

Reports are going around stating the new Pro Webcam is currently available for purchase, but after checking Dell’s website, it’s not on there. In fact, we couldn’t find it anywhere. We reached out to Dell and asked when the new camera would go on sale, and we'll update the story if we hear back. Still, despite the ambiguous availability, Dell’s new Pro Webcam appears to be a solid pick at a glance. Great resolution and tons of features, all at a decently priced package.

Update 8-23-2022: Dell got back to us. The Pro Webcam – WB5023 is now available for purchase on their website."

How well will the Dell Pro Webcam stack up against the best webcams on the market? We'll see once we get the webcam in for review.

The very best 4K movies offer a way to enjoy something close to the theatrical experience from the comfort of your own home. With the advent of HDR, Dolby Vision and readily available Dolby Atmos sound systems in recent years, too, watching films from the sofa has never been a more attractive proposition. 

Previously, the best 4K Blu-ray players provided an indisputably superior viewing experience to online streaming services, but nowadays, platforms like Netflix and Disney Plus support most of those aforementioned home cinema features. However, we'd still always recommend watching movies in 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray to get the absolute best experience, and since discs are region-free, anyone with a 4K Blu-ray player can enjoy them. 

With that in mind, we've put together this list of the best 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray movies available to purchase today. We've categorized our picks by genre, and included useful AV specs for each entry. If you're still resolute about your preference for streaming, we've also collated the best Netflix movies and best Disney Plus movies on separate pages.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: top titles

The Batman

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (54 Mbps)
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

One of the most highly anticipated 4K releases of 2022, The Batman emerged from the shadows with a truly revelatory Ultra HD Blu-ray disc that absolutely lived up to the film's theatrical presentation. 

Like the titular character himself, The Batman is a movie bathed in darkness, where every shadowy corner of Gotham City presents the threat of violence. Thankfully, The Batman's Dolby Vision and HDR10 presentations provide exceptional shadow delineation, with Batman's slow creeping out of the darkness coming across even more dramatic as a result – and without a single hint of the black crush that can sometimes effect the transfers of darker films.

Thanks to The Batman's native 4K digital intermediate, detail is off the charts. The the jagged edges of his suit, the stitching and leatherwork in his cowl – it all adds up to a film with intricacies that were practically made to be appreciated in 4K.

Admittedly, The Batman isn't the film to go to if you're looking to show off your TV's color bonafides. Much of the film is purposefully muted in appearance, with only brief instances of colorful highlights. Neon signs occasionally break out of the darkness, along with the amber lighting that illuminates the highway Batmobile chase sequences, or the bright orange explosion that ends it.

As standout as The Batman's visuals are, its audio presentation arguably steals the show, with a pristine Dolby Atmos primary track that delivers thundering sonics amidst a brilliantly immersive atmosphere – all punctuated by Michael Giacchino's bombastic score that just builds and builds with increased intensity. To bring up the aforementioned highway chase again, it just might be one of the best showcases for Dolby Atmos to ever hit home theaters. Get ready to pull this disc out for repeated demonstrations.

Dune

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (64.8 Mbps)
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Denis Villeneuve's Dune arrived on Ultra HD Blu-ray boasting a spectacular video presentation and a reference-quality Dolby Atmos audio track. Shot at 4.5K and finished at a 4K resolution, Dune looks expectedly gorgeous on the format, with immense detail that soars with incredibly clarity. Though Dune was not shot on film, its UHD presentation sports a nice layer of film-like grain throughout, which serves to provide increased texture to its costumes, sets and sandy landscapes.

The inclusion of both HDR10 and Dolby Vision gives Dune excellent brightness, contrast and color vibrancy. Witness, for instance, the shimmering appearance of Arrakis's all-important spice, or the almost white-hot explosion that eventually bursts through House Atreides' force fields during the mid-film invasion scene.

Aside from some very minor banding, the only thing that could be considered disappointing to videophiles about Dune's 4K disc is that its aspect ratio does not shift during IMAX sequences, opting instead to keep a panoramic widescreen presentation for its entire running time. Despite this, Dune remains an epic spectacle to behold.

Just as epic as Dune's visual presentation is its sound, with an outstanding primary Dolby Atmos track that delivers fantastic directional audio, offering plenty of activity in the rear channels, along with a masterful use of Atmos' height channels (you will think Dune's ornithopters are flying right over your head). Dialogue is clear and prominent, while Hans Zimmer's nerve-jangling score offers a powerful backdrop to the events unfolding on-screen.

It goes without saying that fans of Dune should absolutely pick up its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, but we also recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a home theater enthusiast. This is a demo-worthy disc in every regard.

The Suicide Squad

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (63.08 Mbps)
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.90:1

Given that James Gunn's The Suicide Squad was shot entirely using IMAX cameras and finished at 4K resolution, we always expected its Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation to be standout and demo-worthy, and we were right – The Suicide Squad looks magnificent on the format.

Gunn has been vocal about his support for the quality of physical media over streaming, and he certainly proves his point here, with a hefty bitrate of 63.08 Mbps that eliminates any visible artifacting or compression. Detail is off the charts here, particularly in close-ups of King Shark, which reveal a great deal of texture that appears completely tangible.

We will say one thing, though: we hope your TV can handle dark scenes, because there are stretches of The Suicide Squad that take place in night-time jungle settings which had our Mini LED TV's local dimming feature flicking on and off, making black areas appear washed out and gray. After a few minutes of annoyance, we dug into the TV's picture settings and lowered the dimming feature's intensity, leading the remainder of the film to play out normally.

Meanwhile, highlights and colors are truly astounding here, particularly when it comes to costuming – the Squad's orange prison jumpsuits jump out with incredible vividness, as does Peacemaker's red shirt and Harley's stunning red dress. 

Later in the film, during Harley's escape from capture, a rainbow-like explosion of colorful flowers erupts while she mows down enemy soldiers – believe us when we say that it's one of the best looking showcases of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray we've seen to date, as is the emergence of the vibrant (and giant) villain, Starro the Conqueror.

Props must also be handed to The Suicide Squad's excellent Dolby Atmos audio track, which places dialogue front and center, never losing it amongst all the on-screen chaos that unfolds. Dimensionality is also strong, with great use of overhead sound effects during the film's climax. Highly recommended for fans.

Mortal Kombat

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (55 Mbps)
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

If you're looking for a film that will test your home entertainment system's might, you could do a lot worse than the latest Mortal Kombat film, which arrived on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a sharp transfer and punchy audio track.

While a lot of Mortal Kombat takes place in dark and shadowy environments, the film's 4K presentation delivers impressive contrast, allowing viewers to see right into the darker areas of the screen. Highlights and colors, in particular, look magnificent in this HDR10 presentation, particularly in scenes where the film's characters show off their energy-based skills – especially Raiden's signature lightning strikes, which burn with a white hot intensity. As expected, the film's 4K native resolution allows for extraordinary detail, making it easy to marvel at the craftsmanship of the film's costume and set design departments.

In terms of audio, Mortal Kombat offers a room-shaking Dolby Atmos primary track which emphasizes every punch, kick and fireball attack with an incredible amount of oomph. That said, dialogue sounds a little low by comparison, so you may have to do some tweaking of your sound setup in order to hit that sweet spot. 

Nevertheless, Mortal Kombat looks and sounds great on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, allowing fans to relive every gory fatality in crystal-clear clarity.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (55 Mbps)
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Zack Snyder's Justice League looks and sounds fantastic on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, with the disc version's immersive Dolby Atmos audio and high video bitrate absolutely demolishing the film's presentation on streaming services such as HBO Max, Sky and Binge.

Split over two discs due to its epic 242-minute runtime, Zack Snyder's Justice League delivers sublime visuals right off the bat(man) – the film's stirring opening titles sequence immediately gives us inky blacks, bright highlights and vivid colors, and it only gets better from there.

Those who have watched Joss Whedon's theatrical version of Justice League will instantly notice that Snyder's version is a drastically different-looking film. Color has been toned way down, with almost monochromatic appearance at times, leading to a film that's far more atmospheric and serious in tone. Of course, that isn't to say that the film is lacking in vibrance – in fact, it makes the film's deliberate uses of color pop with increased vividness. 

Perhaps the most visually-stunning update offered by Zack Snyder's Justice League is in its villain, Steppenwolf (pictured), who has been completely redesigned from the ground up with a far more jagged and menacing appearance. 

The amount of detail in Steppenwolf's armor is absolutely staggering, with the character covered head to toe in countless, razor-sharp metallic shards – each of which produces impressive specular highlights. Look closely and you'll see fine details on the shards themselves, such as scratches and scuffs which make the CGI creation all the more convincing.

Although the disc curiously lacks the Dolby Vision support that's offered on HBO Max, it does provide a rather significant upgrade on the streaming version with the inclusion of a wonderfully immersive Dolby Atmos track. During action scenes, there's an incredible sense of dimensionality to the audio, with terrific use of overhead channels. Though the film can get loud and bombastic, dialogue is always clear and easy to understand.

Destined to be one of the format's reference discs, Zack Snyder's Justice League is a must-have for fans of the film.

Tenet

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (57.45 Mbps)
Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 2.20:1

The most mind-bending film from director Christopher Nolan (Inception, Memento) to date, Tenet made an absolutely stunning debut on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Like the majority of Nolan's other films, Tenet is presented with expanded IMAX sequences for its physical home release (sorry, digital buyers), meaning its aspect ratio regularly opens up to fill your entire TV's display, offering a significant rise in picture quality and scope.

The results are utterly astonishing. Shot entirely on 65mm film and boasting a native 4K digital intermediate, detail is off the charts here, with a pristine image that still retains its filmic quality. It would not be a stretch to say that 70% of Tenet is presented in this manner, leading to a near-constant bombardment of jaw-dropping moments. From its stunning Tallinn freeway chase, to its climactic 'temporal pincer movement' set piece, Tenet is a sight to behold.

Color and contrast are both exceptional, with impressively natural skin tones, vibrant reds, warm yellows, cool blues and inky shadows throughout, along with terrific highlights during brighter moments.

Admittedly, it's disappointing to note that Nolan continues to resist the allure of Dolby Atmos audio. That said, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track included here still delivers a surprising amount of bombast and directionality. If you're looking for a demo disc to show off your home entertainment system, Tenet is the one.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: heroes and villains

Joker

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Despite its filmic appearance, Joker was shot digitally and processed at a resolution of 6.5K, eventually finishing up with a 4K master. This means Joker's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc is a totally faithful representation of the finished film as it was shown in theaters, making it hard to imagine how it could possibly look any better.

Thanks to the inclusion of support for both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, Joker's 4K disc offers fantastic color reproduction, emboldening the film's yellows, teals and reds with added exuberance. Shadow definition is also exceptional, with inky blacks contrasting wonderfully against bright highlights.

As you might expect, Joker's 4K presentation delivers fantastic detail, particularly in the film's many close-ups of Arthur's face – fine lines and pores are easily identifiable (especially in scenes where the character is wearing his clown makeup). Likewise, threads and fibers in clothing are more apparent to the point where one can readily distinguish between the different types of fabrics in Joker's eye-popping costume. 

Perfectly complementing Joker's superb visual presentation is an equally impressive Dolby Atmos primary track that truly brings the film to life. While some 4K discs are guilty of favoring loud, bombastic sound effects and music over dialogue, Joker manages to find a perfect balance across the board. 

Those who've seen Joker know that Hildur Guðnadóttir's haunting score drives the film and provides its soul, but it never crosses the line on this disc by overpowering the film's vocals, which are always clear and consistent. That said, the three-dimensional soundscape achieved by this excellent Atmos track does allow the score to feel even more enveloping to the listener. Speaking of the film's sound design, the track also offers a real sense of atmosphere during crowd scenes.

A disc that perfectly recreates the film's theatrical presentation, fans simply owe it to themselves to pick up this extraordinary 4K release of Joker.

The X-Men series

Resolution: 2160p (X-Men / X-Men 2 / X-Men: Apocalypse: native 4K masters, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past: upscaled from 2K masters)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English DTS-HD 5.1
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (all films)

It's now possible to separately purchase every entry in the main X-Men series on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Fans will be x-static (sorry) to hear that each film in the series holds up incredibly well in Ultra HD, with the first two films in the saga, X-Men and X2: X-Men United (a.k.a. X-Men 2), receiving brand new 4K scans which achieve terrific results. 

Keen-eyed viewers will notice bolder colors across the board thanks to an impressive HDR-related upgrade. Blues and reds, in particular, appear more vibrant – witness, for instance, the glowing red beams that shoot from Cyclops' eyes, or the steely blue interiors of Professor X's Cerebro room. We also get richer yellows and greens, such as the lining in Wolverine's costume and Toad's sickly skin. 

In X-Men 2, the uptick in resolution offers some incredible clarity, particularly in close-ups of Nightcrawler's face, which show additional detail in the swirling scars etched in the character's skin. Of course, the blues in his and Mystique's skin also appear more clearly defined, with their particular shades appearing slightly more individual. 

With the addition of Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, HDR gets another workout with yet another eye-popping shade of blue skin, along with the added bonus of bright blue hair to accompany it. 

As you might expect, detail is astonishing, with The Last Stand's upscaled 2160p transfer offering increased sharpness, allowing viewers to spot the individual strands of hair that have been meticulously applied to the character by the film's makeup department.

Thanks to a boost in contrast, we also get deeper blacks and improved shadow detail, which significantly helps to enhance the mood of the films. As the earlier entries in the saga were shot on 35mm film, a fine layer of grain is present which helps ground the fantastical films with a modicum of realism while also providing a richer filmic appearance.

Also upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate is X-Men: First Class, which arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with some noticeable improvements over the standard Blu-ray edition, but perhaps isn't quite the standout that X-Men and X-Men 2 are. 

Thanks to some HDR tinkering, we get bright colors that pop with added vibrancy, particularly when it comes time for the characters to don their blue and yellow '60s-era costumes. Skin tones appear healthy and lifelike, with some spectacular highlights in the form of Emma Frost's diamond-encrusted epidermis proving especially striking.

The film's big climax, which sees the mutants intervening with the Cuban Missile Crisis by lifting a submarine out of the ocean, is expectedly a visual standout, looking even better in Ultra HD than it did on previous releases. 

With X-Men: Days of Future Past, the main series finally moves into the digital era, with the time-traveling sequel captured at 2.8K resolution and finished with a 2K digital intermediate. While Days of Future Past is an upscaled release, it looks quite good on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, with the benefits of HDR shining through to provide additional color vibrancy and increased black levels.

The film's dark opening sequence, which shows a grim Terminator-esque future where the world has been ravaged by machines, dazzles with its deep blacks and vibrant neon highlights. Later, during the film's daytime finale, we get a significant boost in clarity, particularly when the more colorful X-Men like Mystique and Beast are on screen.

X-Men: Apocalypse was originally captured at 6K in the Redcode RAW format, which offers filmmakers an increased level of post-production control, making it perfect for HDR post processing. Finished on a 4K digital intermediate, X-Men: Apocalypse comes to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with no loss to visual fidelity whatsoever. A visual effects showcase if ever there was one, the end result, pardon the pun, is x-traordinary.

From its Ancient Egypt opening through to its apocalyptic finale, X-Men: Apocalypse dazzles in Ultra HD. Costumes and makeup benefit greatly from the added resolution afforded by the format, opening our eyes to the incredible work that goes into their creation. There's an immediately noticeable increase in detail, as well as an added depth of texture.

As you would expect from a movie in which characters frequently shoot beams of energy from their hands/eyes/sceptres, lighting effects are a particular highlight here. Increased contrast and a wider color gamut mean that light blooming appears much more natural, avoiding the usual blocky-glow that plagues images with a lower color depth. It's also an extremely colorful movie, with numerous blue and purple characters on its roster. 

The latest entry in the X-Men series (and likely the last), X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrived on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray boasting some noticeable improvements over the 1080p version of the film. 

For starters, we have increased fine detail on costumes, sets, hair and makeup effects, which is impressive given the movie was finished on a 2K digital intermediate and then upscaled. As far as resolution goes, this release is likely the best the film will ever look at home. 

However, the 4K Ultra HD release's biggest advantage over the standard Blu-ray is surely the inclusion of HDR10, which offers Dark Phoenix increased color vibrancy and brightness, something that makes a huge difference when half the film's cast is blue. Unfortunately, this release lacks Dolby Vision, even though Dark Phoenix was presented that way theatrically, according to the Dolby website.

That said, X-Men: Dark Phoenix at least boasts a truly excellent Dolby Atmos audio track, which is a real show-stopper during the film's big finale on the train – the sound of Magneto crushing a group of baddies in a train carriage and then throwing it away is immensely satisfying.

Dark Phoenix aside, each X-Men release surprisingly lacks Dolby Atmos audio in favour of DTS-HD 5.1 tracks, the discs are a no-brainer for those who don't already own the films. In our estimation, X-Men, X-Men 2 and X-Men: Apocalypse provide enough of an upgrade over their Blu-ray equivalents to warrant a double dip for devoted fans, while the rest still offer the definitive version of each film to watch at home. 

Captain Marvel

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p/24
Codec: HEVC
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

One of the top-grossing movies of 2019, Captain Marvel was the first female-led Marvel movie, which already makes it a must-watch in our books. Luckily it's a truly fantastic movie too – and might be one of our favorite across the whole MCU.

Set in the 90s, this fantasy superhero movie really lends itself to the best 4K HDR tech. All of the strong primary and secondary colors are rich, they look like they 'pop' from the screen, and the whites are vibrant. Some of the CGI, fantasy elements look the most impressive, like when Vers visits the Supreme Being. 

It's also worth mentioning that there are quite a few close-up shots throughout the movie, and this version renders the detail well. You can see the finest details in sets, the characters' physical features and the costumes. 

Aquaman

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from a 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.78:1

With the arrival of DC's Aquaman on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray, the format has received another reference-quality disc that will surely be used to show off brand new televisions for years to come. 

Despite being upscaled from a 2K master (which proved more than suitable in cinemas, we might add), Aquaman offers a pristine transfer that's stuffed to the gills (we went there) with onscreen activity – all of which is presented with incredible detail. It's no secret that 4K releases presented in the full IMAX aspect ratio are utterly spectacular to watch on a high-end television set (you hearing this, Disney?), and Aquaman may very well be the best example of this yet. 

According to director James Wan, approximately 90% of the movie is shown this way, and while that might be a slight exaggeration, almost all of the film's major sequences do take advantage of your entire display, exhibiting immense clarity and color. Speaking of color, Aquaman is a true showcase for high-dynamic-range (both HDR10 and Dolby Vision are available), with its vibrant underwater world offering enough eye candy to put you in a visual sugar coma. 

We have glowing purples, oranges and greens piercing through the deep blue sea – Aquaman's first trip to Atlantis is a show-stopping sight to behold – with realistic specular highlights reflected in armor and tridents. Rays of light also shine through the ocean surface with impressively subtle color gradation.

Later in the film, a scene shows Arthur and Mera being attacked by The Trench while travelling via tugboat, and if ever there was an argument for the importance of increased resolution and contrast, this is it. The set piece unfolds at night during heavy rainfall while hundreds of snarling CGI creatures attack our heroes, and it is positively bursting at the seams with visual information. 

Thankfully, Aquaman's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray handles the complex scene with ease, and looks especially good on TVs capable of deep, inky blacks. A must-have release for fans of superhero films.

Deadpool 2

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from a 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

As one of the first major titles to hit 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, the original Deadpool impressed with a pristine transfer based on a true 4K digital intermediate. While its sequel, Deadpool 2, was finished at 2K and then upscaled for this 4K release, the disc still looks great, with a noticeable upgrade in detail and color over the regular Blu-ray.

Sporting a steely-blue look and feel for most of the film, Deadpool 2 isn't quite as vibrant as its predecessor. That said, there are several moments here where colors really pop, including the film's violent opening montage, Cable's explosive prison attack and the film's big chase scene. Like the first entry's 4K disc, Deadpool 2 has received HDR10 color grading, though Dolby Vision is absent. 

Once again, specular highlights benefit greatly from the high-dynamic-range tinkering that the film has received, particularly in the light reflecting from Colossus' shiny metal body. Thanks to the resolution uptick provided by the format, object definition looks wonderful here — the stitching and texture of Deadpool's costume is the standout on this disc, along with the incredibly-detailed visual effects work that has gone into creating Cable's cybernetic arm and chest. 

As an added bonus, Deadpool 2's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray includes two versions of the film, with the Theatrical Cut and Super Duper $@%!#& Cut each housed on their own 4K disc. 

Avengers: Infinity War

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from a 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The kind of cinematic event that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was made for, Avengers: Infinity War exploded onto the format with show-stopping HDR10 and Dolby Vision visuals and a fantastic Dolby Atmos audio track. Though Avengers: Infinity War was finished on a 2K digital intermediate (possibly due to the sheer amount of visual effects on display), it was captured at 6.5K, so the upscaled end result looks exceptional regardless. 

We see incredible definition and wonderful detail throughout the entirety of Infinity War, particularly in any scene featuring the towering computer-generated character, Thanos. Thanks to the incredible work of the film's animators, Thanos' face reveals outstanding textures and lines, with the added clarity of the film's resolution uptick providing additional gravitas to Josh Brolin's riveting motion capture performance. 

Elsewhere, the Infinity War shines thanks to HDR10 and Dolby Vision color grading, which gives the movie incredible vibrancy and contrast. Highlights, for instance, are incredibly strong here, with Thor's thunder-summoning abilities proving to be a standout. Skin tones also appear warmer and more natural, particularly during daylight scenes, such as the film's climactic battle. 

Topping off the film's astonishing visuals is a punchy Dolby Atmos track which offers impressive bombastics and atmospherics, providing a convincing three-dimensional soundscape in the process. While we would've loved for Avengers: Infinity War's full-frame IMAX sequences to have been included on the disc, it's hard to argue with what we did get here. 

The Avengers

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from a 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Due to its bright, clean cinematography and TV-friendly 1.85:1 aspect ratio, The Avengers makes for an ideal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray candidate. Everything that was great about the film's regular blu-ray is magnified here, with vibrant HDR10-tuned colors, improved contrast, brighter highlights and greater detail across the board. 

If you have a high-end television that's capable of intense color and brightness, you're going to want to pick this disc up — The Avengers dazzles in this regard, with the red, white and blue of Captain America's costume, along with the Hulk's green skin, looking especially vivid here. 

Night-time scenes, such as the forest battle between Iron Man and Thor, look especially good here — Thor's lightning bolts burn with white hot intensity against inky black backgrounds, and there's no sign of any crushing to within the darkness.

Like Avengers: Infinity War, The Avengers was mastered at 2K, though you'd never know it based on its Ultra HD Blu-ray transfer — fine detail is extraordinary here, particularly in costumes and character close-ups. 

Along with its excellent Dolby Atmos track, which delivers impressive bass and directional sound effects, The Avengers has made a fantastic debut on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. If you're a fan of the film (and really, who isn't?), you won't be disappointed by this stellar release.

Black Panther

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Captured at 3.4K resolution and then finished at 4K, Marvel's Black Panther arrived on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a disc that easily outclasses its 1080p counterpart thanks to additional accuracy in its color palette and a more natural appearance overall. 

Right off the bat, the film impresses with its CGI introductory scene. We are given a quick history of Black Panther's country Wakanda, starting with the vibranium meteorite that gifts the African nation with the world's most precious (and technologically useful) metal. The level of detail in the animation is very high, and we're able to really appreciate the light and shade benefits that HDR allows for. 

Admittedly, the disc is less impressive during the night-time jungle rescue that comes shortly after, showing some muddiness in the darkness, something that may or may not resolve itself when viewed on an OLED screen. That said, later scenes set at night look glorious, including a car chase through Seoul that sees vibrant neon signs shimmer off the various luxury vehicles featured in the action-packed set piece. 

But really, detail and color are the standouts on this disc, with the film's flamboyant costumes looking especially eye-popping — witness, for instance, the ritual combat ceremony scene, in which each tribe gathers in their traditional garb to watch the country's top warriors battle for the right to be king. Clarity is also astounding here, with the various textures and fibers of each costume exhibiting jaw-dropping detail. A truly wonderful disc and a must-have for Marvel fans. 

Justice League

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1:78.1

Though the film was finished on a 2K digital intermediate, that doesn't stop Justice League from looking astonishing on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Part of this is due to its 1:78.1 aspect ratio, which films the entire frame of your television (no black bars here), making these heroes look larger than life in the process. 

Like all of Zack Snyder's movies, Justice League was shot on film (35mm to be precise, though it was then blown up to 70mm using IMAX's digital media remastering), so you can expect incredible detail and additional texture to be found here. Costume detail looks absolutely extraordinary on this transfer, particularly in the texture of Batman's costume and the various surfaces of The Flash's super-complex outfit. 

When it comes to digital effects, Justice League also benefits on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. For instance, Cyborg's CGI body, which is made up entirely of shiny metal, lights and wiring, looks especially intricate and impressive here — particularly when it comes to specular highlights. 

As expected, shadows and dark areas (this is a Snyder film, after all) benefit greatly from the film's HDR color grading, and fans will be happy to know that the disc offers both HDR10 and Dolby Vision support. As for the film's soundtrack, the disc's Dolby Atmos track is muscular and bombastic, with deep bass and clean dialogue that works well within three-dimensional soundscape.

If you're a fan of the film, the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of Justice League is a must-buy, as it will likely become your reference disc for the foreseeable future.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Arriving on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an upscaled transfer based on a 2K digital intermediate, Kingsman: The Golden Circle shines on the format thanks to some terrific HDR color depth and a significant uptick in fine detail across the board.

Colors are incredibly rich here, with the film's many sets and costumes looking particularly vibrant on the format. Explosions, in particular, look especially vivid and hot, while flesh tones look appropriately realistic and warm.

Though not sourced from a 4K master, the detail here is excellent, with fine lines and wrinkles looking particularly clean. Clothing looks pristine, with fibres and stitching clearly visible, giving the film's presentation a more immersive look overall. 

Kingsman: The Golden Circle looks best however, during its many slow-motion action sequences, in which we really get a good look at all of the extra detail afforded by the format. Elsewhere, more fast-paced and kinetic action scenes, such as the film's opening car chase, look astonishingly crisp. 

Visual effects also benefit from the added resolution and visual clarity, with the film's robot dogs receiving added complexity in their moving parts. Overall, if you liked Kingsman: The Golden Circle, this is easily the best way to watch it in your own living room.

Wonder Woman

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Making her stunning debut on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format, Wonder Woman looks, well, wonderful. Shot on a combination of 35mm film and using the Arri Alexa 65 digital camera, Wonder Woman receives an unbelievable boost in visual fidelity, even if its digital intermediate was mastered at 2K.

Color reproduction and contrast are where Wonder Woman really shines, with the former looking especially beautiful during the scenes set on Diana's home island of Themyscira. Blues and greens are especially lush here, really selling the warm, sunny paradise setting. This is juxtaposed brilliantly against the grim and gray World War 1 tone that comprises much of the film's second half.

This is where contrast becomes particularly important, as much detail is revealed in the dark, dirty environments surrounding the main characters. The smoke-covered battlefield of No Man's Land is especially breathtaking, with its layers of smoky depth creating the illusion of an atmosphere that you can all but touch. 

Dirt and debris flies as Diana marches into the line of fire, with every speck clearly visible and contributing to the feel of the scene. Then there's Wonder Woman herself, whose famous red, blue and gold costume stands out gloriously against her war-torn surroundings.

For the film's fiery, explosion-filled finale, Wonder Woman's HDR color grading really delivers when it comes to highlights in the fire effects and sparks that populate the scene. At every turn, Wonder Woman is a fantastic example of how this format is ideal for this type of movie. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

James Gunn is in no small way responsible for Disney and Marvel finally hopping aboard the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray train, the landmark director insisting that his visually-spectacular film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, be released on the only format that could do it justice. And, what a first title! A reference quality disc if ever there was one, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the kind of film that will make doubters of the young format stand up and take notice. 

The film's opening credits, in which Baby Groot dances in the foreground while a whole lot of intergalactic action takes place in the background, is frankly breathtaking, making full use of the format's superior level of detail. See the neon lettering that decorates each name in the credits, now bursting with a super bright and realistic glow. Behind Groot, you'll spot a near constant flurry of rainbow-like bursts of mist and thousands of multi-colored particles, now even more vibrant thanks to the disc's increased resolution and the wider color palette that HDR brings in. 

Detail is also amazing, with animated characters like Rocket and Groot looking especially detailed – just look at Rocket's realistic fur and the woodgrain texture that Groot exhibits. Costumes also get a notable boost in texture – it's now possible to see fuzzy fabric and stitching. 

What’s really impressive is that the entire movie keeps its level of visual chaos up without ever dropping the ball. As the film gets more out there in terms of locations and visual effects, the number of show-stopping 4K HDR scenes continuously grows, making this a disc that will floor viewers from beginning to end. Contrast and color levels have been impeccably chosen, too, with the disc avoiding the blown-out brightness that some releases on the format have unfortunately had. 

If there's one downside to the 4K release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it's that the film's IMAX sequences are not presented full-frame in that eye-popping shifting aspect ratio like they are on the 3D Blu-ray. Star Trek Into Darkness sported this kind of presentation on its 4K release and left our jaws glued to the floor, so it would've been great to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 presented in the same way.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: sci-fi

Alita: Battle Angel

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Alita: Battle Angel soars on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray thanks to some incredible HDR10+ and Dolby Vision support, and a transfer that's sharper than Alita's Damascus blade.

Despite being upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate, Alita: Battle Angel looks expectedly astonishing in this 4K release. For starters, contrast and color depth is off the charts here, with inky-blacks and incredible color vibrance lending the film an eye-popping level of spectacle.

As the format does with most VFX-heavy science fiction films, the disc's higher resolution allows viewers to truly experience and appreciate the incredible design work and craftsmanship that goes into creating such a convincing futuristic word. 

It helps that Alita: Battle Angel is a film that's bursting at the seams with detail, from the largely computer-generated world of Iron City, to the many cyborg characters who inhabit it. Witness, for instance, the character of Zapan (pictured, right), whose entire robotic body is comprised of intricate metal parts, and whose only human feature is his face – you'd be hard-pressed to find a more detailed and visually-arresting cyborg design in any other sci-fi film that's come before. 

And then there's Alita herself, with her oversized and extremely expressive eyes providing the character with an (intentionally) uncanny appearance. Simply put, Alita is a visual marvel, and while you'll never forget that she's entirely CGI, your eyes will be glued to her at all times.

When you factor in that the film's 4K release is one of the few titles to arrive on the format that actually includes the 3D Blu-ray in the package, it's easy to recommend Alita: Battle Angel for home AV enthusiasts looking for demo-worthy discs – even those who don't particularly like the film. But for those who are fans (this writer included), Alita: Battle Angel is one of the best releases the format has seen to date. 

Bumblebee

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Exploding out of the gate with the most visually spectacular scene of any Transformers movie, Bumblebee is a sight to behold on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, making it easy to forget Michael Bay's last few films in the franchise. 

Taking up the entire screen thanks to the film's 1.78:1 presentation, Bumblee delivers a clear uptick in detail quality despite being upscaled from a 2K master. Making good use of both Dolby Vision and HDR10, the film exhibits fantastic contrast and shadow detail during dark scenes, such as the opening battle on Cybertron, while also sporting fantastic highlights and colors in sparks, laser blasts and explosions. 

Once the film's action transitions over to Earth, Bumblebee's 4K presentation continues to shine in settings that are far more brightly lit. Though the film is a visual effects showcase, the vast majority of its running time is spent in real-world locations  while our titular character interacts with humans. Once again, the disc's resolution boost and high-dynamic-range capabilities lead Bumblebee straight into showcase territory, with skin tones that feel true to life and landscapes that appear extra beautiful. Highly recommended.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Luc Besson knows a thing or two about crafting incredible science fiction visuals (or any visuals for that matter), having directed the classic film The Fifth Element. With Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, the French auteur kicks things up a notch, creating off-world visuals so arresting, they alone warrant this disc a place in the collection of any serious Ultra HD enthusiast. 

Similar to James Cameron's Avatar, the film exhibits an overwhelming amount of crystal clear CGI, and while that may give the film an artificial look, there's no denying the level or detail and artistry evident in every frame. 

Witness, for instance, the scenes that take place on the pearl planet (pictured above), which are rendered entirely in a computer. There's an outstanding level of beauty on display here, with the scenes deep blues and bright highlights making great use of the format's HDR/Dolby Vision capabilities. Clarity is off the charts, with an impressively sharp transfer – you'd never guess Valerian was finished on a 2K digital intermediate. 

The rest of the film, which is packed with high-octane spaceship chases and interplanetary action scenes, also looks outstanding, with the uptick in resolution revealing an astonishing level of detail throughout.

They Live (4K Collector Edition)

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from original camera negative scanned at 4K /16bit)
Primary audio: English 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

CONSUME! CONFORM! OBEY! Ever felt like the world around you is subliminally pushing secret messages to you? That perhaps your work colleagues and those in power aren't quite what they seem? Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not after you...

That's the crux of the brilliant premise behind John Carpenter's superb satirical sci-fi film They Live, in which pro wrestler 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper discovers that the world is slowly being taken over by alien invaders, which can only be seen by wearing special sunglasses.

The eminently-quotable 1988 cult classic has been lovingly restored for this very special collectors edition 4K release, which saw the original camera negative scanned at 4K resolution before being newly color graded by renowned cinematographer, Gary B. Kibbe.

It results in the best-looking edition of the film to date, and that's before you start looking at all the extras thrown in here – you're looking at the UHD disc alongside a HD Blu-ray presentation and HD special features disc, a CD soundtrack, a superb poster, five art-cards and a 48 page book that fans of Carpenter and the movie alike will lap up. 

It's a dream package for fans of the film, while hardcore John Carpenter fans will also want to pick up the new 4K restorations of his other classics The Fog, Escape From New York and Prince of Darkness – each given a similarly-exquisite boxset release.

2001: A Space Odyssey

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Aspect ratio: 2.20:1

What's there to be said about 2001: A Space Odyssey that hasn't already been said? Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Stanley Kubrick's visionary exploration of space, the future and the nature of life in this universe is as powerful today as on its day of release.

Often heralded for its groundbreaking visual effects work, it's incredible just how well the film holds up under the added scrutiny of this stunning 4K remaster. With this year seeing a release of a newly restored 70mm print (using elements made from the original camera negative) this re-release piggybacks off that work, with the 4K UHD HDR image mastered itself from the 65mm original camera negative. The Warner Bros team have gone as close to the source as possible here, giving an all-new UHD sheen to a marvellous film.

