Chromecast with Google TV becomes HDR10+ certified, but there isn’t much support for it yet

Google’s Chromecast with Google TV has been making its rounds since launch and becoming the go-to streaming technology for many. For those who don’t have the device, Google has been working with hardware partners like Sony and TCL in order to make a special version of its shiny, new Google TV interface that works well with their proprietary software. Now, FlatPanelsHD has put out a statement announcing that Google has officially become a key adopter of its HDR10+ streaming standard. The HDR10+ organization has been trying to raises awareness of its new standard, and getting Google on board with its extremely popular device is a big win.

“Google is pleased to join the growing number of companies adopting HDR10+ and working with the HDR+
Technologies LLC”, said Matt Frost, Director of Product Management at Google. “We envision HDR10+ being a
key enabler for Chromecast with GoogleTV plus other platforms going forth and we look forward to helping our
various partners across the industry achieve a great HDR experience”.

Matt Frost – Google

For those unfamiliar with this new High Dynamic Range certification, I’ll defer to Digital Trends as they’ve written up a wonderful piece explaining the differences between HDR, HDR10, and HDR10+. Use this as a reference to get caught up on the basics of what 10+’s predecessors provide. There is also a whitepaper that explains all of this at length, but in essence, the new HDR10+ adds to the work done by previous iterations.

For example, it increases maximum brightness to 4,000 nits, which in turn increases contrast. The core difference though is that it handles metadata differently. Because of this, each frame of a video on the TV screen is able to utilize its own set of colors, brightness, and contrast in order to make the image look much more realistic and true-to-life.

HDR10+ is a royalty-free format that was developed by three companies cooperating toward a common goal – 20th Century Fox, Panasonic, and Samsung. Until now, it’s been limited to TVs created by these companies, but with Google entering the fold with a streaming dongle, access to it is about to completely change.

Lastly, content creators and distributors will need to offer better support for HDR10+ before users truly feel its impact. As of right now, there aren’t many TV shows or movies on streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+ that have been created with this new standard in mind, and we’ll have to wait until more apps and services begin to implement it. Basically, it’s going to be something we should just keep an eye on over time.