Home » iQIYI Dr. Wang Zhihang talks about the full application of HDR Vivid

iQIYI Dr. Wang Zhihang talks about the full application of HDR Vivid

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Original title: iQIYI Dr. Wang Zhihang talks about the full application of HDR Vivid

How long does it take for a video platform to provide a true HDR experience to a wide range of users?

From the front-end production of content sources, to content distribution, decoding chips, to brightness adaptation, terminal restoration… Any link needs to support HDR, and it is indispensable. To sum up, it is probably a journey through mountains and rivers.

The road is not only long, but also very difficult to walk.

At present, although the industry has reached a consensus that HDR is an important evolution direction in the video field, there is still no consensus on what standard should be used to define HDR – the respective elaboration of technical standards, and the production processes of different color management schemes, ranging from SDR to HDR. Versioning, a myriad of encodings, metadata and material formats…

Although a unified standard has not been reached, HDR is one of the important forces for various video platforms to provide users with a differentiated and high-quality experience. Taking iQIYI as an example, it has been investing in the exploration of HDR for many years. In 2021, it will become the first streaming media platform in the online audio-visual industry that can support the broadcast of HDR Vivid high dynamic range video standard with full HDR content.

Recently, on the development trend of HDR, a reporter from the streaming media network had an in-depth dialogue with Dr. Wang Zhihang from iQIYI. In his opinion, excellent HDR technology can make color expression richer and more accurate, and allow users to better discover and experience “art creation”. beauty of”.

What is HDR?

In fact, HDR is no longer a young concept. Its full name is High-Dynamic Range, that is, high dynamic range. The predecessor of its evolution is SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), that is, standard dynamic range. It is an inescapable element in the upgrade iteration of video quality.

The quality of video quality is closely related to the five elements of resolution, bit depth, frame rate, color gamut and brightness. Resolution affects the clarity of image details, bit depth affects the fineness of color gradients, frame rate reflects the smoothness of video actions, color gamut shows the range of colors that a video can express, and brightness indicates the overall brightness range of a video.

Just like when we talk about 5G, it is not only a communication technology, but represents a new intelligent stage of cloud-edge-device integration; when we talk about the evolution of video quality, it is not only the improvement of video definition, but also the A full range of iterations such as brightness, color, and detail.

This is not a set of isolated solutions. Only the simultaneous development of multiple key links can drive systemic changes in content production and commerce. HDR is a key part of it. It expands the display range of traditional SDR and has a wider color range. Through the rich details of the bright and dark parts of the image, the image quality is improved in dimensions such as contrast and grayscale. The images are more delicate and real, and more infectious.

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It is precisely because of this that in the era of stock competition, in order to provide users with a better video experience, video platforms have invested a lot in HDR in recent years, and the competition has already moved from the content level to the innovative video technology level.

As a video platform driven by technological innovation, iQIYI has always exploited the core value of content through technological innovation. Wang Zhihang believes that HDR can greatly improve the overall image quality and performance, bring users better visual enjoyment, and will inevitably further enhance the value of content.

Before that, however, there are a number of issues that need to be resolved. The operation of HDR technology is not a single link, but an end-to-end technology from content production to transmission to device display. At present, the industry’s standards for HDR have not yet formed an effective unified specification. From shooting, production, transmission to playback, etc., there is still a lot of room for improvement in compatibility. This means that there is still a lot of potential for improvement – iQiyi has traveled a lot in the development of HDR and can support a variety of HDR standards on the market. Among them, HDR Vivid is a video standard with an open and friendly intellectual property policy, which may become the cornerstone of opening up the industry chain.

What is HDR Vivid?

In September 2021, iQIYI announced that full HDR content can support the HDR Vivid high dynamic range video standard released by the China Ultra HD Video Industry Alliance.

This is actually a relatively new HDR standard. It was officially released in September 2020. The official introduction is that this is a more open and friendly video technology standard and solution, which is more suitable for all partners in the ultra-high-definition video industry ecological chain. End-to-end industrial deployment.

After exploring HDR for many years, iQIYI chose full HDR content to support HDR Vivid, what is the reason? Wang Zhihang revealed, “On the one hand, HDR Vivid is an open technology, so we can have a lot of room for technical optimization; On the one hand, the emergence of HDR Vivid will promote iQIYI’s HDR content to be played on different terminals, and the user experience will be consistent. We believe it is a leader in the field of HDR. In addition, HDR Vivid is a new technical standard, and it has been involved earlier. While helping the technology evolve and iterate, we may also occupy some core technology patents, which will be helpful to iQIYI’s next video technology development.”