From the opening sun-rising glare to the decent into another dimension towards the film's end, the UHD presentation brings vibrant life to the dramatic range in the color palette. HDR visuals add depth to the dark expanses of space, punctuated by amazing miniature model work, with Dolby Vision support particularly well executed here. What's sadly missing is a Dolby Atmos soundtrack – what better way than to hear 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' in space than both above and around you? Alas, we'll have to wait longer. Still, the soundtrack has also been given a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 revamp, as well as there being the option to listen to the original 6-track theatrical audio mix, now formatted for DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.

As a gift package it's lovely, too – there's an excellent array of special features included on the disc, as well as great booklet and art cards within the sleeve. Whether a long time fan of the film or coming to it for the first time, it's a wonderful way to experience it.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The second Star Wars film to arrive on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Solo: A Star Wars Story faithfully represents the film's beautiful theatrical presentation, even if its image is slightly flatter than we're used to seeing on the format.

Like The Last Jedi before it, Solo boasts a true 4K digital intermediate, meaning that no upscaling has gone into the making of this release. As you'd expect, detail is exceptional here, though you won't find a lot of depth in the cinematography of Solo. 

While some 4K releases carry a clean, almost three-dimensional appearance, Solo's tendency towards darkness, haze and muddy environments mostly prevents this outside of a few bright outdoor scenes (Solo's confrontation with Enfys Nest is a particular highlight in this regard).

That said, color comes up especially well here thanks to some fine HDR10 tinkering (Dolby Vision is unfortunately absent from this release), allowing for scenes that pop with a surprising amount of vibrance out of the film's dark environments. Witness, for instance, the Kessel Run sequence, in which the Millennium Falcon must travel through a space storm filled with whirling colors and spectacular highlights. Elsewhere, the disc displays some standout color in Lando Calrissian's stylish yellow shirt. 

It's worth noting that your enjoyment of Solo's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray may be affected by the television you use to watch it — on OLED or QLED displays with local dimming, there's a more noticeable depth evident in the film's darker scenes. 

Though it's unlikely to be considered a reference quality disc by Ultra HD enthusiasts, Solo looks as good as can be on the format thanks to its faithful presentation and HDR color tuning. 

Predator 3-Movie Collection

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (Predator's upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1, 1.85:1, 1.84:1

In an effort to make up for past mistakes, 20th Century Fox has brought the Predator franchise (that's the standalone movies — the less said about Alien vs Predator, the better) to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a long-awaited new transfer for the film that started it all. 

One of the most beloved action sci-fi films of the 1980s, the original Predator has surprisingly been shown very little love in the past when it came to its HD releases. As one of the worst examples of DNR (digital noise reduction) run amok, Predator's previous Blu-ray had all of its film grain scrubbed to the point where Schwarzenegger and his crew looked more alien than the titular creature itself. 

Thankfully, the team behind Predator's Ultra HD has finally given fans a home video release that's faithful to the film's original, grain-heavy look. That isn't to say that Predator now looks like a new movie — given the film's harsh jungle setting and rugged shooting conditions, Predator can appear a little rough around the edges at times. 

Detail, even in close ups, isn't particularly high, which is probably why DNR was employed so heavily the first time around. That said, there's a pleasing, healthy grain present throughout the film's running time, and occasionally, there are some particularly well-lit scenes that look extraordinarily vibrant and crisp on the 4K format. This is definitely the best that Predator is likely to look for the foreseeable future.

Moving on to what is arguably the standout disc in this 3-movie collection, Predator 2  looks fantastic thanks to the added richness of color afforded by HDR. The film's opening, set on the blisteringly hot streets of a crime-ridden Los Angeles, burns with extra intensity on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. You can almost feel the heat of the scene, with every drop of sweat realised with added detail thanks to the resolution uptick. Likewise, there's now extra clarity in the scenes which feature the Predator's thermal vision, with the reds, blues, yellows and greens looking especially vibrant here. 

As the only movie in this collection to be shot digitally (and the only one made in the last decade), Predators looks expectedly good on the Ultra HD format. Upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate, Predators appears clean and sharp at all times, with close-ups revealing plenty of wrinkles and fine details thanks to the boost in resolution. Colors also appear more refined here than in previous releases, with the movie's interesting lighting choices offering a wide range of hues and tones. It's safe to say that you won't be disappointed with the appearance of Predators on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Ready Player One

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The kind of film that begs to be seen at the highest quality possible, Ready Player One explodes onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with one of the most impressive discs we've ever reviewed — a surprise, given it comes with a 2K digital master. 

Set in a futuristic world where people's virtual lives have become their primary ones, Ready Player One adopts an otherworldly, heightened visual style which lends itself to the 4K HDR format. 

Characters and environments look incredibly detailed and highly animated, with Spielberg's sweeping camera movements capturing the chaotic in-game world of The Oasis in a way that other filmmakers could only dream of. A visual feast, Ready Player One's heavy use of color figuratively explodes from the screen thanks to the disc's terrific use HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading. 

An early scene, in which the lead characters must compete in the most over-the-top race this side of Speed Racer, is bursting with hidden details and visual grandeur. In fact, it might be the most visually spectacular sequence to hit the format to date.

Outside of The Oasis, real-world sequences look fantastic, too, with perfectly-tuned skin tones and added detail in costumes and sets. 

Add to this a roaring Dolby Atmos track offers incredible three-dimensional sound, and what you have in Ready Player One is a new reference quality disc to demonstrate your home theater with. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi 

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

During the film's opening moments, and depending on your television, you may find yourself taken aback by Star Wars: The Last Jedi's first foray into HDR territory, with its familiar opening crawl taking place on a space background that looks a little more gray than we're used to seeing — especially in contrast to the pitch black bars above and below the film's 2.39:1 frame. 

Don't fret — as soon as the action kicks in, you'll find an exceptional transfer worthy of such a mammoth release. Colors are greatly enhanced by the disc's HDR10 and Dolby Vision tinkering, exhibiting additional vibrance and brightness throughout the entire feature presentation. 

Skin tones appear more natural, costumes appear more vibrant, lightsabers look brighter and hotter than ever... there's no end to the visual improvements that come from the inclusion of high-dynamic-range. 

Perhaps the most standout sequence of the film, at least in terms of visuals, involves a lightsaber battle against a group of Praetorian Guards in Supreme Leader Snoke's red throne room (pictured above). The blood-red backdrop is vivid as can be, without displaying any color leakage or over-saturation. HDR brings a lot to the table here, showing incredible light-to-dark blending without obvious color gradations cropping up and ruining the image. 

As this release is based on the film's 4K master (no upscaling here), the increased detail here is also worth writing home about. We're now able to appreciate the incredible costumes, makeup and visual effects work more than ever before, from the stitching in Finn's jacket, to the strands of fur all over Chewbacca's body. 

Add to this an extraordinary Dolby Atmos audio track which makes great use of spatial audio and the film's bombastic score, and you can chalk up Star Wars: The Last Jedi as yet another reference-quality 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Blade Runner 2049

HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Perhaps not as immediately mind-blowing as the 4K release of Ridley Scott's masterpiece, Blade Runner (though that probably has to do with the film's steady format progression over the last 35 years), Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 shines on Ultra HD Blu-ray nonetheless. 

Roger Deakins' incredible cinematography takes center stage here, with the film's futuristic locations receiving increased texture thanks to some smoky atmospherics, moody lighting and heavy rain. Flesh tones and costume detail also get a significant uptick here, with the higher resolution offering a significant increase in clarity over the film's 1080p presentation. 

Boasting a true 4K digital intermediate (no upscaling here), Blade Runner 2049 looks almost as great at home as it did in the theater — we say 'almost' because the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray would've benefitted from the inclusion of expanded IMAX sequences (with shifting aspect ratios that show bigger images during key scenes), which many filmgoers witnessed during the film's theatrical run. 

Other 4K releases have blown us away by including IMAX presentations (such as Dunkirk, The Dark Knight and Star Trek Into Darkness) as that added detail and clarity translates magnificently at 2160p resolution. 

Still, we can't argue with what we have here, which is an exceptional HDR-supported disc that makes the best of the film's dark photography and neon-drenched settings. 

We also have to commend Blade Runner 2049 exception Dolby Atmos audio track, with the film's bombastic score setting the mood magnificently. Spacial audio is magnificent here, bringing plenty of dimensionality to the film's sound effects. A truly great audio presentation. 

War for the Planet of the Apes

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

One of the most impressive 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray releases to date, War for the Planet of the Apes is ape-solutely spectacular on the format (sorry). We all know how astonishing the film's visual effects are (read more about how they were created in our Weta Digital VFX report), but its photo-realistic apes hold up magnificently under the increased scrutiny of 4K and HDR (despite being upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate). 

Unsurprisingly, fur looks especially good here, looking completely natural at all times, particularly with light shining through it. Facial textures also receive increased detail, with the various wrinkles in the apes faces looking extra defined. 

Though the disc's increased resolution is a boon for video enthusiasts, the real showstopper here is the wider color gamut afforded by its HDR presentation. Much of the film is spent in darkness, yet we now get to see more detail and definition in those dark areas. Small details in costumes and props are now much clearer because of it. 

The overall palette looks richer, too, with the film's forest settings feeling more lush and its white snow looking brighter and more tangible. Skin tones in humans also receive an uptick, looking warmer and more natural than they did in the cinema. 

War for the Planet of the Apes is a must-own for fans of the series, thanks to its exceptional fine detail quality, deep blacks, and terrific use of HDR. Stay tuned for reviews of the other two films in the series, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Remastered from a 4K scan, Blade Runner: The Final Cut looks absolutely astounding on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. We're not just saying that it looks good for an old film – it looks amazing regardless of when it was filmed. 

The transfer reveals an exceptional level of clarity in what is generally a dark and smoky film. The noirish, rain-slicked, neon-soaked streets of futuristic Los Angeles look more detailed than ever, with the HDR-enhanced visuals giving us our best look at Rick Deckard's world to date. 

Witness, for instance, the staggering level of detail found in the film's miniatures – one particularly shot showing the Tyrell building will blow you away with its clarity, revealing all the intricacies of the model in question, including the many glittering lights all over the structure giving you the illusion of thousands of offices within. You won't even mind that the illusion is slightly broken by the obviousness of the miniature work, because you'll be too busy appreciating the spectacular craftsmanship and on display. 

Elsewhere, the whole film gets a visual uptick, with HDR helping significantly when it comes to the smooth gradation of colours and lighting. Clothing, skin textures and hair all look better in this version, and the various extreme close-ups of eyeballs all show extra detail now. 

If you're a fan of Blade Runner, chances are that you already own The Final Cut of the film on Blu-ray. While it's highly likely that both releases come from the same 4K digital intermediate, this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version blows previous Blu-ray and HD DVD releases of the film out of the water. This is the best that Blade Runner has ever looked, period. 

Alien: Covenant

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Though it's been upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate (much like the 4K release of director Ridley Scott's previous film, The Martian), Alien: Covenant looks expectedly magnificent on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format. 

As this is a dark film with a muted palette (despite its many outdoor daytime scenes), an emphasis has been placed on HDR's ability to provide deeper, more lifelike contrast, much to the benefit of Alien: Covenant's astounding cinematography. 

Colors appear richer, too, standing out even more against the film's greyish blue tones. The alien itself also looks magnificent, with its inky-hued skin receiving added translucence and detail, benefitting from the disc's improved contrast and wider color gamut. 

Those of you with OLED TVs will get an even better viewing experience, with the technology's infinite contrast taking full advantage of the film's tenebrous atmosphere.

But it's not all about the Xenomorphs – the film's human characters also look terrific thanks to the 4K release's bump in resolution and enhanced colors, with faces revealing extra definition and skin tones looking warmer and more naturalistic than the film's SDR presentation. 

Adding to the film's immense visuals is a beefy Dolby Atmos track that focuses on atmospherics with occasional moments of bombast. Admittedly, we wish the disc offered a DTS Headphone:X track, as that would've made for an appropriately nerve-jangling experience akin to the recent video game release, Alien: Isolation. 

Still, we can't complain, as Alien: Covenant's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release is hard to fault when it comes to the film's video and audio presentation. If you're a fan of the film, consider this a must-have.

Ghost in the Shell

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

As you might expect, Ghost in the Shell looks glorious on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, with its neon-drenched cyberpunk setting really popping on the format. Though much of the film takes place in dark areas, the disc impresses throughout, particularly during scenes where vibrant colors are juxtaposed against dark environments. 

We were also blown away by how well the special effects stand up in this increased resolution, given that the film was finished at a 2K resolution. Still, you only have to watch the film's first major action sequence (pun intended), in which Scarlett Johansson's Major character applies active camouflage and blasts through a window to shoot down some haywire robot geishas, to get an idea of how impressive this presentation is. The scene is bursting with color and HDR-enhanced highlights, with reflective glass flying through the scene and slow-motion gunfire at every turn. 

Still some viewers might be taken aback by the film's many dark scenes, though they truly come alive when combined with OLED's capacity for infinite contrast. This is truly a demo-worthy disc in that regard. 

Passengers

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Shot at a resolution of 6.5K and then finished with with a 4K digital intermediate, Passengers soars on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. An ideal candidate for demonstration purposes, the format allows the viewer to truly absorb the impeccable craftsmanship that went into the film's exception production design and special effects work. Taking place entirely on an enormous spacecraft. Passengers offers ample opportunities for glorious space gazing and futuristic interior design. 

There are times in this 4K presentation when the photographic clarity of the film is so high and lifelike, it almost feels like you're watching a play. Other times, the digital photography is so clean and sharp, that it gives the film an unreal quality, almost like it's partly animated. Of course, this is completely intentional and only serves to make Passengers look even more astounding on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Of course, the film's HDR colors contrast level keep everything in check.

Skin tones are remarkably true to life, and while the film's stars come across a little too beautiful at times (seriously, no one can look that great at all times) Passengers is exactly the kind of film that the 4K Ultra HD format was made for. It's a showcase for gorgeous people hanging out on stunning sets doing remarkable things with the help of magnificent visual effects. 

Lucy

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Arriving on Ultra HD Blu-ray with an absolutely stunning transfer sourced from a 4K digital intermediate, Lucy demonstrates the strengths of the format by showcasing immense fine detail, exceptionally-realistic skin tones and textures, and truly-dynamic color reproduction throughout.

From the film's opening scene, which features Lucy the primate in a prehistoric setting, this presentation solidifies its place as one of the format's best reference-quality discs. The detail in the hominid's face and fur is utterly astounding, as are the colors and textures in its surrounding habitat. 

As was mentioned earlier, skin tones and textures are also incredible on Lucy's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, looking supremely lifelike at all times. Seriously, if you can find pores and imperfections on the face of someone as beautiful as Scarlett Johansson, you know you've reached an unparalleled level of clarity. 

Likewise, as the film starts to veer into true science-fiction territory, the disc continues to shine, displaying vibrant HDR-enhanced colors and terrific contrast. Even if you only have a passing admiration for Luc Besson's trippy action film, you owe it to yourself to check out Lucy on 4K Blu-ray.

Oblivion

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

As a science-fiction film with a very sleek and minimalistic art design, Oblivion makes an ideal candidate for the added resolution of 4K. Though the transfer was taken from a 2K digital intermediate (common with visual effects-driven films), Oblivion looks sharp and clean, if not immediately mind-blowing. 

With that said, as the film enters its darker scenes, the impressive color gamut and contrast afforded by the film's HDR grading give the film a real sense of depth and vibrancy, particularly in the film's indoor drone shootout sequence. Bloom lighting and sparks from the scene's many explosions burn white-hot, showcasing the brilliant brightness that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is capable of. Likewise, close-up shots of the drones show a wonderful level of detail.

Though the film has a mostly washed-out grey and blue tone, skin tones appear quite naturalistic and at times appear to be the most vibrant thing on screen. Facial textures also excel, showing fine details like pores and individual hairs in Tom Cruise's five o'clock shadow. Grime, cuts and bruises also look benefit from the format's added clarity.

Giving the film a visual uptick in every category over the standard Blu-ray edition, for fans, this is by far the best way to experience Oblivion.

Pacific Rim

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

The reference-quality Blu-ray disc of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim threatens to stomp the rest of your Blu-ray collection and land itself at the top of the pile for visual quality. 

Though the film was finished on a 2K digital intermediate, much like Star Trek Into Darkness, this does not stop Pacific Rim from looking utterly sensational on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Shot in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, your entire television screen will be used to display the film's many giant robot vs monster set pieces. 

Thanks to some HDR tinkering, the film's colors and contrast now look even better than they did when the film was in theatres. Witness the rainswept battle that opens the film to see how good its vivid colors look against the inky blacks of a night-time sky. The added resolution afforded by 4K Blu-ray makes the rain look more detailed and realistic. Sparks that fly within the Jaeger cockpit are also more clearly defined and burn hotter than ever before.

Though the entire film is a showstopper, anyone that has seen Pacific Rim will know that its mid-film Hong Kong monster battle is the best-looking section of the film, and believe us when we say that it has never looked better than it does on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. The city's neon-soaked skyline radiates with beautiful and realistic bloom lighting, making the best of the film's high-dynamic-range upgrade.

Even if you already own Pacific Rim on 3D Blu-ray, you owe it to yourself to see how incredible the film can look on 4K Ultra HD. This is absolutely a reference quality disc. 

Independence Day: Resurgence

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Sourced from a true 4K digital intermediate, Independence Day: Resurgence roars onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray without losing any detail whatsoever – in fact, the film's presentation is improved by the inclusion of HDR (that said, the ultimate way to watch a film of this magnitude will always be on the biggest cinema screen possible). 

A much darker and gloomier picture than its predecessor, Independence Day: Resurgence features many scenes surrounded by inky blacks that would look exceptional on an OLED display. Unfortunately, we didn't have access to one for testing purposes, so we can only say that the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray's increased contrast and vivid colors make Independence Day: Resurgence look fantastic on any HDR-compatible TV.

Its various scenes of computer-assisted citywide destruction unfurl on screen with an extreme level of visual clarity and detail, acting as a showcase of what the 4K format is capable of. Many times, the film's turquoise alien tech takes centre stage, glowing with a naturalistic light bloom that never shows obvious signs of color gradation (see the film's opening scene to see how well light fades into darkness). 

If you're a fan of the film, there's no better way to watch Independence Day: Resurgence than on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Chappie

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 4K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Director Neill Blomkamp (District 9) is known for his knack for seamlessly blending science fiction elements into everyday scenarios, offering a uniquely down-to-earth view of a world filled with robots and aliens. His film Chappie is no exception. Set mostly around the slums of Johannesburg, Chappie's mostly daytime action allows this 4K HDR presentation to really pop.

Shot by Redcode RAW (5K) cameras and finished on a 4K digital intermediate, Chappie's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray practically mirrors what was shown in theatres, only with HDR providing improved contrast and more naturalistic colors. The detail in the titular robot character is astonishing, with the steely greys and blues of his frame making the orange highlights of his arm and antenna stand out even more. You can also see details in Chappie's dirty, scratched body that just weren't visible on the film's regular Blu-ray. Best of all, the expressive LED lights on Chappie's face now show much finer detail, making the character seem even more like a real world object, and not just a marvel of computer-generated wizardry.

Though the film can be quite grimy at times, it's got a lively, vibrant undercurrent to it, employing a Day-Go style thanks to Chappie's co-stars, the rap-rave group Die Antwoord. The group brings its signature art style to the film's costumes and set design, all of which looks fantastic when aided by HDR's wider color gamut. Now, bring on District 9 and Elysium in 4K!

Star Trek

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Though it's been 'upconverted' from a 2K digital intermediate (which is what you likely saw in theatres upon release), J.J. Abrams' first Star Trek movie looks absolutely wonderful on 4K Blu-ray – the release actually lends some weight to argument that Ultra HD discs don't need to come from a true 4K source in order to impress.

Director J.J. Abrams' may be guilty of relying a little heavily on his 'lens flare' technique on both of his Star Trek films, but the effect looks better than ever here thanks to HDR's increased color gamut and contrast levels. Light blooms looks completely natural, avoiding harsh shade transitions entirely. Elsewhere, the Ultra HD Blu-ray offers amazing detail when it comes to facial textures on the film's many creatures and alien races – Eric Bana's Romulan character Nero looks especially good, with the disc's increased resolution showing just how great the film's Oscar-winning make-up and facial prosthetics are.

While Star Trek's Ultra HD Blu-ray disc may be outclassed by its sequel's truly (inter)stellar 4K release (listed below), this is by far the best way to experience J.J.'s first voyage on the USS Enterprise at home.

Star Trek Into Darkness

HDR: HDR10
Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master)
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

When it comes to the visual quality, the Ultra HD Blu-ray for Star Trek Into Darkness is absolutely mind-blowing – we'd even go as far to call it the most impressive 4K release on this list. With over 30 minutes of the film shot in the IMAX format, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness cuts back and forth between a traditional 2.40:1 letterbox presentation for its non-showy scenes, and the more vision-encompassing 1.78:1 aspect ratio for the film's spectacle-driven moments (this presentation is exclusive to the film's Ultra HD release). Though the film looks great throughout (despite being sourced from the film's 2K digital intermediate), the level of detail displayed in these IMAX scenes is absolutely astonishing.

From its very first scene (pictured above), in which Kirk and Bones are chased through a vibrant red forest by the primitive Nibiru tribe, Star Trek Into Darkness will make an instant believer of any 4K/HDR naysayer. Witness, for instance, the cracked, flaking skin on the faces of the Nibiru tribes people, shown up close and in great detail. Marvel at the naturalistic skin tones, visible pores and wrinkles shown on actors Chris Pine and Karl Urban's faces, offering a level of immersion that 3D just cannot compete with.

Another scene, in which Spock drops down into a volcano, is also a showstopper – with its swirling specks of fire and ember, and contrast enhanced greatly by HDR, the scene becomes a showcase for the emerging 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. Until more IMAX-enhanced films start to be released, consider Star Trek Into Darkness your go-to 4K reference disc.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: family

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog speeds onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a gorgeous and exceptionally vibrant transfer made possible by the inclusion of HDR10 and Dolby Vision support.

While Sonic himself is an entirely CGI creation with a cartoonish visual appearance that never tries to look photo-realistic, he remains remarkably well-realised nevertheless and a constant joy to watch. From the ultra-fine blue furs and spines all over his body, to his big expressive eyes, Sonic is the kind of character that 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was made for. 

Sure, we expect visual FX to look great in UHD, but you may be surprised to find out that the film's human characters look just as impressive, with incredibly life-like skin tones and increased detail and clarity. Shot at 3.4K resolution and finished at 4K, Sonic the Hedgehog is exceptional clean and sharp looking throughout its entire presentation. 

As we alluded to earlier, the film is wonderfully vivid and vibrant thanks to some excellent HDR10 ans Dolby Vision color grading. Effects such as explosions, lightning and lasers appear heightened, but in a way that's visually arresting rather than distracting.

As top-notch as Sonic the Hedgehog's visual presentation is, its primary Dolby Atmos audio track is every bit its equal. Boasting plenty of dimensionality, it's not uncommon to feel like Sonic is constantly zipping around your living at high-speed. 

Later in the film, during Sonic's climactic showdown with Dr. Robotnik, your living room's surround speakers and sub woofer will likely get quite a workout, with rockets exploding from every angle and Eggman's ship providing plenty of low-end bass as it flies around town.

As great a presentation as anyone could've possibly hoped for, Sonic the Hedgehog's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray faithfully recreates the cinematic audio-visual experience in your very own home.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The Lion King (2019)

If you're looking for a truly astonishing demo-disc that will immediately sell your friends and family on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, look no further than Disney's 2019 version of The Lion King. 

Though the transfer is taken from a 2K digital intermediate, The Lion King makes every pixel on your 4K television count with incredibly high detail and clarity. From its show-stopping opening number, in which we're brought into the Pride Lands to witness the arrival of Simba, we're treated to a gloriously HDR-enhanced scene that sets the stage for the rest of the film. 

Numerous textures are shown off in quick succession, from desert plains and wet mud banks to lush grass and jungle. The sun-kissed scenery is enough to take your breath away – and then the CG-animated animals show up, revealing photorealistic skin and fur. 

When the lion Mufasa eventually appears on screen in all his majesty, we're able to soak in the immense artistry and attention to detail that went into this computer-generated creation. Individual hairs and whiskers are easily spotted, with stunning sunlight highlighting his fur and making it look especially realistic. 

Later in the film, close-ups of the meerkat Timon and his warthog sidekick Pumba are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Simply put, from a visual perspective, this is a reference-quality release of the highest order. 

Add to this a terrific Dolby Atmos audio track that expertly balances atmosphere, vocals, sound effects and music, and what you have is a must-own disc for fans of the film.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Trolls

Looking like a cotton candy machine exploded in a glitter factory, Trolls is one of the most vibrant and colorful films currently available on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. And, as you'd expect, there are huge HDR-related benefits to owning the film in 4K over the still admirable regular Blu-ray version. 

First off, the colors are astonishing. This is visual eye candy to the max, and while you might expect the vibrancy to be dialled up significantly on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, the disc's HDR allows for more naturalistic blending and shading. Combined with improved brightness and color, the overall presentation achieves a richer, more nuanced color palette that avoids looking sickly sweet and garish, and manages to do so without losing its vividness. 

Then comes the disc's fine detail, which receives a tremendous uptick at the 4K resolution. Each of the trolls in the film has a furry, felt-like texture that comes across even stronger when you can see fine hairs swaying on their arms and faces. Of course, their big colorful troll hair looks even more realistic than ever before. An impressive release that demonstrates the subtleties of HDR's wider color gamut, Trolls is the most impressive animated 4K release to date. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.35:1

Labyrinth

Starting with an outdoor scene shot in natural light, Jim Henson's classic family film Labyrinth does not immediately impress on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Looking soft and full of grain, you'd be forgiven for thinking that not a lot of work has gone into this transfer. 

However, once these initial minutes pass, and as the film moves into studio sets with professional lighting and controlled environments, the real Ultra HD magic begins. It's at this point that Labyrinth's brand new 4K scan (sourced from the original 35mm negative) becomes truly mind-blowing.

Taking advantage of the format's added resolution, Labyrinth shows extraordinary detail in the film's many puppets. Fur looks sublime, with individual strands of hair becoming clearly visible. Quite frankly, they look so good, it's almost as if you could reach out and touch them. The film's fantastic makeup work and matte paintings also hold up magnificently under the increased scrutiny of 4K. 

Though Labyrinth's 4K Blu-ray provides an incredible visual upgrade in all areas, perhaps the most important thing about this release is that it manages to keep the film's original filmic texture, with no digital noise reduction to speak of. Though we're watching a digital scan, the presentation always feels film-like. 

Labyrinth has never looked better than it does here, and while this presentation can't top the likes of Star Trek Into Darkness in terms of spectacular visual clarity, for a 30-year-old film populated mostly by puppets, this release is a triumph.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

Boasting incredible detail and rich, vibrant colors, the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a noticeable step up from its already impressive regular Blu-ray release. Look closely and you'll notice that each of the turtles has realistic, scaly skin textures that make you understand just how much work has gone into bringing these characters to life – heck, you can even see the enamel on their teeth!

Other digital characters also look fantastic. Notice the individual textures given to Bebop and Rocksteady, giving each creation its own unique look and texture. Splinter also impresses, with the added resolution on display allowing you to see individual hairs and whiskers that weren't as noticeable in regular HD.

Though most impressive during its daytime scenes (which include the film's spectacular, effects-heavy finale), TMNT: Out of the Shadows also impresses in the darker subterranean moments set within the turtles' sewer lair. The color palette and contrast on display are exceptional, adding a real depth to the image. Fans should consider this 4K Blu-ray release as the definitive way to watch the turtles' latest big screen adventure.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

The LEGO Movie

One of the things that immediately strikes you about The LEGO Movie's Ultra HD presentation is that the film has received a significantly brighter and more vivid color palette. Not only that, contrast has also increased by leaps and bounds, making the film's characters look even more like real, stop-motion minifigs – even fingerprints are visible, despite everything on screen being computer generated. Touches like this are what makes 4K and HDR so important to our overall immersion in the film.

Notice the deep blacks in any scene featuring Batman, or the beautiful, naturalistic bloom lighting found in the Old West portion of the film, or how about the gorgeous orange light emitting from film's spaceship (SPACESHIP!!) finale?

Though this release has been upscaled from a 2K master (the film was captured at 2.8K), The LEGO Movie looks incredible in Ultra HD. Vibrant colors and wonderful contrast levels make this 4K release an essential purchase for fans of the movie.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: drama

1917

It's pretty much a given that any film lensed by the great cinematographer Roger Deakins is going to look absolutely astonishing on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (see Blade Runner 2049), and that has indeed proven to be the case with the gripping WW1 drama, 1917.

Employing a series of long, unbroken takes, Director Sam Mendes allows the viewer to truly soak in the film's richly detailed environments, from the muddy trenches of No Man's Land, to the green farmland of Northern France. 

Thanks to the disc's native 2160p presentation, all that detail comes through which incredible sharpness. Likewise, skin tones appear life-like, and the soldiers' uniforms and weapons appear on screen with utmost clarity, appearing almost tangible thanks to the uptick in resolution.

Later in the film, a night-time sequence exhibits fantastic black levels and contrast, with fine shadow delineation making it easy to make out objects in the darkness. Boasting both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, 1917's 4K disc offers exceptional color (even if it is intentionally muted at times) and fantastic highlights (witness the burning building from the aforementioned night-time sequence).

In terms of audio, 1917 is a show-stopper. As you might expect, the disc's Dolby Atmos audio provides fantastic object-based audio, with bullets and explosions coming through realistically from all directions.

If you're a fan of the film (or war films in general), 1917's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray makes for a fantastic addition to any movie library, acting as exceptional demo disc in the process.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

As the first Quentin Tarantino film to hit 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood shines with the filmic majesty of cinema's glory days. Shot entirely on film (35mm for the most part, with some small segments captured on 16mm and 8mm celluloid), Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood boasts a native 4K transfer that faithfully recreates the look of Tarantino's opus – that means you'll occasionally see some softness and film grain, just as the director intended. 

When compared to the package's accompanying Blu-ray disc, the film's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation shows significant improvements in sharpness and clarity, with the increased resolution offering magnificent depth and detail in Robert Richardson's spectacular photography. 

Hollywood's 4K disc also has a leg up in the form of color vibrance thanks to some terrific HDR10 and Dolby Vision color tuning. In particular, we noticed increased warmth on the film's 4K disc, with more emphasis on yellow tones that accurately represent the film's sunny Los Angeles setting. Meanwhile, the bright neon that peers out of the darkness in the film's night-time scenes shines with exceptional vividness. 

While Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood's 4K disc lacks a Dolby Atmos audio track, it really doesn't need it – the disc's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track is more than capable of handling the film's heavy dialogue scenes and terrific late '60s soundtrack. 

Short of watching the film on Tarantino's personal 35mm projector, this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release is the ideal way to watch Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood in a home environment. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 16-bit), Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the landmark war film Apocalypse Now, director Francis Ford Coppola has revisited his masterpiece for the second time, creating a brand new cut that's longer than his original theatrical cut but shorter than the slightly bloated 'Redux' edition from 2001. Now, Coppola has delivered his preferred version of the film, complete with a brand new 4K remaster with tweaked color timing and sound design for maximum impact. The results are spectacular. 

Available in a new 6-disc Collector's Edition that also includes 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray copies of the film's theatrical cut and Redux version (reportedly based on the same remaster), Apocalypse Now: Final Cut is a must own for fans of the film. 

From the haunting opening shot (which sees a large portion of jungle bombarded with napalm, producing enormous orange fireballs that burn with incredibly intensity), the benefits of Ultra HD Blu-ray become immediately apparent. Simply put, the inclusion of HDR10 and Dolby Vision breathe new life into the film. 

While the transfer's overall presentation exhibits a slightly greener tinge than previous releases of the film, it's the contrasting colors that truly stand out – witness, for instance, the increased vibrancy of the pink smoke grenade scene, or the blues of the jungle at night.

Of course, it's worth noting the inky darkness found in numerous scenes throughout the film, particularly towards the end – owners of OLED screens will truly appreciate the appearance of pitch black shadows throughout the movie.

Along with a general uptick in resolution that still manages to retain a healthy amount of filmic grain, a powerful new Dolby Atmos track manages to create a more intense, suffocating atmosphere (new tweaks like delayed explosion noises are a very nice touch, too). If you love this film, we imagine this will be the definitive release for the foreseeable future.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Black Hawk Down

Arriving on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a brand new transfer (based on a true 4K master), this release of Black Hawk Down's utterly destroys its dated regular Blu-ray. 

Dialling up the contrast on the film significantly, the new transfer boasts an incredibly striking image with some of the deepest black levels and shadows we've seen on the format. We're talking Army Rangers appearing as silhouettes against the blinding Mogadishu (actually Morocco) sunlight.  

That it manages to achieve such strong highlights while also reaching pitch black levels of darkness, all without a hint of crushing, is just a testament to the quality of the film's new scan and the power of high-dynamic-range.

Purists will be pleased to hear that Black Hawk Down's intensely gritty appearance has been maintained on this UHD release, with the healthy presence of film grain lending the film an increased sense of frantic authenticity. Detail is astonishing, particularly in close-ups where faces reveal individual pores and grains of dirt. Explosions and flying debris also look spectacular thanks to the uptick in resolution.

Easily one of the best catalogue releases we've seen on the format to date, Black Hawk Down's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is a must-buy for fans of the film and well worth double-dipping if you already own a previous version.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.38:1

Widows

Shot on 35mm film and then finished on a true 4K digital intermediate, Widows arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray looking as great as it could possibly look. 

Without sacrificing its filmic presentation, Widows receives a terrific transfer that embraces healthy grain while offering improvements over the standard Blu-ray across the board.

Exhibiting deeper contrast and excellent shadow detail, the film looks especially good during its numerous nighttime scenes. Witness, for instance, a heist scene that takes place late in the film – despite being set late at night in an indoor environment without a whole lot of lighting, it's very easy to follow the action and know exactly what's going on at all times. 

Although the film is relatively muted and steely from a color standpoint, the colors that are there manage to punch through the darkness with added vibrancy thanks to the disc's HDR10+ color tuning. If you're a fan of adult thrillers, you should definitely consider adding Widows to your 4K collection. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10+, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Bad Times at the El Royale

A rain and neon-soaked noir thriller, Bad Times at the El Royale lends itself nicely to the detail-focused 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. Thankfully, its true 4K transfer does not disappoint, offering the definitive way to watch this multi-threaded film.

Though Bad Times at the El Royale takes place almost entirely at a single location, there's plenty of visual variety to be found during its hefty running time. Thanks to inclusion of HDR10+ support (sorry, no Dolby Vision to be found here), the film excels during early daylight scenes, exhibiting a warm and pleasing image that feels lifelike and cinematic at the same time. 

Of course, the film mostly takes place at night (mostly), and that same HDR10+ tinkering allows for some exceptional shadow detail and contrast that lets us see additional details buried within the darkness in some scenes.

