HDR TV sales will reach 2.5 million units next year, but the industry chain development faces huge challenges

At the opening ceremony of this year's Rio Olympics, NBC (National Broadcasting Corporation) used 4K HDR technology to shoot, allowing the American people to fully experience the shocking effects brought by HDR technology, and once again making HDR technology the new darling of the television industry.

In China, major TV terminal manufacturers have also used HDR technology in their flagship products this year. It is considered to be the next biggest opportunity to accelerate the TV upgrade cycle after 4K TV, as can be seen from the improvement of industry standards twice a year.

There are huge challenges in promoting the development of the HDR TV industry chain

Judging from the current market popularity of HDR TVs, Lu Renbo, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Commerce Association, predicts that HDR TV sales will reach 1 million units this year and soar to 2.5 million units in 2017, becoming the mainstream product in the development of China's color TV market. It is understood that mainstream color TV companies have basically adopted 4K+HDR technology in their mid-to-high-end products.

After nearly a year of technological growth, HDR TVs have greatly improved their display performance, and the corresponding evaluation technical specifications are also in urgent need of upgrading. At the "HDR Display Certification Technical Specification Upgrade Seminar" hosted by the Consumer Electronics Product Investigation Office of the China Electronic Commerce Association, Sun Qifeng, an engineer at the Digital TV Standard Compliance Testing Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced the indicators that the new specifications plan to adjust and add, such as the peak brightness (LCD) upgraded from the original 800nit to 1000nit, and added color coordinate deviation and color reproduction and other testing indicators. It is not an exaggeration to describe this indicator upgrade as "high standards and strict requirements", which means that the color TV industry will once again face severe tests.

Although the industry unanimously believes that HDR is an opportunity to accelerate the TV upgrade cycle, there are still huge challenges in seizing this opportunity. As we all know, HDR is an end-to-end solution from shooting, production, transmission to display. Although the technical specifications of the display end of HDR technology have been initially established and upgraded, the maturity of the display end technology alone does not mean that the entire HDR industry chain has been developed and perfected, because the TV industry has been "walking" on the track of hardware-driven, thus driving the booming development of content.

In terms of content, both US streaming media companies Netflix and Amazon claim that they will release more than 150 hours of HDR original dramas by the end of 2016. In terms of transmission, like 4K, HDR has high transmission bandwidth requirements due to its large data volume and high bit rate, which is the key issue to be solved in the next step.

This is very similar to the development trajectory of 4K display technology back then. 4K TVs came first, followed by the emergence of ultra-high-definition content.

The market prospects are bright and will become a hot spot for high-end consumption in the future

Regardless of how the HDR industry chain develops, the color TV industry has already regarded HDR as the next big thing in TV technology, and there is no doubt that HDR TVs will become the products that companies are pushing this year. The "HDR TV Market Research and Analysis Report" released by the Consumer Electronics Product Survey Office of the China Electronic Commerce Association shows that there are currently 11 brands, more than 40 series, and more than 70 HDR TVs on sale. HDR TVs are mostly concentrated in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes, accounting for more than 70% of the entire HDR market. It is expected that the overall sales volume this year will be within 1 million units, and consumption is expected to double next year.

Monitoring data from AVIC Cloud Network shows that the retail market penetration rate of HDR TVs reached 6.8% in the first half of 2016, and this figure is expected to climb to 8.4% for the whole year. The market prospects are very broad.

It is reported that on the eve of the seminar, the Digital TV Standard Conformity Testing Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology conducted a preliminary test on new HDR TV products submitted by Sony, Samsung, Skyworth, Sharp and other companies. The results showed that the key performance indicators of these products, such as color gamut coverage, peak brightness, brightness maintenance rate, black brightness, color coordinate deviation and color reproduction, have reached new indicators.

The person in charge of Sony TV said that although the current prices of several Sony HDR TVs are over 10,000 yuan, or even around 60,000 yuan, the market sales have been on an upward trend, indicating that consumers' acceptance of high-end HDR TVs is increasing.

With the efforts of Chinese and foreign color TV companies in HDR technology, the upgrade of HDR display certification technical specifications is imminent. The technological upgrade will further drive the expansion of the content end and the follow-up of the transmission end, and the large-scale popularization of HDR TVs will be just around the corner.

Lu Renbo believes that HDR technology is a brand new revolution for the color TV industry, which has brought a qualitative leap in picture quality and has also become the threshold for new color TV products to enter the high-end market this year.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.