IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2015 - 84

Table 4. The pros and cons of different HDR acquisition techniques.
technique

Pros

Cons

Single sensor

Simple, no bracketing problems

Expensive, noise in low light

Temporal bracketing

Easy to implement, no hardware changes

Ghosting, requires high frame rate

Spatial bracketing

No temporal mismatch

Lower resolution, modification to sensor

Sensor bracketing

No need of high-quality sensor

Modifications to the optical system

Camera bracketing

Easy to set up

Geometric distortion due to mirror, portability

Table 5. LDR and HDR bit rates required for uncompressed movie in high definition (HD, spatial resolution
of 1,920 × 1,080 at 25 frames/s).
type

bpp

Bit rate

Dynamic range (cd\m2)

relative Precision

gamut

BT.709

≈ 1.25 Gb/s

Designed for 0.1 to 100

see BT.1361 [17]

BT.709

BT.2020

≈ 1.55 Gb/s

Designed for 0.1 to 100

see BT.1361 [17]

BT.2020

PQ encoding

≈ 1.55 Gb/s

Designed for 0.005 to 10,000

see SMPTE ST 2084 [19]

Full visible

0.1%

Full visible

0.000003%

Full visible

RGBE or XYZE
OpenEXR half float
HDR full float

≈ 1.65 Gb/s

≈ 2.5 Gb/s

≈ 5 Gb/s

−42

5.7397 × 10

5.96 × 10 to 65,504
−38

1.18 × 10

Table 6. The storage capacity of Blu-Ray, DVD, and
bit rates considered in television broadcast.
size/Bit rate

Blu-ray

25 Gb

DVD

4.7 Gb

Broadcast

≈ 8 Mb/s

84 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

october 2015

to 1.6981 × 10

−8

a color gamut conversion from one standard representation
to another is still mandatory so that the display interprets
color values correctly. This conversion is also required if
the gamut of the display is bigger than that of the content
and metadata are not available (for performing color
gamut expansion).
Note that the above-mentioned dynamic range and color
transformation require the content to be represented in
physical scene values. Thus, if a content is encoded to a
standard color pixel representation, it is required to be
decoded before implementing these transformations. While
dynamic range and color transformation have been for a
long time two separate fields related to different applications, the emergence of HDR technology is inevitably leading to their convergence.

storage

to 3.402823 × 10

EMERGENCE OF HDR TECHNOLOGY
TO THE CONSUMER MARKET
HDR is an exciting advancement in digital media, delivering
true-life visuals and unparalleled quality of experience; it is considered to be the latest evolution in imaging technology. As
HDR is introduced to the professional and consumer markets,
challenges remain as to how our current broadcasting infrastructure will migrate and deliver this technology to the consumer.
The main concern is the lack of standards for delivery of
HDR content as there are no internationally accepted specifications for what qualifies as an HDR display. Given this lack of
certainty on what constitutes an HDR display, and the fact that
manufacturers are rushing to enter the market, there are numerous displays that are labeled as HDR available to consumers
yet they would not necessarily qualify as such if a baseline
standard was in place.
In terms of capturing HDR content, things are much clearer.
HDR camera manufacturers are increasingly improving sensor technologies, paving the way for true HDR content production. All the while, production houses, fully aware of the
need for HDR mastering, are stepping up with new processing techniques for HDR content generation.
As one would expect, any media distribution entails standardization of the compression scheme aimed at reducing bandwidth allocation and making transmission cost-effective. The
potential of HDR has motivated International Organization for

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - October 2015