Panasonic Corporation and Samsung Electronics announced updates to the associated certification and logo program for the open, royalty-free dynamic metadata platform for High Dynamic Range (HDR), called HDR10+ which they initially announced last year at IFA. The HDR10+ platform will soon be made available to content companies, ultra-high definition TVs, Blu-ray disc players/recorders and set-top box manufacturers, as well as SoC vendors, royalty-free with only a nominal administrative fee. Companies can view the new logo, learn about the license program including final specifications, adopter agreements and sign up to receive a notification when technical specifications for HDR10+ become available at http://www.hdr10plus.org.

In addition, Ultra HD Blu-ray metadata generation tools have been developed with third parties and will soon be available for content creators enabling Ultra HD Blu-ray players to enter the market. Details on the content transfer and interface format for the content creation pipeline will also be released shortly. HDR10+ will offer a genuinely premium HDR experience for viewers through a device certification program ensuring an accurate representation of the creative intent expressed in the content.

Also, its workflow improvements for creators will encourage increased production of premium HDR content. The HDR10+ license program will provide interested companies with the necessary technical and testing specifications to implement HDR10+ technology in a way that both maintains high picture quality and gives each manufacturer the ability to apply dynamic tone mapping innovatively. The accompanying certification program will ensure that HDR10+ compliant products meet good picture quality and deliver the creative intent of movie directors and cinematographers.

A certified product will feature the HDR10+ logo, which signifies the product's excellent picture quality. Key aspects of the license program will include: Benefits for device manufacturers (e.g., TV, Ultra HD Blu-ray, OTT STB, etc.), content distribution services providers, SoC manufacturers, content publishers, and content creation tool providers, No per unit royalty, A nominal annual administration fee for device manufacturers, SoC manufacturers and content distribution service providers, Technical specification, test specification, HDR10+ logo/logo guide, patents from the three companies directly related to the technical specification and the test specification and certification for devices will be performed by a third-party, authorized testing center. Once the HDR10+ license program is open, the three founding companies will incorporate HDR10+ technologies in all future Ultra HD movie releases, selected TVs, Ultra HD Blu-ray player/recorders, and other products.

The new HDR10+ technology optimizes picture quality for next generation displays by using dynamic tone mapping to reflect frame to frame or scene to scene variations in brightness, color saturation, and contrast, which makes for an enhanced viewing experience. HDR10+ technology optimizes the performance of many 4K Ultra HD TVs, enabling playback on a wide range of next generation TVs bringing user experience much closer to the original creative intent for Hollywood films. 20th Century Fox, Panasonic and Samsung showed technical demonstrations of HDR10+ technology at CES 2018. Accredited journalists were able to see Panasonic's HDR10+ technical demo at its suite at the MGM Grand Conference Centre.

A HDR10+ technology demo was held at Samsung's First Look event at Enclave Las Vegas on 7th January.