What is HDR? Here's a look at what it means for televisions to have High Dynamic Range

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The fall television season is in full swing and if spending a lot of time in front of your TV has you thinking it might be time for a new one, you're in luck. The experts at Consumer Reports explain the one new feature you might want to seriously consider when you go TV shopping.

If you are in the market for a new television, there's a new technology separating good TV's from even better ones. It's called High Dynamic Range, or HDR, and it's available on most 4K TV's. "This is a technology that's making bigger, brighter, bolder images really more like what you see like in real life. And so that's really the big differentiator this year is how well can a TV handle HDR content," said Jim Willcox, Consumer Reports tech editor.

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HDR is designed to show brighter images with more detail in both the darkest and brightest parts of a scene.

Plenty of TV's on the market say they're HDR capable, but that won't give you an indication of how well they actually do it. "It's one of the reasons that we spend a lot of time right now testing HDR performance," said Willcox. "Because there are some TV's that can deliver all the excitement of HDR, and then there are other TVs that say that they you know support HDR, but they look no different from a normal TV that doesn't even have that feature."

Another difference between the TV's that do HDR well, and those that don't is price. "In our testing, there are some exceptions, but what we found is really you're gonna pay a little bit more to get really good HDR performance," said Willcox.

The show or movie you watch needs to be shot and transmitted in HDR for the feature to work.

But more and more HDR content is being offered, especially by streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

Consumer Reports says that's why buying a TV with good HDR performance is so important.

Most TV's that scored high in Consumer Reports' HDR tests could cost you about $1,000 and up. But there are a few bargains out there. Here is a link to a few of Consumer Reports' recommended models.

Take a look at all of 7 On Your Side's stories with Consumer Reports here.

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