Your next car could be an HDR car – Harman bringing TV tech into the automobile

There's been huge activity on in-car displays over the past few years, expanding the information and entertainment options for drivers and passengers. The quality of that interior display could be about to get an uplift, thanks to HDR10+ Automotive.

HDR10+ is a TV technology from Samsung that boosts brightness and contrast in content. It uses something called "dynamic metadata", allowing for frame-by-frame adjustment of the hardware to give a better result. It's a rival to Dolby Vision.

Armed with that information, it's no surprise that Harman is the first to offer an HDR10+ Automotive solution, as the brand is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung. And that solution is Ready Display, marking its launch by being the first to gain the HDR10+ Automotive certification.

The certification ensures that the display can produce HDR content and meet the expected visual quality and brightness, in the automotive environment, ie., in your car. It's an adaptive technology, so it will change the display output based on the ambient light, so brighter in the day and dimmer at night.

The Harman Ready Display uses Samsung's Neo QLED technology, confirming that it's Mini LED tech, which is how it achieves the high brightness.

"We’ve long envisioned bringing the living room experience into the car," said Shilpa Dely, vice president of the automotive division at Harman. But the company then goes on to say: "Whether it’s catching up on a favourite show while charging, entertaining kids in the backseat, or navigating safely with enhanced clarity", so this is more than just entertainment.

The Ready Display will come in NQ3, NQ5 and NQ7 forms, offering different levels of performance. The NQ3 is described as an entry-level device, while the NQ7 at the top end "offers near-OLED performance".

To be clear, these displays are for car manufacturers to integrate into their new models, so over the coming months or years it's worth watching out for announcements of HDR-capable in-car displays in new cars.

What difference will HDR10+ screens make in cars?

The biggest impact that HDR10+ is likely to bring is improving the quality. While the certification is about HDR, that means there's increased brightness in the panel. That's not there to provide dazzling results, but the increased brightness could be used to better cut through reflections and ensure clarity under direct sunlight.

But with entertainment moving into cars at pace, it ensures that the premium sound system in a car delivering Dolby Atmos is matched with a screen that can keep up. That might be for the rear passengers, the front passenger or on the central display when the car is parked – perhaps when charging an EV.

HDR makes a big difference to the visual quality of TV and movie content, but we're yet to see that sort of advanced graphics put into place in the car. Most in-car graphics are designed for clarity, but with clever design, adding HDR to the mix could boost that for a better visual experience.

That, of course, would need serious consideration for a manufacturer, because there could be some cars with an HDR interface and some without – and we all know that car manufacturers like consistency above all else.