As you might expect, colors also pop with added vibrancy, particularly in the presence of neon lighting and the film's funky late-sixties set decorations, however, the most impressive instance of HDR's importance may well be attributed to skin tones, which appear healthy and natural at all times. 

Throw in a wonderful Dolby Atmos audio track which provides the film with a truly convincing three-dimensional soundscape, and it's clear that Bad Times at the El Royale is a must-own title for fans of the film.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10+, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Bohemian Rhapsody

Just like Queen's music, the musical biopic Bohemian Rhapsody soars on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with incredible picture quality and a triumphant Dolby Atmos audio track that will rattle your living room with its stomp-inducing power. 

Captured at both 6.5K and 3.4K resolutions (though we're unsure of which resolution the film was finished at), Bohemian Rhapsody's 4K Ultra HD presentation is one of fantastic clarity and depth, with fine details like facial hairs and lines receiving increased visibility and sharpness. 

Thanks to the inclusion of the advanced HDR10+ standard, the film's colors are exceptionally vibrant and lifelike, with increased shadow detail and impeccable contrast balancing things out for a truly eye-popping image overall. Though Dolby Vision is specified to be part of the film's cinematographic process, the format is sadly not included on this disc. 

Regardless, it's hard to fault this release of Bohemian Rhapsody. Not only does it look sensational, arguably improving upon the film's theatrical presentation, it also sounds the business, too – both Dolby TrueHD 7.1 and Dolby Vision audio options are available, with the latter offering enhanced nuance and directionality.

If you love Queen's music and want a disc you can sing along to, you owe it to yourself to make Bohemian Rhapsody part of your 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collection.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10+, Resolution: 2160p (master resolution unknown), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 

While not the kind of film that immediately screams to be owned in 4K, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a good example of how the benefits of Ultra HD Blu-ray can make the viewing of a great movie more enjoyable. 

Thanks to some subtle HDR color tuning, Three Billboards feels warmer and more true to life in its appearance than it does on the film's standard Blu-ray release. Skin textures display a more lifelike hue, with the additional detail found in fine lines and wrinkles bringing the characters' weariness right to the forefront. 

Environments also receive a boost in color and detail, which is particularly noticeable in the green grass and trees surrounding the film's titular billboards (which themselves appear less saturated than they did in theaters).

Contrast is another area in which the film has improved on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray — a night time scene in which one of the characters attacks the town's police station with molotov cocktails truly comes alive thanks to some exceptional shadow delineation, making the scene's red hot flames look more vibrant in the process. 

Sure, it's not as visually splendid as something like The Shape of Water, but Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri absolutely looks better on the format, making it the definitive way to watch the film at home for the foreseeable future. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (Upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Murder on the Orient Express

What a surprise this turned out to be! Shot on Panavision's large 65mm format (captured at 6.5K and finished at 4K), Murder on the Orient Express looks unexpectedly sublime on Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Detail is, quite frankly, amazing in Murder on the Orient Express. From the exquisite fabrics of the cast's period-accurate costumes, to the lines in their faces and the whiskers in their (absolutely huge) moustaches, the bump in resolution brought by this 4K disc is exploited for every pixel it's worth here — and we're super happy about it. 

Colors are also more vivid and natural-looking here, with the disc's HDR10 tuning working wonders on the film's rich palette. Skin tones are true to life, and the film's expert lighting from cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos (who worked with director Kenneth Branagh on the first Thor) comes across beautifully on this transfer.

If you have an OLED television, you'll likely marvel at the film's night scenes, in which the dark corridors of the Orient Express' carriages disappear into inky darkness, showing you additional detail if and when the film chooses to do so. 

Topping it all off is a wonderful Dolby Atmos audio track that creates a convincing soundscape as the train chugs along, and a subtle score that adds to the film without succumbing to overpowering bombastic music. Highly recommended for fans of the film and Poirot stories. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Dunkirk

The best film of 2017? It's got to be up there. Christopher Nolan's take on the harrowing evacuation of Dunkirk at the height of the second World War is a masterclass in tension, practical effects and historical storytelling.

Playing with time and the sequence of events over the nail-biting rescue, Nolan takes full advantage of the IMAX format to bring an epic scale to the horrors of war, with a soundtrack that melds scraping atonal notes with the sounds of the death-dealing machinery bearing down on the troops. You'll be on the edge of your seat from the moment the very first shot is fired until the credits roll. 

It's not to be missed then, and it's a particularly impressive disc to have in your 4K UHD Blu-ray collection. With the majority of the film shot in 70mm for IMAX screens, your full screen will often be taken over by the lapping waves and grim beaches of Dunkirk, presented with a fine sharpness that brings out the incredible detail in the recreated period piece. HDR visuals also make the action sequences really pop, bringing an added depth to what may have appeared as a muted, almost watercolor-like presentation in digitally projected cinemas.

That soundtrack isn't undersold either (it really has to be heard to be believed, at as loud a volume as the neighbours can stand), but note that Dolby Atmos is not supported here.

If you're a fan of Christopher Nolan, all his other movies (barring Memento) are now available in 4K HDR too. As many are older titles, you need to be ready for a slightly softer upscaled presentation, but the HDR benefits remain clear to see. You'll find The Prestige, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Interstellar and Inception in stores alongside Dunkirk.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (4K master), Primary audio: English DTS:HD Master Audio, Aspect ratio (variable): 2.2:1 & 1.78:1

Patriots Day

Here's a film that doesn't need a blockbuster scope or enormous amounts of CGI to dazzle on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. Patriots Day recounts the devastating events surrounding 2013 Boston Marathon bombing in a very naturalistic and matter-of-fact kind of way. 

The film aims to put you right there during not only the explosions that changed everything, but the eventual chase to capture the assailants responsible. In this regard, the film's cinematography succeeds magnificently in capturing a sense of realism, thanks to some incredibly sharp digital photography (captured in 3.4K with a 2K digital intermediate) and exceptionally lifelike HDR color grading. 

Skintones are as close to reality as I've seen from any film on the 4K Ultra HD format. Lines and pores are clearly visible, and make it even easier to read the emotions displayed on the characters' faces.

Later in the film, during an extended night-time firefight in suburbia, the disc jumps to another level of clarity entirely. Shadow detail gets a huge boost, making it easier to follow the action in what would normally be an underlit setting. 

In fact, we'd go as far as to say that Patriots Day acts as a showcase for what HDR can bring to a films lighting and color palette, with fire taking on an especially important role. Surprising as it may be, this is a demo-worthy disc. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (Upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS:X, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Hacksaw Ridge

Though sourced from a 2K digital intermediate, Hacksaw Ridge arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with a gloriously-detailed transfer that's bolstered by a terrific HDR color gamut. 

In its first half, the film radiates with natural-looking light and the kind of clear cinematography that only digital cameras can achieve. Though the disc's increased resolution makes it easy to spot green screen work on a couple of occasions, the added clarity that's made possible by the Ultra HD format far outweighs these minor infractions.

Later, the added detail provided by the format's higher resolution, as well as the wider color gamut it offers, brings a shocking level of detail and an added feeling of authenticity to the film's many gruesome war scenes. If you find intense scenes involving bloody viscera and shredded appendages hard to stomach, you're going to have an even harder time experiencing them on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

Elsewhere, high-dynamic-range allows the film's cinematography to really shine, showing very realistic color and light reproduction, especially in dark scenes. At times, Hacksaw Ridge's war scenes forego realistic color palettes in favour of a stylised, almost monochromatic look. Here, HDR allows you to really notice the different shades at work, rather than simply looking dull and grey. These scenes are also punctuated by a barrage of explosions, juxtaposing bright bursts of color over a bleak battlefield.

Top this off with a dynamic and concussive Dolby Atmos audio track, and what you have in Hacksaw Ridge is one of the best releases on the format.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (Upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39: 1

Deepwater Horizon

Based on the devastating true story of an enormous oil rig disaster that occurred in 2010, often cited as one of the largest man-made disasters in history, it is perhaps in bad taste to describe Deepwater Horizon as a tremendously visceral and visually spectacular film, given the lives that were lost on that fateful day. Regardless, we must still call 'em like we see 'em, and Deepwater Horizon looks incredible on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Director Peter Berg (The Kingdom, Lone Survivor) brings his tough and gritty film to the format with exceptional results. Though the film was finished on a 2K digital intermediate, Deepwater Horizon delivers strong detail and impressive dynamics, with its HDR enhanced presentation offering great depth and color reproduction. 

Witness, for instance, the fantastic textures in the many scenes featuring actors smeared in oil and covered in dust and debris. Likewise, the film's many explosions burst with astonishing clarity thanks to the format's higher dynamic range. Fire is so bright that you can almost feel the heat emanating from your screen.  

Visuals aside, Deepwater Horizon's audio presentation also receives top marks, with a Dolby Atmos presentation that will shake your living room once those aforementioned explosions start. The film's audio dynamics will bounce around your room, placing you right in the action. Helicopters flying overhead are particularly impressive here, making Deepwater Horizon a reference quality disc in both video and audio categories. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

The Shallows

Providing even more proof that you don't need a 4K master to get exceptional 4K UHD Blu-ray results, the entertaining shark attack movie The Shallows has emerged on the format with an absolutely sublime audio and video presentation.

Upscaled from a 2K master, The Shallows looks astonishingly crisp, with the film's digital photography lending immense clarity to the film's many surfing scenes. Witness, for instance, star Blake Lively's resting 'beachface', which reveals detailed pores, fine lines and even the salty texture of someone who's spent all day swimming in the ocean and soaking in sun rays. Unsurprisingly, the waves look spectacular, too.

Also complementing The Shallows' incredible visual presentation is an amazing Dolby Atmos track which faithfully reproduces the film's clever sound design. It's a muscular track that really puts you in the action, handling all of the film's audio dynamics with ease. Scenes where Lively is submerged make your living room feel like it's underwater, and one particular moment where an underwater GoPro shot breaks through the surface makes your ears pop like the real thing. 

Occasionally, the added resolution of the disc makes some of the film's shark attack scenes look a little fake, but overall The Shallows is one of the best looking and sounding releases that the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format has produced. Highly recommended.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The Revenant

As close to a flawless 4K presentation as the format has so far produced, The Revenant looks utterly fantastic on Ultra HD Blu-ray. Shot digitally at resolutions of up to 6.5K (and finished on a 4K digital intermediate) using only natural light sources, The Revenant offers a very natural-looking presentation, giving the audience a more authentic idea of what it must feel like to be in the freezing wilderness alongside Leo and Co.

Compare the The Revenant's 4K disc to the regular Blu-ray packaged with it, and you'll notice that the discs provide quite different presentations of the film. This is because director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki re-graded the entire film in HDR exclusively for this UHD release. By comparison, the regular 1080p Blu-ray looks much cooler, with more dominant blues and greys taking centre stage. Meanwhile, the 4K disc offers more naturalistic skin tones and a warmer overall palette, making the film's many icy landscapes appear whiter and more true to life.

Speaking of landscapes, the added resolution and contrast of The Revenant's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray makes them appear more grand and breathtaking, offering more fine detail and depth. Improved bloom lighting also lets the sun shine without bleeding into obvious and distracting shade transitions. A reference disc if ever there was one, The Revenant belongs in everyone's 4K collection.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: horror

Suspiria

Without a doubt the most definitive presentation of Dario Argento's masterpiece Suspiria to date, Synapse Films' release of the 1977 horror classic throws down the gauntlet for all other cult films making the leap to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Taking full advantage of HDR10, the stunning primary colors of Suspiria's celebrated cinematography reach dizzying new heights on the format, with reds, blues and yellows in particular seeming brighter and more vibrant than ever before.

Fans of the film will know that Suspiria has had a complicated past when it comes to remasters, with a recent Italian 4K restoration seriously messing up the film's abstract colors, leading to much derision from purists. Thankfully, Synapse's disc utilizes the vastly superior German restoration from 2016, which faithfully retains the film's Technicolor palette, which was achieved by dye-transfer.

When presented in this native 4K transfer, the results are simply sublime. Skin tones are life-like, contrast is exceptional, and fine detail is off the charts. It's hard to imagine that Suspiria has ever looked better than this.

As great as Suspiria's visual presentation is on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, its audio presentation is every bit its equal. Synapse has invested in a game-changing Dolby Atmos track which takes Suspiria's intense sound design to another level. 

Thanks to the disc's object-based three-dimensional audio, Goblin's nightmarish prog-rock score is more prominent than ever – there's nothing like hearing repeated chants of "witch!" from every corner of your living room! Purists will also be happy to know that the film's original 4-track audio has also been included.

A must-buy for fans of the film, Suspiria is one of the very best cult film releases to arrive on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray so far.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265 (80.14 Mbps), HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.38:1

The Shining

Fans of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining are likely to be blown away by the film on Ultra HD Blu-ray, thanks to an astonishing new 4K transfer that achieves exceptional color and clarity. Simply put, this is the best that The Shining has ever looked on home video. 

Boasting both HDR10 and Dolby Vision support, The Shining pops with increased vibrance and intensity from start to finish. Witness, for instance, the iconic patterned carpet that adorns the Overlook Hotel's hallways, with its vivid oranges and reds standing out more than ever before. 

Though Kubrick is known as a cold director, The Shining takes on a warmer appearance on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray than with previous home video releases, with skin tones appearing for more natural – particularly under amber lighting. 

Film grain is present throughout the entirety of The Shining's presentation, but it is always pleasing, never undermining the 4K transfer's remarkable clarity. Close-ups reveal a fantastic amount of detail, with pores, wrinkles and clothing fibers appearing more defined across the board.

Having seen both this outstanding release and 2001: A Space Odyssey on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, it's clear that Kubrick's films lend themselves incredibly well to this prestige format. We can't wait to see which Kubrick films get the remastering treatment next. For now, The Shining is up there with the very best 4K catalog releases to date.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

It

The latest adaptation of Stephen King's terrifying novel It arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an exceptional transfer (despite being upscaled from a 2K master) that is improved by the inclusion of HDR10 and Dolby Vision. 

Though a lot of the film takes place in dark and dank environments, visibility is always high in It, with some perfectly-judged HDR and Dolby Vision tinkering letting you see all the detail in the shadows without sacrificing all that creepy darkness. 

Detail also receives a huge boost thanks to the added resolution of this 4K presentation, most evident in the crackling clown makeup on Pennywise's forehead, and the exquisite detailing of his freaky costume. Admittedly, some CGI elements become more obvious in 4K, but the trade-off is totally worth it when it comes to the disc's high dynamic range presentation and the increased detail seen here. 

It also packs one of the most bombastic and effective audio tracks of any 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray released to date, with perfectly balanced Dolby Atmos and DTS tracks that will scare the pants off of you. You'll hear every creak, every noise, and every scream with the utmost clarity, depth and dimensionality.

One of the best 4K discs released to date, It is a must-have for horror fans, especially those with access to TV that supports HDR10 or Dolby Vision.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (Upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

The Neon Demon

One of the few 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray titles that doesn't come with HDR enhancements, Nicolas Winding Refn's horror thriller The Neon Demon looks utterly glorious on the format nonetheless. If you want to get your hands on the film in razor-sharp 2160p, you'll have to import this English-friendly German release, which includes all the special features found on the regular Blu-ray in the US and UK – don't you just love how all 4K UHD discs are region free?

With regards to the disc's lack of HDR, you may be surprised to learn that the famously-visual director is actually quite color blind. An inability to see midtones has led Refn to favour high contrast and extreme colors throughout his career, as evidenced by the films Drive and Only God Forgives. Because of this, it's probably safe to assume that he wouldn't get much out of the high-dynamic-range experience.

Sourced from a 4K master (but shot at 3.4K), The Neon Demon looks incredible on Ultra HD Blu-ray, with its high resolution offering a noticeable uptick in detail over the 1080p version included in this package. 

Aside from its 4K resolution, deep blacks and scorchingly vibrant colors are the big selling point here – though we were unable to test the film on an OLED television, the promise of individually-lit pixels beaming and pulsing out of the pitch black darkness of certain scenes has us giddy at the possibilities on hand. 

Essentially a feature-length exercise in immense style and cinematography, it would be hard to imagine a film more suited to the 4K Ultra HD format. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1, Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: action

Bad Boys for Life

A long-overdue sequel that proved way more fun than anyone was expecting, Bad Boys for Life absolutely shines on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, boasting vibrant, neon-soaked HDR colors, exceptional detail and deep black levels. 

Although Bad Boys for Life sports a 2K digital intermediate, the movie's upscaled 4K presentation looks sublime regardless, with incredible sharpness and clarity across the board. 

In contrast to Michael Bay's two prior Bad Boys films, which display healthy levels of film grain and intentionally saturated colors, Bad Boys for Life aims for a cleaner, digital look – one that emphasizes Miami's glitz and glamour at every turn. 

Speaking of colors, Bad Boys for Life only offers HDR 10 support on its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, but before you Dolby Vision devotees get too disappointed, know that it doesn't hurt the film's presentation in the slightest – seriously, Bad Boys for Life's vivid color palette practically pops from the screen. 

Outside of the expected flashy action sequences and nightclub scenes, you'll also find lifelike skin tones and inky contrast.

Rounding things out with an impressively punchy and music-centric DTS:X audio track, one that keeps dialogue loud and clear despite the explosive action on screen, Bad Boys for Life proves to be audio visual knockout on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS:X, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Gemini Man

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format's ultimate demo disc. As a technical showcase of the highest order, Ang Lee's Gemini Man is an absolutely astonishing sight to behold, offering a drop-dead gorgeous 2160p transfer (from a true 4K master) that's presented in the stunning (and divisive) 60fps HFR format.

Those of you who experienced Peter Jackson's The Hobbit in 48fps HFR during its theatrical run might expect Gemini Man to sport a similarly distracting video game-like appearance, but we can tell you that simply isn't the case here. Gemini Man's high frame rate presentation is remarkably natural-looking and exceptionally smooth – at times it feels as though you're watching an action movie play out in front of you in real life, and that isn't an exaggeration. 

Of course, it isn't entirely convincing all the time – there are a handful of moments where the weightlessness of computer-generated stuntmen comes across as slightly more pronounced, however, the effect is absolutely superb throughout the majority of the film. 

Witness, for instance, a mid-film motorbike chase sequence that makes you feel as though you're actually following behind the characters at high speed. Later in the film, an enemy begins to fire a mounted minigun at our heroes, and the sight of tracer rounds flying past and destroying everything around them looks utterly glorious at 60fps.

Quite frankly, Gemini Man's sublime presentation on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray makes the disc worth buying even if you aren't particularly a fan of the film. It's a reference-quality disc that's guaranteed to blow away anyone you show it to – just make sure your television and player are capable of playback at 60Hz.

And, if you're thinking of purchasing or renting Gemini Man digitally, please note that the 4K version of the film is only offered at 24fps on iTunes – just another reason why physical media is still king...

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: Dolby Vision / HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

The Meg

Look, no one's ever going to mistake The Meg for a great film, but it is great looking, meaning fans of the giant shark extravaganza should be more than satisfied about its terrific presentation on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray. 

Thanks to its bright transfer and colorful palette, The Meg shines on the format, despite being upscaled from a 2K master. Color is impressive across the board, particularly during the film's many deep sea and under water set pieces, with the various shades of blues predictably fairing quite well thanks to HDR's wider color gamut. 

Of course, the uptick in resolution also allows us to appreciate The Meg's impressive visual effects and production design, which all looks quite expensive. The titular megalodon is also a sight to behold, especially if you have a large television. 

As for the film's human characters, we get some very naturalistic skin tones and a nice amount of detail when it comes to fine lines, pores and stubble. Highlights also impress, particularly when it comes to underwater lighting. 

If you're a fan of The Meg, there's really no reason to pass the film up on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, as it's unlikely to look any better than this for the foreseeable future.   

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: Dolby Vision / HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

One of the greatest action blockbusters of the last decade has arrived on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and thankfully, the disc's presentation is as spectacular as the film itself. 

The disc's transfer, which is based on a true 4K master, predictably shines in the film's many action sequences. However, it's worth noting that the film has a fairly significant filmic grain throughout most of its non-IMAX scenes (more on those shortly). This was a deliberate choice from director Christopher McQuarrie, who shot most of M:I – Fallout with 35mm anamorphic film cameras with the intention of giving it a more gritty look than its predecessor. 

While the whole film looks great, it's not understating things to say that the film's two IMAX sequences, which are faithfully presented here in the full 1.90:1 aspect ratio, are utterly sublime. 

The first sequence, which sees Tom Cruise perform a dusk-set HALO (high altitude, low open) parachute jump, is a brilliant example of what HDR can bring to darker scenes, showing incredible detail in the darkness and making great use of the format's wider color gamut in those sunset hues. 

The star or the show (aside from Tom), however, is the film's climactic helicopter chase, which sets the bar in terms of thrilling IMAX showcase sequences. The aspect ratio opens up as soon as the scene begins, and there's a noticeable jump in quality where the picture becomes crystal clear, exhibiting not even the slightest hint of grain. Quite frankly, there's a huge uptick in visual clarity overall during this sequence, which is especially detectable due to the well-lit nature of this daytime chase. 

If you love this film, there really is no reason to pass up this stellar 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release. It's worth it for the IMAX sequences alone. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1, 1.90:1 (IMAX)

The Shape of Water

A release that expectedly leans into the green, teal, aqua and blue portion of the color spectrum, The Shape of Water looks beautiful on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, managing to totally convince in regards to its immaculate costuming, set decoration and makeup effects work, despite its increased resolution and tweaked HDR colors. 

Those aforementioned greens, teals, blues and aquas? They actually take on a more naturalistic appearance on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, with the disc's high-dynamic-range tinkering giving the film's colors a more true-to-life quality than it displayed in theaters. This is particularly noticeable during The Shape of Water's underwater sequences, which now look richer and show no signs of obvious color gradation or banding. 

While the film is visually sublime in every respect, its warm cinematography displaying a masterful use of light and darkness, the real highlight is the creature that captures our lead heroine's heart. The uptick in fine detail afforded by the disc's increased resolution allows us to marvel at the creature's stunning makeup, despite the fact that the film has been upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate.  

For fans of The Shape of Water, this truly is a must-have release. While it would've been nice to have a Dolby Atmos track (imagine how great the flooded apartment scene would sound with three-dimensional audio), it's hard to fault this reference quality disc. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR: HDR10, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Atomic Blonde

One of the most stylish films of the year, Atomic Blonde screams onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray with an incredibly vibrant and neon-soaked transfer that burns with intense reds and is cooled again by striking blues. 

As you've probably come to expect from the format, color reproduction is extraordinary here, with HDR making the '80s-inspired cinematography a real boost in the vividness department. 

Clothing, hair, skin tones all look realistic here, despite the muted color palette of some scenes in this Cold War spy movie. Oh yeah, and the various cuts, bruises and scrapes acquired by lead star Charlize Theron as she kicks butt across Berlin also look appropriately gnarly, too. 

Though it lacks a Dolby Atmos track, the DTS:X Master Audio one featured here does a terrific job of pummelling your ears with various explosions, gunshots and an expertly-crafted playlist of thumping '80s tunes. If you loved John Wick, this is definitely one for your collection. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, HDR10, Dolby Vision, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS:X, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

The Fate of the Furious

The eighth film in the blockbuster Fast and Furious franchise sings the praises of 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray thanks to incredible HDR-enhanced brightness, driving home just what the format is capable of (see what we did there?)

Flesh tones look astonishing on this disc, as do the HDR-enhanced explosions that litter the film. Colors also impress – witness the opening race in sunny Cuba to see how much of a difference HDR makes to this kind of film.

Another show-stopping scene involves a prison riot, with vibrant orange prison uniforms standing out even more than on the film's regular blu-ray. 

The disc also presents the film in Dolby Vision as well as HDR10, which should be exciting for people who own TVs that can support the format and the added color depth that it brings. For everyone else, the disc defaults to standard HDR, which is still very impressive.

Perhaps the film's most standout sequence though, involves a huge frozen lake and a submarine. The white ice that surrounds this setting really allows the film's HDR/Dolby Vision presentation to flex some real muscle, with bright highlights getting a good workout. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English DTS:X, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

John Wick: Chapter 2

Immediately exhibiting the benefits of increased resolution and the wider color gamut afforded by the inclusion of HDR in its presentation, John Wick: Chapter 2 comes out of the gate firing on all cylinders with a visually-sensational night-time chase through Manhattan (actually Montreal). 

Surrounded by lights and colorful billboards, the disc's HDR-enhanced contrast allows viewers to peer into the darkness and clearly see objects and details that they'd normally normally miss in regular high definition. Witness, for instance, the film's show-stopping shootout inside the catacombs in Rome – the characters are enveloped in darkness and yet we can clearly see everything that's going on thanks to some terrific lighting and high-dynamic-range magic. 

Immediately prior to that scene, a night-time concerto amongst the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla in Rome demonstrates incredible highlights, with red and blue LED lights surrounding the stage as spotlights swirl around in all directions. 

The incredible visuals just keep on coming with this release. We have a shootout in a museum where vibrant red blood splatters over a number of statues, a neon-enhanced 'hall of mirrors' battle inspired by Enter the Dragon, fight scenes taking place in a dark and vivid underground metro, and the list goes on and on. One of the most dynamic releases on the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format, this is absolutely the best way to experience John Wick: Chapter 2.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (Upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road's 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release brings with it some enormous expectations, as the film is one of the more visually dazzling action blockbusters in recent memory. Thankfully, Fury Road absolutely delivers, despite having been upscaled from a 2K digital intermediate. This might seem like a bummer, but that's how the film was presented in theatres, and it looked pretty freakin' good there, didn't it?

With its colors undergoing a re-grading process in HDR, Fury Road looks more sensational than ever in Ultra HD. The film's many explosions now burn with added intensity, and improved contrast and increased resolution give the film a more painterly appearance, especially in the film's huge storm sequence.

Some might argue that this makes Mad Max: Fury Road's CGI stand out more, I believe it only adds to the film's artistic quality. Elsewhere, you'll find more realistic skin tones and textures, brilliant lighting, richer landscapes and shinier chrome. Mad Max: Fury Road's Ultra HD release is definitely worth the upgrade for fans, though we'd love to see what the added resolution of 4K and HDR could do with the film's new Black and Chrome version.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.40:1

Warcraft: The Beginning

Though you'd expect HDR to make films more vibrant and colorful, Warcraft's presentation has taken a more subtle approach to the film's coloring. Less garish than its regular Blu-ray counterpart, Warcraft's Ultra HD presentation offers more naturalistic colors, especially when it comes to orc skin tones. That's not to say that this presentation is muted in any way – Fel magic looks spectacularly vivid and bright, giving the film a suitably other-worldly and fantastical appearance.

As expected, the real show-stoppers here are the orcs, lovingly realised through terrific motion-capture performances and CGI wizardry (as opposed to the other kind of wizardry seen in the film itself). Lead orc Durotan's facial expressions are more detailed and realistic, thanks to the disc's bumped-up resolution. Getting to actually see fine lines, wrinkles and textures in these characters' faces make them much more believable (though the illusion is still broken whenever they're standing next to the film's human characters). Other CGI creations, like the Gryphon Lothar rides during the film's climax, or the kingdom of Azeroth itself, exhibit an exceptionally high level of detail.

While it is another example of an upscaled film sourced from a 2K digital intermediate, Warcraft's 4K presentation nonetheless offers enhanced clarity, improved contrast and naturalistic tones. This Ultra HD release is definitely the best way to watch Warcraft: The Beginning in 2D.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: comedy

Sausage Party

The idea behind Sausage Party was for Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg to create a hilariously filthy R-rated animate comedy with Pixar-level animation. While it doesn't quite reach those lofty heights, the film looks fantastic on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray nonetheless. 

Finished at 2K and then upscaled to 4K, Sausage Party still manages to eek out a whole lot of extra detail over its regular Blu-ray counterpart. This is largely thanks to some HDR tinkering, which gives the film's colors and lighting a more detailed and pleasing look overall. 

Certain foods gain extra details in their textures, with the sausages themselves looking like real objects that you can touch. In fact, the move to high-dynamic-range makes everything look more realistic (while still keeping that stylised animated look). 

Sure, there are better-looking CGI animated films available on this blossoming format (just look at our Trolls entry in the family movies section), but Sausage Party still looks good enough to eat. For fans of the film, this is as good as it's ever going to look. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (upscaled from 2K master), Primary audio: English Dolby Atmos, Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray: documentary

Planet Earth II

Okay, so we're cheating a little bit here, as BBC's Planet Earth II is a documentary series, not a movie. However, much like how the first Planet Earth series was a showcase for the Blu-ray format, Planet Earth II proves to be an astounding demo disc that easily highlights the 4K Ultra HD format's greatest strengths.

With numerous locales spread over six episodes, Planet Earth II gives the viewer a whole lot of variety in the eye candy department. In the first episode alone, the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean are juxtaposed against the volcanic majesty of the Galapagos islands, offering lifelike HDR visuals at both ends of the color spectrum. 

Creature close-ups are astonishing in their sharpness, exhibiting high detail in faces and fur. Just as impressive are the series' signature drone shots, which give you a bird's-eye view of various landscapes, including mountains, jungles and even cities in the final episode. 

A major selling point of Planet Earth II is that it was all captured in Native 4K and is presented here exactly as intended by its creators. Add to this the otherworldly feel attributed by the use of slow motion photography, and what you have is the definitive 4K Ultra HD disc to make people's jaws drop. A must-have addition to any serious 4K collection.

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) Aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Blue Planet II

Although we're still waiting for the BBC to show any signs of actually broadcasting 4K content (occasional iPlayer experiments notwithstanding), the veteran broadcaster has made some first steps into the format by shooting a couple of its prestige nature documentaries in Ultra HD. 

Blue Planet II is the second such documentary (after Planet Earth II, above), and focuses on the wildlife that can be found in our planet's oceans. 

The whole documentary is stunningly presented, with the sheer richness of the ocean's colors a sight to behold. The HDR10's wide color gamut is put to fantastic use with the rich hues present throughout each episode, and we were particularly fond of the HDR highlights found on the show's florescent deep-sea creatures. 

Other discs might offer technically superior visuals with mastering of up to 4,000 nits, but for us nothing will compare to the raw beauty of nature captured in uncompromised 4K. 

Technical specs: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: 2160p (from 4K master), Primary audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 

A secret Xbox Series X feature that lets you see the exact number of nits your TV is outputting when in the console’s HDR calibration app has been discovered by a Reddit user.

If you’re familiar with the HDR calibration app on Xbox consoles, you’ll already know that you’re presented with a series of checkerboard patterns and asked to make the screen brighter or darker until the squares look the same. 

This ensures that you’re getting the deepest blacks possible and highlights won’t be blown out when playing in HDR, especially if you use HGiG (HDR Gaming Interest Group). That lets your console tone map HDR and bypasses your TV from tone mapping the calibrated image for a second time.

It’s important that you get the most accurate values possible when using the HDR calibration app, then, but depending on the lighting in your room and how you perceive the checkerboard patterns, this isn’t always possible. However, thanks to this trick discovered by Reddit user MazharulAlam, you can see the exact numbers your Xbox is outputting by pressing all the rear buttons (LB+RB+LT+RT) on the Xbox Wireless Controller while in the HDR calibration app. 

Seeing the exact numbers onscreen means users can make finer adjustments to the HDR output. For example, you’ll want your Xbox to display a value of zero when adjusting the dark checkerboard images to ensure you’re getting perfect blacks.

If you’re confused about what MaxFFTML, MaxTML, and MinTML mean, u/MazharuAlam provided an explanation in the same Reddit thread. MaxFFTML stands for ‘Max Full Frame Tone Map Luminance’ and is the maximum luminance at which your display can show white detail on a full screen. MaxTML stands for ‘Max Tone Map Lumiance’ and is the maximum luminance at which your display can still show white detail, while MinTML (‘Min Tone Map Lumiance’) is the minimum luminance at which your display can still show black detail.

Calibrating HDR is still far too confusing 

This hidden Xbox Series X feature is certainly useful, but it ultimately highlights that HDR calibration is still incredibly difficult for the average user to comprehend and that’s probably why Microsoft has decided to keep these values hidden. Most games include in-game HDR settings too, which only muddies the waters further when it comes to getting the perfect picture.

However, for those who want to get the most accurate HDR output possible and aren’t afraid to spend time tinkering with their TV and console settings, this feature can ultimately help them get a better understanding of what’s going on behind their HDR image.

Thankfully, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S support Dolby Vision for gaming, which automatically tone maps games to ensure you’re getting the deepest blacks and brightest highlights possible. If HDR menus put your head in a spin, we recommend activating Dolby Vision in the Xbox settings as it does a fine job of ensuring the majority of titles that support high dynamic range will look great without any input from the user.

If you’d like to experience Dolby Vision gaming for yourself, you’ll need to have Dolby Vision-capable TV. You can check to see if your display supports Dolby Vision by pressing the Xbox button to open the guide, clicking on 'Settings > General > TV & display options > 4K TV details'.

To enable Dolby Vision on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, head to 'Settings > General > TV & display options > Video Modes > Dolby Vision' for Gaming. Microsoft also recommends turning on automatic low-latency mode (ALLM), if your TV supports it, as you may experience latency issues during gameplay without it. You can check Dolby’s website to see a list of compatible TVs.

Unfortunately, PS5 only supports HDR10 which requires more input from the user to calibrate. Similar to Xbox consoles, you’re presented with a number of checkerboard images which you’ll need to adjust until the squares match.

• Every Xbox Series X/S game that supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

If you’re looking for a slick, sleek 27-inch 4K monitor for getting things done and looking great on your desktop, we suggest you get an eyeful of the HP Z27K G3. It’s the latest updated version of HP’s 27-inch monitor from its premium Z-line of screens. And it looks like a million bucks.

That’s thanks to seriously sweet slim-bezel design and premium materials including aluminum. It’s a very nice bit of hardware from an aesthetic perspective. However, the beauty also runs a little deeper than that, thanks to a strong feature set.

As you’d expect, at the core of the HP Z27K G3 is a 4K IPS panel. It’s not a wide-gamut pro panel, nor does it support HDR. Instead, it majors on usability, primarily courtesy of USB Type-C connectivity with power delivery up to 100W, which is the maximum the standard currently supports, plus ethernet passthrough for full docking functionality. 

As ever with an HP Z product, it’s not the cheapest option available. But quality costs and the HP Z27K G3’s upscale vibe goes a long way to justifying what is in any case not a huge price premium over the alternatives.

Price and availability

At $544 in the US and £478 in the UK, the HP Z27K G3 isn’t exactly a bargain. But then, there’s no such thing as a cheap 4K monitor with USB-C connectivity. Unfortunately, it remains an expensive addition. The likes of the Philips Brilliance 279P1 and BenQ EW2780U offer a similar USB-C proposition for less money. But neither are nearly as stylish as the HP. Meanwhile, the Dell S2722QC, Dell U2720QM and LG 27UK850 are all more expensive.

