YouTube Announces HDR Support

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which took placed between 5 and 9 Jan of 2016 showcased the tech world showing off its latest products and services in Las Vegas, USA. Amongst the many tech giants holding press conferences to release news of their latest included one of the world's top ten website namely, YouTube.

Robert Kyncl, Chief Business Officer of YouTube in his keynote, according to 9to5Google, talked about the evolution and successes of YouTube. To make the point he brought onto the stage Scooter Braun who initially discovered Justin Bieber's music video on YouTube. Scooter Braun remarked to the participants of CES,"Don't try to make content for millions of people," but "make content that makes people feel."

Kyncl also made an important prediction in that watching videos would the most the important activity in people's lives apart from eating and sleeping!. He also added that YouTube and Nick Woodman's GoPro are partnering to bring more 360 degree content to the video platform.

At the end of his keynote, Kyncl uttered the unexpected in that YouTube would be supporting HDR soon. If you are wondering what is HDR, It stands for High Dynamic Range and been described as technology that takes two videos or images and essentially merges them together to give the best lightning and quality possible.

According to DNAIndia HDR "refers to digital imagery that has an expanded contrast range and color pallette compared to conventional images, resulting in colors that are deeper, blacks that are purer and bright areas with crisp detail."

The point to note is that the television or monitor displaying the content needs to support the HDR feature for the effect to be visible.Coincidently, Samsung, Sony, LG and Panasonic also announced of HDR support for their next generation of TVs.

Another explanation was given by leading tech site Mashable in that "similar to HDR mode on smartphone cameras, which combine multiple exposures into a single frame, HDR video brings out better color and detail". They also noted to see the full benefit of HDR effect you will need a screen that supports HDR.

Newer video playback devices like Ultra HD Blu-ray players support HDR. This announcement by YouTube adds YouTube to Amazon and Netflix in the HDR supporting category.

The addition of HDR would mean a great deal for folks who want to make videos where colors and contrasts are crucial. It would be like watching a clip via Ultra HD Blu-ray player and soon via Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic TVs and monitors.