3rd-gen Fire TV Cube gains the ability to fully disable HDR from the Fire TV Stick 4K Max

Posted by Elias Saba on — 2 Comments

When the Fire TV Stick 4K Max launched, it introduced a new setting that allows you to fully disable all HDR, as opposed to only being able to choose from HDR being always on and HDR being adaptive. This setting is handy for those with quirky TVs, AVRs, or HDMI switches that don’t behave correctly with HDR signals. Thankfully, the Fire TV Cube 3 also has the same option to disable HDR. Now if only Amazon would add it to older Fire TV models, like the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube.

See all my 3rd-gen Fire TV Cube coverage here.

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Prime Video leans more into Dolby Vision HDR by adding support to both new and old Amazon Originals

Posted by Elias Saba on — 9 Comments

When it comes to High Dynamic Range (HDR) formats, most experts agree that Dolby Vision is the superior format, edging out HDR10+ content and significantly outperforming HDR10 and HLG content. That’s why it’s unfortunate that Prime Video tends to favor HDR10 and HDR10+ as its format of choice, with the selection of Dolby Vision movies and TV shows available on the streaming service being quite sparse, especially when it comes to Amazon originals. That could finally be changing as Amazon has released its highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series in Dolby Vision and, more surprisingly, gone back and added Dolby Vision to an older Amazon original series for the first time. Read more ›

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How to Ensure your Fire TV or Firestick is ACTUALLY displaying HDR or Dolby Vision video

Posted by Elias Saba on — 8 Comments

Did you know that it’s possible for your TV to indicate that you’re watching HDR10 or Dolby Vision video but your Fire TV is actually streaming plain old standard dynamic range SDR content? This is due to how most streaming services ramp up and down the type of content that you’re receiving based on available bandwidth and connection speed. If you ever find yourself questioning whether what you’re watching is actually in HDR or Dolby Vision, here is how to tell on a Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, or Fire TV Smart TV. Read more ›

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Fire TV Stick 4K Max finally has the option to disable HDR entirely

Posted by Elias Saba on — 16 Comments

High dynamic range, or HDR, video is great. Well, until it isn’t. Sometimes you just want to turn it off entirely for one reason or another, so, it has been frustrating for many people that Fire TVs have only had the option to force HDR on all the time or let the device decide when to turn it on with an adaptive option. That has finally changed with the Fire TV Stick 4K Max because it’s now the first Fire TV model to include a third “Disable HDR” option. The device is running the newest version of Fire OS that I’ve seen yet, v7.2.5.5, so there is hope that this new HDR option will trickle down to older Fire TV models with a future update.

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Amazon will be the first to stream HDR10+ content later this week

Posted by Elias Saba on — 12 Comments

Amazon will be the first streaming service to support HDR10+ video when it begins streaming the new high dynamic range standard to Samsung TVs on Wednesday, reports Yonhap News. Around 100 TV shows and movies will be available in the new improved format, including The Grand Tour, The Tick, and The Man in the High Castle. HDR10+ improves on HDR10 by adding dynamic metadata that can be used to more accurately adjust brightness levels on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis. It’s the closest HDR standard to Dolby Vision, which many consider to produce the best image quality. However, unlike Dolby’s proprietary standard which requires a paid license, HDR10+ is an open standard for anyone to use royalty-free.

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Amazon is currently testing an HDR capable 4K Fire TV

Posted by Elias Saba on — 11 Comments

We already know Amazon is working on a new Fire TV capable of 4K and HDR, thanks to a leaked benchmark from earlier this year, but it now seems the unreleased device has moved on from development to quality assurance testing. My scripts, which crawl for new Fire TV apps for my weekly app roundup, occasionally pick up apps created by Amazon employees to test certain aspects of the Fire TV. These test apps are usually uninteresting and are commonly deleted within a day, but a new test app just appeared that is clearly meant to test HDR support on a Fire TV. Read more ›

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Amazon Video becomes first streaming service to offer HDR content on mobile devices

Posted by Elias Saba on — 7 Comments

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About a year ago, Amazon became the first streaming service to offer high dynamic range (HDR) content. Now they’ve achieved a similar first by becoming the first streaming service to bring that content to mobile devices. Samsung has today revealed the Galaxy Note 7 which claims to be the first mobile HDR smartphone. The devices Quad HD 2,560 x 1,440 Super AMOLED display is capable of a peak brightness around 800 nits, which places it in the 700 to 1,000 nits range that most HDR capable TVs produce. For comparison, the average non-HDR TV, and the previous generation Galaxy Note, have a peak brightness around 400 nits.

Amazon is making their full lineup of HDR content available on the new Galaxy Note 7. This includes original shows such as Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, and Mozart in the Jungle. Additionally, Sony Pictures Entertainment movies, like After Earth, Chappie, and Elysium, are also available in HDR. Read on for Amazon Video’s full list of HDR content. Read more ›

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Amazon Video expands HDR content to support Dolby Vision

Posted by Elias Saba on — 4 Comments

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Amazon and Dolby have announced that Amazon Video will now support the high dynamic range (HDR) format Dolby Vision. When Amazon became the first streaming service to offer HDR, it adopted the HDR10 standard. Amazon’s HDR support is now expanding to cover both popular formats. Amazon’s original series Bosch, as well as several movies from Sony Picture including Men in Black 3, Salt, Elysium, Fury, and The Smurfs 2 will be the first titles available in the new HDR format. The only TVs to support Amazon Video’s new HDR format are LG’s Super UHD and OLED sets, as well as Vizio’s Reference Series, M-Series, and P-Series TVs.

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Amazon launches HDR video in the UK

Posted by Elias Saba on — 3 Comments

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Amazon is bringing high dynamic range (HDR) streaming video to the UK through Prime Instant Video. A couple months ago, Amazon became the first video service to offer HDR content when it made the premier season of Mozart in the Jungle and the first episode of Red Oaks available in HDR in the US. Now they’re also making the same content available in HDR in the UK.

HDR video uses image capturing techniques coupled with new television technologies to produce a greater range of luminosity than traditional video. In layman’s terms, HDR video results in a brighter more vivid image without compromising picture detail. HDR video is in its infancy, with only a small number of TVs available, but it has the potential to be the next big sought-after feature after 4K.

SourceTechRadar

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Amazon becomes first video service to offer HDR content

Posted by Elias Saba on — 9 Comments

amazon-prime-instant-video-hdr-high-dynamic-range

Earlier this year, Amazon announced that high dynamic range (HDR) video was coming to Amazon Prime Instant Video. HDR video uses image capturing techniques coupled with new television technologies to produce a greater range of luminosity than traditional video. In layman’s terms, HDR video results in a brighter more vivid image without compromising picture detail. Amazon today made good on their promise and have announced that the premier season of Mozart in the Jungle and the first episode of Red Oaks are now available in HDR through the Amazon Instant Video apps on select smart TVs. Since viewing HDR video requires an HDR capable TV, there are only 2 Samsung TVs that currently support Amazon’s HDR videos. Is HDR a gimmick that will be forgotten like 3D TVs, or will we see it supported on the next generation of Fire TV devices? Let me know what you think in the comments.

SourceAmazon

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