In the past few years, Dolby Vision has gained quite popularity. You can certainly find them in all the latest generation gaming consoles, smartphones starting the iPhone XS lineup, blue-ray players as well as premium television from LG, Sony, and Panasonic.
But, it is imperative to understand what exactly is Dolby Vision and how it provides you with a completely different viewing experience? Certainly, the unchartered domains of HDR can get confusing at times. So, we have curated this article, offering you the right assistance on everything you need to know about Dolby Vision.
Also Read: What is Aperture in a Camera? How Aperture Works?
What is Dolby Vision?
In Layman’s terms, Dolby Vision is an advanced version of HDR that supports dynamic metadata. Now, for an understanding of metadata, let’s have a clear look at HDR. Basically, it is a video technology, that allows you to view content with higher color depth, contrast as well as brightness. This, in turn, gives a more natural look to the overall content.
As for Dolby Vision, it takes another step further. Dolby Vision is capable of preserving further information regarding the content, since the time of its creation. This information is referred to as metadata.
The metadata contains all the brightness information, and how to display the content through various mediums. Dynamic metadata is actually capable of storing this information for every frame. On the contrary, HDR10 has static metadata with the singular data point.
Difference Between Dolby Vision and HRD10
One of the primary differentiating factors between Dolby Vision and HDR10 is the brightness and color depth the content is capable of achieving, Every content in Dolby Vision is packed with 12-bit color depth, while it is only 10-bit for HDR10. In fact, that is where HDR10 is derived from.
Now, for the majority of us, there might not be quite the difference between 12-bit and 10-bit colors. On the contrary, the difference is astounding. With 12-bit color depth, you can get access to 68 billion colors as compared to that of 1 billion in HDR10. In other words, you get punchier, vivid colors with Dolby Vision.
As for the brightness, Dolby Vision can attain 10,000 nits at its peak, while HDR10 can only go up to 4000 nits. But, in the end, such peak brightness is only possible if the display panel can support the same.
Introduction to Dolby Vision IQ
Dolby Visio IQ is an evolved version of the standard Dolby Vision. It is capable of making changes based on ambient light. Based on the ambient light levels from your TV’s sensor, Dolby Vision IQ adjusts the content making it accurate as much as possible.
In other words, this also brings forth a lot of practicality as well. For example. With different lighting conditions throughout the day, for example, when brighter light during daytime and artificial lighting during the evening, Dolby Vision IQ is capable of detecting such changes.
This way, you won’t be feeling your content either too dark or bright, making sure to keep up with the ambient lighting condition. Introduced back in 2020, Dolby Vision IQ is available for Panasonic and LG TVs. Till now, it hasn’t been introduced for mobile devices.
Manufacturers Supporting Dolby Vision
Make sure to keep in mind that Dolby Vision is as much dependent on the hardware, and requires the right equipment to work properly. Televisions packed with Dolby Vision are also capable of playing HDR10 content. But, the same is not possible the other way around. So, getting a TV with Dolby Vision can help you to reap the benefits of both worlds.
Initially, TVs with Dolby Vision came with dedicated chips for reading the metadata. But with the advancements of TV processors, now it has become possible to enable Dolby Vision via software update. This is one of the primary reasons for such a huge adaptation to Dolby Vision by TV manufacturers. Some of the most notable manufacturers include:
- LG
- Philips
- Sony
- Panasonic
- TCL, etc.
Bear in mind, that Samsung is not within the list and the main reason is they have come up with something similar to Dolby Vision. Samsung is calling it HDR10+, as it is still based on 10-bit colors packed with dynamic metadata. In other words, for every other Samsung TV, you won’t be finding the support for Dolby Vision.
Dolby Vision on Mobile Devices
With the rising popularity of streaming content on mobile devices, HDR support is not a future prospect anymore. It all started back with the launch of the LG G6 that prominently supported Dolby Vision for the first time in a smartphone. Since then, several other manufacturers have also joined.
Currently, you can expect Dolby Vision on almost every other premium smartphone. For example, Apple is yet another brand that had adopted Dolby Vision. In fact, with the 2020 iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, the camera is also capable of recording videos in Dolby Vision. This, in turn, can give us quite an idea of how important Dolby Vision is for mobile devices.
Content Supporting Dolby Vision
With the majority of the people watching their content from streaming services, the first and foremost question that comes to mind is, whether your content supports Dolby Vision? And the easiest answer is YES! Almost every other prominent video streaming service is providing Dolby Vision-supported content. Some of these streaming services include:
- Netflix
- Disney+
- Apple TV+
- Amazon Prime Videos, etc.
For instance, Netflix’s Altered Carbon, movies from Apple, and even Jack Ryan from Amazon Prime Video come with support for Dolby Vision.
The Bottom Line
Bear in mind, the support for Dolby Vision is not always an absolute must-have while viewing high-quality content. Neither less to say, there are also brands including the likes of Samsung with their HRD10+, which is almost on par with Dolby Vision.
But, this goes without saying, if you are thinking about getting your hands on your next TV, make sure it supports Dolby Vision. This is a technology you shouldn’t miss. So, let us know in the comment section below, do you watch Dolby Vision content?
