A new Raspberry Pi 5 computer has been unveiled and for the first time it has official support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) output via HDMI, in addition to 4K60.

The popular DIY (do-it-yourself) computer board that can be set up to do almost everything including acting as a media center or media server has been hardware upgraded to version 5.

- "With 2–3 times the speed of the previous generation, and featuring silicon designed in‑house for the best possible performance, we’ve redefined the Raspberry Pi experience," the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced.


 Raspberry Pi 5. Photo: Raspberry Pi Foundation 

Official HDR support
Raspberry Pi 5 features a number of new hardware capabilities and from a video perspective the most interesting addition is official HDR support, as confirmed by the specifications.

It was not detailed which HDR formats are supported. FlatpanelsHD has not yet had a chance to play with the Raspberry Pi 5.

The predecessor Raspberry Pi 4 launched in 2019 without HDR support but an update to LibreElec 10.0 with Kodi 19.1 added support for HDR10 and HLG, although with limitations and reports of color issues.

HDR support in Raspberry Pi 5 is in addition to support for 4K 60Hz output, which was also supported in Pi 4, although the hardware was sometimes struggling to deliver in 4K. Raspberry 5 Pi has two HDMI outputs.

In addition, Raspberry Pi 5 features a hardware HEVC video decoder which can decode video in up to 4K60.

Raspberry Pi 5 is available for pre-order today and will start shipping in October. It costs $60 (4GB RAM) or $80 (8GB RAM) plus local tax, a $5 increase over the same Raspberry Pi 4 configurations.

Raspberry Pi 5 – specifications
- Broadcom BCM2712 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with cryptography extensions, 512KB per-core L2 caches and a 2MB shared L3 cache
- VideoCore VII GPU, supporting OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2
- Dual 4Kp60 HDMI® display output with HDR support
- 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
- LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM (4GB and 8GB SKUs available at launch)
- Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi®
- Bluetooth 5.0 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
- microSD card slot, with support for high-speed SDR104 mode
- 2 × USB 3.0 ports, supporting simultaneous 5Gbps operation
- 2 × USB 2.0 ports
- Gigabit Ethernet, with PoE+ support (requires separate PoE+ HAT)
- 2 × 4-lane MIPI camera/display transceivers
- PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals (requires separate M.2 HAT or other adapter)
- 5V/5A DC power via USB-C, with Power Delivery support
- Raspberry Pi standard 40-pin header
- Real-time clock (RTC), powered from external battery
- Power button
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