Google adds HDR video support to YouTube

With video technology continually on the move, YouTube is constantly upgrading their platform to keep up with the times. Today they announced High Dynamic Range (HDR) video support is now available for all creators.

What is HDR? HDR videos basically contain more information about colours and brightness, allowing a larger ‘range’ to be displayed on compatible screens. Think of it like a colour wheel at the paint store, you can see a little card with 10 colours on it, but behind the counter is an atlas with many more shades and hues allowing you to get a greater colour depth and range. With a compatible TV, you’ll get more colours, lighter whites and darker blacks and more in between the two.

To upload HDR video to YouTube creators can visit the how to to get a step by step guide. Of course, you’ll have to have camera gear that is capable of recording in HDR for this to be any use.

For content consumers, you’ll need to have an HDR capable display, and either a Chromecast 4K or a HDR capable HTPC (and HDMI cable) to get that content onto your screen. A fast internet connection may also be a good idea. If that’s you then you can check out the launch hub for a few videos. Otherwise check out YouTube creators like MysteryGuitarMan, Jacob + Katie Schwarz, and Abandon Visuals who are all signed on to create 4K content.

It’s great to see YouTube adopting the new standards and ensuring that their platform can deliver the very best in video quality, however, very few of us will actually be able to take advantage of it anytime soon. The thing is Google is OK with that, this isn’t a play for today’s content consumers, it’s a play to make sure that when HDR is more ubiquitous that YouTube will be able to have a wide range of the best-looking content available.

If the rumours of Google looking to expand their YouTube Red originals into more produced theatrical style content is true, then updates like these will ensure that any such content will be great well into the future.