The technology that is tipped to light the touch paper for Ultra HD to take off, high dynamic range (HDR), is projected for a huge increase over the next four years with enabled sets growing 300% to total 47.9 million by 2021, says IHS Markit.
In its TV Design and Features Tracker – Q3 2017, the analyst forecasts that compared with the end of 2017, there will be a further 88.6 million HDR-ready sets — with HDR decoding but no HDR display capability — shipping by 2021. IHS Markit forecasts that regionally, North America will lead with 14.6 million HDR sets shipping in 2021, while China will be second with 11.8 million. The former territory was regarded by the analyst as the sweet spot for TVs, with a preference for large screens, the availability of rich Ultra HD content and a willingness from consumers to buy full-featured sets. Chinese consumers were seen as buying the biggest TV sets available, with price sensitivity higher and Ultra HD content scarcer.“HDR is the biggest improvement coming to TV viewing,” explained IHS Markit associate director for consumer devices Paul Gray. “It has been conclusively demonstrated to have the biggest impact with viewers, and what’s more, the effect works regardless of screen size or resolution. We expect that only 23% of the Ultra HD TVs that ship in 2017 will offer the full HDR experience. The remainder will be able to decode a signal, but lack the high contrast capability to display HDR content to an advantage.”
Yet despite the optimism, IHS Markit warned that the cost of backlights for LCDs remained the biggest technical obstacle to HDR development. It also noted that HDR capabilities in HDTVs could provide a huge increase in perceived quality for a very low data overhead.