Design and features

Slick design has long been the differentiator for HP’s Z-line of products and the HP Z27K G3 definitely delivers that signature premium aesthetic and feel. For starters, it’s a genuine slim-bezel monitor on all four sides of the panel, where many screens have big, ugly chins. 

The quality of the aluminum stand is also exceptional, both in terms of the cool alloy feel and the polished engineering of how it clips into the rear of the panel chassis. The stand is also fully adjustable, including rotation into portrait mode. Overall, the HP Z27K G3 looks very expensive without being showy and would complement pretty much any work environment.

What it’s not, however, is a monitor aimed at high-end content creation. It has a decent 4K 27-inch IPS panel. But the specs aren’t hugely impressive. Inevitably, it’s 60Hz. The lack of HDR support is likewise no surprise on this display type. But the 1,000:1 contrast and 99 percent coverage of the sRGB space are a touch pedestrian. 

More impressive is the 100W power delivery of the USB Type-C interface. That’s the maximum supported by current gen USB-C connections and means you can hook up a pretty powerful laptop, actually use its performance and not find the battery draining on you as you might a display limited to 60W or less.

The HP Z27K G3 also has an ethernet port with support for passthrough over USB-C. The upshot of which is full single-cable docking, which is exactly what you want and makes life so much more pleasant when it comes to landing and your desk, hooking up and getting down to doing something productive in an instant. Old school docking solutions or - heaven forbid - having to wrestle with a rats nest of cables is absolutely hateful by comparison.

Connectivity is rounded out with not only HDMI and DisplayPort, but also DisplayPort out for daisy chaining. From a usability perspective, the HP Z27K G3 has things very nicely covered.

Performance

As this type of SDR panel goes, the HP Z27K G3 is pretty punchy. Rated at 350 nits, there’s plenty of zing. If anything, the contrast looks subjectively better than you might expect given the modest 1,000:1 specification, too, and there’s little if any of that horrid IPS glow that used to be common on this panel type. 

If there is an issue it involves backlight uniformity. The HP Z27K G3 isn’t hugely flawed in this regard, but there is just a little noticeable dimming in the very corners and edges of the panel, which is disappointing. Still, it’s a nicely calibrated screen in other regards with no evidence of compression across all test images and scales.

Of course, any 27-inch 4K monitor offers good pixel density. Fonts are super crisp and sharp. That’s true in Windows, but MacOS looks particularly sweet on this display type. As for pixel response, this is actually a fairly quick panel, with multiple-levels of user configurable overdrive allowing you to settle on the best compromise between raw speed and the downsides of ramping things up including overshoot, which does appear at the fastest settings. 

Where the HP Z27K G3 is less impressive concerns color fidelity. The lack of HDR support is no biggie. If anything, it’s a relief to not have to report how this display notionally supports HDR but can’t actually render an HDR image, which is the case for most so-called “HDR” monitors right now. 

But if you’re after something seriously color accurate for serious content creation, the HP Z27K G3 isn’t an obvious choice. The 99 percent coverage of the basic sRGB gamut isn’t hugely impressive. That said, along with sRGB, the USD does provide a preset for the DCI-P3 gamut, albeit coverage is fairly limited at just 85 percent.

Verdict

A good PC monitor is all about delivering on remit, not being all things to all computing users. And the HP Z27K G3 does just that. As a productivity tool in the 27-inch 4K segment, it’s very sweet indeed. 

The feature set, including USB-C with 100W of power delivery and networking support is great, the styling and engineering quality if anything are even better. As for image quality, the HP Z27K G3 isn’t outstanding with limited color coverage and a slight issue with backlight uniformity. 

However, it still delivers that crispy, sharp 4K experience and the IPS panel is pretty punchy by SDR standard. All told, the slight image-related issues aren’t enough to spoil a very appealing overall package that’s also competitively priced.

We've featured the best business monitors.

The best Xbox One X games are capable of showing you the full capabilities of the console, which is especially important since the Xbox One X changed the gaming landscape when it was released all those years ago.

It enabled the best Xbox One games to become even better, sharper, smoother, and more detailed, and games could now achieve a native 4K resolution, and the Xbox One X was comfortably the most powerful console on the market for quite some time. However, it's since lost that title since the release of the Xbox Series X, and Microsoft has since discontinued the Xbox One X.

That doesn't mean you should write the Xbox One X off completely, and if you're still playing on the Xbox One X, you're going to need the best Xbox One X games to make the most of the console – especially considering there's plenty of upcoming games that will release for both the Series X and current generation of Xbox consoles. Luckily for you, there are hundreds of Xbox One X-enhanced games for the console, including popular titles like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Forza Horizon 5.

With this in mind, we've created a list of the best Xbox One X games that push the console to its limits. Here you'll find the games with patch details that confirm they'll push the console's capabilities, whether that's 4K, HDR, or Dolby Atmos.

Best Xbox One X games 2025

What are its enhancements? Full HD at 60FPS

Resident Evil Village is quite unlike any other entry in the series. For one, there's nary a zombie to be seen, instead focusing on all sorts of twisted fairytale abominations, and classic monsters like vampires and werewolves. It's a daring sequel to Resident Evil 7, continuing the first-person viewpoint, and the story of Ethan Winters. There's some of the best horror set pieces ever featured in a survival horror game, and a brilliant antagonist in Lady Dimitrescu.

This one really sings on the Xbox One X, featuring all of the bells and whistles of more powerful hardware, while sacrificing none of the atmosphere and action. You'll be surprised often while making your way through the spooky village areas, which harken back to the folk horror of Resident Evil 4. Play this one if you want a refreshing new twist on the survival horror formula.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Assassin's Creed Odyssey isn't the most recent addition to the epic Assassin's Creed RPG franchise, but it's become a fan-favorite over the years. Odyssey is set during the Peloponnesian War and sees you stepping into the sandals of either Alexios or Kassandra as they try to uncover the truth about their history while navigating the turbulent world of Ancient Greece as a mercenary.

Assassin's Creed games are known for being visual masterpieces and Odyssey is no different. Xbox One X enhancements truly bring Odyssey's Grecian world to life, with higher resolution textures, denser crowds, improved depth of field, and an overall richer environment. Just make sure you have the time to play it because there are over 100 hours of content to enjoy here.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Not a Call of Duty fan? Then Battlefield 1 might be a good alternative. The first-person shooter takes players back in time to World War One and by doing so completely rejuvenates the once stagnating franchise.

Battlefield 1's historical setting helps it to stand apart from the rest of the modern military shooters on the market, with all-new weapons, vehicles, and level designs that feel fresh and capture the chaos and brutality of war.

The game offers a poignant and entertaining single-player campaign that sets a new standard for first-person shooters. Broken into six sections, each following a different character and front-line location, the campaign never feels dull or repetitive.

The single-player campaign even feeds neatly into Battlefield 1's multiplayer mode which, while familiar, also benefits from the much-needed breath of life that the change in setting gives.

Graphically impressive, entertaining, and sometimes touching Battlefield 1 is still worth loading up.

What are its enhancements? HDR

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 continues the story of Price, Soap and now Makarov, as they battle it out across familiar locations. The multiplayer is the main draw here, giving players remastered versions of all 12 maps that launched with the original Modern Warfare 2. This means a trip back to Favela, Rust and Terminal, with new maps and modes helping to keep things fresh.

While Modern Warfare 3 is something of a letdown in the Campaign department, Zombies mode is a real treat. You can deploy with a squad of friends, working together to complete objectives before extracting.

What are its enhancements? Native 4K and 60fps

As the first non-Resident Evil title built using Capcom's RE Engine, the Xbox One X version of Devil May Cry 5 astonishes with its incredibly gorgeous presentation.

Though every version of Hideaki Itsuno's hack-and-slash masterpiece targets 60fps, the Xbox One X version is able to deliver that framerate consistently, making it the ideal way to experience Devil May Cry 5 in a living room setting.

Along with its buttery-smooth framerate, Devil May Cry 5 is also presented at a native 4K resolution on One X, which is a huge improvement over the standard Xbox One's 900p resolution.

As you would expect, detail is extraordinary here, with the game's vibrant HDR-enhanced art design showcasing the power of Microsoft's premiere console to magnificent effect. Characters exhibit incredible definition, as do the game's many outrageous environments and grotesque demon creations.

One of the most visually spectacular games currently available, Devil May Cry 5 is highly recommended for those looking to take advantage of the Xbox One X's immense graphical prowess.

What are its enhancements? HDR

Ready to raze some hell? Doom is arguably the best it's ever been. Not only does Doom Eternal boast all the blood-pumping, gore-packed fun we expect from a Doom game, it also adds a bunch of new RPG-like elements we didn't even know we needed.

If you're looking for a game that doesn't focus too much on narrative and instead throws you into ripping and tearing some demons (all while an adrenaline-inducing metal soundtrack plays), then Doom Eternal is one not to be missed - and it looks incredible with the Xbox One X HDR.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

While the original Forza titles were about pristine driving skills around perfectly kept tracks, the Horizon series has a penchant for trading paint and isn't afraid to have you get down and dirty with off-road races from time to time.

Forza Horizon 5, the latest game in the series, carries that tradition forward by taking us to the diverse biomes of Mexico and spoiling us with some of the most exotic cars on the planet.

Like any good open-world game, it rewards exploration and offers both a structured campaign mode and plenty of distractions around the campaign.The only word that can be used to describe Forza Horizon 5 is stunning. The latest addition to the open-world racing title is a testament to the power of Xbox One X enhancements. Racing through Mexico at 4K is a truly breathtaking experience, further boosted by the game's dynamic seasons.

If the native 4K mode isn't graphically impressive enough, the new 60fps mode will blow you away with its smooth transitions and its picture-perfect take of every pothole, volcanic field, and dense rainforest.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD

We'd been waiting a while to see a new Gears title, and Gears 5 certainly didn't disappoint upon release.

Players step into the shoes of Kait Diaz for the first time who, following the events of Gears of War 4, is trying to come to terms with the death of her mother, unravel the twisted roots of her family tree, and deal with her own personal baggage. Meanwhile, humanity is being threatened once more - this time by the Swarm, the successor to the Locust horde.

Gears 5 still looks stunning on Xbox's last-gen platform - making the most of what Xbox One X enhancements have to offer.

What are its enhancements? Performance Mode can boost to 60 FPS

A franchise that has defined Xbox as a platform for a long time is of course Halo, and Halo Infinite is a worthy addition to the series and our list of the best Xbox One games. With both a single-player campaign and the usual thrilling multiplayer combat, this is the Halo game for Xbox One you don't want to miss.

Though its single-player campaign isn't the best in the franchise in terms of story, this is Halo multiplayer combat at its most fun, and anyone who loves playing online with friends will enjoy what the various modes have to offer.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is developer Ninja Theory's first attempt at publishing its own game and it's quite an achievement. The game follows Senua, a Celtic warrior suffering from psychosis who travels to Hell to rescue her lost lover.

The game uses an interesting mix of binaural audio and innovative visual techniques to communicate Senua's experience with her psychosis to the player, resulting in a game that's likely to be quite different from anything else you've played recently.

Disturbing, insightful, and extremely enjoyable to play, this is a game worth taking a look at if you're interested in the top Xbox One games.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the sequel to the accomplished Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and builds upon all of its strengths. Taking up the role of Talion once more, this game takes you back to a beautifully realized world that's bursting with originality. If you were a fan of the original game, we highly recommend that you pick of Shadow of War as it's an improvement in almost every way – and well worth a place on our best Xbox One X games list.

Continuing the trend of giving users the option of how to use the X’s extra graphical horsepower, Shadow of War features two different graphical settings: You can either have the game favor resolution or favor quality. Choose to favor resolution, and the game will attempt to get as close to 4K as possible (falling back on dynamic scaling when this isn’t possible).

Opt to favor quality and the improvements will be wider-ranging, but won’t bring the same benefits to resolution. Textures will see enhanced detail, draw distances will be improved, there’ll be more vegetation, and shadows and lighting will be improved. Both modes will feature HDR, and will unfortunately only run at 30fps rather than the 60fps of some of the other titles on this list.

What are its enhancements? HDR

Minecraft was released many years ago now, but it's still as popular as ever with adults and kids alike. The sandbox survival game allows players to build with blocks in a 3D-generated world, providing a perfect creative outlet for those artistically inclined.

If you're less creative, there's also the option to explore the world, harvest resources, craft items, and square up to enemies. Xbox One X enhancements see the game keep its famous blocky appearance (we obviously wouldn't want that to change), but it does receive vastly improved lighting thanks to the inclusion of HDR support. For instance, your creations can be viewed with the added bonus of a glorious sunset.

Colors also receive a boost, looking less flat in the process, and vegetation also looks more detailed than before. Still, you can rest assured that the Xbox One X version of the game doesn't mess with the winning formula too much – it simply makes it better.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 took 2018 by storm, giving us the gun-toting, western open world we were hoping for. You play Arthur Morgan, a gunslinger in the notorious Van Der Linde gang as he navigates the trials and tribulations of the changing West.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is certainly a game that will keep you busy. Between story missions, mini-games, activities, and side quests, you will find yourself sinking plenty of hours into this title without even noticing it. And with Red Dead Online, you can team up with a posse of friends to play.

The Xbox One X truly makes RDR2's open world even more beautiful. So much so, you may just want to explore and let it sink in.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Despite being the sequel to a prequel about the young life of Lara Croft, this still feels like a Tomb Raider game that has grown up. The reboot which saw a brave new direction for the franchise seemed a lot of the time to be little more than a bit of light Uncharted cosplay, but Rise is a far more accomplished game - and we prefer it to the final installment, Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

There are also tombs: yes, that might seem a fatuous thing to say given the name, but the previous game gave them short shrift. In Rise though they are deeper and more plentiful. Rise also has one of the best narratives of any Tomb Raider game, penned again by Rhianna Pratchett, it's sometimes rather poignant.

Rise of the Tomb Raider can be played using settings that favor either resolution or performance — the former allows the game to regularly display at a native 4K resolution, while the latter drops the game down to 1080p, but offers much smoother gameplay targeting 60fps.

Needless to say, Rise of the Tomb Raider benefits greatly from the additional detail afforded by its 4K resolution uptick. Environments (particularly foliage, water and mud) are utterly jaw-dropping in 4K. This game really shines on Xbox One X.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

Rare's swashbuckling adventure Sea of Thieves lets players take on the role of a pirate sailing the seas of a fantastical world – either alone or as part of a crew of up to four members. It's up to you whether you choose to focus on trading, treasure-hunting, or plundering the loot of others. This is a great title for those who enjoy playing with others in an open-world environment, it doesn't look too shabby at all.

Along with its stunning HDR-enhanced visuals, Sea of Thieves' cartoonish art style is bolstered by a native 4K resolution on Xbox One X. As you'd imagine, the water is especially beautiful in Sea of Thieves — we'd even go as far as to call it the most realistic water in any video game to date.

That said, Sea of Thieves is most impressive when you're standing on the deck of your ship, looking out as the sun sets over an island brimming with the promise of treasure. Weather can change on you in an instant, with a dynamic cloud simulation and storm system that really ups the intensity as you sail the game's vast ocean.

What are its enhancements? HDR

FromSoftware's latest offering is not to be scoffed at. If you thought the Dark Souls series was hard, then Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the extreme mode.

Sekiro is more punishing than any title we've seen from FromSoftware before, but actually achieving those rare moments of success is extremely rewarding. Set against a background that balances brutality and beauty, Sekiro is one of this year's must-have titles – if you have the patience for it.

What are its enhancements? 4K Ultra HD and HDR

The Witcher 3 is one of the older enhanced titles on this list but it still stands as one of the best. Believed by many to be the RPG to end all RPGs, this fantasy adventure will take you through incredible vistas and through thrilling adventures.

Using the Xbox One X's power, CD Projekt Red has created two enhanced modes: One offers 4K resolution and runs at a solid 30fps, while the other uses dynamic resolution and promises a smooth 60 frames per second. Both modes will allow you to enjoy HDR - a technology that will truly shine in the game's dynamic world.

How we made our best Xbox One X games list

The TechRadar Gaming team is one that is fascinated and acutely interested in games and game consoles by its very nature. All of us own multiple platforms and have owned a vast majority of the machines from recent generations - including the mid-generation upgrade Xbox One X from last-gen.

As a result, we have direct experience of the impact it had with Xbox One games, and what it meant for gamers who took the hardware upgrade. Combine this with sinking hundreds and hundreds of hours into the best Xbox One X games and we know which ones have the best enhancements and can offer the top experience on the console - as a result, you can trust our recommendations.

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• Our picks for the best Xbox Series X games
• The best Xbox controllers to buy
• The upcoming Xbox games to look forward to this year

Technically, the best PS4 Pro games should offer you the absolute best experience you can get on Sony's last-gen, but still very relevant, console. With more power and capability, the upgraded console is able to deliver larger resolutions and faster framerates (broadly speaking) and make some of the last-gen games truly shine.

When it launched, Sony's PS4 Pro was the best way to see the PS4’s fantastic library of games looking its best in 4K. That’s changed now that the more powerful PS5 has launched but that’s not to say that the PS4 Pro isn’t a great system and a step up from the standard PS4.

If you'd like to take advantage of the PS4 Pro's power to get resolutions as sharp as Nathan Drake's rapier wit or your frame rates as swift and smooth as Spyro's glide, then these are the games that will serve you best.

Best PS4 Pro games 2025

Gran Turismo 7 is pitched as a PS5-focused game, but it runs extremely well on the PS4 Pro. It's a much more substantial package when compered to GT Sport, and thanks to post-launch updates, it's potentially the best racing game you can play in 2025.

Racing in GT7 is simply sublime, offering one of the most intricate and accurate racing sim experiences to date. Developer Polyphony Digital has done an excellent job in emphasizing each and every car’s unique feel. Crucially, whether you’re driving a Honda Civic, a souped-up Nissan GT-R or a Ford Mustang, each car looks and drives much as you would expect them to in real life.

The Last of Us Part 2 was one of the very best games released on the PS4, and it's even better on the PS4 Pro. You'll get a 1440p visual upgrade, which really sings when paired with The Last of Us Part 2's absolutely stunning world. There are large maps to explore, as well as dark hallways and abandoned buildings, all making use of the extra power on offer. In terms of story, The Last of Us Part 2 is a must play. It's sprawling, devastating and full of twists and turns from the very beginning.

While the gameplay unfolds similarly to how it did in The Last of Us, there have been a number of tweaks and additions that make things feel distinct. Ellie is faster, stealthier, and more capable, able to go prone in long grass, and make use of a wider variety of weapons. Enemies are more lifelike too, reacting to the deaths of their allies, and even learning to adapt to your tactics over time. Scarier, more action-packed, and more emotional than its predecessor, The Last of Us Part 2 is a must play on PS4 Pro.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake does more than simply bring the classic JRPG into the modern realm. It's technically a remake, sure, but one that plays with the story in interesting ways, spinning it off into something that stands on its own, separate from the original. All of the characters you know and love are still here, but thanks to the power of the PS4 Pro, they're more emotive and realistic than ever. This is a truly gorgeous game, one that still looks amazing when compared to other JRPGs released in the last few years or so.

While Final Fantasy 7 Remake doesn't quite cover even half of the original's plot, it does flesh things out with some neat side content. The combat is best in class, making battles feel epic, as you learn how to make use of each ally's unique blend of magic and physical attacks. Excellent boss battles bookend chapters, and there's more than one twist that'll leave you questioning what's set to unfold in the next instalment.

The Witcher 3 is still one of the best RPGs you can play in 2024, and after a ton of updates, it's a great time regardless of where you play it. While the PS5 will get you all of the bells and whistles of the next-gen updates, the PS4 Pro patches are also impressive. 4K has been improved and performance is better across the board.

In a sense, The Witcher 3 has always been impressive graphically, especially when you consider the sheer size and scale of its open world. There's even additional areas to explore thanks to the DLC, so it's well worth picking up on your PS4 Pro. Thanks to game saves carrying over from consoles, you won't lose any progress either. Whether you spend hundreds of hours hunting down monsters to slay, or just sitting in a tavern playing Gwent, you're bound to have a great time.

Death Stranding had us worried for a bit. When Kojima Productions' first title was announced back at E3 2016, it did so to a confused and excited crowd. And the path to launch didn't see these feelings change much – they just swayed more into the confusion side.

We saw bottled babies, sea otter costumes, and even the appearance of Conan O'Brien, and every new trailer filled us more with fear than hype. But it was all worth it.

Death Stranding is an incredible title that is equally beautiful and unique - especially when played on the Pro. Without giving away too much, the premise is that you step into the shoes of deliveryman Sam Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) who delivers special cargo in the wake of the Death Stranding - a mysterious phenomenon that wiped out many innocent lives. But obviously, it's not all that simple.

Death Stranding is something to be experienced. It's definitely an essential PS4 Pro game - if not the essential PS4 Pro game.

This was the most hotly-anticipated (and probably the best) games of 2018. Proving that Rockstar has once again pulled it out of the bag with Red Dead Redemption 2.

A giant western open-world epic, it lets you live the cowboy life, riding horses into the sunset, saddling up with a posse, and brawling your way through every bar in the old West. It has Rockstar's signature attention to detail, with the 4K capabilities of Sony's PS4 Pro console bringing the era to life.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is stunning as it is, but add in PS4 Pro enhancements and it's truly a magnificent-looking game.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is the most recent edition to the epic Assassin's Creed RPG franchise. Odyssey is set during the Peloponnesian War and sees you stepping into the sandals of either Alexios or Kassandra as they try to uncover the truth about their history while navigating the turbulent world of Ancient Greece as a mercenary.

Odyssey is a graphically stunning PS4 game that will take you to the heart of Ancient Greece – easily securing it a place in our collection of the best PlayStation 4 games. Just make sure you have the time to play it because there are over 100 hours of content to enjoy here.

Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4 Pro is absolutely gorgeous - even if it's not native 4K. When played on Sony's ultra-powerful console, Marvel's Spider-Man is able to achieve a native resolution of 1440p at a rock-solid 30fps framerate, which is then upscaled to 4K. This impressive feat is possible thanks to dynamic resolution scaling that will raise or lower the level of detail depending on how frantic the action is.

That said before you go and bemoan the fact that it's 30 frames per second - the game looks absolutely gorgeous and plays beautifully on the console. In our time with the game, we barely noticed the lower framerate, and the uprezzed visuals more than made up for it in the long run.

If you need a colorful, HDR-ready showcase for the system, this is it.

Easily one of the most visually stunning games on the PlayStation 4 (or on any console for that matter), God of War takes the series to epic new levels when it comes to presentation. The game looks incredible when played on a standard PS4 console, demonstrating just how absurdly talented the team at SIE Santa Monica Studio is when it comes to optimization. However, when played on a PS4 Pro, the game kicks things up a notch.

In the game's settings, you'll find two graphics modes: favor resolution and favor performance. Naturally, the former makes the game look especially crisp and clean, bringing the resolution up to checkerboard 4K and holding steady at around 30fps, while the latter displays at 1080p and sticks close to around 60fps for the majority of the time.

As cinematic as it is, we had no problem playing God of War on the favor resolution setting, as we were able to enjoy the incredible detail put forth by the game — utilizing the additional resolution to see pores and lines on characters' faces, and the insane level of artistry in their costumes and armor, just makes the whole game even more impressive (if you ask us). It also helps to make the game's HDR presentation even more eye-popping.

Considered one of the greatest video games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus is better than ever on PS4, with its Pro update giving the game some big enhancements when it comes to visuals and performance.

Shadow of the Colossus offers two graphical settings: 'Performance Mode' offers smooth gameplay targeting 60 FPS at 1080p, while the 'Cinematic Mode' plays at a higher 'Dynamic 4K' resolution with enhanced textures, all while holding a solid 30 FPS.

Regardless of the mode you choose, the team at Bluepoint has brought some other tasty visual treats to their remake of the Japanese classic, including a beautiful new lighting engine (which looks incredible when combined with the game's HDR support) and some advanced rendering techniques, which make things like fur on the Colossi look especially realistic.

Simply put, the enhancements offered by the PS4 Pro version make this the definitive presentation of Shadow of the Colossus, offering a visual experience unlike any other.

If you’re looking for a PS4 Pro showstopper, Ratchet and Clank is a great place to start. It’s like playing a Pixar movie, with its colorful visuals, loveable characters, and world-hopping sci-fi plot.

And, it’s actually a great case for the merits of not-quite native UHD 4K on the PS4 Pro. Rather than pumping up the resolution count to its maximum, Ratchet and Clank makes clever use of a technique called Temporal Injection. It’s essentially a very efficient and fancy upscale, pushing the image quality up to a 2160p standard and removing jaggies without the strain of a native resolution push. At a capped, consistent 30fps and with HDR support switched on, you’re left with a blisteringly beautiful shooter that looks out of this world.

Ghost of Tsushima launched on PS4 and PS4 Pro, with some additional modes on the latter. There's a 'Favor Visuals' option for pro users that drops the locked 30fps for a pretty consistent near 30fps experience. For the trade-off, you get a much better image, a must for those using a 4K TV. That boost in graphics is really felt in Ghost of Tsushima, which features one of the prettiest open worlds in gaming.

You play as Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima, an ex-soldier who must employ new tactics in order to enact his revenge on his enemies. In essence, he becomes a silent assassin, using tools like smoke bombs and a grapple hook to gain the advantage. As you make your way across Tsushima, you'll clear camps full of enemies, solve environmental puzzles, and discover hidden secrets. A great option for fans of stealth action.

Sony’s smash hit conclusion to Nathan Drake’s globe-trotting adventures makes good use of the PS4 Pro, though don’t expect it to massively alter the already sumptuous feel of the original.

The PS4 Pro update for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End pushes the resolution up to 1440p, which is a marked improvement over the original’s full HD limits, even if the intense action makes a 30fps target the goal. What is appreciated though is the HDR implementation - traipsing through old tombs by lamplight, or seeing the sun filter through dilapidated shanty town and jungle trees looks astonishing on the PS4 Pro.

Think Jurassic Park, but with robot dinosaurs, and you're on your way to the breathtaking action that Horizon Zero Dawn offers.

From the minds behind the Killzone series, the open-world action-adventure was a revelation when it launched in early 2017, being one of the most sophisticated sandbox titles available to PS4 owners. From sneaky stealth sections to gigantic face-offs with hulking mecha-rexes it got the heart pumping.

But perhaps most impressive was its visuals. It particularly shone on the PS4 Pro, where its 4K HDR visuals brought the flora and fauna of a post-human future dazzlingly to life. It's a PS4 Pro showstopper and a great way to show off the machine's capabilities.

How we made our best PS4 Pro games list

We've been committed players to the PS4 generation and have clocked up thousands of hours playing games made and released for that console that we know what goes into making a great PS4 game - and in this niche, a great PS4 Pro game. Personally, I upgraded to the PS4 Pro about a year and a bit after it launched and immediately noticed the difference in the gaming experience. Especially when teamed with a 4K TV. It's this underlying experience and knowledge that underpins our selections and, we think, trustworthiness, in our lists.

But as a result of this time spent with PS4 games and the PS4 Pro console, I, and the rest of the TRG crew, know what games look the best and run the smoothest on the enhanced console. We know which games benefit from 4K checkerboarding, which ones have enhanced HDR, and which ones can run at faster frame rates. Putting this into practice is how we've picked these games.

PS4 Pro games - FAQs

Do I need a 4K TV for PS4 Pro?

Yes, and no. Realistically, you'll be able to play games very happily on a 1080p TV with a PS4 Pro. You may even be able to make use of a few games that offer game modes of higher frame rates.

However, it's no secret that the PS4 Pro was built with 4K screens in mind, and teaming it with a 1080p TV means you won't be getting as much out of the console as you can. To get the best from your PS4 Pro, you'll need to combine it with a 4K TV.

Do PS4 games look better on PS4 Pro?

As mentioned above, the PS4 Pro will play games better on a technical level - it's improved hardware takes them up a notch visually. As a result, PS4 games very often (but not always) do look better on a PS4 Pro just by default. Some are built specifically to take advantage of the better hardware, but almost all will get a little boost from the more powerful machine.

Is the PS4 Pro true 4K?

This is a good question, as while the PS4 Pro is often described as a 4K powerhouse - and it is, to an extent - there is some magic going on under the hood at times too.

Techniques called things like upscaling and checkerboarding mean that the PS4 Pro can take a smaller resolution (like 1440p, for example) and then upscale that to 4K at the point of 'delivery'. This is technically not 'true 4K' - if that means a 4K image is being pumped out at the source and directly from the PS4 Pro. Some games will be able to achieve that, but not all, so do be aware of that.

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Your gaming PC might support a 4K display, but if you really want to improve your visuals, you’ll need to enable high dynamic range (HDR) output.

HDR displays show off a richer, more vibrant colour palette to make better use of those extra pixels on higher resolution displays, but only if your game supports it. 

Windows 11, which you can now download and install, uses Auto HDR to solve this problem, taking thousands of DirectX 11 and 12 games and boosting the colour range and brightness levels for games that don’t natively support HDR.

Dark colours are darker, light colours are lighter, but you’ll need to enable Auto HDR functionality first to see these changes in action - here's how.

Enable HDR in Windows 11

If you want to change your display settings to enable Auto HDR support, you’ll need to open up the Windows 11 Settings menu first. 

There's a couple of ways to do this, but the easiest is to open up the Start menu and press the ‘Settings’ app icon in the list.

If you can’t find it, use the search bar at the top of the Start menu to search for ‘Settings’ instead, then press it in the search results afterwards. Alternatively, right-click the Start menu icon on the taskbar and press ‘Settings’ from the pop-up context menu to open it instead.

Checking for HDR monitor support

All HDR-supported monitors and TVs connected to a Windows 11 PC should, in theory, allow you to use Auto HDR mode. This isn’t always the case, so make sure you’re using a HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.4 display that supports the HDR10 specification. 

Your GPU should also support the necessary resolution to enable HDR (e.g. 3840x2160 at 60Hz).

If you’re unsure whether your display supports HDR, you can check this in the Windows 11 Settings menu first. In the Settings menu, select System > Display > HDR, then select your HDR-supported monitor from the drop-down menu.

With the HDR-supported monitor active, press the ‘Display Capabilities’ section. If your TV or monitor lists HDR as ‘Not supported’ here, you’re out of luck. You’ll need to connect an HDR-supported monitor to use this feature.

If HDR is listed as ‘Supported’, however, you’re good to go. Auto HDR may switch on automatically for you, but if it doesn’t, you can switch it on below.

How to enable Auto HDR functionality in Windows 11

You can quickly enable Auto HDR in Windows 11 by opening the Settings app and pressing System > Display > HDR.

Make sure your HDR-supported TV or monitor is selected from the drop-down menu, then press the ‘Display Capabilities’ section to view your options. Press the slider next to the ‘Use HDR’ section to enable HDR output on your PC.

Next, scroll down and select the slider next to the ‘Auto HDR’ section to enable Auto HDR in games that Microsoft has added support for.

Testing HDR colours in games using Auto HDR split screen

If you’re curious to see how much of a difference HDR makes to your gameplay visuals, you can use a secret split screen feature included in Windows 11 to test Auto HDR. With split screen Auto HDR enabled, one side of your screen will show your game with high dynamic range colours and brightness, while the other side will show the game without it.

To enable this, right-click the Start menu and press ‘Windows Terminal (Admin)’. In the Terminal window that opens, type reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers /v AutoHDR.ScreenSplit /t REG_DWORD /d 1 and press Enter. 

Launch your game (with Auto HDR support) at this point to view the difference or to take a screenshot. To disable the feature, return to the Terminal window, type reg delete HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers /v AutoHDR.ScreenSplit /f and press Enter to return your screen to normal.

Playing Auto HDR supported games

Auto HDR is designed to upscale the visible colours you’ll see in certain DirectX 11 and 12 games, but it isn’t available for every game. If Auto HDR is enabled on your PC, you should see a notification in the top-right when you launch a game that supports it on Windows 11.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to force non-supported games to use Auto HDR at this stage, and there isn’t an official list you can review, either. Microsoft suggests that thousands of DirectX 11 and 12 games should work with Auto HDR, but your own experiences may vary. The only thing you can do is give it a try.

If Auto HDR doesn’t work the first time you run your game, exit the game fully and restart it to activate the feature. This should work for games that do support Auto HDR, but only if Microsoft has added support for your game.

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When it comes to HDR video on today's smart TVs, there are a few different formats – including HLG, Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HDR10+. But Dolby Vision is by far the most popular.  

So when Samsung – whose screens make up 32.9% of the global TV market, making them one of the world's largest TV producers – chooses to embrace HDR10+ instead of Dolby Vision, it certainly raises some questions.

Samsung has stated that it wouldn’t support Dolby Vision due to added manufacturing costs and an additional license fee – though also because it trusts its own TV processing system and hardware, which it says can optimise HDR10 images without the need for Dolby Vision. Samsung, therefore, decided to support the royalty-free dynamic metadata HDR system HDR10+ exclusively. 

HDR10+ is a direct rival to Dolby Vision and has been developed by Samsung in tandem with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. But with television manufacturers including Hisense, Panasonic, and Philips supporting both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, are Samsung users missing out and is HDR10+ really the better option?

Dolby Vision vs HDR10+

When it comes to the difference between these two formats, Dolby Vision is considered to be more precise than regular HDR (displayed through the HDR10 format) because content can be encoded frame by frame, which means what you're watching will appear more colorful and dynamic, and be better tailored towards the individual capabilities of the TV it's being played on.

TVs that support Dolby Vision IQ, too, can use brightness sensors to auto-calibrate the picture settings based on the level of light in your room.

The maximum spec for consumer TVs using Dolby Vision goes up to 12-bit colour depth with a possible 68 billion colours on offer. And as for brightness, Dolby allows for levels of up to 10,000 nits (even if no commercial TVs currently hit that spec).

HDR10+ is an HDR format created by Samsung, but as a royalty-free standard, content creators and manufacturers don't have to pay hefty fees to use it. Whilst standard HDR10 uses static metadata, which means that the brightness settings are set at the start of the content you’re watching and don’t change, HDR10+ applies a layer of dynamic metadata to the HDR10 stream. So like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ enhances the HDR images in each frame or scene, so you get better color and much more tonal detail. 

HDR10+ has an impressive 10-bit color, which you may think doesn’t stand up to Dolby Visions 12-bit colour system, but it’s worth noting that consumer TVs these days aren't capable of a 12-bit color depth anyway. But that doesn’t mean that the technology to offer 12-bit colour isn’t going to be available in the near future. 

So, in essence, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are similar because they both use dynamic metadata to improve colour, brightness and contrast, which can level up any at-home viewing experience – though both rely on a long pipeline of content creators, distributors and manufacturers playing ball.

