“There has been a significant increase in the amount of HDR content now available for streaming. This is good news because HDR provides an undeniably enhanced viewing experience consumers have come to appreciate and expect,” says Mitchell. “The trick for the streaming industry revolves around seamlessly integrating a wide array of SDR and HDR content and delivering the best possible experience to the installed base of devices that only support SDR while simultaneously addressing the rapidly growing HDR market.” 

Meeting this expectation in a technically efficient and cost-effective manner is becoming increasingly important as OTT providers ramp up subscription costs and others pursue ad-supported business models. HDR, says Mitchell, will play a significant role in helping consumers justify increased subscription costs or support consumers’ willingness to tolerate commercial interruptions. One key to elevating the attractiveness of commercial supported business models will be to deliver advertising content in high quality HDR. 

Setting the Stage for the HDR Streaming Era

After a pandemic-fueled spurt of growth that brought over 215 million viewers to video streaming services in 2021, providers have struggled to hold onto their base as the overall market contracted to approximately 203 million in 2022, according to analysts at Statista. While demand appears to be slowly rebounding, analysts do not expect the market to recapture its 2021 highs until 2026 or early 2027.

“As a result, the video streaming service provider market is among the most competitive entertainment technology segments, prompting leaders to seek ways to control costs while introducing new compelling viewing experiences,” he explains.

It is in this context that a technologically sophisticated approach to delivering HDR while streaming content to the still-large installed base of standard-dynamic range (SDR) devices is emerging as a compelling solution for video streaming providers. 

“When consumers see HDR content, they simply can’t deny that what they are looking at is better,” says Mitchell. “At a time when streaming service providers are beginning to raise subscription prices or explore ad-supported business models, meeting consumer expectations for high-quality services must be a priority.” 

Strategies for Meeting Demand for HDR 

Two key questions facing the video streaming market revolve around effectively delivering HDR to consumers while supporting the significant presence of SDR-only devices still in the market and leveraging legacy libraries of SDR content.

“Even though HDR has become a baseline requirement for content creators and consumers, many video streaming providers must determine what to do with their legacy SDR content while ensuring that they serve viewers the best possible picture quality regardless of whether their devices support HDR or SDR. Given the contraction that occurred from 2021 to 2022, every subscriber counts. Leaders in the sector must, therefore, create a roadmap that develops the full potential of HDR while serving all current viewers,” he says. 

For video streaming providers with large SDR libraries, this means determining how to convert the content to HDR in an effective manner while preserving original creative intent.

“There are two ways this can be accomplished,” Mitchell explains. “The first is to go through SDR files manually and spend hundreds — if not thousands — of hours converting SDR content to HDR. The second is to figure out how to harness intelligent technologies and dynamic workflows to perform the conversion automatically. The second approach is the only scalable and economically viable strategy.”

Automatic conversion of SDR to HDR — and back to SDR if necessary — is one of the distinguishing features of Advanced HDR by Technicolor, a collaboration between Philips, InterDigital and Technicolor. It is a critical capability for video streaming service providers with legacy libraries who want to meet the visual expectations of their viewers.

“At last year’s NAB 2023 conference in Las Vegas, Cinnafilm — which provides award-winning video and audio processing solutions for standards conversions — demonstrated how Advanced HDR by Technicolor has been integrated into its well-established PixelStrings offering to execute high-quality, yet cost-effective, SDR to HDR conversions,” Mitchell says.

Single Workflow and Distribution Strategy for HDR and SDR Streaming

Once files are converted, streaming providers’ next major consideration is determining how best to manage and distribute HDR and SDR content. The most significant peril to avoid, warns Mitchell, is managing these content categories separately.

“That is precisely the problem statement we wanted to address when we developed Advanced HDR by Technicolor. Indeed, our focus on this issue has prompted us to zig while the rest of the industry zagged. Here is what I mean. Until Advanced HDR by Technicolor, all efforts to develop HDR formats worked with static look-up tables (known as ‘static LUTs’). Separate workflows and distributions were required when working with HDR and SDR content,” he says.

The Advanced HDR by Technicolor team determined that it would be more effective over the long run to leverage intelligent meta-data technology attached to SDR content for conversion to HDR when the receiving device can display HDR. 

“As a result, video streaming providers do not have to allocate extra space to their storage. The meta-data strategy employed by Advanced HDR by Technicolor also means that video streaming providers do not have to support separate distribution streams for their SDR and HDR content,” concludes Mitchell. 

Further enhancing the efficiency of content distribution, Advanced HDR by Technicolor is uniquely able to deliver accurate HDR video with 8-bit AVC, as well as HEVC and VVC using 10-bit pixels for both high definition and ultra-high definition resolution.

Nick Mitchell: There has been a significant increase in the amount of HDR content now available for streaming. This is good news because HDR provides an undeniably enhanced viewing experience consumers have come to appreciate and expect.

Meeting this expectation in a technically efficient and cost-effective manner is becoming increasingly important as some providers ramp up subscription costs and others pursue ad-supported business models. HDR plays a major role in helping consumers justify the increased costs or the willingness to tolerate commercial interruptions. 

