Sky UK launching HDR Wednesday 27th May.

MissChief

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From Wednesday 27th May, Sky is taking another big step in it’s ongoing commitment to bring the best viewing experience to our customers. We are excited to be launching new High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, giving Sky Q customers even better Ultra HD picture quality.


HDR offers a larger range of displayable colours and brightness. For modern TVs this allows for more realistic images, full of impact, creating the ultimate in-home viewing experience.


This marks the beginning of Sky Q’s HDR journey and we will look to increase the HDR on demand range in 2020, with the following coming before the end of the year:


• More Nature shows

• A selection of Sky Originals

• A selection of blockbuster movies in time for Sky Cinema Christmas.


We are also aiming to bring HDR to the Disney+ and Netflix apps over the coming months as well, so watch out for that.


Get closer to Nature than ever before with HDR


As part of the new Sky Nature channel launch we are excited we are excited to reveal the new on demand HDR shows, Gangs of Lemur Island, Pridelands: Wilderness Reborn and Malawi Wildlife Rescue.

Customers will be able to view these shows


• In “The Natural World in UHD” rail within the Sky Nature collection (27/05-14/06)

• In the Ultra HD rails and sections within Q Home and On Demand


To be clear, the Sky Nature channel itself will not be in HDR.


Who can get HDR?


For a customer to enjoy our new content in HDR they will need:


• A Q experience or Ultra HD subscription (for Ultra HD, the customer will need HD)

• A compatible Sky Q box. Our newer Sky Q 1TB UHD and 2TB boxes support HDR

• Their TV will need to support HDR (HLG format) and have this setting switched on. Sky Q doesn’t currently support HDR10 content.


Some of our older Sky Q boxes do not support HDR. For more information on which boxes don’t support HDR, visit https://www.sky.com/help/expert/articles/check-which-sky-q-box


What if the customer wants to upgrade to a compatible Sky box?


If a customer’s box doesn’t support UHD, follow the normal process to upgrade the customer to a UHD subscription. As part of this upgrade the customer will then receive an HDR compatible box.

If a customer has an old UHD box that doesn’t support HDR, we’re not currently able to upgrade it to a newer HDR-compatible model. We’ll look to support this as we introduce more great HDR content on Q.


How does a customer view in HDR?


The customer doesn’t need to setup anything on their Sky box to view HDR, the settings will automatically be enabled if the customer has a compatible Sky box and pack.

The customer does however need to turn on the settings on their TV. They can check their TV’s manual or manufacturer’s website for help. If they’ve correctly setup their TV for HDR, they might see an alert flash up on the screen for a few seconds when they start watching HDR shows, but this depends on what TV the customer has.
 

gailjon

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If a customer has an old UHD box that doesn’t support HDR, we’re not currently able to upgrade it to a newer HDR-compatible model. We’ll look to support this as we introduce more great HDR content on Q.
Click to expand...

What? New to Sky UHD get a compatible box.

Be with them for years but have been given incompatible box then tough luck!

As usual pay for something with Sky that others get for free because they are new to the service.
 

jpaul

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but ... they have had it in Italy for a >1 year, and those boxes supported it, maybe they revised the streaming strategy for the UK ?

curious - given cv19 bandwidth limiting other streaming services applied they're unlikely to be streaming hdr at a higher bitrate, so how do they accomodate the 8->10 bit HLG/HDR10 adjustment, too.
 

MissChief

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jpaul said:
but ... they have had it in Italy for a >1 year, and those boxes supported it, maybe they revised the streaming strategy for the UK ?

curious - given cv19 bandwidth limiting other streaming services applied they're unlikely to be streaming hdr at a higher bitrate, so how do they accomodate the 8->10 bit HLG/HDR10 adjustment, too.
Click to expand...
On demand downloads aren't streamed, they download to your hard drive and you watch them from there.
 

jpaul

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MissChief said:
On demand downloads aren't streamed, they download to your hard drive and you watch them from there
Click to expand...
OK if its like bbc they send a dash stream in > real time and you can start viewing as soon as you have buffered enough, or, just keep it, on the local hard disk.

.... if the amount of data for the hdr is greater than previous formats ... that would seem to break the sprit of covid limitations ..
 

MissChief

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jpaul said:
OK if its like bbc they send a dash stream in > real time and you can start viewing as soon as you have buffered enough, or, just keep it, on the local hard disk.

.... if the amount of data for the hdr is greater than previous formats ... that would seem to break the sprit of covid limitations ..
Click to expand...
It's saved to the hard drive permanently until you delete it. You're not watching a stream, your watching playback from the hard drive.
 

MissChief

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varkanoid said:
I dont think the general public understand what HDR is especially when there are still people who dont know watch SD are and content to watch SD channel when there is a HD channel the same. Be interesting how they market it.
Click to expand...
Possibly one of the reasons they've waited this long to launch it?
 

jpaul

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Sky’s Technical Specification For Ultra High Definition Content Post Production Considerations
Dynamic Range Where a HDR deliverable has been requested, it must be an addition to the ITU-R BT.709 compliant, SDR grade. The HDR must comply with ITU-R BT.2100 and conform to ITU-R BT.2020 colour space, using the PQ format to a minimum of 1000cd/m2 and with associated SMPTE ST 2086:2014 metadata. Sky will conform PQ content to the broadcast format of HLG10 at 1000cd/m2 . Where a HLG version is requested, it should be derived from the PQ master, graded to 1000cd/m2 . Care should be taken to ensure comfortable viewing with a measured approach to the extended dynamic range available. Unless the impact on the viewer is intentional, consideration should be given to: • Dark scenes followed by very bright shots or scenes, as the sudden jump in luminance may cause discomfort. • Bright scenes followed by dark ones as viewer’s eye may require time to adjust. • Prolonged harsh bright elements in dark scenes (e.g. torches in a dark environment) as it can compromise the visibility of the dark parts of the scene. Excessive use of the dynamic range, without editorial justification, may result in content being rejected.
Click to expand...

it's HLG10 which is still 10 bits ? (like iplayer 4khdr beta)
... tv compatability will be the next issue.
 

XeNoNF50

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I guess this is a positive. Think bitrates with sky are slowly getting better. Was pleasantly surprised when they new gangs ( forgot name haven't watched a single one yet) show was a 12gb download per episode in uhd.
 
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