There is also the little matter of money, as HDR10+ is an open, royalty-free standard, whilst Dolby Vision requires manufacturers, providers and content creators to pay a license fee to use the system.

• HDR10 vs Dolby Vision: what's the difference?

How to watch Dolby Vision

Streaming services tend to carry Dolby Vision and HDR10+ content on a title by title basis, meaning it won't be available for most of the content on one service's library. 

There are also many 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays that support Dolby Vision, including Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman, and Avengers Infinity War. But when it comes to streaming services, Netflix, Disney Plus and Apple TV all offer support for Dolby Vision – with Amazon favoring HDR10+.

Dolby Vision is also available via 4K Apple TV, Google Chromecast Ultra, Fire TV Stick 4K and the Fire TV Cube.  Nearly all of these devices support HDR and HDR10+, with the exception of Apple TV 4K, which doesn't offer support for HDR10+.

The Roku Express 4K and Roku Ultra media streaming devices have also been upgraded to include HDR10+ support. 

Mark Ely, Vice President of Retail Product Strategy at Roku, confirmed support by saying, "At Roku, we are dedicated to providing consumers with easy-to-use products that offer a lot of value and choice. We recently announced Roku OS 10, a free software update rolling out to Roku devices, and we have enabled HDR10+ on the all-new Roku Express 4K+, Roku Express 4K and Roku Ultra (2020) products for an even more vivid and bright viewing experience on TVs that support it."

What can you watch in HDR10+?

Since HDR10+ doesn’t require content creators and manufacturers to pay a license fee, it’s surprising there isn’t much more support for this format. However, the involvement of 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers means there are over 100 HDR10+ Blu-Ray titles on the market, such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Wonder Woman 1984. 

When it comes to streaming services, Amazon Prime Video holds the most content in  HDR10+ format. They announced their partnership back in 2017 and have continued to go from strength to strength by making all of its HDR-mastered content available in HDR10+. Google Play, Rakuten, Paramount+ and YouTube are also amongst those that are also on board with ensuring their content is compatible with HDR10+.  

Netflix is yet to adopt HDR10+, but told TechRadar back in 2017 that they are open to supporting it in the future. Netflix's Senior Product Manager of its Partner Ecosystem, Richard Smith, said that Netflix would be open to supporting other HDR formats beyond HDR10 and Dolby Vision. 

"We do already support HDR10, not the HDR10+ variant, there’s a possibility we’ll support that in the future, but it’s not something that’s on our roadmap at the moment," he said.

But I guess we are still waiting for that partnership to happen. Netflix does, however, support HDR10.

When it comes to apps such as Disney Plus and Apple TV, the services will automatically detect your system's capabilities and play the content in HDR10 if your TV supports HDR, and auto-play in Dolby Vision if that standard is supported / available for the content too.

What Samsung TVs support HDR10+?

The HDR10+ website states that over 700 models of TV, Blu-Ray players, and mobile devices are compatible with the HDR10+ format.  

All Samsung UHD TV’s made from 2016 will have HDR10+ capabilities. However, new models such as Terrace, Sero, The Frame, or the latest QLED and Mini LED ranges will be even better at displaying HDR10+ content thanks to HDR10+ Adaptive, which will use the TV light sensor to calibrate the picture in response to ambient light, meaning viewers can experience a cinematic experience regardless of the viewing environment. 

If you have a Samsung TV that was made between 2016 and 2020, check that your firmware has been updated to enjoy the HDR10+ feature. 

Can Samsung and HDR10+ really take on Dolby Vision?

Whilst we don’t think that HDR10+ can overtake the popularity of Dolby Vision, it certainly can hold its own – especially with electronics juggernaut Samsung backing it. 

Dolby Vision benefits from more advanced technology and support for 12-bit colour at up to 10,000 nits of brightness. In comparison, HDR10+ offers 10-bit of colour and just 4,000 nits of brightness – though Samsung's ultra-bright QLED TVs certainly get closer to the latter brightness spec than OLED TVs do for Dolby Vision.

The open-source nature of HDR10+ could be tempting to some content creators and production companies, too, who don't want to pay a premium for Dolby Vision.

What complicates the question is that many TVs and media streamers simply support both formats. Broad HDR support will package in both, as well as regular HDR10 and even the HLG HDR broadcast standard, and it's likely to get even more rare for devices to only pick one of the above.

It’s also worth mentioning that HDR10+ technology isn’t just available on Samsung televisions. They’ve also included this format on their mobile phones and tablets so you can get 4K video and content whilst on the move. Samsung mobile phone users can even shoot HDR10+ video on their phones. 

It's likely that HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are both here to stay for the near future, and as long as they continue to feature on TVs that offer exceptional picture quality, there’s certainly room for both. 

• Dolby Vision HDR: the premium HDR format explained

You've heard of HDR, but how does HDR10+ differ and, importantly, do you need it when you're buying a new TV?

HDR10+ is a video format that’s increasingly found on HDR televisions. HDR TVs might only be a few years old, but we already have a confusing handful of different HDR standards competing for prime of place on our TV displays. 

First came HDR10, then Dolby Vision, and more recently Hybrid Log Gamma and Advanced HDR.

As if that all of those aren't already enough to wrap our heads around, there’s now another kind of TV tech: HDR10+. This video format will bring you the same advanced functionality you'd get from Dolby Vision but to an open standard, one that content makers can use without having to pay Dolby's hefty licensing fees.

Like Dolby's competing format, HDR10+ uses 'dynamic metadata' in order to enhance HDR images in each scene or shot. What this means is that viewers get the most out of every movie, documentary, or TV show.

HDR10+ might have 10-bit color compared to Dolby Vision's 12-bit, but this should at least make for a better balance between light and dark scenes.

We know what you’re thinking. Is HDR10+ more hyped up TV tech that'll be gone in a year? Probably not. The HDR standard has been packed into every Samsung 4K TV since 2017, not to mention many Panasonic TVs and Blu-ray discs from 20th Century FOX. What that means is the HDR10+ revolution may have already begun. 

It’s also worth mentioning that HDR10+ Adaptive is also featured in many high-end TVs these days. This is a way to calibrate picture settings on HDR10+ content in response to the intensity of light in the room around your TV screen.

Check out our guide below, which helps to demystify HDR10+, HDR10+ Adaptive and explains why you need to know about this increasingly popular TV tech.

Check out the video below for everything you need to know about HDR.

Where did HDR10+ come from?

HDR10+ first came on the TV tech scene back in April 2017. This was when Samsung announced it was partnering with Amazon Prime Video to support the new format, but the format took a big step forward last August with the announcement that 20th Century Fox and Panasonic were joining forces with Samsung to develop the format further.

2018's CES saw the format come to physical media with the announcement that it had been been accepted as part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification. Panasonic then followed that announcement up by saying its new 2018 players will support the format, but there isn't any word on which discs will be available. 

Then, in early March 2018, Samsung took the stage at its annual TV unveiling to once again reaffirm its commitment to the standard by putting it into every one of its 2018 QLED TVs.

Fast-forward a few years and in January 2020 Samsung announced that two significant new partners have signed on to HDR10+, including Vizio TVs and Google Play streaming. Widening the net for both TV makers and content distributers should make it easier for consumers to find HDR10+ content and play it back as well.

For more on the content side, you can already find around 100 movies and TV shows in HDR10+ on Amazon Video and Netflix has suggested it might support the format in the future, although it currently has no firm plans to do so. 

• We've seen HDR10+ in action, and it looks ace

Why do we need HDR10+?

But do we even need another standard of HDR in the first place? 

The reasoning we've heard comes down to the creation of content. From how we've come to understand it, it's far easier for production houses to create HDR10+ content instead of Dolby Vision. Whereas the latter requires a scene-by-scene color correction, the former can take HDR10 content and bring it up to par without any extra labor.

It turns out that content creators really like that last part: Amazon already has a number of HDR10+ shows, including The Grand Tour, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and The Man in the High Castle, to name a few, and it's only a matter of time until the first HDR10+ UHD Blu-ray discs arrive on the market. 

All things considered, the early signs for HDR10+ are looking positive. Panasonic has been bringing the technology to most of its high-end TVs since 2018 and it currently features in its flagship TV, the Panasonic JZ2000 4K OLED TV, in addition to many of Samsung's new TVs, presumably the entire 2021 QLED range.

What TVs come with HDR10+?

According to the official HDR10+ website, there are more than 700 models of TV, Blu-ray players, and mobile devices that are certified with the video format. 

The brands on the list include Samsung, Toshiba, Oppo, TCL, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Panasonic, Hisense, Vivo. 

A few of our favourite models with HDR10+ certification include: 

Smartphones: Samsung Galaxy Fold, Samsung Galaxy Note, OnePlus 7 Pro, Xiaomi Mi 10

Blu-ray players: Panasonic DP-UB420, Panasonic DP-UB9000, Samsung UBD-M9500

Televisions: Samsung The Frame TV, Samsung Q70 QLED TV, Samsung NU8000, Hisense H55U7B, Panasonic GZ1500 4K OLED TV, Panasonic GZ950 / GZ1000 4K OLED, Hisense U8B ULED TV (But there are literally hundreds on the list that are HDR10+ friendly.) 

HDR10+ Adaptive

We know we've only just demystified HDR10+, but there's another type you need to know about: HDR10+ Adaptive.

HDR10+ Adaptive is the answer to an age-old problem many of us have when it comes to light. Many of us (obviously) watch television outside of a dedicated, light-proof home cinema room. We put on our favorite Netflix shows in rooms not ideally equipped to keep out sunlight because we want to keep some visibility to eat, text, or cycle on an indoor bike while catching up on our programmes. If you're prone to daytime watching too, perfect viewing conditions aren't really an option.

That's where HDR10+ Adaptive comes in. It calibrates picture settings on HDR10+ content – that is, films or TV shows made in the dynamic HDR format favored by Samsung – in response to the intensity of light in the room around your TV screen.

New Samsung TVs will be better than ever at displaying HDR10+ content, it seems, after the world's largest TV maker announced a new feature to calibrate picture settings in response to ambient light.

Does HDR10+ spell the end for Dolby Vision?

That's unlikely.

Even if HDR10+ gains the same sort of traction, Dolby Vision still has the advantage of more advanced tech, with support for 12-bit color and up to 10,000 nits of brightness. 

The lack of licensing fees with HDR10+ could end up being mightily tempting for manufacturers and content creators alike – but it's not like big Hollywood blockbusters are hurting when it comes to budget.

The most likely scenario that we can see happening is the peaceful coexistence of HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, a idea that Dolby's SVP of Consumer Entertainment Giles Baker seems to tolerate – if not directly support.

Whichever format wins or loses, the result is going to be better picture quality for all – and that's something we can all get behind.

• Dolby Vision: Is it worth paying extra for the premium HDR format?

What is HDR? It means high dynamic range and it's a term you've probably heard before here on TechRadar or if you've been looking for a new TV for your home over the past few years. 

The problem is, it's used everywhere but rarely explained – at least not enough for those without a lot of TV tech know-how to get their heads around. 

You know it's something good to have on your new TV, but you're probably less sure about precisely what it means. To make things easier, we like to think of it a bit like the audio-visual (AV) world's equivalent of 'organic'.

But before we dig into the details, what's essential to learn is that HDR could change the way you watch TV – and even movies on your phone, too – for good. 

For starters, let's look at 4K TVs. 4K TV displays tend to get most of the attention, as they produce four times the number of pixels of any HD TV on the market. But is more necessarily better when it comes to pixels? Do you care how many pixels there are if none of them look any good?

That's where HDR comes in. What HDR does is get more dynamic pictures and quality out of those many, many pixels. This means your viewing experience is better. With an HDR TV, bright whites look brighter, dark blacks look darker, and 10-bit panels can finally display the 1 billion colors you never realized you could see.

Simply put, 4K describes the quantity of pixels, but it's HDR that describes their exceptional quality. Both are just as important as each other, but 4K without HDR won't look as good or be as fun to watch.

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• What is Dolby Vision? Netflix's chosen HDR format for TV and films explained

What is HDR?

HDR is used in a few different contexts. 

So let's clear up some confusion: the kind of high dynamic range that your HDR TV is capable of shouldn't be confused with the HDR photography options that have recently been added to smartphone cameras.

Sure, they're similar. Both result in images that have a greater contrast between light and dark. But the way they work is slightly different.

For example, high-end cameras and recent smartphone apps utilize HDR by combining several photos taken during a single burst of many photos.

Separate photos are taken at different exposures during the process. These are called stops, and the amount of light is doubled from one to the next. So while the first stop produces an extremely dark image, the last result is exceptionally bright, lending better luminosity to the final portmanteau photo.

But that's not the same for video.

Yes, you're still getting an expanded color gamut and contrast ratio when it comes to video, but you're not doing it by combining several images or videos. It all has to do with the way an image is displayed on the screen and the source content used to do it.

So although it might share a name and common points with photography, clearly HDR video is different to smartphone photography. 

The end result, an image with more contrast between its lightest and darkest areas is the same, but instead of combining separate images this effect is produced using better camera technology to capture the best possible footage in the first place.

The improvements you'll see with an HDR image compared to a normal image are numerous. 

Whereas on a standard display everything below a certain brightness is the same shade of black, an HDR TV's display range goes further, allowing you to tell the difference between something that's really really dark, and something that's just dark. (Go put on a horror movie and you'll be able to tell the difference immediately.)

For example, a wide shot of a campfire at night could have subtle details in the flame rather than appearing 'blown out', along with palpable definition to objects that are barely lit in the gloomy surroundings at the edge of the frame.

As Panasonic's training manager Michael Price says, "It's about control, not just extra brightness and results in more natural expressions of light and shadow."

When we caught up with Hollywood cinematographer Vanja Cernjul he was positively brimming with excitement about HDR, saying that: "The whole composition is affected by the increased detail in brightness.

"You no longer have to choose whether to expose for the highlights or the shadows, so when I shoot I try and include a light source in the shot, which I can play within the HDR grading session."

In post-production Cernjul will tinker with the levels of exposure, brightness, contrast and colour saturation, making them look as good as possible on an HDR-compatible screen.

He thinks that filmmakers will, like him, be attracted to work on TV with the possibilities of HDR. Having just completed shooting the second season of Marco Polo in HDR, Cernjul sees streaming services as the natural home for HDR production, because of the number of original shows being commissioned by the likes of Netflix and Amazon.

HDR is bringing media closer to what the human eye sees, and by doing so, is creating more realistic images, from scenes bleached with sunlight to nighttime shots on city streets.

Here's the big takeaway: HDR TVs and content will display a more realistic color range, with an expanded contrast ratio to make black parts of the image look closer to 'true' black.

So what's HDR like to watch?

Watch some carefully crafted HDR, like Cernjul's short showcase movie, Converging Beams, made for Panasonic, and you can see the potential. You get so accustomed to simultaneously seeing shadow detail and details in the highlights that you may come to find watching standard images a bit flat and dissatisfying.

Not only that, but HDR has some extra zip to it compared with standard viewing. There's a new level of dynamism to images, something hugely evident in a film like the Lego Movie.

When we went from standard definition to HD, screen sizes were a lot smaller and just having the extra pixels was enough to transform the picture. Now that screens are so much bigger, however, it's not enough to simply add more pixels, as there are other aspects of the image that can be improved.

What HDR adds in terms of additional colours, better clarity in shadows and highlights, is subtle but significant – and it delivers a much more visually satisfying picture than simply having extra pixels. The overall effect is a punchiness that's tantamount to creating a 3D image.

But the tech still needs to catch up to the promise. Some cheaper LCD HDR screens struggle with displaying bright objects against sharply darker backgrounds, causing streaks of light to run down the screen or create halos around bright objects.

These issues are of less concern on the kind of OLED screens made by LG, Panasonic or Sony, where each pixel generates its own light and can go completely dark.

How do I get HDR?

HDR is an end-to-end technology, so every step from creation to distribution to the screen in your home needs to be HDR-compatible, which means that legacy TVs can't show it.

When you go out shopping for a TV screen you may notice an Ultra HD Premium logo on it. This means that the screen offers a level of performance that's guaranteed to get the most out of an HDR source. In terms of specification the screen must have 3840 x 2160 pixels (although this is no different to any other UHD screen) plus it must be able to display a vast number of unique color shades captured within an image. 

The other key metric for a Premium-badged panel is a contrast ratio of at least 1,000 nits peak brightness and less than 0.05 nits black level.

Nits are a term that's been adopted by the TV industry to indicate the brightness of a display. 1 nit is approximately equal to the light from a single candle.

Most TV screens in use today offer between 300 and 500 nits, so that gives you a good idea of the greater luminosity required to show HDR.

The above applies to LED-lit LCD screens while for OLED screens (which have lower average brightness and much lower black levels than LCD) it's 540 nits peak brightness and less than 0.0005 nits black level.

Panasonic's Price says that edge-lit LED screens cannot produce high enough contrast and you need direct lighting (from behind the picture, a less-common method of lighting screens) to get enough dynamic range to meet Premium HDR requirements.

In fact, the vast majority of LCD screens on sale aren't equipped to deliver the level of brightness required for a Premium badge so manufacturers are tending to simply sell non-premium models.

Since manufacturers aren't obliged to reveal the number of nits (brightness) their screens achieve, or the contrast ratio, it's up to them to decide for themselves if a non-Premium screen has enough brightness and contrast to deliver a meaningful HDR image.

The consumer electronics industry has previous form when it comes to offering similar but different standards, as while it was a lot easier to understand the difference between HD-Ready and Full HD the gap between "regular" UHD and UHD Premium displays is more fluid.

But the bottom line is that the Ultra HD Premium branding is the most reliable way of ensuring you see what the creator intended.

Another issue is that it's not compulsory to use the UHD Premium logo – others are (confusingly) using their own branding.

Sony's product training specialist Gavin McCarran says: "What the Ultra HD Premium logo doesn't do is show all the range of models that can receive an HDR signal."

Maybe Sony thinks the Premium accreditation will put people off buying the non-premium models because, after all, would you buy a bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne if it were watered down to make it cheaper?

The Ultra HD Premium hallmark can also be used on Ultra HD Blu-ray players and discs as HDR is a mandatory part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray spec.

UHD screens without HDR compatibility will still show a 4K picture in SDR (standard dynamic range) from an Ultra HD Blu-ray but they won't be able to access the HDR metadata carried within the picture.

Offering bit-rates up to 100 Mb/sec (approximately five times that used for streamed movies), in terms of content, Ultra HD Blu-ray is best placed to deliver the HDR goods.

HDR Standards – another cause for confusion

All HDR screens are able to display what's called HDR10, which has the same specification as the UHD Premium standard. It's compulsory on all Ultra HD Blu-rays, plus it appears on HDR dramas streamed by Netflix and Amazon.

But there's another reason to be careful about which brand of HDR screen you buy and it's all down to the fact that there are several varieties of HDR being used by content creators.

Dolby has an HDR10 rival called Dolby Vision, which has increased color depth (it's 12-bit rather than 10) and "up to" 10,000 nits peak brightness (which is far brighter than any current TV can offer). It also offers a feature known as 'dynamic tone mapping' which adjusts the brightness and contrast of scenes depending on how bright or dark they need to be. This dynamic mastering process is all done when the film is being edited, which means all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the fruits of someone else's hard labor.

Only screens and players equipped with Dolby Vision decoding will be able to show Dolby Vision's 'improved' version of HDR. All of LG's OLED sets support it, as does Sony's flagship A1E OLED (two other Sony sets, the XE93 and XE94 are due to receive Dolby Vision support in a forthcoming firmware update).  

But Dolby Vision isn't the only player in the field of advanced HDR.

There's Advanced HDR by Technicolor, a nascent HDR format from the people who brought you colored cartoons; Hybrid Log Gamma, which is the standard designed to work with broadcast television; and finally, HDR10+, a new standard that builds some of the benefits of Dolby Vision into an open-standard akin to HDR10. 

Technicolor and Philips are working together on another system that creates and delivers HDR and normal versions simultaneously, so that separate streams won't have to be created and graded. The correct content will be automatically chosen to match the screen's peak brightness and dynamic range.

Finally, the BBC and NHK Japan are co-developing a version of HDR that can be used in conventional broadcasts. Called Hybrid Log Gamma, the interesting thing about the standard is that it's backwards compatible, meaning that if an SDR television receives this HDR signal, it will still be able to display an image (though obviously not an HDR one).

HDR isn't just for TVs, it's on your phone, too

While the big screen might be the best way to indulge in high dynamic range content, it's not the only way to watch it. 

HDR has been on most flagship phones since around 2017 with big names, like Apple and Samsung, ensuring the viewing tech is on their newest devices.

What's more, YouTube recently made HDR videos available to certain mobile phones, including the the Google Pixel, LG V30, Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung Galaxy Note8 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium.

Interestingly, LG's handsets are compatible with the more advanced Dolby Vision standard, although you'll need to use Netflix (see below) to find any compatible content. 

If you want to find some YouTube HDR videos you can find a curated list of them here.

Of course, YouTube isn't the only place to get HDR on the go: Netflix has also recently released the news that it too supports mobile HDR on the Samsung Galaxy Note8, LG V30, Sony Xperia XZ1 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium as well. 

If you're an Apple user, iTunes movies are also now available to watch on your phone with HDR, which is mostly to push people to Apple TV+, but still brings good quality viewing to your iPhone.

Read our HDR on a smartphone guide for more.

What's HDR10+ Adaptive?

One of the reasons getting your head around HDR can be confusing is because there are lots of different types and terms to learn – and there are new ones announced every year. We haven't included them all in this guide, but one we think it’s worth finding out more about is HDR10+ Adaptive.

HDR10+ Adaptive is a type of TV tech that’s featured in many high-end TVs. Simply put, it’s a way to calibrate picture settings on HDR10+ content in response to the intensity of light in the room around your TV screen.

So for example, let’s say you want to watch something but there’s sunlight pouring in the window, well HDR10+ Adaptive calibrates picture settings in response to the intensity of light in the room around your TV screen. This might seem like a subtle difference to you, but it means you get a much better viewing experience.

What's the verdict on HDR?

HDR is a landmark in home entertainment history. Think about it, we can now watch movie content in our home with the same colour grading as in the cinema – that's incredible, even if you're not a movie-lover.

We can't wait for the time when broadcasters adopt HDR for the same reasons – imagine watching live sport broadcast from a stadium split between shadow and bright sunlight without a sudden jump in the exposure as the ball goes into the brighter section.

Cinematically, it's going to have a significant effect too, with the director no longer needing to choose between exposing for the shadows or the sunlight. We think it'll soon be possible to say HDR has finally put the ultra into UHD viewing, and all the issues over different standards will have been resolved.

However, as always there are format wars ongoing. Most hardware manufacturers are backing HDR10 (the official standard) but Dolby is a powerful force and has the content creators on its side too.

It's not impossible that both standards will continue to co-exist (after all Dolby and DTS share the Blu-ray audio market) but the way to play it safe would be to choose new kit with Dolby Vision because HDR10 can always be shown on it.

When will HDR be available?

It's available right now and has been for some time. In fact, if you've bought a new TV over the past few years there's a good chance it's a 4K TV with HDR built-in and is one of the UHD Alliance-certified TVs.

But how can you use it to watch HDR content? Well, if you own an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, are a member of either Amazon Prime, Netflix, Apple TV+ or Disney+ – or just watch the occasional video on YouTube.

Those major streaming providers have also both pledged to bring the technology to new series going forward.

HDR has also been included as standard in the Ultra HD Blu-ray format. The amount of discs available, not to mention the number of players, is currently slim, but as more and more films get released in the format HDR is set to hit the mainstream very soon indeed.

If you're streaming, you'll need a broadband connection of at least 25Mbits to watch streamed HDR, although Netflix uses something called adaptive streaming that gives the advanced screen tech priority over resolution in the case of insufficient bandwidth.

Sky Q HDR was announced by Sky, along with Spotify integration and a lot more 4K UHD content, near the start of 2018. After some wait, all of those features have now arrived – yes, including an upgraded Sky Q box for HDR.

Editor's note: Additional reporting by Dave James, Nick Pino and Jon Porter

• Check out our list of the best Ultra HD Blu-ray players 2021

As remote work is quickly becoming the norm, video conferencing will likely be here to stay as well which is why Dell has introduced a new business webcam which aims to be the perfect work from home companion.

Unlike cheap external webcams or the built-in webcams in many business laptops, the new Dell UltraSharp Webcam can capture your meetings in 4K and produces outstanding video quality in any lighting condition. This is because Dell's engineers took inspiration from DSLR cameras when designing the company's new webcam.

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam features a large 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and a multi-element lens so that it can capture more light and deliver crystal-clear video. At the same time, the device's 3D/2D video noise reduction feature automatically eliminates grainy images while HDR is also included to make images pop even in low light.

• We've put together a list of the best business webcams available
• These are the best headsets for conference calls on the market
• Also check out our roundup of the best video conferencing software

Dell's new webcam also stands out from the crowd as the company has opted for a sleek cylindrical design as opposed to the rectangular designs found in other webcams. The Dell UltraSharp Webcam can be mounted to a monitor thanks to the inclusion of a magnetic mount though a tripod adapter is included as well in case you want to be able to freely reposition the device.

Built-in security and privacy

As the Dell UltraSharp Webcam is also an intelligent device, its auto-framing feature uses AI to ensure your always in focus and centered in every frame. You can also customize your field of view from 65, 78 and 90 degrees and a 5x digital zoom means you'll be seen even when far away from your computer.

Logging into your business computer or workstation using facial recognition is also a breeze as the Dell UltraSharp Webcam features Windows Hello. Dell has even embedded its ExpressSign-in feature to work with Dell PCs so that the webcam's proximity sensors can detect your presence as you approach and automatically log you out when you step away from your computer.

Instead of having to mess with a third-party webcam cover, the company has included a magnetic privacy cover that securely snaps onto the webcam's lens to protect your privacy but can also be attached to the rear of the device for storage when in use.

Dell's UltraSharp Webcam is now available worldwide for $199.99 (£188.11 / AU$379) and we'll likely hear more about its real-world performance once users begin testing it in the wild.

• We've also rounded up the best office desks and best office chairs

There isn’t one right way to set up a TV. Everyone's home, tech room layout, and preferences are all very different. Not to mention all of the smaller factors, like wall positioning, lighting, and how your TV will fit with your furniture. 

What’s more, there’s often a shiny new 4K TV or high-tech feature announcement that shakes up the home cinema market. This means there's always something different to consider when it comes to setting up the perfect picture and the settings and features you’ll need to know about to achieve it.

The good news is, as more and more TV display advances arrive, such as 4K Ultra HD resolution, HDR, and Wide Color Gamut, more of them also trickle down to the mass market. But, even though TV tech has never been better, it's still possible to buy the best and see the worst – or at least feel disappointed. That's why we're here to guide you through the process of setting up the best picture possible, whichever TV you have at home.

• Best Samsung TV: our top QLED picks for 2021
• Best TV 2021: smart TVs really worth buying

1. Use the right sources and connections

It might seem obvious, but to get the best from your TV you need to put the best into it.

This means you need to use high-resolution sources. For watching films and TV shows on disc, regular DVD players represent the bare minimum of what's acceptable, but if you're quality conscious, you should buy a decent Ultra HD Blu-ray player. At the very least you want to feed HD content from a Blu-ray player and HD set top box.

The amount of broadcast 4K content is currently minimal, but the world of gaming is storming ahead with 4K thanks to next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X. There are now also plenty of 4K streaming devices like the Apple TV 4K and Amazon Fire TV Cube.

However, if you really want to invest in 4K content then you should consider one of the best TV streaming services, like Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video or Disney Plus, which have a huge amount of 4K HDR content available. 

Of course, once you have your kit, it's imperative that you use the right connections. We've probably all witnessed someone watching a Sky+ HD box through the SCART connection at some point over the years (hint, you're not going to get HD that way).

By and large, the only connection you should be using is HDMI, unless there's an overriding reason to opt for a legacy interface. Owners of older Panasonic TVs may still have a DisplayPort connection, which is used for connecting PCs and can deliver equally high-quality signals.

2. Make sure your sources are set up right

Source components and Blu-ray players usually have a variety of display options, but will typically manage themselves depending on the display they're partnered with - thanks to the EDID (Extended display identification data) info they encounter. You can manually intervene though if your combination results in some odd behaviour.

The best way of checking this is to hop into your set-top box, Blu-ray player or games console's display settings to establish exactly what they're outputting. Ideally, you're looking for them to output at 2160p (ie 4K), but many Full HD boxes won't be capable of this. 

If you're streaming 4K content online, it will also usually simply downgrade the quality to whatever your television set can output.

If you're a little confused as to what your television can support, then we'd suggest picking the highest option available and simply seeing what happens. Most sources will briefly show an image designed to test if your TV can support the settings you've chosen, and if this image doesn't appear then you can safely assume your set can't support it. 

Just work down through the settings options until you find the highest option that your TV is able to display. 

The situation is made even more complicated by the fact that some cheaper 4K TVs will only support 4K on a fraction of their total HDMI ports (usually the first two). If your new 4K Blu-ray player isn't able to output Ultra HD to your screen, try plugging it into a different HDMI port to see if this resolves the issue. 

3. Ambient light affects image perception

One important characteristic of LCD screens is that they each behave differently according to the ambient light levels in your room. Because LCD is a backlit display technology it becomes increasingly torch-like in a darkened room.

What looked like a black leather jacket in a room with average ambient light, becomes grey (be it dark grey or light grey) in a darkened room. Panel makers will try every trick in the book, from filters to backlight chicanery, to disguise this fact.

The likes of OLED or plasma screens are self-illuminating displays and do not suffer this torch-like trait. They even improve in rooms with low light, making them a great choice for movie fans.

But don't feel too bad about LED LCD TVs.

The next time you go to a movie theatre, look at the black level performance. The average projected image is actually pretty grey too – and you'll probably not leave the theatre feeling shortchanged.

That said, if you'd like to improve your home viewing experience then consider placing a light source such as a lamp behind your TV. 

Alternatively, Philips TVs in the UK use a technology called Ambilight to project light onto the wall behind them to mitigate this effect. 

4. Presets are there for a reason

Conspiracy theorists will tell you that most image presets on your TV actually ruin the image, and that the only way to get a great picture is to for you to do it yourself or pay a third party contractor to come and set your telly up for you.

This is, of course, nonsense.

The engineers responsible for the screen you have just bought want you to have a great viewing experience without having to get your hands dirty.

The key point is that the various presets and modes are there for a reason.

For most content and viewing conditions the Standard or Normal setting provides the best starting point: black levels will probably be spot on for your particular panel, colours suitably optimised and contrast nice and snappy.

Dynamic is essentially a shop mode and should be avoided, while Cinema modes are designed to be viewed in low light only.

Of course, it's absolutely possible to tweak the presets to your heart's delight, and we'll be doing so in the coming steps. 

5. Game advice

Heavy image processing is anathema for gamers, as even the slightest lag could result in humiliating defeat at the hands of online rivals when playing reaction-based shooter.

To combat this, manufacturers now offer a dedicated low lag preset which maximises performance.

These turn off most processing. If your set doesn't have a Game preset, it will probably be worth manually deactivating as much picture processing as you can for your gaming input.

Those milliseconds of competitive advantage will doubtless stand you in good stead when you next fire up Destiny.

If your TV supports it, try only turning on Game Mode for the HDMI port that your console is plugged into so that your other content can benefit from the enhanced picture processing your set offers. 

6. Contrast is good

Back in the days of CRT tube televisions, managing contrast was a major headache. Overcrank it and peak whites would bloom.

Modern LED LCD screens have no such problems, and contrast can be comfortably left high. Many presets will default at 100%, and the resulting image will look dynamic and snappy. Makes vary, but it could prove advantageous to just edge this down a tad.

However, the last thing you'll want to do with your new screen is rob it of its visual snap, so don't feel a need to go lower than 90 percent on that sliding scale.

While plasma screens have all but disappeared from general sale, a good number remain in use, and for them a high contrast setting is not advisable as it could contribute to image retention and (if you're really unlucky) screenburn. The latter is where channel logos and other static image elements can eventually leave a permanent shadow burned into the screen. This was a problem for early plasma screens but much less so on later panels.

Unlike LED LCDs, OLED screens boast near infinite contrast, and do not suffer from image retention like plasma. This is why they are often demonstrated in store with footage of fireworks. However, they are actually not as bright as LED LCDs.

7. Mastering the Dark Side

The quest for ever deeper blacks has resulted in a number of image processing techniques which can diminish image quality rather than enhance it. Black level boosting and stretching options can make dark parts of the picture look blacker, but crush much of the subtle shadow detailing that makes dark areas look convincing.

Treat them with caution.

Dynamic Contrast alters the level of bright highlights by continually adjusting in response to changes in the image content. This can result in an unnatural pumping in the image. If you find yourself noticing it work, try switching it off or minimising it.

Depending on the panel technology, this may result in unacceptably grey blacks though.

Few things impact the overall viewing experience on an LED LCD TV more than local dimming. Both edge-lit LED TVs (common) and direct lit LED TVs (not so much) use local dimming to adjust the brightness of different parts of the screen independently to suit the demands of the image.

The technique can be a little crude, resulting in a splashy pools of light and backlight clouding, wherein bright highlights in a dark scene can illuminate swathes of the screen and cause distracting side effects.

Set Local Dimming to Minimum to minimise such annoyances.

8. A new wonderful world of colour

The latest generation of TVs are capable of a wider colour spectrum than ever before, thanks to technologies such as Quantum Dot and Wide Color Gamut panels. On LCD panels, they help reds look less orangey and make greens more verdant.

Some screens offers access to additional deep color management control. These usually take the form of adjustments to the main RGB color elements. Some TVs also support adjustment of the secondary cyan, magenta and yellow color components. However these should only be adjusted in conjunction with color metering hardware. Generally, leave alone.

Most TVs employ sensors able to detect the ambient light in your viewing room, allowing the TV to automatically adjust facets of the picture to compensate for changing conditions. While clever, this can prove irritating as the image begins to oscillate.

Generally speaking our advice is that you turn all light sensors off. You will get a more consistent viewing experience.

9. Sort out Sharpness and Overscanning

If you think that by increasing sharpness you'll get more detail in your TV images then you're probably going to be disappointed. Out of the box the sharpness on all presets will invariably be set too high. Look at black text on a light background: does it have a white glow or ring around it? 

This extra emphasis improves legibility when viewed at a distance but does not improve detail; it actually obscures it. And on a 4K TV, meant to be viewed larger/closer to appreciate the enhanced detail, this is a particular no-no. Sharpness should be no higher than 10/15 on the adjustable gauge.

One consistent bugbear with most TV brands is that they typically offer out-of-the-box defaults with overscanning On. This means that the edges of the picture are effectively lost behind the bezel. This is an easy win.