The key question revolves around how to effectively deliver HDR to consumers — while supporting the large presence of SDR-only TVs and devices still in the market.

So, even though HDR has become a baseline requirement for content creators and consumers, many video streaming providers must determine what to do with their legacy SDR content while ensuring that they serve viewers the best possible picture quality regardless of whether their devices support HDR or SDR. Given the contraction that occurred from 2021 to 2022, every subscriber counts. Leaders in the sector must, therefore, create a roadmap that develops the full potential of HDR — which is in many ways still in its nascent stages of market development — while serving all current viewers. 

Q: We’ve seen established video OTT providers and media powerhouses with large catalogs of SDR content enter the streaming game. How does that affect the availability of HDR content? 

Mitchell: The competitive entertainment landscape means that streaming providers must adapt. As they do, they’ll be compelled to ensure that their entire library is compatible with HDR to meet the new standard baseline. 

For video streaming providers with large SDR libraries, this means determining how to convert the content to HDR in an effective manner while preserving original creative intent.

There are two ways that this can be accomplished. The first is to go through SDR files manually and spend hundreds — if not thousands — of hours converting SDR content for HDR distribution.

The second is to figure out how to harness intelligent technologies and dynamic workflows to perform the conversion automatically. The second approach is the only scalable and economically viable strategy.

Automatic conversion of SDR to HDR — and back to SDR if necessary — is one of the distinguishing features of Advanced HDR by Technicolor and a critical capability for video streaming service providers with legacy libraries who want to meet the visual expectations of their viewers.

At last year’s NAB conference in Las Vegas, Cinnafilm — which provides award winning video and audio processing solutions for standards conversions — demonstrated how Advanced HDR by Technicolor has been integrated into its well-established PixelStrings offering to execute high-quality, yet cost-effective, SDR to HDR conversions.

Q: Does this mean that video streaming providers must now maintain, manage and distribute two versions of their libraries? 

Mitchell: Absolutely not! That is precisely the problem statement we wanted to address when we developed Advanced HDR by Technicolor. Indeed, our focus on this issue has prompted us to zig while the rest of the industry zagged.

Here is what I mean. Until Advanced HDR by Technicolor, all efforts to develop HDR formats worked with static look-up tables (known as “static LUTs”). Separate workflows and distributions were required when working with HDR and SDR content.

We determined that it would be more effective over the long run to leverage intelligent meta-data technology attached to SDR content for conversion to HDR when the receiving device can display HDR. 

As a result, video streaming providers do not have to allocate extra space to their storage. The meta-data strategy employed by Advanced HDR by Technicolor also means that video streaming providers do not have to support separate distribution streams for their SDR and HDR content. 

There are many advantages to this approach. 

Streaming providers must only manage a single file to deliver HDR content at SDR bit rates. This generates significant savings from an efficiency perspective because the stream is less than half the size of what a dual SDR and HDR inventory and distribution model would require. 

There is also an ecological benefit. It’s much better to do upconversions from a central location than to rely on consuming devices — such as TVs — to perform complex scaling and upconversion operations, which are required hundreds of millions of times across the playout and life cycle of a piece of content.

Q: How can Advanced HDR by Technicolor help advance the interests of streaming service providers in delivering the visual impact and viewing experience for their subscriber base?

Mitchell: Advanced HDR by Technicolor effectively optimizes overall costs throughout the value chain. It substantially reduces the adaptive bit rate ladders and reduces required storage and bandwidth. If a streaming provider starts with SDR content, Advanced HDR by Technicolor can augment HDR with a small metadata payload — we’re talking about less than a hundred bytes per frame. 

In addition to reducing storage and bandwidth, it dramatically simplifies the distribution process. Streaming providers don’t have to think about managing a dual inventory of high and standard dynamic ranges or concern themselves about the device on which the content will be played.

Q: Can HDR deliver an image that matches the 4K without the overhead of an ultra-high definition broadcast (UHD)?

Mitchell: 100%. It’s not about more pixels as much as it is about good ones. If you can improve each pixel, you need fewer at the end of the day. We’ve done numerous tests, side by side, in HDR, high definition (HD) resolutions, and 4K HDR. The results don’t lie. Better pixels get you over the line more often than more pixels.

Q: If a streaming service provider reaches a significant portion of their audience through a variety of broadband networks — including wireless networks — does HDR and the single stream solution become a factor in that scenario?

Mitchell: It does, and it’s yet another feature that sets Advanced HDR by Technicolor apart from the competition. Advanced HDR can run in 8 bits and does not require a 10-bit HDR source – which alternatives in the market require. This illustrates the efficiency of our single-stream deliverable. We can deliver an 8-bit SDR file and achieve HDR quality.

We’ve proven it time and time again with side-by-side viewings of HDR in UHD and HDR generated from Advanced HDR by Technicolor metadata in HD in 8-bit. Most people would be hard-pressed to see many differences.