Despite that, the company hasn’t yet gotten good at offering viewers an easy way to browser content that makes the most of those formats, so it can be a fiddly and confusing experience trying to track appropriate films down – especially for HDR. Here are our tips on navigating the Prime Video interface – whether on PC or using the app – to find 4K UHD and/or HDR content. Though we’ll warn you in advance: there’s currently no easy way to browse through exclusively HDR content, and no way to filter searches for HDR or 4K.
Can I watch 4K and HDR?
The first thing to make sure of is that whatever device you’re using is actually capable of supporting the formats in question. For 4K (a.k.a. Ultra High Definition/UHD) you’ll need both a 4K/UHD TV or monitor and one of the following devices for playback: HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a little trickier, as fewer TVs and monitors support HDR and there’s an even more limited range of compatible devices for playback:
Samsung SUHD TVs, and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Galaxy 8, 8+, Galaxy Tab S3 mobile devicesSony Triluminos 4K TVs and Sony Xperia XZ Premium mobile devicesLG OLED and Super UHD TVsRoku Ultra and Roku Premiere+ streaming media players
How to find 4K content
Assuming you have a 4K TV and a compatible device, you should see 4K content when browsing Prime Video, which the company calls ‘Ultra HD’. Irritatingly, there’s currently no way to search for solely 4K content on Prime Video, so if you can’t see the Ultra HD category then you’ll simply have to keep an eye out for the logo on thumbnail images while browsing to spot films and TV shows that offer 4K resolution.
How to find HDR content
All of that means there’s only one way to find HDR content to watch: go onto specific video pages and look out for ‘HDR’ or the Dolby Vision logo below the player, alongside the IMDb rating, runtime, release year, and subtitling information. If you start playing the video, most devices will also display either HDR or the Dolby Vision logo in either the top-right or bottom-left corners of the player – though it’s obviously pretty irritating to have to start playing every film to find out if it has HDR or not. Tech Advisor’s Deputy Editor, Dom covers everything that runs on electricity, from phones and laptops to wearables, audio, gaming, smart home, and streaming - plus he’s a regular fixture on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