Overscanning is a throwback cure for earlier broadcasting artefacts caused by non-picture data parked at the extremities of the frame. This rarely happens in the HD age, as real picture information is used across the entire 1920x1080 HD frame. Non-Overscan modes can have a variety of menu names depending on the brand. Look for aspect ratio adjustments and watch for the one which causes the image to 'step back' and reveal a tad more.

10. Get up to speed on motion handling

One of the most challenging aspects of picture performance for LED LCD TVs is motion handling. All manner of frame interpolation is offered, to smooth images and remove film judder, but they come with serious caveats. Aggressive motion control will result in motion artefacts, commonly seen as a smudgy halo around moving objects, the feet on a running football player will flicker unnaturally, galloping horses may appear to have additional legs, and Wimbledon will be played with multiple balls rather than one.

High motion interpolation also leads to a video like sheen. This can make event the most expensive blockbuster look like a cheap telly drama (hence the oft quoted term 'soap opera effect'). 

Generally speaking these modes, called Intelligent Frame Creation or IFC (Panasonic), Trumotion (LG), Motionflow (Sony) and Motion Plus (Samsung), plus a host of others, should be kept well away from their highest settings. Mid is usually a decent compromise for sports and studio based content, while Low or Off is best for movies and movie-like TV dramas (Game of Thrones, Arrow and so forth).

Many manufacturers allow you to customize motion handling settings with adjustable sliders for blur and judder. This is often the best route to go. 

LG's UF850V 4K TV, for example, has one such mode customisable User mode, with variable de-judder and de-blur. Set the former around 5-7, and the latter at 0, and motion artefacts are reduced to almost zero. The result is a decent compromise for both sport and movies but, like Game Mode, it's best to tweak in on an input-by-input basis depending on your connected devices. 

11. Location, location, location

Finally, canny positioning and seating can profoundly improve the viewing experience. Depending on the panel type, LED LCD sets will suffer dramatic loss of contrast and colour when viewed off angle – and that applies vertically as well as horizontally.

For the best image quality, ensure all seating positions are as straight on to the TV as possible. When wall mounting, never position an un-angled screen too high. This is an all too common mistake which will impact image quality more dramatically than any menu manipulation. Your screen should be at eye level when you're in your usual seating potion.

Managing room reflections is similarly important if you're thinking of buying a curved TV, as the bend tends to exaggerate the scale of any reflections that hit them. They also distort screen geometry; look at a programme EPG on a curved screen and it'll look distinctly odd.

Samsung is one of the few brands to make curved TVs these days – such as the NU7300 – but it's worth saying that, when it comes to image fidelity, generally flat is best.

• Here's our pick of the best 4K TVs of 2021
• Here are the best 4K Blu-ray players 2021 to use with them

Logitech has an excellent reputation for business webcams, and the product that generated much of this esteem, the C920, is still one of its biggest sellers today, even if it was released back in 2012.

There have been several revamps along the way, including the C922 and C920S, and the BRIO branding is now championing the latest Logitech webcam products.

With the unexpected upswing of webcam sales created by the global pandemic, Logitech has now introduced a new Business orientated BRIO camera for those that want to look their best away or at the office.

Is the C1000e the natural successor to the crown of best personal USB webcam, or is it just another incarnation of the BRIO range created to exploit changing business practices?

Price and availability

The Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Pro Business Webcam (960-001107) reviewed here is a Chinese model that is the equivalent of the B2B BRIO in Europe and the USA. A typical imported price is €239 in Europe, but we found it for just £171.11 here. In the USA, a very similar design, the 960-001105, costs $179 from most online resellers.

• The best video conferencing software of 2021

What is a C1000e?

Before we get into the design, let's talk about product confusion and naming conventions.

Logitech currently makes a series of business webcams that they market on its website, and these include the C505e, C920e Business Webcam, C925e Business Webcam, C930e Business Webcam and, what we’re reviewing here, the Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Pro Business Webcam.

The reviewed product was made for the Chinese market, comes in a simple cardboard box, and is called the C1000e.

For the sake of our dubious sanity, we’ll be calling this the C1000e from this point onwards, since ‘Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Pro Business Webcam’ seems overly long to repeatedly type and possibly confuses this product with Logitech retail packages from other regions.

Design

From the outset, Logitech defined an essential structure for its webcams, and the C1000e doesn’t diverge from that concept.

The C1000e is a lozenge-shaped metal tube with a plastic facia where the lens is covered with a protective glass surface. It’s simple, elegant and feels precisely made to the touch.

But conversely, it comes with an adjustable clip that that’s plastic and not as impressive as the camera that mounts on to it.

The clip can operate as a supporting foot to place the camera on any flat surface or made to hold the C1000e onto the top edge of a monitor, assuming that the monitor isn’t very thin.

For those who don’t fancy either of those choices, a third exists in a threaded hole on the camera's underside that’s the same as those used by most camera tripods. It might be a 1/4-20 UNC thread, but don’t hold me to that.

What we didn’t like about this connection is that the clip doesn’t have a screw thread, instead, it uses a plastic knuckle that is press-fit into the thread on the camera.

To make this odd approach work, the threaded insert has notches cut in it to give the ability to expand a little.

Why the designers chose this concept we’ve no idea, but it seems a poor alternative to giving the foot a simple threaded bolt, and it gave us a few head-scratching moments when we tried to unscrew the clip, and it wouldn’t rotate at all. Logitech needs to explain this bizarre use of a thread in its instructions to avoid people breaking one of both parts trying to get them apart.

In addition to the clip, a modesty guard is also provided that’s flexible plastic and just pushes on the camera. Once there, it is hinged so it can be moved in and out of the way quickly.

In an attempt to keep small parts, like the modesty guard and USB cable, along with the camera, a small soft pouch comes in the box, an item that so many similar products often leave out.

In addition to the well-made camera, Logitech also gives the purchaser a high-quality USB cable that is 2.2m in length. It’s type-A at the computer end and type-C at the C1000e.

We salute the use of a standard connection, as it can easily be replaced if it was mislaid or damaged.

In Use

In recent years hardware makers have become more operating system agnostic in that they don’t provide a suite of software applications to exploit their devices with them.

The C1000e is one of those that most people can use straight out of the box without the need for special drivers and tools, or that’s the theory.

It should work with Windows, Mac OS and Chromebook and with a wide range of applications that these operating systems support, all without special drivers or tools.

That said, on the support pages for the BRIO we discovered several useful software extras that you can download to enhance the experience, at least under Windows.

Our C1000e came with firmware 2.2 when the latest is 2.6, so we installed that. And, we also installed the Logitech BRIO control application.

The control tool is especially handy since many of the communication applications gave little or no control over the camera to adjust brightness, contrast or focusing.

There are some that do, but having this small application installed enables those tweaks to be made with applications that don’t offer those controls.

It’s also worth noting that while the camera can record 4K video, the choice to have that quality, or not, is very often not one the user is given by some application. Zoom as an example, chooses a maximum of 720p, though it can be bumped to 1080p by Zoom support intervention.

Therefore, if you use Zoom, a camera of this high quality can be pointless.

It appears that to make their products as simple as possible for users, many conferencing software creators have left out the ability to specify resolution, refresh, HDR, and many of the special capabilities of the C1000e and other high-end solutions.

And, we did encounter some apps that couldn’t properly manage those features.

The one software tool we had the most issues with was Microsoft Teams, unsurprisingly. We can’t in good conscience blame Logitech here. Anyone with a working knowledge of Windows is likely to have encountered a change that breaks existing functionality, occasionally never to be fixed.

It appears most of the Logitech webcams once worked flawlessly with Teams before software changes created issues, and these problems aren’t exclusive to this one webcam maker.

What’s truly frustrating about this is that Microsoft’s own Camera application built into Windows 10 works well, ironically.

Our advice is that if you use Teams, avoid Logitech cameras, or ideally, use something else.

And, before buying a webcam, it is worth searching to determine if the chosen hardware and conferencing platforms play together nicely as not all do.

But we should also mention that the camera is Certified for Skype for Business, and it is one of the few that works with Microsoft Hello, as it can recognise real people over pictures of them.

When comparing this option with the other webcam’s from the Logitech stable, the C1000e is differentiated as having 4K Ultra HD 3840p/30fps capture, 65°, 78°, and 90° fields of view, RightLight™ 3 with HDR correction and a 5x digital Zoom. No other business marketed camera has those features, though the new BRIO Stream camera appears to have them all and an almost identical outward appearance to the C1000e.

Final verdict

We’re torn about this design over some aspects, but most notably that the quality of construction isn’t consistent between the camera and its accessories.

Where the camera is gloriously engineered and very finely built, the support clip and privacy shield aren’t. These look like prime candidates to break or be lost long before the camera has outlived its usefulness.

But the other issue here is 4K video conferencing and if a business should be encouraging its employees to use bandwidth and finite resources on it.

That’s for each company or person to decide themselves, but it could put additional strain on an oversubscribed internet connection, and it requires more performance from the host system to operate smoothly.

Given a choice, we’d rather have a streamed meeting in 1080p that was uninterrupted than one in 4K that stuttered repeatedly.

That’s not a critique of this product, as it will stream 4K wonderfully given a good host PC and sufficient bandwidth. However, anyone buying these for business use needs to be aware that the enhanced quality the C1000e offers potentially comes with a downside.

That said, the image quality of the camera is very impressive, and there is a fantastic range of resolutions available from it in both still image and video capture.

What’s lacking here is more granular support from the conferencing tools to make the most of what the C1000e can offer. But then that’s true of any 4K webcam at this point.

With the possible exception of the new BRIO Stream, this is undoubtedly the best webcam that Logitech makes, but it is also a step beyond what most users need.

Check out the latest Logitech coupon codes.

It’s finally happening. Microsoft is improving HDR support for Windows 10 in an update later this year. Likely, this will be part of the Windows 10 Sun Valley UI refresh expected to roll out in the latter half of 2021. The feature is even available to preview right now, if you’re enrolled in the Windows 10 Insider program, which lets users test upcoming builds before release.

HDR is largely considered an upgrade to sRGB, which restricts displays to outputting a comparatively limited color space. By comparison, HDR (or high dynamic range), unlocks that space to display a much wider, vibrant and more accurate range of colors. This makes HDR ideal for creative types, be that image and photo editors on Lightroom or digital artists using programs like Clip Studio Paint.

HDR, of course, has been a mainstream display feature for years now, and HDR monitors are available to buy without breaking the bank. But this just begs the question: with HDR easier to come by than ever, why has it taken Windows so long to fully embrace it?

Kept you waiting, huh?

HDR support on Windows 10 has never been stellar. The feature is simply underdeveloped for the OS, with many users reporting issues like washed out colors, poor compatibility with GPU color options or just flat out refusing to be enabled in certain games and programs. Overall, the consensus is that HDR is wildly inconsistent on Windows 10, as pointed out by many a forum thread.

When you think about it, though, it’s not much of a surprise that Microsoft has waited until now to announce its HDR improvements. Given the sorry state of the feature that’s in current Windows 10 builds, it would likely take a decent amount of development time to properly fix and implement.

It’s possible that HDR just wasn’t all that much of a priority for Windows 10, too. Unlike a platform like Xbox, Windows 10 doesn’t need to impress by making games and programs looking as good and sharp as possible. As an operating system, Windows 10 has to nail function above all else. 

HDR is more accessible than ever, but like 4K is still something of a luxury feature and likely wouldn’t be priority one for the dev team. But I would argue that maybe it should have been, because that could have given Windows an edge over its competitors.

For example, Macs have always been pitched as the creative’s alternative to Windows. It’s a selling point that makes products like the MacBook Pro fly off the shelves as they feature a robust suite of best-in-class creativity programs.

What could Microsoft do to compete with that, if they wanted to attract even more creative types to Windows 10? Full HDR integration would be a great start. Perhaps Microsoft can’t meet Apple’s high standards when it comes to the bespoke programs that company offers, but it can beat them on quality of life features like HDR. Actually, this sounds familiar…

Microsoft already knows HDR

Microsoft’s Xbox division has arguably spearheaded the implementation of HDR on consoles, with the Xbox Series X impressing with not only full HDR support, but also Auto HDR. This feature retroactively adds HDR to games that don’t support it by default, such as backwards compatible titles from the Xbox 360 era.

This focus on pushing the boundaries of great features like HDR grants Xbox a unique selling point over its closest competitor: Sony and the PS5. Xbox cannot hope to match the PS5 in terms of the quality of its exclusives. But what it can do is push the boat out on features that benefit its software in other impactful ways.

That’s exactly the position Windows finds itself in here, and why Microsoft should have magnified its focus for HDR on the OS sooner. By properly integrating HDR into Windows 10, you have an immediately noticeable upgrade to creativity-focused programs like Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint. 

Photo editors and artists suddenly have the baked-in ability to work with a wider spectrum of colors where they otherwise might not have before, without needing to worry about inaccurate colors, as is the state HDR currently finds itself in on Windows 10. This would position Windows as a more serious option for professional creators.

Windows 10's bright HDR future

Now, I’m definitely not saying that HDR will be the answer to all of Windows 10’s woes. The operating system still falls short in many areas, especially when it comes to performance on some hardware and the suite of bugs that seem to plague every update.

The upcoming HDR update for Windows 10 is clearly a step in the right direction. Hopefully it will address the aforementioned complaints of washed out colors, poor integration with certain programs and so on. But also, I hope it acts as a springboard for many HDR updates Microsoft could add to its OS in the future.

Much like we see on Xbox Series X, an Auto HDR feature for Windows 10 would be a wonderful addition. If the devs can find a way to smartly inject HDR into any given game or program on the fly, you’d have an operating system that essentially does all the work for the user. This would ideally create close to optimal settings no matter which program or game is open at the time.

This would be a boon for those who have already invested in powerful monitor setups. As we’ve already seen, HDR on Windows 10 isn’t going to be a one-size-fits-all solution (even on Xbox, Auto HDR can lead to inaccurate colors for certain titles).

But it’s still a feature I’m glad Microsoft is finally embracing on Windows 10, and one that the company will hopefully strive to improve in the coming months and years as HDR itself continues to evolve. Better late than never, right?

• I was excited for 4K, but then I discovered HDR

LCD TVs are brighter than OLED TVs. At least, the best and brightest LED-backlit LCD sets are brighter than the best and brightest OLED alternatives, and that’s an irrefutable fact. 

It’s also part of the reason why OLED TVs have limitations when it comes to displaying HDR or High Dynamic Range content, which requires high brightness levels to really do its expanded color gamut and contrast ratio justice – something needed for the rich hues and dynamic picture quality that HDR can offer.

Of course, the full story of why OLED technology sometimes struggles with HDR content is more complicated than that. But let's kick off by looking at measurable brightness, which is a major part of the problem.

For context, most HDR content is graded to 1,000 nits brightness, and therefore requires a screen capable of 1,000 nits to render the content correctly. Some content is admittedly graded to 4,000 nits, though it’s in the minority for now and in any case implies brightness levels that no consumer-level display tech can achieve. 

Indeed, even professional displays used to grade content that are capable of 4,000 nits are almost non-existent.

The need for 1,000 nits

If 1,000 nits is the prevailing standard and basic requirement for screen brightness in an HDR context, let’s take the new LG G1 TV as the standard bearer for OLED tech. Thanks to its evolutionary OLED evo technology, it’s able to muster 20% more brightness – according to LG’s own stats – than previous generation OLED panels. Independent testing puts the G1 at around 870 nits for sustained brightness in the Vivid picture setting, compared to 754 nits in its LG GX predecessor.

TechRadar's own LG G1 review states that, "Our own measurements yield a peak brightness reading on a 10% (of the screen) white HDR window of just over 870 nits. It’s a small but notable improvement over the 754 nits of last year’s GX range – and the peak brightness reduces by 100 nits or so when you shift from the (inadvisable) Vivid picture preset to Standard. 

"The extent of the G1 brightness improvement versus the GX, though, tends to be between 10% and 20% across all picture presets, and that’s always enough to make its presence felt in two key ways."

That’s not bad when you consider the CRT TVs of yore typically topped out at just 100 nits of brightness. 750-870 nits is not only pretty punchy, but it’s also not a million miles away from that 1,000 nit standard.

However, these figures are still somewhat underwhelming compared to the brightest LCD TVs, like the Samsung QN90A, which can output around 1,500 nits and offer nearly double the brightness of the LG G1. The Vizio P Series Quantum X is even better, pushing up brightness to a whopping 1,900 nits.

It’s worth noting that 870 nits peak brightness is actually a best case scenario for OLED. Such brightness figures are achieved only across a small portion of the screen, typically just a 10 percent portion of the panel. Across the entire screen, it’s a very different picture.

Admittedly, most LCD TVs also can’t achieve the same peak brightness across the whole screen as they can in a smaller window. But the drop off isn’t as bad. The Samsung QN90A is good for about 700 nits of sustained brightness across the entire screen, for example. The LG G1 in the same whole-screen scenario? Nearer 175 nits. Yes, really, just 175 nits.

Full-screen brightness

Even that 175 nit figure entails the whole screen displaying pure white at max brightness, so it’s not terribly relevant to real-world viewing. But the brighter the overall scene being displayed, the more OLED screen brightness drops off. That’s because OLED TVs run automatic bright limiters, known as ABLs for short. It’s a mitigation technology designed to protect the organic material in an OLED panel, which is sensitive to overheating and also prone to burn-in at high brightness levels.

Outright brightness levels can be an issue for OLED sets, especially when the brighter parts of a given scene take up a significant portion of the image. But there’s also a more subtle limitation at play.

The ability to achieve high peak brightness isn’t just about brightness for brightness sake or for maximum contrast with the darkest parts of the image. Higher brightness also enables the retention of subtle details in brighter scenes.

It all comes down to the way that HDR content is processed for output to take into account the abilities and limitations of human vision. Known as Perceptual Quantisation, or ‘PQ’ for short, this transfer function includes a model of the granularity of human sight or the ability of the human eye to perceive two different levels of light.

To cut a long and technical story short, an overly-bright display can cause posterization, which involves the degradation of what should be smooth colour transitions or gradients into blocks or bands of abrupt colour changes. On the other hand, if the display is too dim, details in bright areas bloom or bleed into one another, resulting in the loss of finer elements as large areas flatten out and become featureless.

The brightness levels at which this occurs for any given content depends on the level at which it has been graded. Again, most content is currently graded to 1,000 nits, so the best LCD sets have sufficient brightness to track the PQ transfer function correctly. OLEDs? Not so much.

A drop in detail

The upshot is that OLED sets can lack detail in brighter scenes compared to the best LED-backlit LCD TVs. Some OLED TVs include an optional tone mapping function that can claw back much or all of the lost detail. However, that comes at the cost of overall brightness and vibrancy, which is obviously suboptimal.

None of this is to say that OLED sets are entirely incapable of HDR rendering. Nor is it to say that OLED technology is necessarily inferior to LCD – it’s not. OLED has huge advantages when it comes to features like per-pixel lighting, viewing angles, response time and more.

Overall, OLED technology is often clearly superior to even the best LED-backlit LCDs by many or even most metrics of performance. But when it comes to HDR rendering and particularly when high brightness levels are called for, OLED has certain shortcomings that need to be kept in mind when you’re shopping around for a truly HDR-capable television.

• Check out the best OLED TVs

Microsoft has added HDR support for Windows 10 to its latest development build of the operating system. This could in turn enhance creativity-focused apps like Lightroom and Photoshop on Windows 10, unlocking the full HDR gamut for more color depth and accuracy when drawing or editing photos, for example.

Reported by BleepingComputer, the addition of HDR is part of Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21382, but is likely to roll out publicly via the Windows 10 Sun Valley UI update due to release later this year.

Discussing the update, Microsoft’s Amanda Langowski and Brandon LeBlanc stated: “HDR mode changes the behavior of some creative and artistic apps that use International Color Consortium (ICC) display color profiles, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom Classic, and CorelDraw (amongst others). In the past, these apps were limited to targeting the sRGB color gamut.” 

• I was excited for 4K, but then I discovered HDR
• HDR10 vs Dolby Vision: here's what you need to know
• You won't get real HDR on a cheap TV – here's why

Taste the rainbow

It’s worth noting that the difference between sRGB and HDR isn’t insignificant. HDR (or high dynamic range) allows for a greater spectrum of colors to be shown on compatible displays. This allows for ‘true’ dark blacks and a more vibrant output of color.

The addition sounds excellent for photo editors who can use HDR to greatly enhance their images. The same could be said for artists, for whom HDR can allow for vastly more eye-catching pieces thanks to its ability to deliver a superior color gamut to sRGB.

We’re honestly surprised that HDR support wasn’t added to Windows 10 sooner, as the feature is supported by a plentiful number of other outlets – there’s a particularly big push for HDR on Xbox Series X right now. As such, it’s notably common in gaming, for example, where HDR and compatible displays can let players experience visual showcases close, if not identical, to what developers had originally intended. 

How do I activate HDR on Windows 10?

If you want to experience HDR on Windows 10, you’ll first need to enroll yourself into the Windows 10 Insider program, which can be done via the official website. Once you’re in, you’ll want to download Build 21382 from the Dev Channel.

From there, right-click on your desired app and go into Properties. In the Properties window, find the Compatibility tab, and under that menu’s Settings section, click “Use legacy display ICC color management.” Keep in mind that the option will only work for HDR compatible displays, though.

• These are the best HDR monitors

I finally upgraded to a 4K TV setup recently after a friend who couldn’t believe I was still gaming at a 1080p resolution coaxed me into it. “What’s the problem?” I thought, at the risk of sounding woefully out of touch. 1080p still provides solid image quality across all platforms, from Xbox Series X to the humble Nintendo Switch.

Still, I listened to their advice and took the leap, and I was immediately glad I did. The upgrade in image quality was stark, and I was noticing little details in games that I never even knew were there. But the best part? 4K resolution wasn’t even the biggest win I got for upgrading. That accolade instead has to go to HDR.

HDR (high dynamic range) essentially does what it says on the tin. In layman’s terms, HDR expands the range of colors that can be displayed on  screen. The wider variety of colors unlocked by HDR allows for much richer palettes along with inkier blacks. Think of it like a restoration of a faded painting - it’s the same image with a completely fresh coat of paint.

• The best HDR monitors
• HDR explained: better results from multiple exposures
• Best 4K TV: the best Ultra HD TVs actually worth buying

With 4K and 8K resolutions being the big buzzwords that attract consumers to new TVs and monitors, HDR can often go overlooked as a genuinely brilliant feature. Higher image quality is obviously lovely, but what really makes those images pop is the beauty that HDR brings to the table.

Seeing the light

With my newly acquired HDR-ready TV, I knew the first thing I wanted to play was a bright, colorful game. One that already looked stunning on my previous 1080p, non-HDR display. The choice was obvious: Sea of Thieves. 

Rare’s swashbuckling pirate-em-up is one of the most visually impressive games to come out in the past few years, so I was certain a HDR display would bring out the best that Sea of Thieves’ visuals had to offer. It never felt so good to be right.

The vibrant, tropical paradise of Sea of Thieves’ countless islands feel like they were designed with HDR in mind. The setting sun contrasts beautifully against the darkened waves of the ocean, and indoor locations like taverns felt both homely and bustling with life thanks to HDR perfectly complementing the game’s stellar lighting.

From that moment on, I was hooked. HDR had sunk its vivid and glistening claws into my brain, and seeing games I was intimately familiar with look all shiny and new gave me a childlike sense of awe and wonder - two rare and precious commodities for a deeply jaded man in his late 20s.

Next up was Cyberpunk 2077, a game that I genuinely enjoyed despite its myriad shortcomings and no shortage of progress-halting bugs. With HDR enabled, the neon glows of Night City shone with hues I didn’t even know were there before. Light bounced much more believably off the rain-soaked tarmac, and the usually oppressive advertisements beaming overhead became eerily mesmerizing.

Old games, new colors

So HDR works incredibly well on current gen hardware, that’s nothing new, right? Sure, but what you might not know is how Xbox Series X in particular seamlessly integrates an Auto HDR feature into backwards compatible titles. Auto HDR implements machine learning to retroactively throw a fresh HDR visual upgrade over older games that don’t support the feature, or weren’t developed with HDR-capable displays in mind.

Auto HDR, for the most part, works marvellously, injecting so much extra color into older titles from the Xbox and Xbox 360 generations. While the system-level solution doesn’t translate perfectly for all titles (many an Xbox 360 title daubed in the drab greys and browns that was the style of the time can appear a bit washed out), by and large you’ll see noticeable visual improvements to the classics you grew up playing.

To put Auto HDR to the test, I loaded up a selection of backwards compatible games on Xbox Series X. I started with Jet Set Radio, a game already lauded for its colorful cel-shaded graphics (and probably my favorite game of all time, but that’s besides the point). HDR obviously doesn’t improve the graphical fidelity of this two-decades-old Dreamcast title, but what it does do is elevate the color palette even more without bordering on oversaturation.

The same can be said of the similarly color-rich Viva Pinata. Rare really does have a penchant for this kind of thing, doesn’t it? Of course, Viva Pinata and its sequel are both games that still look stunning on base Xbox 360 hardware - all HDR is doing is ensuring as much color can be squeezed into the game as humanly possible. As a result, this duo of papery pet management sims looks better than I ever thought was possible. 

Impossible to go back

Now that I’ve got HDR in my life, I can’t imagine owning a display without it. Hopefully this won’t come across as elitist in any way, but when I look at screens that don’t benefit from HDR, that lack of extra color depth is more apparent than ever.

The best part? The barrier for entry to HDR is now fairly low. You don’t need to splash out on an expensive, top of the line 4K TV to experience HDR, as it can also be found in many 1080p and 1440p TVs and monitors.

Regardless of your budget, though, I can wholeheartedly recommend HDR as a priority over 4K. While 4K has the obvious benefit of providing sharper image quality with a higher pixel count, you’re not necessarily getting that extra punch of color and specular highlights that HDR can inject, and if I had to choose, it’s the feature I’d easily pick over 4K any day.

• 4K HDR TVs: here's what to look for before buying

You'd think that to buy a TV would be a pretty straightforward experience. After all, surely all you need to do is head to your nearest electronics store, pick a TV, pay for it and take it home. Job done. Right? Well, not exactly. With so many TV's on the market in 2022, the days of it only taking a few moments to choose one are well and truly behind us. 

But, that doesn't mean that you need to spend hours weighing up the pros and cons of every TV that you come across. While it's true that choosing the best TV is a little more complicated than it used to be with so many unique combinations of panel technologies, processing speed, algorithms, HDR TV support, resolutions and more, armed with a little bit of background knowledge, you'll be kicking back in comfort in front of your new screen before you know it. 

Whether you're looking to buy the best 4K TV or you're determined to treat yourself and invest in one of the best 8K TVs, there's no one-size-fits-all screen, but thankfully, that's where we come in. When it comes time to buy a TV, you'll find this guide super helpful in running you through the most important questions to ask yourself when buying a new screen. From screen size to sound, you name it, we've thought of it.

So, regardless of whether you're looking to buy a TV to watch those all important summer sports matches or you just want to enjoy the best Netflix shows and best Amazon Prime Video movies on a screen that makes you feel like you're there, by the time you've finished this guide, you’ll be a TV salesperson’s worst nightmare: a customer who actually knows what they’re talking about.

How to buy

1. Pick a screen size

The range of screen sizes available today is immense, taking in everything from 14-inches to more than 100-inches. So how do you figure out the right size for you when it comes time to buy a TV? 

There are a few more common sizes to, uh, size up first. 55-inch is the flagship TV size these days, meaning most new TVs come in a 55-inch model. The best 65-inch TVs are pretty in demand too, with a select few in 75-inch sizes and above, though you'll really need a lot of space for them. Smaller sizes like 32-inch and 40-inch are easier to fit in more cramped spaces, and won't dominate your home as much.

We recommend taking a tape measure to your living room wall (or wherever you plan to put it) to ensure the dimensions of this TV are going to fit where you want it. (The number of inches is the diagonal length of the TV screen, from the bottom corner to the upper corner on the other side.)

The distance you'll be sitting from the TV is important, too. We recommend making sure your screen size is about double the distance between the set and your seat. For a 40-inch TV, you'll want to be sat around 6-7 feet (80 inches) away, for instance. For a 65-inch TV, that goes up to 10-11 feet; for a 55-inch TV, that's 9 feet.

You can certainly cram a bigger screen into a smaller space – these calculations are pretty conservative – though keep in mind it might be pretty dominating.

2. Wall-mounting 

Many people think they’d like to wall-mount their new flat TVs. However, research suggests that when it comes down to it, precious few of us actually do.

If you’re positive this will work for you, though, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, remember that the TV will be right up flat to the wall – and therefore a bit further away from any seats – so you might want to go up a screen size.

Secondly, think about TVs designed to be used with ultra-low-profile mounts, so that they stick out as little as possible from the wall. 

Or, given that many TVs don’t ship with wall mounts included, if you want to be able to choose from a wide selection of mounting options at a range of price points, look for a TV with wall mount screw positions compatible with the ‘VESA’ industry standard.

One other thing to bear in mind if you’re thinking of wall-mounting a TV is a set’s realistic viewing angles – especially vertical viewing angles if you’re thinking of mounting a TV above a fireplace (which is not something we’d typically recommend).

3. Panel technologies

There are two types of TV technology you need to understand: LCD and OLED. And there are a couple of important variations on the LCD side. 

LCD/LED TVs

A key point to consider if you decide to buy an LCD TV is how the LCD panel is lit, since this can have a big impact on the contrast the screen is capable of. 

Some use lights mounted on the edge of the screen firing across it (aka edge-lit panels), while some use lights mounted directly behind the screen. Generally speaking, TVs with lights behind the screen deliver better contrast than edge-lit models. But these models don’t generally feature such slim designs, tend to cost more, and often use more power.

One final option to consider with LCD TVs is local dimming. This sophisticated feature allows a TV to output different amounts of light from different sections of its edge or direct lighting arrays, and can dramatically improve contrast. 

LCD/LED TVs use panels of liquid crystal pixels illuminated by external light sources. The liquid crystals rotate round to let through the amount of light needed to illuminate pictures correctly, with external filters creating color. 

The main advantage of LCD TVs are brightness, affordability and durability. Their main disadvantages are limited viewing angles and difficulties controlling light in the picture due to the use of external light sources.

There are two types of LCD panel: IPS and VA. IPS types are predominantly made by LG Display, and feature in all of LG’s LCD TVs, plus some (usually affordable) models from other brands too. VA panels are more widely used, and are made by a variety of manufacturers. 

IPS panels offer slightly wider viewing angles than VA panels, but struggle with contrast. VA panels up to this point feature narrower viewing angles, but generally produce much better contrast.

If you're after more information, check out our guide to OLED vs LED vs LCD.

Quantum dots (QLED)

Some (usually high-end) LCD TVs use Quantum Dot technology to deliver wider color ranges than you can get with normal LCD panels. Quantum Dots are tiny particles ranging from two to 10 nanometers in size, with each size capable of emitting a different color. Using them allows LCD TV makers to avoid color filters and white LED Backlights – two things that typically limit an LCD TV’s color performance.

Samsung is the biggest advocate of Quantum Dot technology. Its QLED models using a new metal-coated type of Quantum Dot that can produce a much wider color range, more brightness and a wider viewing angle than traditional Quantum Dots. Quantum dot TVs are generally markedly more expensive than normal LCD TVs, though.

There are alternatives to Quantum Dots when it comes to expanding color range. Some TVs – including Sony’s Triluminos models – use wide-range phosphors. LG, meanwhile, will be using Nano Cells in its high-end LCD TVs. These alternatives to Quantum Dot technology use same-sized dots just one nanometer wide in conjunction with normal color filters – a combination which LG claims enables its Super UHD TVs to deliver better contrast and more balanced colors.

Read more: What is QLED?

OLED TVs

The best OLED TVs use a system of organic phosphors in self-emitting pixels to enable each pixel to generate its own light, completely independent of its neighbours. This allows for vastly superior contrast and light precision to what you can get with even the most advanced LCD TV. 

It also means OLED TVs can be watched from much wider viewing angles than LCD TVs without color or contrast reducing. These features have made OLED popular with many serious AV fans.

However, there are issues with OLED TVs. First, while prices have dropped over the past couple of years, they’re still substantially more expensive than typical LCD TVs (though some are now cheaper than high-end LCD TVs). 

Second, OLED TVs currently can’t get as bright as LCD TVs, something that could become an issue with HDR content. 

Finally, there have historically been issues with lifespan and image retention (where bright image elements can ‘burn’ into the screen’s phosphors if left on for too long). However, LG, the main manufacturer of OLED screens, claims to have fixed these lifespan/image retention issues, and we haven’t seen any evidence recently that might counter those claims.

Read more: What is OLED?

4. Resolution and HDR

There are two resolutions to choose from right now: Ultra HD (also known as 4K), and HD. Ultra HD TVs carry 3840 x 2160 pixels, while HD TVs carry 1920 x 1080 pixels. This means Ultra HD TVs have four times as many pixels as HD ones, and so can deliver pictures with much more resolution. 

With native 4K sources starting to become more common now (Netflix, Amazon, Ultra HD Blu-ray and Sky Q in the UK) and the prices of 4K TVs plummeting, we’d generally recommend that you buy a 4K TV even if you don’t currently have any access to 4K content, especially if you’re looking at a TV of 50 inches or more. 

While we’d recommend 4K for a main living room TV now, though, HD TVs can be good bargains for second screens.

But what of HDR? High dynamic range (HDR) TVs are able to produce pictures that contain much more brightness and contrast than normal TVs, so long as they are fed HDR content that contains this extra luminance data. 

All current HDR TVs also support wider color spectrums (often described as wide color gamut, or WCG – essentially meaning that) than most non-HDR TVs - which is handy, as pretty much all HDR content also carries wide color spectrum picture data.

There are currently three types of HDR. HDR10 is the industry standard, and all TVs support this. Dolby Vision adds an extra layer of information that tells a TV how to render pictures on a scene by scene basis. Only some brands – most notably LG, Vizio, TCL and (via an upcoming firmware update to some models) Sony – support this. 

Finally there’s Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), designed for HDR broadcasts. The majority of TV brands have pledged support for this via firmware updates in the course of 2017.

5. Connections and ports

These days the main connections you need to look for are HDMIs, USB ports and multimedia support. 

With HDMIs you’re talking about the number (try and get at least three) but also the specification. With 4K TVs, try and get a TV with v2.0 HDMI 2.0s rather than v1.4 HDMIs – as most will naturally – to guarantee the widest compatibility with current and upcoming source equipment. To future-proof for 8K content or make sure you can get 4K gaming at high frame rates (120Hz) you'll want at least one HDMI 2.1 TV port too.

USBs ports are useful for both playing back multimedia (especially photos and videos) stored on USB drives, and, with some TVs, recording from the TV’s tuners to an attached USB hard drive. Look for at least two, and ideally three USB ports.

