Posted Wed Jan 17, 2018 at 06:30 AM PST by Steven Cohen
A Dolby Vision update has been released but it appears to only work with streaming apps for the time being.
Sony has launched a Dolby Vision firmware update for its A1E, X930E, X940E, and Z9D 4K displays, but the current upgrade appears to carry one very notable limitation. As reported by Flat Panels HD and customers on the Sony Community Message Boards, the new firmware only seems to enable Dolby Vision playback for the televisions' internal streaming apps and not through connected HDMI devices like an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
It's not clear why this limitation is in place or if there is a fix in the works yet. Likewise, though the new DV firmware does appear to still be available for download, Sony has actually removed any reference to Dolby Vision support from the update's release notes, which does seem to indicate that they are aware of an issue. We'll post any further developments here as they become available.
Dolby Vision is a proprietary end-to-end High Dynamic Range (HDR) format that covers content creation and playback through select cinemas, Ultra HD displays, and 4K titles. The process uses expanded brightness to improve contrast between dark and light aspects of an image, bringing out deeper black levels and more realistic details in specular highlights -- like the sun reflecting off of an ocean -- in specially graded Dolby Vision material. Likewise, Dolby Vision also offers a Wide Color Gamut (WCG), providing a greater range of colors than those found in traditional HD sources and TVs using the previous Rec. 709 color standard. In addition, the Dolby Vision process takes advantage of dynamic metadata, allowing it to adjust brightness levels on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis to create a more accurate HDR experience than static metadata formats like HDR10.
Here's a rundown of Sony displays that are eligible for the Dolby Vision update:
XBR-100Z9D
Sources: Sony, Sony Community, Flat Panels HD
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