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Several months after the practical application, Wang Zhihang, an expert in audio and video codec technology research, gave a good evaluation, except that HDR Vivid technology supports PQ brightness with a maximum value of 10000nits, and the brightness of the image screen is increased by 40 times; the color gamut coverage rate is as high as 57.3 %, the image color is increased by 72%; the unique mapping processing algorithm can realize the advantages of “scenario-based” brightness and color mapping, the core advantage of HDR Vivid is that its custom set of Metadata metadata information can control HDR video in Different terminals achieve a unified playback effect.

“At present, both the director and the colorist of iQIYI have encountered a problem. The video content they carefully produced may be slightly different from the original debugging effect when played on different terminals,” said Wang Zhihang, “HDR Vivid provides It’s actually a big technological advance.”

At the 2021 iQIYI World Conference, iQIYI founder and CEO Gong Yu and iQIYI CTO Liu Wenfeng spent a lot of space describing iQIYI’s investment in technology and technological innovation, and expressed such a concept: iQIYI wants to build a bridge between artists and users.

Now, HDR Vivid has become part of the construction of this bridge. Wang Zhihang believes that HDR Vivid can achieve a unified effect on different platforms and different terminals, and preserve the artist’s creative intention to the greatest extent.

In other words, HDR Vivid can not only help iQIYI build a bridge between artists and users, but more importantly, it can make HDR content truly have HDR attributes, allowing users to truly gain the experience of HDR, which is very important to the industry. The long-term significance is no small matter.

The value of HDR Vivid?

Does adopting a more advanced standard mean that it is done once and for all? Of course not, it has to fit, apply, adapt.

Wang Zhihang revealed that iQiyi’s HDR Vivid program production technology is still in the process of frequent iteration and continuous maturity. “We found some special problems to be solved during the adaptation process. There is still room for the integration of HDR Vivid and our technology, and we can achieve better adaptation on the film source. After extensive testing, we have now found We found a solution.” Wang Zhihang said, “Because HDR Vivid is an open standard on the production side, when we added Metadata metadata information in the optimization process, we found that different Metadata strategies would affect the final playback experience. It has an impact, so we continue to collect user feedback, analyze specific cases and then gradually improve.”

In addition, iQIYI is also planning to develop a production system for HDR Vivid, so that the production system can be automatically connected to support the content format of HDR Vivid.

It can be seen that iQiyi has made great efforts to HDR Vivid, which also affirms the value of HDR Vivid from the side. The effect of technology-enabled video quality has begun to take effect on iQIYI’s cinema-level audio and video standard “Frame Qiying Picture”. Taking iQIYI’s self-produced drama “The Wind Rises in Luoyang” as an example, after “Frame Qiying” is turned on, the light and shade of the movie screen, the contrast between cold and warm, and the level of detail layout all present a more realistic visual perception. So far, iQIYI has produced more than 10,000 hours of HDR Vivid programs.

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However, Wang Zhihang admitted that the challenges are still huge. First, the film selection process needs to be optimized. Not all content is suitable for producing HDR Vivid content. For example, some old films in the 1990s cannot reflect the true attributes of HDR due to their unsatisfactory picture quality. ;Secondly, it needs to be processed on demand. If the processing is not careful, the color and brightness of the HDR video will appear discordant; the third is the terminal presentation. If the HDR Vivid processing method is also adopted on the hardware that does not support HDR Vivid, it may be Overexposure occurs. The most difficult thing is how to deal with different hardware terminals and video conditions to truly restore the color and brightness of HDR video in the whole process from content production to publishing to viewing?

Fortunately, all parties in the industry chain have now started “cooperative operations”. It is reported that since the launch of HDR Vivid for more than a year, the ecological members have continued to grow and expand, and have extended to all aspects of the industry chain including content platforms, chip companies, and terminal manufacturers. benign development trend.

From this point of view, iQIYI’s current investment in HDR Vivid is actually looking at the problem from a long-term perspective, exploring a “solution” that is more suitable for the domestic market for the HDR industry that has been stagnant for many years. In fact, this is not only iQIYI’s own business development needs, but also adds fuel to the rapid development of the ultra-high-definition industry.

With the continuous participation of more ecological partners, the HDR road from production, transmission to playback mentioned at the beginning of the article has become wider and wider, and it is not only the ecological members of HDR Vivid who can benefit from it. The value of the entire ultra-high-definition industry and even the audio-visual industry will be further amplified.


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