Update: Dolby Vision is starting to pop up in some unexpected places first in the Xbox One S and Xbox One X as well as the all-new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.Here's why you should care!Original article continues belowDolby Vision is the game-changing advancement to TVs that we've needed for the past decade.
Yes, 4K has given us additional pixels, but it's HDR that has made those pixels really shine in a way they never have before.Dolby Vision, in more or less words, is the jet-engine fuel that powers the best-looking content on Earth.
It's the format that more studios are turning to and harnessing its potential to deliver colorful, dynamic and calculated images on a scene-by-scene basis.
All of which will show up on your TV at home.If you haven't heard of Dolby Vision before today, that's OK.
It's a technology that's still rolling out to producers, and has just recently permeated the TVs, consoles, phones and Blu-ray players you bring into your home.It's new, yes, but from what we've experienced, it's exactly what home cinema needs to match the silver screen.Best of all It's available for you to bring home right now.What is Dolby VisionDolby Vision is a type of HDR probably the second most popular after the ubiquitous HDR10 standard that's included on all HDR TVs and players.And while it bases a lot of its technology on the basic HDR standard (Dolby played a key role in the development on it after all), it's a better solution.The main improvement from an end-users perspective is that it places an additional layer of information on top of a core HDR10 video signal which contains scene-by-scene information which Dolby Vision-capable TVs can use to improve the way they present their pictures.
This means better brights and darker blacks, and this enables TVs to display the full range of colors in the Rec.
2020 standard.If HDR blows you away now, wait until you see Dolby Vision.Weve seen Dolby Vision already in the UK on a handful of Netflix and Amazon video streams, and its also available via VUDU and iTunes in the US.The big one for many AV fans, though, has been Ultra HD Blu-ray.
Dolby Vision is included as an option on the UHD BD specification sheet, and AV fans have been desperate to see how much of a difference Dolbys system might make to the picture quality of the AV worlds best-quality source.The latest crop of Dolby Vision Blu-rays, which include the Despicable Me films, West World from HBO and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, look nothing short of amazing provided youve got the hardware to watch them.What you'll need to watch in DVFor the avoidance of doubt, Dolby Vision is a licensed video platform that requires all the links in the video chain to support it.
So buying the Despicable Me 4K Blu-ray discs wont be enough in itself youll also need a TV capable of receiving Dolby Vision, and a 4K Blu-ray player capable of playing Dolby Vision.All LGs OLED TVs are DV-capable, as are its high-end Super UHD LCD TVs.
Sony TVs with X1 Extreme chips (the ZD9, A1 OLED, XE93 and XE94, plus the 2018 X900F) handle DV too after a firmware update, as can some VIZIO and TCL TVs in the US.The newest additions to the Dolby Vision family are consoles including the Xbox One S and Xbox One X and mobile phones which, as of today, include the all-new iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone X and LG G6.Of course, if you want Dolby Vision from a physical disc, there are only a few 4K Blu-ray players currently supporting Dolby Vision like the now-discontinued Oppo UDP-203 and Oppo 205, but more models from LG and Sony should help fill the void.If youre lucky enough to already own a suitable combination of kit, though, trust us: youll want to buy as many Dolby Vision Blu-rays as you can.
The impact of Dolby Vision on the visuals of both movies has to be seen to be believed.A new world of colorTake color, for instance.
With our Oppo 203 and LG OLED55C7 combination, the Dolby Vision Despicable Me movies display an unprecedented array of tones and tonal subtleties.
Everything from the animated skin tones to background walls and locations contains subtle variations and accuracies of color you just dont get in HDR10 a comparison verified by playing the discs HDR10 core video through the Panasonic UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray player onto the OLED55C7.This helps pictures instantly look more detailed and refined, despite the fact that Dolby Vision isnt capable of actually adding more pixels to the 4K source pictures.The Dolby Vision transfer doesnt just portray more subtle colors than the HDR10 transfer either.
Some colors also look slightly different in hue and tone; and invariably our impression was that the DV versions were the definitive, accurate ones.The Oppo 203 is one of just three 4K Blu-ray players that currently supports Dolby VisionStartling in its brilliance, too, is Dolby Visions mastery of light.
Somehow the technology seems to deliver purer, brighter highlights than we've ever seen from the LG OLED before, while simultaneously delivering dark scenes with more richness and subtle light detailing.Actually there seems to be more definition between subtle light differences in every part of the Dolby Vision image, giving it a more stable, rich, deep, solid appearance that looks almost three-dimensional versus the flatter, less precise HDR10 picture.As if this wasnt all stunning enough, the settings Dolby has designed for the OLED55C7 seem to handle motion more cleanly and effectively than LGs own processing with HDR10 does.Add all the Dolby Vision/Despicable Me benefits together and youve got an image the likes of which we havent seen before on a domestic television, despite the fact that were only talking about a pair of ageing animated titles.
Having seen the cinematic version of Dolby Vision at work on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.
2 recently, we can only imagine how spectacular Dolby Vision at home could look with more visually sophisticated titles than Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2.Rival technologiesIts worth remembering at this point that AV brands not signed up with Dolby for Dolby Vision including Samsung and Panasonic tend to suggest they can deliver equivalent results to DV by just applying their own processing power to HDR10.
Having played the Despicable Me discs in HDR10 into a reference Samsung UE65KS9500, though, while that set delivered brighter light peaks than the Dolby Vision picture on the LG OLED, it couldnt match Dolby Vision for light and color subtleties.Its telling, perhaps, that Samsung recently announced a royalty-free alternative to Dolby Vision that also applies a layer of so-called dynamic metadata (scene-by-scene instructions) to an HDR10 stream.
While Amazon is promising support for this new HDR10+ system, though, other TV hardware brands beyond Samsung have yet to commit to it, and its not included in the existing Ultra HD Blu-ray specifications.All recent LG OLED TVs, including the LG OLED55C7, are DV-capableWe're not necessarily saying here that your next TV and 4K Blu-ray player absolutely definitely must have Dolby Vision support.
The format still, after all, has to work within the brightness and color limitations of any TV its applied to, and there are non-Dolby Vision TVs out there which are either (in Samsungs case in particular) capable of delivering color and brightness levels beyond those possible from any current Dolby Vision TV; or which use HDR10 processing systems created in conjunction with Hollywood itself (in Panasonics case).Its also the case that Dolby Vision Ultra HD Blu-rays are still not looking set to be particularly numerous, despite the formats official launch.What certainly does no longer seem in doubt from having seen Dolby Vision in action from a 4K Blu-ray, though, is that it does an incredible job of getting the absolute best out of any screen it comes into contact with.
And with a technology as confusing and frankly error-strewn as HDR is right now, thats a pretty big deal.Want a concise rundown of the differences between HDR10 and Dolby Vision Here's our complete guide on HDR10 vs Dolby VisionNo price informationiceWui6BtqSGwJYRZVY2mW.jpg#