Streaming service Netflix, which was in the vanguard of 4K streaming with House of Cards back in 2014, is set to concentrate on High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology for forthcoming drama productions.

Speaking to Digital Trends, Neil Hunt, chief product officer at Netflix, said he thought HDR was “more visibly different than 4K”, noting that over the past 15 years, there had been plenty of increments of pixels on the screen, with experience from digital cameras meaning that pixel count eventually stopped being interesting

According to Hunt, dynamic range matters more because modern TVs are still nowhere near approximating the brightest brights and darkest darks we can see with our eyes. He predicted that HDR technology would advance by leaps and bounds, being delivered in more and more compelling ways, suggesting that the content would have to catch up in the meantime.

“The big step for Netflix this year is that we’re shooting our original shows with cameras that are capable of capturing all the range, then mastering for HDR,” he advised. “That includes all the metadata for both types of TVs because we worked with the manufacturers to render it properly. We’re ready to start building a library and the TVs are making a big leap this year.”

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