Most TVs now have built-in Wi-fi and Ethernet ports so that you can connect them to the internet. Not all TVs, though, also let you use these network connections to access multimedia stored on other devices on your network. So if this is a feature you want, make sure the TV you buy supports it. Note, too, that some TVs additionally support Bluetooth communication with external devices.

6. Speakers and sound

The sound quality of flat TVs can vary immensely. So if you’re not intending to use some sort of external sound system, this is something you should pay attention to.

Most brands quote a number of watts of power for their TV speaker systems, but this is seldom helpful in deciding how a TV is likely to sound. 

Look instead, for instance, at how many speakers a TV has, and the configuration of those speakers. For instance, a ‘2.1’ configuration would indicate stereo main speakers with the ‘.1’ bit pointing to a dedicated bass speaker. Or a 3.1 configuration would point to a dedicated centre or dialogue channel alongside stereo and bass speakers.

Subwoofer speakers for bass are always welcome given how much TV speakers generally struggle with the lower end of the sound spectrum.

Another audio issue is that the lack of room available to speakers in thin TVs means they usually have to fire their sound downwards, which can lead to an indirect, muffled, weedy sound. TVs that manage to provide forward-firing speakers tend to sound much cleaner and more powerful.

Some TVs of late have even gone so far as to ship with soundbars that either hang off their bottom edge or sit separately below the main screen frame.

One final word of warning here is that you should treat the claims of TVs to offer DTS or Dolby Digital surround decoding with scepticism. No TV can deliver anything close to a proper surround sound experience from its own speakers without using actual rear speakers, and many sound pretty horrible if they try. Experience shows that a good stereo sound – especially with a subwoofer to add bass – routinely trumps a half-baked pseudo-surround sound system or mode.

If you're not satisfied with your TVs built-in speakers, here's a guide to the best soundbars around

7. Smart TV platform

Almost every TV these days can be added to your broadband network to enable the use of online features or, in some cases, access media files stored on other storage devices – mobile phones, tablets, NAS drives etc. This sounds great on paper, but in reality, the quality and usefulness of such ‘smart’ features can vary greatly.

Generally speaking, if you have a number of personal smart devices in your home, TVs that can access content on other devices in your home – including via Bluetooth as well as Wi-fi – are worth looking out for.

Where online features are concerned, don’t be seduced by app quantity. The vast majority of TV apps are borderline pointless, and just clutter up the smart interface. 

App quality is much more important. In fact, for many households, the only online features that really matter are online streaming/catchup services. Especially Amazon Prime, Netflix, and catch-up services for your region’s broadcasters, such as BBC iPlayer in the UK.

Finally, the simplicity of a smart TV interface plays a key role in how much you might use it. Currently, LG’s webOS and Panasonic’s Home Screen 2.0 systems handle their content most effectively. 

For a full breakdown of how the various manufacturer's smart TV interfaces stack up check out our best smart TV platform guide. 

8. Brightness

If your TV is going into a fairly bright room, sets that stand out in brightness terms on a shop floor can give you some idea of how their pictures will hold up when you get them home. 

A lack of brightness is a particularly common problem with relatively small TVs. It’s also recently become a big deal for the big-screen marketplace, though, with the arrival of high dynamic range technology. 

Without sufficient brightness a TV won’t produce well the bright white and color highlights that are so important to a successful HDR picture. They’ll look washed out, flat and short of detail – as if they’ve been bleached of color tone detail.

TVs that aren’t really bright enough for HDR will also create HDR pictures that look unnaturally dark and/or which leave dark parts of the picture looking too dominant and ‘hollow’. A good test of a TV’s HDR brightness is to put a shot on the screen that shows a dark object with lots of detail foregrounded against a bright backdrop. With TVs that are struggling for brightness, the dark object may lose all of its subtle shading and detailing, so that it just looks like a silhouette.

As a side note here, though, bear in mind that TVs which excel for brightness can struggle more than lower brightness TVs when it comes to black level, contrast and backlight stability/uniformity. In other words, don’t just assume that lots of brightness alone will get the job done; look at brightness and contrast issues as a balancing act.

9. Viewing angles

How well a TV can be watched from an angle can be a big deal in a lot of living rooms. To check this on a TV you’re interested in, pause an image on the screen that contains a bright, ideally colorful object against a dark backdrop, and start walking round it from straight opposite to down its sides while looking for the following:

• Significant greyness over parts of the picture that look black when viewed straight-on
• Colors losing vibrancy
• The increased appearance of backlight clouds, stripes or halos.

Once one or more of these issues becomes distractingly obvious, note roughly the angle you’re looking at the screen from and apply that to your living room seating positions.

10. Motion

TVs can suffer with two motion problems: judder and blur. Look for both, ideally with 60Hz (console game) content, 50Hz (broadcast) content and 24Hz (Blu-rays, UHD Blu-rays). 

Do camera pans stutter along? Do fast-moving objects look blurred, short of detail or even leave a smeary trail behind them? Do you see momentary ‘freezes’ during action scenes? Do vertical lines in the picture suffer ‘doubling’ during camera pans?

Most TVs offer some sort of motion processing to counter blur and judder issues, so try and check these out. However, these processing systems can cause their own problems, specifically shimmering halos around moving objects, flickering over areas of really fast motion, and a tendency to smooth out judder so much that pictures – especially 24-frames-a-second movie pictures – are left looking unnaturally fluid.

Bear in mind that most TVs offer different ‘strengths’ of motion processing, so try adjusting the settings to get a more comprehensive idea of a TV’s motion performance.

When to buy

When should you buy a TV?

TV prices vary a lot over the course of the year. While it can be tempting to rush out and buy the latest and greatest sets when they're hot off the production line, like many other consumer electronics it can pay off big time if you're willing to hold off on your purchase for a few months. 

There are a couple of key points to consider when trying to get a TV for the best possible price. You might have to be a little more patient, but if you're willing to play the long game you can end up with an astonishing TV at a fraction of the price it would have been new. 

Last year's sets can be a bargain

Unlike headphones or speakers, which tend to have models that stick around for a few years before their manufacturers replace them, television line-ups tend to be replaced like clockwork once a year. 

However, while sets do tend to get better from year to year, often the changes are incremental. This means you can get a very similar experience by opting for last year's televisions. 

You'll have to be careful if you choose to go down this route, because while a lot of changes in TV tech are incremental, there are a couple of key areas that are anything but. 

Take HDR as an example. Certainly, the technology existed a few years ago, and the difference between older HDR and 2020's is nowhere near as big as the difference between HDR and SDR. 

However, back in 2016 or 2017 fewer sets were equipped with the technology in the first place, meaning you have to pay slightly closer attention to the specs than you'd have to with a modern set. 

The simplest way to do this is by looking out for the Ultra HD Premium specification, which will ensure that any television you buy is compatible with the next generation of TV technologies. 

So long as it meets the UHD Premium requirements, a set that's a few years old can prove to be an absolute bargain.

Timing is crucial

Aside from which year's televisions you buy, there are also a key couple of periods throughout the year when retailers are very keen to discount their wares. 

With televisions these periods often come around the start of major sporting tournaments, where retailers will discount televisions that they advertise are the best way to watch the action. 

However, when it comes to televisions, the biggest day of the year is undoubtedly Black Friday, when retailers often discount this year's models to lure in customers and, in the US at least, to clear out stock post-Thanksgiving. 

Amazon Prime Day is also another source of some tasty bargains, so be sure to keep an eye out to see if any of your preferred sets receive a discount.  

The amount of deals scrambling for your attention on these days can be overwhelming, but keep your eyes trained on TechRadar where we'll be hunting around for the best deals on the day. 

Always check historical pricing

Retailers will often happily boast about what a saving they're offering compared to a television's initial price, but often these sets were heavily discounted before they were technically in a sale. 

This isn't necessarily a problem if the price is still good, but what's especially important is finding out whether the set has actually been discounted by more in the past. In these cases you might be best off waiting to see if it hits that same price again. 

In all cases, it's never a bad idea to check what price the television has been sold for in the past. The site CamelCamelCamel is excellent for this purpose. Just put in the URL of a product you're thinking of buying, and the site will tell you how cheap it's been in the past. 

If you're prepared to wait, then you can even use CamelCamelCamel to set up price alerts to have it automatically notify you when a television drops to a certain price. 

Don't just buy a television because the retailer says it's discounted. Always do your research first to work out how good a discount is really being offered. 

New TV tech arrives all the time. That’s why it can be hard to keep up with many of the new content formats you’ll find in modern-day TVs. Especially because more of the new features and formats have confusing initialisms, like HDR and HLG.

Anyone buying a new TV, or generally interested in TV tech, will have already got their heads around new HDR formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+. But what about Hybrid Log Gamma (often shortened to HLG)? What is HLG? Does your TV have it? And why should you care if it does?

The best place to begin to truly understand HLG is with HDR (High Dynamic Range). This is a video format that enhances the brightness, sharpness, and color gamut of an image beyond SDR (Standard Dynamic Range).

• What is HDR TV? Read more in our comprehensive guide to the television format

There are already several different types of HDR. There's the original HDR10 standard through to the more exclusive Dolby Vision. This is the still-nascent Advanced HDR by Technicolor and, for broadcasters, that's where Hybrid Log Gamma comes in.

To help you make sense of this brave new world of color and clarity, we’ve put together a general overview of Hybrid Log Gamma’s new HDR format, as well as everything that makes it stand out from competing standards.

So what is Hybrid Log Gamma?

Hybrid Log Gamma is an HDR format developed by the UK's own BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), in conjunction with NHK, Japan's national broadcaster.

The issue traditional broadcasters have is that many of their viewers still hold on to old SDR television sets, which can't display the increasingly prevalent HDR standard. 

SDR is also much cheaper to film in, and the likes of the BBC are naturally reluctant to ditch a cost-effective format that tens of thousands of viewers still rely on.

The HLG format works around this obstacle by coding HDR and SDR information into a single signal, enabling HDR-compatible TVs to display an enhanced image. It's a far more efficient process for broadcasters, who then don't have to provide twice the amount of bandwidth to transmit their programming across the country in both SDR and HDR.

When reaching your home television, the HLG signal will display in HDR if your television is compatible with the HLG HDR format. Otherwise, it displays in regular ol’ SDR – with some neat upscaling to bring it closer to its HDR counterpart.

The HLG broadcast format is slightly different to HLG Photo Mode, which displays still HDR images from Panasonic Lumix cameras, and is exclusively available on OLED TVs in the Panasonic TV range.

How does Hybrid Log Gamma work?

Hybrid Log Gamma uses what’s called an ‘opto-optical transfer function’ (sorry), which is the process used to convert a broadcast signal into the light that shows on your television screen. SDR and HDR information are both converted into two types of light coding, which can then be unpacked separately depending on the compatibility of the television.

The ‘hybrid’ in Hybrid Log Gamma refers to this dual-coding of SDR and HDR. ‘Gamma’ refers to the low-light image data encoded in the signal, while ‘log’ is short for the ‘logarithmic curve’ that transmits in HDR’s wider brightness range.

And why does anyone need Hybrid Log Gamma?

While having a single dominant format would no doubt be simpler – for users who just want to get on with, you know, watching the telly – the competition is no doubt driving up the standard picture quality we expect from our television screens.

HLG is only one of numerous HDR formats out there, which are all doing different things and are suited to different purposes.

HDR10 is the most common out of these, and is usually what people refer to when they say 'HDR' (any HDR TV will come with it built in). Like HLG, it's an open-source format, meaning that anyone can use it, and it delivers on a wider color palette than SDR, with 10-bit color depth and a peak brightness of 4,000 nits .

Dolby Vision is a well-regarded alternative, that can reach up to 10,000 nits brightness and a 12-bit color depth, and generally offers a better picture. It does, however, require royalties from content providers to use, and is therefore much less ubiquitous – and is already facing off competition from an upgraded HDR10+ standard with equivalent bells and whistles. 

Both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ use a type of ‘dynamic metadata’ in real-time, optimizing brightness and contrast to suit the images being shown onscreen in each shot. HLG is specifically made for the ease of broadcasters, meaning it forgoes metadata that could get lost or out of sync during a live broadcast.

So what can I watch HLG content on?

As with any new format, HLG will only be as strong as the players who support it. It’s very much its own HDR format, and therefore an HDR TV will need to have the ability to recognise and play the format.

Any recent HDR television from LG, Sony or Samsung – made in 2016 or after – have included HLG compatibility in firmware updates. Panasonic has also supported the format in a number of its premium HDR sets.

There’s scattered support elsewhere, including in the odd projector from Sony and JVC, but it’s not as prevalent as HDR10 and you’ll need to make sure it’s supported in your specific make of television or otherwise.

What's next for Hybrid Log Gamma?

The BBC started trialing the technology in 2017 and – after some strong audience responses – has been rolling it out to flagship programmes like Blue Planet II, as well as major sporting events like this year’s FIFA World Cup.

One of the BBC’s blog post on HLG reads: “The audience feedback from last year’s trial was fantastic, and exceeded our expectations. Even with only those four minutes of content, we were delighted to learn that there is a real audience appetite for better quality pictures, and more of them.”

HLG is supported on BBC iPlayer – obviously – as well as YouTube, Freeview Play, and DirecTV. Hybrid Log Gamma will no doubt start appearing on more televisions, content platforms and the like, though in a heavily competitive market you never know what's going to last, and what will fall by the wayside.

According to the BBC, it's still working to develop "a complete HDR ecosystem", which involves a lot of research and development. But it seems that the innovation of HLG generally has been a bit quiet in recent years.

• Best TV 2021: 10 big-screen TVs worth buying this year

Windows 10’s latest preview includes a nifty feature for gamers drafted over from the Xbox Series X – namely Auto HDR support – plus a few other goodies for good measure.

These features have arrived in build 21337, which has been made available to testers in the Dev Channel (and presumably this functionality will be incorporated in the 21H2 update arriving later this year).

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As mentioned, the big change is Auto HDR debuting on the PC – albeit still labeled as a preview – following the feature being brought in with the Xbox Series X console (and Xbox Series S for that matter).

What this does is take a normal game in SDR (standard dynamic range) and artificially upgrade it to HDR (high dynamic range), the obvious caveat being that you’ll need an HDR-capable display.

As you’re likely aware, HDR gives an image more vivid colors and a lot more punch in general, so effectively this is a free and substantial visual upgrade for your existing games.

Microsoft explains: “Auto HDR for PC will take DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 SDR-only games and intelligently expand the color/brightness range up to HDR. It’s a seamless platform feature that will give you an amazing new gaming experience that takes full advantage of your HDR monitor’s capabilities.”

Turning it on is as simple as flipping a switch. If you’re a Windows 10 tester using build 21337, just search for ‘Windows HD Color Settings’ and you’ll find the relevant option on this panel.

The below screenshot shows Gears 5 with Auto HDR running compared to native HDR, to illustrate that while the latter is still the best solution as you would expect, the auto feature offers an impressive approximation.

GPU demands

Microsoft is busy adding support for games to take advantage of the Auto HDR feature, and over 1,000 titles already do. The software giant notes that while the feature takes “some GPU compute power to implement, we don’t expect it to significantly impact your gaming experience”.

Although at the early testing stage right now, there’s obviously a chance that greater than anticipated slowdown could be witnessed in some games – or indeed outright bugs.

Build 21337 also gives users more options when running virtual desktops, including the ability to apply different backgrounds across your virtual desktops, and to reorder them in Task View.

File Explorer also has a new ‘compact mode’ which tightens up the spacing between different elements of the interface, and some core Windows 10 apps have been tweaked, such as Notepad, which can now be updated via the Microsoft Store, and not just with Microsoft’s big OS feature updates (this should facilitate more regular updates for Notepad).

As ever, there are a bunch of other minor improvements and fixes, as well as known issues, and you can find the full details in Microsoft’s blog post introducing the new build.

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Every few years will see the introduction of a new TV technology, introducing new buzzwords for TV buyers to get their heads around. 

In the past year, we’ve seen the likes of VRR and HLG enter the lexicon around today’s commercial TVs, which have their own guides you can delve into. In this article, though, we’re taking a step back to address HDR, or high dynamic range – a TV technology that’s been widespread for several years now, with almost every television (bar the very cheapest) claiming to support it.

Let’s look at why HDR isn’t quite that simple, and why your current cheap TV might not be delivering the great HDR picture you bought it for.

The basics of backlight control

The main aim of HDR content is to increase the dynamic range of the image on-screen. This happens in two key areas: shadow detail and specular highlight detail. 

That means more image information in the darkest and lightest areas of an image: grimmer stonework in dungeons and more realistic, dazzling sunsets – possibly even in the same frame.

In an ideal scenario a film is shot with HDR in mind, although plenty of HDR movies are tweaked from a non-HDR source. 

To achieve a great HDR image, a TV needs to have the ability to actually increase the space between the brightest and darkest point on the screen. That is HDR’s playground. Without this increase, though, using HDR can simply appear to flatten the picture, making it look worse than it did before. 

This is the reason local dimming is an essential part of any truly great HDR TV – and it’s usually absent in all cheap TVs. 

Affordable LCD televisions are lit by a universal backlight, with a series of LEDs that shine light from the edge of the display into a matrix that spreads it across the screen. Any dimming that occurs in the dark scenes of a movie therefore affects the entire screen.

Picture a scene where half of the picture is bright – say, a cloudy sky with the sun peeking in – with the other half in the dark, where the protagonist is hiding behind a rock, for example. The brightness required by the bright areas means that the dim areas can only get so dark.

LCDs use a layer of polarizers to block unwanted light from the backlight, but some will still seep through, and it’s this that bursts your dynamic range bubble.

It’s the reason you want local dimming, and there are plenty of forms of this – as seen in Samsung’s QLED range.

TVs from the Samsung Q70T and below don’t feature local dimming, which may be surprising given the Q70T isn’t exactly a cheap TV, costing £999 / $799 for a 55-inch size.

You need to opt for the Samsung Q80T and above to get a full array LED backlight. This splits the backlight into zones of LEDs that can be switched off, dramatically improving image contrast in scenes where there are bright and dark spots.

The ‘compare’ tool on Samsung’s website suggests that all TVs, from the mid-spec Q80T up to the high-end Q950TS, are evenly matched in this area, coming with ‘Direct Full Array’ backlight control. But there’s more to it than that.

Larger, more expensive TVs tend to include more of these backlight zones. Samsung’s 55-inch Q80T has 50 local dimming zones, while the 75-inch Q950TS has 488.

The more dimming zones, and the more compact each one is, the better – as large backlight zones mean you get distracting (and contrast-sapping) light ‘halo’ effects around bright objects.

OLED TVs are the masters of local dimming, because each pixel is its own light source. The 55-inch LG CX 4K OLED effectively has 8,294,400 zones, although OLEDs don’t use this ‘zone’ terminology.

Fundamental limitations of cheap TVs

So is every model below the Q80T in Samsung’s range poor for HDR because it lacks local dimming? Not quite.

While there are technical limitations to a TV such as the Samsung Q70T, its actual HDR experience is buoyed by excellent native ANSI contrast of around 7,000:1 and a decent peak brightness of around 600 nits. The set’s contrast without local dimming is better than that of some TVs with local dimming. 

However, buy a truly cheap TV and you won’t get both deep blacks and high peak brightness. 

Let’s take a closer look at one of the best budget TVs as an example: the Samsung TU7100. We’d recommend this set to just about anyone looking for a low-cost TV. It offers great contrast and rich images of the type you don’t often see at this price. However, with a low peak brightness of around 300 nits, it just doesn’t have the power to get close to the punch of a real HDR experience. 

The Samsung TU7100 achieves this high contrast because of its VA panel. Many alternative TVs around the price use IPS LCDs instead, and here you tend to see the opposite problem. 

While such panels can often scrape together what you might call the base level of brightness required for HDR, when the backlight is maxed out for scenes with super-bright sections, the darkest areas will appear somewhat washed out. You end up with an ‘HDR’ picture that has relatively low dynamic range, which should be a contradiction in terms.

This is demonstrative of how HDR as a concept has been diluted to bring it to the mass market.

We see the same effect in computer monitors. Low-end models might be stamped with a VESA HDR400 quality mark, but all this means is that they can reach 400 nits of brightness. That alone isn’t enough for a legit HDR experience. 

HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision

If you’re in the market for a budget TV, you may as well ignore the HDR standards published on a manufacturer’s website. If your TV can’t meaningfully display the basic HDR10 format, there won’t be a notable visual difference between that and its dynamic counterparts, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision. It’s only on higher-end TVs that you’ll really get the benefit of them.

HDR10 has become the baseline HDR standard. This is your meat and potatoes HDR. 

HDR10+ and Dolby Vision are rivals, both more advanced than HDR10 because they use dynamic metadata. This provides the TV’s processor with information about the brightness of each scene so it can optimize its picture more rigorously. HDR10 videos use one set of metadata for each movie / episode of television.

Dynamic metadata often leads to slightly better specular highlights and shadow detail in Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

There are other differences, too, but most direct comparisons highlight that Dolby Vision encodes tend to be slightly darker than those of HDR10+.

What about color?

HDR fans out there may have noticed that we haven’t yet mentioned color. Yes, this is an important part of HDR – and it’s yet another area where the results will be highly flavoured by your TV’s capabilities and calibration.

Good standard dynamic range footage is encoded with 8-bit color. That includes Netflix HD streams, and standard-definition Blu-rays and DVDs. HDR10 and HDR10+ use 10-bit color, while Dolby Vision uses 12-bit color. 

This bit depth determines the number of possible gradations between color tones, but not specifically what you might mean when you casually say “color depth”. People are usually referring to the richness of the boldest tones with that term. 

That element of color is determined by the color space or “gamut”. Standard dynamic range streams use Rec.709, a color space extremely similar to sRGB. It’s the traditional standard for computer monitors of printers.  

HDR formats use Rec.2020. This incorporates a huge array of color tones deeper than those of Rec.709, particularly in the green and red wavelengths.

Even our favourite TVs don’t get close to filling this color gamut. The flagship LG CX OLED manages around 70-76% of Rec.2020 – and a cheap TV can hardly compete.

The Samsung TU7000, a TV we mentioned earlier that offers decent image quality but poor brightness for HDR, only aims for full coverage of sRGB/Rec.709. Rec.2020 doesn’t even come into the picture.

While it may be HDR-compatible, the Samsung TU7000 is unable to display the additional color tones that HDR unlocks.

This can lead to poor results if a TV isn’t particularly adept at handling HDR color outside what it can actually relay. Some sets exhibit color clipping in HDR, where you’ll see a flat-lining of color tone at the most saturated point. This may be visible in an image of a red flower, for example. Subtle natural color textures become flat patches rendered in one tone of red. It’s similar to overexposure white-out in photography, but with color.

Headroom for new heights

The top HDR formats even show up the very best consumer TVs in the world, such as the Panasonic HZ2000, LG CX OLED and Samsung Q95T. But this is largely because such formats have been made not only for the TVs of today, but for those of the future too. 

If we break down HDR10+ and Dolby Vision to their basic bullet-point differences, we get the following (see box, right).

The LG CX OLED manages around 700-750 nits of peak brightness, and that’s only when a small fraction of the screen is lit. This drops to below 150 nits when displaying a full screen of white. It supports 10-bit color, not 12-bit. 

Samsung’s Q950TS offers much higher brightness, with 2,000 nits in Dynamic mode and 1,300 using the Movie preset. But its display panel isn’t even “true” 10-bit. It’s an 8-bit panel that uses a trick called frame rate control, or FRC, to bump this closer to 10-bit performance. This uses the screen’s polarizer layer to rapidly flick between states, to emulate the missing tonal gradations.

What does this tell us? While home cinema fans often become annoyed by ‘fake’ HDR in a variety of flavours, the reality isn’t so clear-cut. And the HDR we venerate today may be considered fake HDR just a few years in the future. 

For a great HDR experience, look for TVs that feature support for either HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, in addition to an OLED panel or an LCD one with good local dimming. Anything else will just let you down.

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If you have a new Samsung TV, as well as a PS5 game console, you may have noticed some issues trying to get the best out of your hardware. Have no fear, however, as the problem is set to be resolved by a PS5 firmware update in March 2021.

The PS5-specific issue seems to have prevented players from getting HDR onscreen as well as 4K/120Hz play, forcing anyone playing on a Samsung TV to pick one option over the other.

This will only have affected a limited number of gamers, of course, given that few PS5 games support 4K/120Hz currently, and only Samsung TV owners will have had the issue. Still, it's a teething pain that we're sure people will be glad to see resolved.

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As reported by Forbes, the fix was confirmed by a moderator on Samsung's EU community website, stating in German that the problem actually lay in the Sony PS5 rather than Samsung's televisions.

A roughly translated version states: "The error was localized and Sony is expected to release an update in March to make 4K 120 Hz HDR possible. Please keep your PlayStation 5 up to date with the latest software. The TV does not need a software update (but we recommend that you always keep the software up-to-date for reasons of stability and security). The TV doesn't have to be repaired either, so you don't need to contact support."

In the meantime, however, "As a workaround, you can either reduce the frame rate to 60 Hertz or switch off HDR."

Early days

With the PS5 – and its Microsoft-made competitor, the Xbox Series X – having launched but a few months ago, in November 2020, it's still early days for next-gen console gaming. TV makers are still attempting to catch up to the releases, too, now that many are expecting gaming PC-quality experiences on their home televisions.

This likely won't be the only next-gen console issue demanding a fix in the coming year, though as long as we don't revisit the days of the 'red ring of death' on the Xbox 360 – the frustrating error that saw countless Xbox units recalled, including two owned by this writer – we're counting ourselves pretty fortunate.

Want to know what new Samsung TVs are in the works for this year? Check out our in-depth video below:

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macOS Big Sur will allow users to stream Netflix in 4K HDR for the first time, but it looks like only a handful of Macs will support the feature. 

As reported by Apple Terminal, streaming Netflix content in 4K will require more than a Mac that supports Big Sur. It spotted a newly-updated support document on Netflix's Help Center that reveals only devices with a T2 Security chip will support the high-quality streaming. 

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The support page confirms that as well as a Mac with macOS 11.0 Big Sur and the latest version of Safari installed, a 60Hz 4K-capable display, you’ll need a “select 2018 or later Mac with an Apple T2 Security chip.”

This means in order to stream Netflix in 4K on macOS, you’ll need a MacBook Pro (2018 or later), MacBook Air (2018 or later), Mac mini (2018), Mac Pro (2019), an iMac Pro or Apple’s latest iMac 2020. 

News of the stringent requirements hasn’t gone down well with macOS users on Reddit, with one user complaining: "The most likely theory appears to be studios insisting on stronger Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections against content ripping. Reddit users note that there are also specific chip requirements for 4K Netflix streaming on Windows PCs."

The reason for the unusual requirement remains unclear, but one Reddit user has speculated that it stems from studies insisting on stronger Digital Rights Management (DRM) protections against content ripping. 

Some are also suggesting that perhaps this is Netflix's way of ensuring that viewers don't trying and stream HDR content on older Mac devices, which could result sub-par performance.

macOS Big Sur is now up to its ninth public beta, and is likely to rollout to the public later this month.

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The Samsung HW-N650 is latest soundbar to emerge from the company's state-of-the-art Audio Lab in California. The company’s investment in audio development has already paid dividends, with a number of very impressive soundbars launched over the last few years – and in 2018 it brought us the N650.

It included many of the same features found on previous models, but added Samsung’s Acoustic Beam technology. Targeted at movie fans and gamers, this is intended to create a bigger and more immersive audio experience. If the N650 can deliver the panoramic soundstage that Samsung promises, then it might be just the ticket.

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Design

The N650 uses a very similar design to previous Samsung models, with a simple rectangular shape and an all metal construction. The look is functional rather than eye-catching, but the build quality is excellent, with a solid feel and substantial weight.

This solidity extends to metal grilles at the top and front, along with a brushed metal finish to the edges and sides. The N650 is only available in black, but its stylish finish will match most modern TV designs; given its width of 1100mm, it should also complement larger screens.

However, despite being quite wide, the N650 also has a fairly low form-factor, with a height of just 59mm: this means it should fit in front of most TVs without blocking the screen. You also have the option of wall-mounting the soundbar, and Samsung include a dedicated bracket for that purpose.

On the front of the soundbar, over on the far right, there is a simple LED display. This lights up when you use the controls, and provides information on the volume, inputs and various settings. To the right of this display, on the end plate, are some basic controls for power, input selection and volume.

The provided remote is excellent, and a far cry from the credit card-sized controllers often included with soundbars. It’s well designed and comfortable to hold, with all the necessary buttons sensibly laid out, making controlling the N650 as intuitive as possible.

The connections are located in two recessed sections at the bottom of the soundbar. In the left hand recess you’ll find a USB port, a 3.5mm auxiliary audio jack, and an optical digital audio input. The right hand recess has an HDMI input, an HDMI output with ARC (Audio Return Channel), and a connector for the separate power supply.

Unlike many of Samsung’s recent soundbars, the N650 comes with a separate wireless active subwoofer. It measures 215 x 385 x 304mm (WxHxD), weighs 7kg and is designed to complement the soundbar itself. The two should pair automatically, and there’s a control on the remote to adjust the subwoofer level, ensuring the bass is nicely integrated.

Design TL;DR: The N650’s minimalist design and wide body will complement many large screen TVs, while the superb build quality and wireless subwoofer promise an expansive sound.

Features

The N650 uses a 5.1-channel speaker configuration, with a claimed frequency range of 42Hz to 20kHz and a total claimed power of 360W. There are three forward-firing channels, each composed of a mid-range driver and a tweeter. This configuration means the soundbar has a dedicated centre channel, which is important for dialogue in movies and narration in TV programmes.

Along with the three front channels, there are also two upward-firing channels - but this is where things get interesting. The N650 includes Samsung’s Acoustic Beam technology, so these upward-firing channels are composed of two pipes, each with 28 holes in them. Tweeters fire into these pipes, creating a series of acoustic beams emanating from each hole – a bit like the pipes in a church organ.

These beams head upwards and sideways, bouncing off the ceiling and walls to create a much wider, higher and more immersive soundstage. Although this technology isn’t new, and Yamaha has been doing something similar for years, Samsung’s approach is certainly unique.

As mentioned, the N650 comes with a wireless active subwoofer. This bass-reflex model uses a forward-firing 6.5-inch driver, coupled with a rear port to deliver decent bass extension.

The connectivity of the N650 looks good on paper, especially when you factor in the inclusion of Bluetooth. This not only allows you to stream music from your smartphone or tablet, but also receive wireless sound from a compatible Samsung TV.

On closer inspection, however, the connectivity isn’t quite as impressive, especially when compared to last year’s soundbars or the competition. To start, Samsung has dropped built-in WiFi, which means the N650 doesn’t support Samsung’s multi-room system and thus can’t run wireless rear speakers.

The number of HDMI inputs is also rather stingy considering the price, but you can always use ARC to send audio from the TV to the N650 via HDMI. In reality you’re going to have to do this, if you want to connect more than one HDMI source. 

The N650 supports the 5.1-channel versions of both Dolby Digital and DTS, but it can’t decode lossless formats and thus doesn’t support Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. This makes connecting all your sources to your TV, and then sending the audio back using ARC over HDMI, all the more logical.

If you’re a gamer, the N650 has a great little feature designed especially for you. Samsung’s 2018 TVs can detect when you select a connected games console, and automatically go into game mode. This extends to the soundbar, which will also automatically select a dedicated Game sound mode.

The N650 has three sound modes in total: Standard, Surround, and the aforementioned Game. The Standard mode just uses the front three speakers and is best for music and some TV programmes; the Surround mode is designed for movies and TV dramas; while the Game mode is obviously intended for gaming.

Features TL;DR: Samsung’s Acoustic Beam technology promises a larger and more immersive front soundstage, and is designed to enhance movies and games. There’s a decent set of features and connections too, although only one HDMI input.

Performance

Samsung has been making some impressive strides in terms of sound quality, with last year’s MS750 being a particularly high watermark. So it was rewarding to discover that the N650 continues that trend, although in a slightly different fashion.

Whilst the MS750 was all about pure sound quality thanks to its front channels and distortion-cancelling technology, the N650 is more about spatial awareness. The Acoustic Beam technology really opens out the front soundstage, creating greater depth, width and height. It essentially generates a wall of sound that perfectly complements movies and games.

However within this immersive sound field, dialogue remains clear and focused, while effects are placed with real precision. The addition of a separate subwoofer gives the audio a solid foundation of bass, and these low frequencies are effectively integrated within the rest of the soundstage.

The sound modes work particularly well, with the Surround mode creating a more cinematic experience, whilst the Game mode allows you to focus on sound effects. So if you stick on a movie like Deepwater Horizon, you’ll find yourself diving for cover as the oil rig blows up. However, if you switch to a session of Star Wars Battlefront, then the N650 will immediately immerse you in a galaxy far, far away.

Thanks to the Standard sound mode, the N650 also sounds great with music. In this mode only the front three speakers are used, creating an excellent stereo experience. Detail retrieval is impressive, whilst the clean mid-range and effective tweeters combine with the subwoofer to deliver plenty of clarity and dynamism. The Samsung proved very capable of delivering the layered guitars and driving beats of Resistance is Futile by Manic Street Preachers.

Performance TL;DR: The N650 produces an impressively big front soundstage, that enhances movies and gaming by immersing the viewer. Dialogue remains clear and focused, whilst the bass is deep and well-integrated. It also sounds great with music, making this an excellent all-round soundbar.

Value

There’s no denying that the N650 sounds fantastic, and it has the size and build quality that goes some way towards justifying its £699 cost. There’s also a decent set of features and a wireless subwoofer, but the limited number of HDMI connections is a shame at this price point. 

Other soundbars to consider

If you like the look of the N650, then it’s definitely worth considering Samsung’s HW-MS750. This soundbar doesn’t have a separate subwoofer, but includes distortion-cancelling technology, upward-firing drivers, multi-room capabilities and HDR support. It sounds superb and comes in at the same £699 price tag.

Also in the same price bracket is the LG SJ9, which sports a similar level of build quality and comes with a wireless subwoofer. It’s also part of LG’s multi-room system, while including more HDMI inputs and can HDR passthrough. Best of all, it has upward-firing drivers that support Dolby Atmos, making the SJ9 a tough act to beat.

Verdict

The N650 is an excellent soundbar that boasts a solid build quality and a minimalist design, combined with a decent set of features. Samsung has stripped away some of the features from last year, but the addition of a wireless subwoofer and Acoustic Beam technology helps justify the fairly hefty price tag. 

The sound quality is excellent, with an open and immersive front soundstage that lends itself to both movies and music. It’s no slouch with TV programmes either, and the centre channel ensures dialogue remains crystal clear. Music also sounds great, making the N650 a superb all-rounder, and worthy of recommendation if you’re looking for a new soundbar.

• Best soundbars for TV, movies, and music in 2020

• Check out our Samsung promo codes to get the best deal on your next purchase.

