Samsung, Panasonic And 20th Century Fox Join Forces To Attack Dolby
Photo: Samsung2017 Samsung TVs such as the QN55Q8C picture here already support HDR10+.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about HDR10+. I first reported on it back in April, when the format’s lead creator, Samsung, announced that Amazon Video had committed to delivering content using the HDR10+ format. This latest announcement, though, amounts to a huge escalation in the potential impact HDR10+ could have on the AV world.
Jongsuk Chu, Senior Vice President of Samsung’s Visual Display Business, said this of the new alliance: “As leaders in home entertainment content and hardware, the three companies are ideal partners for bringing HDR10+ into the homes of consumers everywhere. We are committed to making the latest technology available in our TVs and are confident that HDR10+ will deliver premium quality content and enhance the way you experience television programs and movies in the home.”
On one level the arrival of HDR10+ on the AV scene is good news, of course. After all, anything that improves TV picture quality is welcome, especially if it introduces a bit more control to the currently rather ‘wild west’ state of HDR.
Photo: PanasonicWill current Panasonic TVs such as the 65EZ1000 be able to get support for HDR10+ via firmware update?
Look a little deeper, though, and there seems to be a key political aspect to the creation of the HDR10+ Alliance. The thing is, there’s already a different ‘dynamic metadata’ HDR format out there: Dolby Vision. This format has been around since HDR’s earliest days, in fact.
However, if you want to support Dolby Vision in your products, you need to pay Dolby a licensing fee - something both Samsung and Panasonic have steadfastly refused to do with their TVs and 4K Blu-ray players to date. With this in mind, HDR10+ - which will be offered royalty-free to any brands that want to use it - looks like a clear attempt to undermine Dolby’s platform by providing the AV industry with a cheaper way of getting at least some of the extra quality dynamic metadata makes possible.
The new alliance also makes it look less likely than ever that Samsung and Panasonic are going to sign up to Dolby Vision any time soon.
There remain many unanswered questions about HDR10+. Will it appear on 20th Century Fox 4K Blu-ray releases given that the format is not currently part of the UHD BD specification, or is it just aimed at streamed content? How good does it look compared with Dolby Vision? Can it be added to existing TVs via firmware updates, or does it require all-new hardware/chipsets? Will AV brands that already support Dolby Vision also embrace HDR10+?
Hopefully the answers to at least some of these questions will emerge at the IFA show. For now, though, all we can do is start processing the fact that the already complicated AV world just got even more confusing.
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">Just when you thought the world of TV technology might be settling down a bit after years of near-constant upheaval, it’s emerged ahead of this week’s IFA technology show that three of the AV world’s biggest players are forming an alliance to push a new high dynamic range (HDR) video format.
Samsung, Panasonic and 20th Century Fox have become the founding members of the HDR10+ Alliance: a body created to promote the use of a new type of HDR that adds an extra layer of dynamic metadata to the industry standard HDR10 data stream. This dynamic layer contains additional scene-specific image information (regarding color, brightness and contrast) which TVs can use to optimize HDR playback.
Photo: Samsung2017 Samsung TVs such as the QN55Q8C picture here already support HDR10+.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about HDR10+. I first reported on it back in April, when the format’s lead creator, Samsung, announced that Amazon Video had committed to delivering content using the HDR10+ format. This latest announcement, though, amounts to a huge escalation in the potential impact HDR10+ could have on the AV world.
Jongsuk Chu, Senior Vice President of Samsung’s Visual Display Business, said this of the new alliance: “As leaders in home entertainment content and hardware, the three companies are ideal partners for bringing HDR10+ into the homes of consumers everywhere. We are committed to making the latest technology available in our TVs and are confident that HDR10+ will deliver premium quality content and enhance the way you experience television programs and movies in the home.”
On one level the arrival of HDR10+ on the AV scene is good news, of course. After all, anything that improves TV picture quality is welcome, especially if it introduces a bit more control to the currently rather ‘wild west’ state of HDR.
Photo: PanasonicWill current Panasonic TVs such as the 65EZ1000 be able to get support for HDR10+ via firmware update?
Look a little deeper, though, and there seems to be a key political aspect to the creation of the HDR10+ Alliance. The thing is, there’s already a different ‘dynamic metadata’ HDR format out there: Dolby Vision. This format has been around since HDR’s earliest days, in fact.
However, if you want to support Dolby Vision in your products, you need to pay Dolby a licensing fee - something both Samsung and Panasonic have steadfastly refused to do with their TVs and 4K Blu-ray players to date. With this in mind, HDR10+ - which will be offered royalty-free to any brands that want to use it - looks like a clear attempt to undermine Dolby’s platform by providing the AV industry with a cheaper way of getting at least some of the extra quality dynamic metadata makes possible.
The new alliance also makes it look less likely than ever that Samsung and Panasonic are going to sign up to Dolby Vision any time soon.
There remain many unanswered questions about HDR10+. Will it appear on 20th Century Fox 4K Blu-ray releases given that the format is not currently part of the UHD BD specification, or is it just aimed at streamed content? How good does it look compared with Dolby Vision? Can it be added to existing TVs via firmware updates, or does it require all-new hardware/chipsets? Will AV brands that already support Dolby Vision also embrace HDR10+?
Hopefully the answers to at least some of these questions will emerge at the IFA show. For now, though, all we can do is start processing the fact that the already complicated AV world just got even more confusing.
--
If this story interested you, you might also enjoy these:
Samsung Just Made The TV World Even More Confusing
Dolby Vision Has Arrived On 4K Blu-ray - And It's Brilliant
The Fate Of The Furious 4K Blu-ray Review - Dolby Vision Revisited
HDR Made Easy - A Jargon-Free Guide To The Next Big Thing In TV Technology
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