If you often find yourself complaining about the quality of the picture while watching
Netflix then this might just be for you.
A top-level official for the American streaming giant has confirmed that they are looking at an exciting new system of display that could blow their competition out of the water.
While they already offer HD streaming, chief product officer Neil Hunt says Netflix have identified something called “High Dynamic Range” as “the next big thing in TV” which they say will offer a better picture than 4k.
Speaking to Digital Trends, Hunt said: “I think HDR is more visibly different than 4K. Over the past 15 years, we have had plenty of increments of pixels on the screen, and from what we saw with digital cameras, pixel count eventually stopped being interesting.
“In the real world, you have 14 bits of brightness difference, so imagine stepping outside to look at a reflection of water or shadow of a tree that’s between 12 and 14-bits of range. TV only represents 8 bits, so you lose one or the other; you can’t have the brights and the darks at the same time.”
But while the technology might not be ready on the viewing side yet, that hasn’t stopped Netflix from preparing for it.
“The big step for Netflix this year is that we’re shooting our original shows with cameras that are capable of capturing all the range, then mastering for HDR,” Hunt said. “That includes all the metadata for both types of TVs because we worked with the manufacturers to render it properly. We’re ready to start building a library and the TVs are making a big leap this year.”
