The Wait is Nearly Over: Dolby Vision is Coming to Select Sony TVs
(Dolby)(December 23, 2017) Sony hit CES 2017 with news that select televisions from its 4K UHD lineup would – at some point – receive a firmware update unlocking Dolby Vision functionality. Now, nearly one year later, the company has finally announced a semi-firm timeframe for its release.
Months of waiting have proven to be endlessly frustrating for Sony TV owners, and it appears they’ll have to be patient only a short time longer. According to Sony, the anticipated firmware update should begin to hit US homes mid-January, 2018, with Europe to follow later in the month. According to Forbes' tech writer John Archer, the entire rollout might continue well into February.
The most likely models eligible for the update are Sony’s XBR-55X930E, XBR-65Z9D, XBR-75X940E, XBR-65X930E, XBR-75Z9D, XBR-100Z9D, XBR-55A1E, XBR-65A1E, and XBR-77A1E, all of which carry the company’s latest X1 Extreme processor. And, of course, the firmware update can be acquired for free.
Dolby Vision is the most powerful version of High Dynamic Range (HDR) on the market. Unlike HDR10 (the most common form of HDR), Dolby Vision adds dynamic metadata to the core HDR image data. This metadata carries frame-by-frame instructions that Dolby Vision compatible devices use to optimize image qualities such as brightness and tone mapping. HDR10, on the other hand, only applies static metadata that globally applies to an entire movie or television show.
Dolby Vision is slowly finding its way to a range of home content, including 4K Blu-ray films, games, and streaming content from the likes of Amazon, Netflix, and VUDU. It can also be experienced on select mobile platforms and at Dolby Cinemas.