Let’s picture the scene: you're relaxing at home after a long day’s remote working, and you're looking for something truly eye-catching to take your mind off things on one of your favorite TV streaming services. Thankfully, if you have a subscription to Netflix, there are a number of HDR TV shows and films available for you to watch.

Why should you care about HDR? HDR (high dynamic range, to use its full title) is a modern TV technology that gives video that extra oomph. The increased dynamic range over basic SDR (standard dynamic range) allows for more colors, better contrast, and a more nuanced palette than you would get on your TV otherwise.

HDR isn’t that hard to come by these days – though Netflix also supports a dynamic HDR format called Dolby Vision, which packs in additional metadata to tailor the television’s picture scene by scene, and ensure the end result is as close as possible to the master screens used in a film or TV show’s production studio.

• Best Netflix shows: 27 series you need to binge right now

You don’t need HDR to enjoy a movie, of course, but it makes a huge difference to the visuals if you have a 4K HDR TV able to display it. That’s why we’ve brought together some choice picks of Netflix series you’ll be able to watch in Dolby Vision HDR – or regular HDR if your television doesn’t support the premium format.

It’s worth mentioning that you’ll need a TV that supports Dolby Vision or HDR to see the improvement, as well as the Premium Netflix price plan – but if those two needs are met, there’s nothing to stop you diving into Dolby Vision TV show and films today. (If you aren’t seeing the HDR or Dolby Vision logo on titles, it may be that your streaming settings aren’t set to ‘high’).

Don’t have an HDR TV? The following titles are still available to watch to Netflix, whatever your TV capabilities may be.

1. Star Trek Discovery

The seventh Star Trek series, Discovery, was created for CBS All Access, though also made its way to Netflix internationally – offering a tantalizing world of hyperspeed, intergalactic warfare and The Walking Dead’s excellent (and we mean excellent) Sonequa Martin-Green in the lead role.

It’s a show that suffers from having too many good ideas, and not being able to choose between them – everything from multiverse theory and quantum mechanics to time travelling crystals – but there’s a good mix of new stories and fan callbacks to make this a Star Trek show very much worth watching. Doug Jones’ turn as Kelpian Commander Saru is also a masterclass of acting in heavy prosthetic make-up.

2. Chef's Table

The first Netflix Original documentary is still one of its best. Chef’s Table profiles a different professional chef each episode, and has now been running for six seasons – meaning there’s plenty of food porn and behind-the-scenes chat with cuisine maestros for you to enjoy.

It’s a truly globe-trotting series, jumping between Italy, the United States, France, Slovenia, Thailand, and others – and watching in HDR really helps make those colorful cuisines jump off the screen.

3. Russian Doll

Natashy Lyonne plays a bad-mouthed video-game designer in New York, caught in a time loop of endless deaths. Can she escape? Is she just high? And might someone else be caught in the same predicament she is? 

Russian Doll is surprisingly clever – often brutally succinct about the lasting scars of trauma and mental illness – especially as the sci-fi elements become more apparent, and having Lyonne as its snarky heart carries this show into pure brilliance. A redo of Groundhog Day, this isn’t.

4. When They See Us

Created by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, this hard-hitting drama miniseries follows the story of five teens – four African American men and one Hispanic man – who were accused of attacking and raping a woman in New York in 1989. It's a gut-wrenching story that shines a light on systemic racism in the US, and was one of the most-watched Netflix shows in its first month of release, going on to win multiple Emmy and Critics Choice awards.

The production values certainly aren’t the most important thing about it – but it was filmed in Dolby Vision HDR, and it’s one of the most deserving programmes on Netflix to have done so.

5. Altered Carbon

This Netflix Original TV adaptation of the Altered Carbon book series was an instant sci-fo classic, and its second season has now joined the first on Netflix too.

The world of Altered Carbon focuses on immortality – granted by a technology called ‘stacks’ that the human mind can be uploaded to – with the rich and powerful able to guarantee their permanent survival while those at the bottom of the ladder struggle to live more than one life. 

If it sounds philosophical, it is – with a mournful AI also inspired by the gothic writer Edgar Allen Poe – but there’s also plenty of high-paced action and more than a dose of Blade Runner in the production design. The second season saw the MCU’s Anthony Mackie take on the lead role, too, with the body-hopping technology at the heart of this series putting a new, glossy and far more adult spin on the reincarnation sci-fi of Doctor Who. 

The second season doesn’t feel quite as grounded, and also suffers from a lot of déjà vu (a lot of sets and locations are re-used) but there’s still a lot to enjoy here.

6. Black Mirror

Charlie Brooker’s sci-fi anthology series may have started its life on Channel 4, but these days it’s a massive Netflix operation – spanning the world with tales of how technology has entangled itself in our lives, usually (though not always) for the worse.

The most recent seasons (4-5) were filmed in Dolby Vision HDR, and it’s clear the production values got a shot in the arm. Some of us may miss the satirical bite of the earlier seasons, but they’re all on Netflix for you to cast your vote on. 

Check out our guide to the best Black Mirror episodes to know which ones are most worth your while too.

7. Marriage Story

Noah Baumbach, husband of Little Women and Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig, made waves with this meditation on love and marriage – and divorce – on Netflix in 2019.

Starring Adam Driver (Rise of Skywalker, Girls) and Scarlett Johansson (Lucy, Black Widow) are a couple navigating the difficulties of drifting apart, both emotionally and legally. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure.

8. The Politician

One of the most confident Netflix Originals on this list, The Politician follows a young high schooler and (in his mind) prospective future President of the United States. It’s a bit early to be running for office, certainly, but that won’t stop him putting his all into the elections for school president. It has all of the politicking, backstabbing, and soul-searching you’d hope from a high school drama and The West Wing rolled into one.

The show loses some momentum in its indulgent moments – mainly in order to show off the incredible singing voice of its lead, Ben Platt – but it’s still dramatic stuff, with every scene being packed with incredible outfits and unobtainable homes that truly sing in Dolby Vision HDR.

9. Velvet Buzzsaw

This 2019 movie from Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy is… an interesting mix of genres. With Jake Gyllenhaal playing a gallery curator who stumbles across the disturbing – and highly valued – artworks of a deceased painter, he puts them on display for the world to see. But things quickly go wrong, as this art world satire descends into paranormal horror and grisly bloodshed. 

With John Malkovich, Zawe Ashton, and Stranger Things’ Natalie Dyer heading up the cast, there’s a lot of talent on show – while Velvet Buzzsaw’s popping colors and increasingly twisted aesthetic is a brilliant showcase for Dolby Vision too.

10. Stranger Things

Ok, you’ve probably heard of Stranger Things by now, but did you know seasons 2 and 3 were filmed in Dolby Vision HDR? 

While the first season didn’t slack in the visuals department by any means – helped by the show’s lovingly-recreated 80s fashion and paraphernalia – this paranormal horror adventure story gets even more gorgeous with each season, whether the camera is patrolling the dark fields and interdimensional portals of season 2, or the sun-soaked swimming pools and flashy Starcourt Mall of season 3.

Here's when we expect to see Stranger Things season 4, too.

11. Always Be My Maybe

Comedian Ali Wong (Tuca & Bertie, Ali Wong: Baby Cobra) stars in this romantic comedy about reconnecting with your childhood sweetheart, reassessing what you want in life, and sleeping with Keanu Reeves. Truly a movie for us all.

12. Ozark

Jason Bateman and Laura Linney co-star in this Netflix crime drama, where a family is strong-armed into laundering money for a Mexican drug cartel. 

With its third season having dropped in March, it’s the perfect time to jump into (or revisit) the series. It may have a dourer color palette than some of the series on this list, but boy do those shadows look good in dynamic HDR.

• Need an upgrade? Here are the best 4K Ultra HD TVs to consider buying today
• Stream safely from anywhere - discover the very best Netflix VPN

If you’re a fan of HDR gaming (and why wouldn’t you be?), the Xbox Series X is shaping up to be the console of choice for those who love the beauty of high dynamic range.

Microsoft’s diminutive tower of power already has gamers salivating over its impressive technical specifications, but the company is ensuring that when you hook an Xbox Series X up to a HDR-compatible display, you’ll be in for a visual (and nostalgic) treat. 

Unlike PlayStation 4, the Xbox One X already supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, which is noticeably missing from Sony’s platform. Dolby Vision is Netflix’s HDR standard of choice and has also been adopted by a growing library of 4K UHD Blu-Ray. It’s safe to assume, then, that Xbox Series X will retain these features.

What’s more, Sony is doubling down on priority tech for PS5, like its Tempest 3D audio instead of Dolby Atmos. Microsoft, meanwhile, created their own spatial audio tech for Xbox One - Windows Sonic - but also lets users choose Dolby Atmos, if they prefer. 

While we can confidently predict Sony won’t be introducing a new display technology anytime soon (fingers crossed), it’s refreshing to see that Microsoft is continuing to invest in more widely available standards, such as HDR.

But what about the Xbox's wide, catalogue of backwards-compatibility treats? No one could have guessed that Microsoft would figure out a way to retroactively add HDR to older games, though. But that’s exactly what it’s managed to do, so now your classics will be HDR too. 

What’s HDR to me? 

HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a relatively new TV standard that lets you experience accurate colors, greatly improved contrast and more vivid pictures than what was previously possible with standard dynamic range televisions (SDR). That means you’ll see brighter whites when viewing a snowy mountain top, deeper blacks during darker scenes and a greater spectrum of colors overall. Colors won’t appear crushed or oversaturated, either, meaning you’ll often be able to see more nuanced details that were previously hidden.

• HDR10+: the new HDR standard that’s taking a leaf out of Dolby’s book
• Hybrid Log Gamma: everything you need to know about HLG HDR
• Dolby Vision IQ is about to make HDR TVs even better to look at

HDR is a huge boon for video games in particular, as they often use exaggerated color palettes and feature explosive set pieces that take full advantage of HDR’s capabilities. SDR content can look rather muted and flat in comparison, lacking the vibrancy and clarity that only HDR can provide. 

Imagine, then, if the Xbox Series X could inject a fresh lick of HDR paint to all the games you played years ago. But how would that work exactly?

Old dog, new HDR tricks

During Digital Foundry’s visit to Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, Washington, the team was shown the Xbox One X enhanced version of Halo 5: Guardians, running with a very convincing HDR implementation. Even though developer 343 Industries never shipped the game to include HDR support originally, Microsoft has found an ingenious way to add HDR into the game – developed from the state-of-the-art HDR implementation used in Gears 5.

Microsoft ATG principal software engineer Claude Marais revealed that, by using a machine learning algorithm, the team was able to generate a full HDR image from SDR content – on any backwards compatible title.

And when Microsoft says any backwards compatible title can receive the HDR treatment – it means any title. The Digital Foundry team was stunned to see Fusion Frenzy – an original Xbox game that was released almost 20 years ago – running with real HDR. 

Microsoft’s new HDR-mapping tech will extend across the entire Xbox library on Xbox Series X, and apply to the hundreds of compatible games that don’t have their own bespoke HDR modes already.

Some TV displays will ship with baked-in HDR-effect or HDR boost options – which aren’t actually HDR proper. But Microsoft’s technology creates exact heatmaps (instructions for the brightness settings) for the auto HDR tech to work from, ensuring the picture looks just as it should.

Retro makeover

Seeing classic Xbox titles get the HDR treatment for Xbox Series X is an enticing prospect, then, but Microsoft also has some other interesting ideas where its machine learning algorithm can be used, particularly when it comes to accessibility. 

“If you have people that cannot read well or see well, you probably want to enhance contrast when there's a lot of text on-screen. We can easily do that,” Marias explained to Digital Foundry. “We talked to someone that's colorblind this morning and that's a great example. We just switch on the LUT and we can change colours for them to more easily experience the announcement there."

There’s no denying that Xbox Series X is a technically accomplished piece of technology, but Microsoft has ensured that its new console will make the most of the innovations available today, to help bring new life to the treasured games of the past.

• Revisit these classic titles - the best backwards compatible games on  Xbox One

The BenQ TK850 is a 4K projector for your living room, with boosted audio, intense 3,000 lumens brightness, and a focus on sports broadcasts to help it stand out from the piles of other projectors out there.

It’s not the first BenQ projector that’s caught our eye: we gave a glowing review to the BenQ HT3550 last year, even if that model is more angled towards die-hard cinephiles than the TK850.

So is the BenQ TK850 worth a look? We set it up and put it through its paces to see how it fared.

Price and availability

The Ben TK850 retails at $1,699 in the US, which converts to around £1,300 / AU$2,600. The projector has just launched in the UK, and can be found on eBuyer for just over £1,340.

Design 

Even before you’ve turned on the projector, the TK850 is pretty easy on the eyes. It features soft, rounded edges in a largely white design, all of which helps to prevent this rather bulky (13cm x 38cm x 26cm) piece of hardware from dominating the room – that’s one of the perks of not opting for a television set, after all.

The ports are all at the rear, meaning they’ll likely be facing the viewer, which is much simpler for navigating connections and linking up the right cables during use. You’ll find two HDMI 2.0 inputs, which means you can have two sources connected at one time (an Xbox One and a 4K Blu-ray player, say). There are also ports for SPDIF, audio out, RS232, and USB 3.0, with a 12V trigger to automatically turn on the projector when a live device is connected.

On the upper side of the projector you’ll find buttons for power and the D-pad, as well as ‘OK’, ‘Back’, ‘Menu’, and ‘Source’. There are also LED indicators for the power, lamp, and temperature (in case a long viewing session causes the projector to overheat).

The remote is brilliantly made, even if it doesn’t look particularly flashy. Its simple two-tone silver coloring is great for visibility in the dark, thanks to its reflective finish. The pinkish backlight is also great at illuminating buttons from underneath, and there’s a button for turning this light on and off too.

The TK850 projector does seem to get slightly warm at times, even on standby, so we recommend unplugging it completely when it’s not in use for long periods.

Setup and software

Given the BenQ TK850 is only a short-throw projector – rather than the kind of ultra short-throw model you can push right up against a wall – you’re going to need to have it somewhat out in the open. We placed it on a coffee table, but any surface in your living room from where it can face the wall square-on will do the job.

The TK850 isn’t a miracle worker, of course. You’ll need to have it at a height conducive to projecting the whole image onto the wall, however large you decide to set the display. There are overhead mounts for these things, though we found a waist-level table was high enough to get the picture at eye level. The 10-degree vertical lens shift – basically, that’s how much you can angle the projector up or down without distorting the image – helps in this regard too.

You may not want the projector much in view during use, but keep in mind that viewers can end up blocking projection from behind you, depending on where the projector is positioned.

There are a few things on the projector that you’ll need to adjust manually during setup, before you get onto the software part (in addition to removing the lens cap, naturally).

The first is for the zooming and focus functions, which you adjust from above – there’s a small hatch covering these moving parts, though it slides open automatically if the projector is even slightly tilted.

When the projector is on, simply pull back the small hatch on the upper side of the projector, and adjust the lens left and right to zoom to adjust the size of the picture – up to a maximum size of 100 inches at 8.2 feet away – and then push it forward or backwards to bring the image into focus. You can then use the ‘lens shift’ wheel to elevate or lower the image; all in all it’s a simple and intuitive process then enables you to achieve the perfect picture.

There’s also a manual elevation stand at the lower-front edge of the TK850. Simply push in the clasp above the front foot, and pull the foot down to adjust the projector to whatever height is required.

The auto-keystone feature can be a little overzealous, and we had to spend a good few minutes correcting the keystoning ourselves in the menu settings. (The response time when doing this manually is very slow, too.)

There’s not much in the way of a smart platform here, which is both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because there’s little to get in the way of the action, as you only have to contend with a single menu that shows up over the projection. The bad news is that there aren’t any built-in apps such as Netflix or YouTube, and you’ll need a physical source such as a games console, set-top box, or 4K Blu-ray player to watch… well, anything.

Simply plug in your source via USB or HDMI, hit the power button on either the projector or remote, and away you go!

Performance

The most notable thing about the BenQ TK850 is its brightness. At 3,000 lumens – substantially more than the 2,000 lumens of the BenQ HT3550 – it can project an exceedingly bright picture, meaning we could watch movies comfortably even with a moderate amount of light in the room.

You’ll still get an optimum picture in a really dark environment, though you won’t be overly punished for wanting a lamp on to see the furniture (or your loved ones) too.

That light has big consequences for HDR viewing in particular. High dynamic range offers enhanced contrast and richer colors than standard SDR (standard dynamic range), and the powerful bulb in the TK850 means that HDR makes a startling difference.

When watching 2015’s The Martian, we found that switching on HDR gave it the appearance of an entirely different movie. Flat desert browns became intense, textured colors on the red planet, while even the small and easily-missed flashing of blue lights in the midst of a howling gray storm came through brilliantly clearly. This is a projector that does HDR right – while still having the chops to make SDR look good on its own terms.

HDR gaming is a real sight, too. The Witcher III was recreated on our Xbox One X in vivid detail, with excellent contrast that helped the game’s environments to truly stand out. Lag seemed minimal too.

You won’t get Dolby Vision or HDR10+ here – or on any projector – but the standard HDR format still offers dividends on the TK850. There’s support for HLG and even 3D video (for some reason) too.

The BenQ TK850 projector is marketed as a device for watching sports programmes, though – so how does it fare there? We flicked between some football and rugby matches, and found the motion handling very capable – while the upped contrast of the dedicated Sports mode helped players to show up against the green of the pitch behind them, as well as giving the audio a slight boost to better hear the roar of the crowd.

It’s worth using the projector’s dedicated Cinema or Sports settings for whatever content you’re watching – with a Bright mode for (you guessed it) bright environments, or a Living Room setting for more everyday use. You can also create a custom User picture mode for your own personal requirements.

There is some slight video noise that appears, whatever source we used, from low-res YouTube videos to sparkling 4K Blu-rays – but the impact is small, and hard to avoid on a projector that can’t avoid shining through every pixel of the video it’s showing. This projector is generally better at showing deep colors and bright scenes, and worse at showing shadows or distinguishing between gray tones.

The audio isn’t slight, for what it is – and will certainly cover the sound of the TK850’s fans whirring away – though if you want more than 10W speakers you may want to plug in a separate soundbar or hi-fi setup too.

Verdict

The BenQ TK850 is a stunning example of a 4K HDR projector with the brightness to do its picture justice. You’ll have to make do without many smart features but, if that’s not an issue, you should have little reason not to enjoy what the TK850 offers.

HDR, particularly, is exceptional – while the manual zooming, lens shift, and focus tools mean you’ll be able to calibrate your projector precisely for the needs and dimensions of your living room.

• Best projectors 2020: the models really worth buying

Update: We've got more information on all the phones that are set to include the Snapdragon 865 chipset. And, we've already gone hands on with Samsung's Galaxy S20 family of smartphones, which all include the chip.  

The Snapdragon 865 chipset is 'loaded with 5G,' according to chip maker Qualcomm, and it's ready to power the next round of flagship-level Android smartphones starting with the recently released Samsung Galaxy S20 family.

The official Snapdragon 865 phones list is slowly growing, with phones from Samsung, Sony, and many more showing up. We also expect many unconfirmed devices to join the party with the likes of a Galaxy Note 20, LG G9, OnePlus 8, Google Pixel 5 and so on. Samsung leads the pack, and though we missed out on many other launches as a result of MWC 2020's cancellation, there are still many Snapdragon 865 phones in tow.

Qualcomm's 5G-capable chipset, unveiled at its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii late last year, foreshadows what to expect from your next phone. It'll be in the majority of the best phones – basically everything except Huawei phones and Apple iPhones. 

But even iPhone owners should pay attention to the new Snapdragon 865 features. Qualcomm's roadmap often shapes where the mobile devices industry goes, and we know Qualcomm's modems are going to start being used in a 5G iPhone, likely one or more versions of the iPhone 12.

And even if you don't intend to buy a premium Android phone, some of the features, including 5G, do trickle down to mid-range chipsets, like the simultaneously announced Snapdragon 765. Though, high prices of these devices may leave some room for Qualcomm-competitor MediaTek to grow with its Dimensity 800 and 1000 series chipsets.

Snapdragon 865 features are primarily focused on expanding 5G speeds, doubling down on gaming performance, and improving photo and video quality on the many, many cameras employed by smartphones these days.

Snapdragon 865 phones list

The biggest Snapdragon 865 question we've gotten is: which phones will use the Snapdragon 865 chipset? That's easy to speculate about, but much hard to answer with 100% certainty. Fortunately, we already know a few phones for sure that have gotten or will get the new chipset. Here are the confirmed Snapdragon 865 phones so far:

• Samsung Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra
• Sony Xperia 1 II
• Black Shark 3
• Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone
• Xiaomi Mi 10, Mi 10 Pro
• Oppo Find X2
• ZTE Axon 10s Pro
• Vivo Apex 2020 Concept Phone
• Nubia Red Magic 5G
• Realme X50 Pro
• Redmi K30 Pro
• Sharp Aquos R5G
• FCNT arrows 5G
• iQOO 3

With the exception of the Samsung devices in that list, all of these phones come with the Qualcomm FastConnect 6800 subsystem, which supports Wi-Fi 6 and improvements to Bluetooth connectivity both downstream and, most notably, upstream.

There are still plenty of devices we're not sure about yet, though. Here's a list of rumored Snadpdragon 865 phones:

• LG G9
• LG V60
• OnePlus 8 and 8T
• Moto Z5 (will probably have a different name)
• Asus Zenfone 7
• Samsung Galaxy Fold 2
• Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Plus
• Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 5 XL
• Asus ROG Phone 3
• Nokia 10

There are surely more Snapdragon 865 phones from companies like Xioami, Oppo, and Meizu, though it's harder to draw successors to their current lineups. Rest assured, we expect most flagship Android phones to run this chipset.

And when it comes to Moto, its flagship phone could use the 865 chip, but we don't know if there'll ever be a 'Moto Z5'. Motorola's aging Moto Mod idea has limited the company's ability to offer a redesign, as the mods are all backward compatible. After four years of much of the same, we expect a full fresh and perhaps a new name.

Snapdragon 865 specs

Qualcomm is touting new architecture among its Snapdragon 865 specs, made up of a Kryo 585 CPU, Adreno 650 GPU, Spectra 480 ISP, Hexagon 698 processor and sensing hub. All of them will play a key part in deciding what your next phone is capable of doing. 

Its CPU can run up to 2.84GHz, according to Qualcomm, and the GPU is supposed to offer 20% faster graphics rendering. We'll be running Snapdragon 865 benchmark tests soon to confirm these numbers.

The standout in the Snapdragon 865 specs sheet, however, is the 35% increase in the power efficiency for intense tasks, like gaming. As powerful as GPUs have become in smartphones, we know peak performance only lasts so long before throttling sets in. Qualcomm says it wants to go the distance with the new 865 chip.

Snapdragon 865 has 5G, but without integration

The Snapdragon 865 is driving 5G in two ways: it'll offer faster download speeds – up to 7.5Gbps – and be found in more smartphones you actually want in 2020.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X55 5G modem achieves these peak download speeds via mmWave and sub-6 standards, the backbone of 5G. But it also employs tricks like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, which combines 5G and 4G spectrum for faster throughput.

Upload speeds are also set to improve, reaching 3Gbps in ideal 5G conditions. That's something we really haven't seen from carriers in our 5G speed tests in the US, as the hype around uplink speeds has long trailed good download speed performance.

Interestingly, the Snapdragon 865 is being coupled with the Snapdragon X55 5G modem as a separate chip. This means the modem isn't actually integrated into the mobile chipset, but you also won't be able to get a Snapdragon 865 phone without the 5G chip. They're a couple, so don't expect new 865 phones to be 4G-only.

That's more of a concern for smartphone manufacturers, which have to account for the modem within the confines of their devices and find ways to power the modem separately. But these concerns could affect the size and battery consumption of the next smartphones.

Snapdragon 865 is ready for 200MP photos, 8K video

Besides 5G, the most consumer-facing perks of the Snapdragon 865 chipset are the camera improvements. You'll notice an uptick in both photo and video quality.

Specifically, the Qualcomm Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor boosts the megapixel count to 200MP. Note: it's really up to phone manufacturers to use these grandiose capabilities, so you may not actually see 200MP smartphones yet. Case in point: the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra only went up to 108MP.

Similarly, two years ago, we saw Samsung ditch HDR video capture when it was employed by the 845. This was reportedly done to keep parity with its Exynos chip, which didn't have HDR video capture capabilities and went into Galaxy S9 and Note 9 in some regions. The Galaxy S10 ended up being Samsung's first to capture HDR video.

When it comes to video for phones poised to use the Snapdragon 865 chipset, we're going to see 8K resolution video, one billion shades of color and support for the HGL format and Dolby Vision captured in real time. 

Dolby Vision capture is going to be important simply because other phones out there right now have high-end screens that support seeing Dolby Vision. But capturing it is going to be limited to 2020's Android phones – meaning your friends will see you amazing footage on their phone screens and have instant camera phone envy. 

Slow motion video can be fun, but in 2019 it was fairly limited – super slo mo modes at 960fps often cut out after ten seconds. That's changing in 2020 with unlimited super slow motion video. You'll also see slo mo at 4K 120fps. Goodbye 720p slo mo video.

Desktop-class gaming on a mobile phone

Qualcomm talked about mobile gaming with the Snapdragon 865 chip – a lot. And every time it did, the chip team kept referencing 'desktop-class gaming'. It sounds like marketing bluster, but there's something to that with the Adreno 650 GPU.

Desktop Forward Rendering is the first thing highlighted in Snapdragon 865 demos, and we did see a difference. It brings new lighting and post-processing effects closer to those that we see on PCs and consoles. In the demo, there was a marble rolling around a simple puzzle/platform environment and it had superior multi-angle reflections and shadows.

Game Color Plus had the same impact when we demoed a hack-and-slash strategy game. It looked noticeably more vibrant and saturated, which normally isn't a big feat. But Qualcomm says Game Color Plus does more than raise the saturation slide bar, it smartly boosts saturation and tone mapping, as to not totally blanket saturate everything including skin tones. Okay, now that's important.

We're unlikely to see many or any smartphones with a 144Hz display refresh rate in 2020, but that's the new ceiling for the Snapdragon 865 chipset. Most phones have a 60Hz refresh rate, though the OnePlus 7 Pro and its successors brought 90Hz to their popular lineup and Sony's Xperia 1 II will get a 90Hz display while the Samsung Galaxy S20 family has leapt up to a 120Hz refresh rate.

One more desktop-class thing, according to Qualcomm. Adreno 650 graphics chip is set up to receive updated drivers over time, much like you'd experience from a GPU on a gaming PC. It sounds simple enough – updates happen through an app store – but phone manufacturers using the Snapdragon 865 play a critical role in issuing the updates, and we all know that they're slow with Android operating system updates.

We'll have more specs and benchmarking information after the Snapdragon Tech Summit and update this page when we get the results.

• Comparison: Check out the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 feature set last year.

High-dynamic range (HDR) gaming on PCs and HDR in general has never been more prevalent than today. However, there’s a clear dichotomy of pricing that’s creating a rift in the gaming monitor world.

On one side, there were FreeSync 2 HDR gaming monitors priced well below a grand at launch. Meanwhile, Nvidia went for the jugular by introducing its two first G-Sync HDR gaming monitors at an astronomical price.

Likewise, Nvidia and AMD have opposing philosophies regarding how they are developing ecosystem of displays HDR gaming. Luckily, we had a chance to speak with both AMD’s Antal Tungler, Senior Manager of Global Technology Marketing, and Nvidia’s Vijay Sharma, Product Management Leader for Nvidia G-Sync, to get both companies’ takes on where the next generation display technology is going.

Tungler doesn’t mince his words and calls out Nvidia on the sizable two-grand price tags of the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ and Acer Predator X27.

“The Samsung CHG70 does 1440p, 144 Hz, HDR, FreeSync 2, basically all the same things,” Tungler says. “Granted, not in an IPS panel, it's a VA panel, but the difference is not that big, and you pay four times as much on the Nvidia side than you pay on the FreeSync side."

“I think there's some tone-deafness on the side of Nvidia, in terms of when it comes giving people a really great HDR and variable-refresh gaming experience,” he tells us.

Sharma from Nvidia, on the other hand, argues that cutting-edge technology is always expensive to start, but he strongly believes that the price will go down quickly given the recent history of ultra-wide monitors.

“That's the case with a lot of new, leading edge technology, and the good news is, with technology, the prices come down really fast,” Sharma says.

“Over a year ago, the curved 34-inch G-Sync monitors were launched by a number of Alienware, AOC, ASUS, Acer, HP. The starting price point when they launched was about $1,299. And at that time, over a year ago, it was unheard of," Sharma tells us. "'Are you crazy? $1,299 for a PC monitor?'"

“And, then, within six months, it was common to see those curved monitors at $999 –so they saw a $300 drop in less than a year,” he says. “So, that’s what has happened historically with other monitors. Now we'll see what happens with the G-Sync HDR, but if what has happened in the past with technology holds true, the price is going to come down.”

HDR gaming for everyone

In our last discussion with Nvidia about G-Sync HDR monitors, Sharma and team clearly desired to deliver the best looking gaming monitor that ever existed. Sharma not only saw this as a goal to create the ultimate gaming monitor, but to also steer clear of the confusion that exists with the current slew of HDR gaming monitors that qualify for various levels of HDR certification and peak brightness.

“It's certainly confusing for me and I'm very close to this stuff,” Sharma says in response to the gamut of HDR gaming monitors available today. “It reminds me of when HD televisions first started appearing. I had always been an early adopter, and then when HD television started appearing, it was so confusing because some were 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, this and that. And, I didn't buy one for years.”

“I don't want to make a mistake, because I'm going to live with this thing in my living room for a long time and I didn't buy one,” Sharma tells us. “So, I think when you have such a spread or variance in product experience, it confuses people, and that's not good.”

“Part of our philosophy and guiding principle is G-Sync, that sticker, that logo, our brand promise should cut through the confusion,” Sharma says. “So, if you buy a G-Sync HDR, you're getting the best available technology put together in the best possible way. You're going to have a good experience and you don't have to feel cautious about buying G-Sync HDR.”

Similarly, with FreeSync 2, Tungler and AMD also believe in only picking out the panels with the best image quality, but they also want to make HDR gaming more accessible.

“FreeSync 2 is on the path of, ‘let's make sure that is has the best quality panels’, it's also on the path of, "let's make it affordable and let's make it accessible to all gamers,’” Tungler says. “That's really the mission of FreeSync 2, is to combine variable refresh, so smooth gaming, with the best quality pixels that HDR content can offer.”

Like Nvidia G-Sync HDR, FreeSync 2 qualified panels must meet certain brightness, contrast ratio, color gamut, and latency requirements.

“We know it's not that easy to hit, that combined with variable refresh. But that's where we want to ensure that people have the best experience,” Tungler tells us. “Now, with that in mind, we also were cognizant that people don't want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on monitor upgrades.”

“People are somewhat leery about upgrading their monitor” he says. "That's the last piece they consider upgrading, because they believe that is going to cost them a lot of money. They don't necessarily know what to look for when it comes to monitor tech. I think Nvidia's strategy of putting the best tech or gamer tech into the top of the top line only is not helping the cause. It's actually detrimental.”

A bright future for HDR gaming

Despite Tungler and Sharma’s differing – and sometimes opposing – stances on how HDR market should develop and grow, they’re both equally excited about its future.

Tungler himself believes it’s his and AMD’s task to drum up the importance of HDR in PC Gaming with developers and their users.

“Basically, no TV today that doesn't have HDR support and on the console side, they are well taken care of too. But on the PC side, the ecosystem is growing every day; we're seeing more and more HDR displays coming out to market, and I think that's just going to accelerate. Compared to some other gimmicky technologies in gaming, I think HDR is definitely here to stay and it's going to keep growing.”

Sharma echoes similar sentiments, noting how “HDR gives us a brand new roadmap, a new path to go down, so I think the refresh rates will increase. I think you'll see better color performance. I think the HDR performance is going to get better and better over time."

Welcome to TechRadar's PC Gaming Week 2019. We're celebrating the most powerful gaming platform on Earth with in-depth articles, exclusive interviews and essential buying guides that showcase everything PC gaming has to offer. Visit our PC Gaming Week 2019 page to see all our coverage in one place.

First published June 2018

IFA 2019 has come with plenty of new product announcements, and a Lenovo has a suite of new products that should delight fans of its laptops. The company is launching four new Yoga laptops, with three convertible models and one standard clamshell version. And, they all have a lot to offer.

The star of the show is the new Yoga C940, a traditional advancement to the revamped Yoga C930. The Yoga C940 has the usual 360-degree hinge to fold over backwards, but the speaker hinge has been improved. This again allows the speaker to face outward in different configurations of the laptop. Lenovo calls this the "Rotating Sound Bar," and offers Dolby Atmos audio through the speaker.

It will come in both a 14-inch and 15.6-inch size. The 14-inch model gets access to the latest 10th-Generation Intel Ice Lake processors and Intel UHD integrated graphics, while the 15.6-inch model has 9th-Gen Intel Core i7 or Core i9 options paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics processor. 

Both units have the option of a 4K Ultra HD panel with a peak brightness of 500 nits, hitting the VESA Display HDR 400 certification. Full HD models will also be available. The larger, Full HD version still maintains 500 nits and Display HDR 400 certification, but the smaller one only achieves 400 nits and gets Dolby Vision support.

• These are the best Lenovo laptops
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More flexible options

Lenovo is releasing two more convertible laptops as well. The company has a larger Yoga C740 (14- and 15.6-inch models) and a smaller Yoga C640 (13.3-inch) on the way. The Yoga C740 and C640 will both be powered by 10th-Gen Intel Comet Lake processors and use integrated graphics. 

Both models also will only have Full HD displays. The C640 can have either a 300-nit or 400-nit touchscreen. The 14-inch Yoga C740 will have a 300-nit display with Dolby Vision, while the 15.6-inch model has two options that get Dolby Vision, but one is just 250 nits and the other is 500 nits with Display HDR 400 certification. 

Lastly, there's the Yoga S740. The lone clamshell of the bunch doesn't fall short on short on features. The 14-inch model gets 10th-Gen Intel Comet Lake processors and Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics, while the 15.6-inch model gets 9th-Gen processors but Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics. Both models have a 4K Ultra HD display option with 500 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision, and Display HDR 500 certification. There will also be Full HD versions, and the larger one still hits all those same visual quality specs, but the 14-inch model only musters 400 nits of brightness.

Here are details on pricing and availability in North America:

• Lenovo Yoga C940: available in October from $1,249 (about £1,040, AU$1,850)
• Lenovo Yoga S740: available in October from $1,449 (about £1,200, AU$2,145)
• Lenovo Yoga C740: available in October from $869 (about £720, AU$1,290)
• Lenovo Yoga C640: available in October  from $849 (about £700, AU$1,260)

IFA 2019 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new TVs, watches and other tech as they're announced.