HDR color volume is a representation of the number of colors a TV can display at different brightness levels. As you want a TV to display as many colors as possible, it's important to have a TV with good color volume so that when you watch content, colors are as vibrant and lifelike as the content creator intended. There are a few factors that help a TV have a good color volume, like color gamut, brightness, and contrast.
This test is specifically for color volume in HDR. We measure the color volume in the DCI-P3 and Rec. 2020 color spaces using a colorimeter and software that calculates the volume.
Test Methodology Coverage
HDR color volume was first added to our TV reviews with our 1.0 methodology. It's remained relatively unchanged since then, but in our 1.8 update, we removed the normalized measurements and instead started scoring color volume relative to a fixed space of either 1,000 nits for DCI-P3 or 10,000 nits for BT.2020. The actual measurement methodology hasn't changed, though, so measurements are fully comparable between test bench versions. Learn how our test benches and scoring system work.
| 1.0 - 1.7 | 1.8+ | |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 cd/m² DCI-P3 Coverage ITP | ❌ | ✅ |
| Normalized DCI-P3 Coverage ITP | ✅ | ❌ |
| 10,000 cd/m² BT.2020 Coverage ITP | ✅ | ✅ |
| Normalized BT.2020 Coverage ITP | ✅ | ❌ |
| Luminance measurements | ❌ | ✅ |
When It Matters
Color volume is a measurement of the different colors a TV displays at various brightness levels. A TV with good color volume displays both dark and bright colors well, making content look more lifelike. TVs with poor color volume don't show as many details. This is especially noticeable when watching HDR content, and this test focuses on the DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color spaces used by most HDR content. We use a separate test, known as gamut rings, for SDR color volume.
Our Tests
Our color volume test is performed in a completely dark room using a Colorimetry Research CR-100 colorimeter and CR-250 spectroradiometer. We then make sure that the TV is fully warmed up. We connect the TV to a PC and use a Vertex HDFury device to inject an HDR signal. With the TV in its most accurate post-calibration picture mode, we measure 62 separate slides and calculate the color volume for each of the tests below.
1,000 cd/m² DCI-P3 Coverage ITP
DCI-P3 is the most common color space for HDR content, and most TVs have very good coverage of this color space. This test evaluates how much of the DCI-P3 color space a TV can cover at different luminance levels relative to a theoretical TV with a peak brightness of 1,000 cd/m².
The result is given as a percentage of the DCI-P3 volume in the ICtCp color space. Any parts of the measured volume which fall outside of the target volume (too bright or too saturated compared to an ideal TV reference) aren't included in the result. This also means that no TV can exceed 100%, as anything beyond the ideal color volume is ignored.
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Above are two TVs, the TCL X11L and the much lower-end LG UA77. The graph presented in the review is basically a 3D model, or a bubble, of colors. The first picture above shows you how to interpret the graphs. The picture on the top left is a top view of the bubble with the entire color gamut being represented. The three other figures show side views of the bubble; the y-axis, labeled Normalized Brightness, shows bright colors at the top and dark colors at the bottom. The black lines show the color volume of an ideal TV, while the colored areas are from the tested TV; the more it fills in, the better.
You can see that the TCL fills out more of the bubble than the LG. In fact, it exceeds the black line that marks the maximum color space of a TV with a peak brightness of 1,000 cd/m². These results are provided as a point of comparison only; they're not evaluated as part of the overall score for the color volume test. This is because, while these results are interesting, they don't paint an accurate picture, and many TVs can now exceed this color space, like the TCL above.
10,000 cd/m² BT.2020 Coverage ITP
This test evaluates the BT.2020 performance of a TV when compared to an ideal TV with a peak brightness of 10,000 cd/m². This test evaluates how much of the larger BT.2020 color space a TV can cover at different luminosity levels. It's performed using the same method as the DCI-P3 test described above, but targets the Rec. 2020 primary and secondary colors. The result is given as a percentage of the BT.2020 volume, which an ideal TV would cover at the measured brightness level.
Since the BT.2020 color space is wider than the DCI-P3 color space, it's rare for TVs to have good color volume with BT.2020.
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Reading the graphs above is the same as reading the DCI-P3 graphs. As you can see above, even one of our better TVs with BT.2020 color volume, the TCL X11L, doesn't hit the primary colors as well as it did in the DCI-P3 charts above. The LG UA77 on the right is severely limited in this color space. It can't fill out the color space even at low luminance levels, and you can clearly see that colors are very dim relative to the X11L.
Color Luminance
We also measure the maximum luminance of pure white, red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. We do this so you can see how colors are compared to pure white. Since most TVs use a combination of red, green, and blue subpixels, every other color you see on the TV is a combination of these three subpixels.
When looking at the color measurements, it's important to keep in mind that the individual color measurements don't matter as much as how they relate to each other, and the human eye doesn't perceive colors equally.
Conclusion
The color volume coverage of a TV describes how many colors it can display at a range of luminosities. The larger a TV's color volume is, the greater range of saturated colors it can produce. A large color volume is useful for HDR content, which takes advantage of this wider color range and results in a better image. For the color volume test, we measure how much of the DCI-P3 and BT.2020 color spaces the TV can cover.