Home Cinema Insight | HDR
More manufacturers
such as Loewe are
including HDR on
their sets
HDR allows colours
to get closer to the
natural world
With 12-bit, Dolby Vision TVs are capable
of displaying 4,096 shades of each primary
colour. Calculate that sum into total number
of colours available and you get a total of 68
billion colours available to Dolby Vision TVs.
That’s an excessive number of colours, but
those with a Dolby Vision display will be able to
take advantage of even the subtlest variations
in colour. That’s not the only advantage though.
Thanks to its use of 12-bit colour, Dolby
Vision is the first digital format available
to the average consumer to get close to
the immersive quality offered by analogue
technology. That may sound extremely odd
to say, but analogue formats don’t possess a
colour-depth limitation and can theoretically
offer infinite colours.
It’s also worth noting that 12-bit is the colour
depth used by theatre operators to showcase
2D films in their cinemas (3D uses 10-bit).
A Blu-ray disc at home has never looked as
good as in the cinema, despite the two using the same
resolution – 1920 x 1080. The improved picture is really
down to that usage of 12-bit colour and that’s now
offered to the average consumer at home on their sofa.
It’s not just about more colours either, Dolby Vision
also offers brighter pixels. While HDR:10 offers 1,000
nits, Dolby Vision smashes that, offering content at a
peak brightness of 10,000 nits. While that’s the peak
brightness, there’s currently not a single TV on the market
that supports images that bright – in fact, the closest users
are likely to get is around 4,000 nits. Dolby Vision is better
future proofed however.
While all those features are great enhancements over
HDR:10 – Dolby Vision’s killer feature is that it requires
a dedicated chip that can perform some very special
functions. This chip is what powers Dolby Vision’s unique
metadata technology, which allows content creators to
specify exactly how an image should appear on-screen.
The metadata is done on a frame-by-frame basis, so those
looking to enjoy content the way their creator’s intended
need look further than Dolby Vision.
It’s this dedicated chip that also shows off the biggest
limitation of Dolby Vision – and could prevent it from
becoming the dominant format. That’s because it requires
hardware manufacturers to actually integrate the chip
into their TV sets – and that costs money. Manufacturers
have thus far not flocked to Dolby Vision, despite its better
performance. In fact, in the UK only a single TV manufacturer
supports the standard – LG – and not a single UHD Blu-ray
player or disc supports the format thus far. As far as content
is concerned, the format is currently relying on Netflix in the
UK – but there are hopes that will change soon.
What About Projectors?
HDR:10 and Dolby Vision both have issues in the home
cinema space however. If the user wants the very best HDR
experience or Dolby Vision, then they will have to sacrifice
the advantages that come with having a projector. That’s
because there isn’t currently a 4K projector on the market
that meets the Ultra HD Alliance’s HDR specification.
There’s also not a single projector on the market boasting
Dolby Vision – unless you count commercial cinema
projectors, of which Christie make a few.
It’s no surprise that projectors have not quite made
the grade.