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2017 is the year that Dolby Vision comes to Ultra HD Blu-ray

Kris Wouk
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If you’ve bought a new TV recently or have been looking at buying a new one, chances are good that you’ve heard of HDR, or high dynamic range. There are two major players in the HDR space: Dolby Vision and HDR10, with Dolby’s technology being proprietary and HDR10 being an open standard. That open nature got HDR10 on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players first, but this year will be the year that Dolby Vision makes its way to the format.

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show lineup has already seen more TV manufacturers adding Dolby Vision to their sets, but player support is coming as well. Oppo’s UDP-203 will support the format via a firmware update, and both LG and Philips announced new players supporting Dolby Vision this week. LG has gone even further, incorporating Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound directly into its TVs.

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“High-quality imaging and audio are essential elements of the TV viewing experience,” LG Home Entertainment Company president Brian Kwon said in a statement. “By incorporating Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos into our premium OLED TVs, the first TV of its kind, we are able to offer consumers amazing realism across both image and sound that is vivid, nuanced, and powerful.”

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The hardware is only one part of the equation, as to succeed, Dolby Vision still needs to be present on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. Dolby seems to have that squared away, as today it announced deals with Lionsgate, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment to bring its technology to discs early in 2017.

“The Ultra HD Blu-ray format is poised to experience an exciting proliferation of cross-industry support in 2017,” Universal Pictures Home Entertainment president Eddie Cunningham said. “Combining an impactful selection of Universal films with the spectacular dynamic range of Dolby Vision creates the best possible proposition for consumers with Dolby Vision-capable TVs.”

Whether Dolby Vision, HDR10, or another format will eventually become the go-to technology for HDR remains to be seen, but for the time being, it looks like 2017 is going to be an exciting year for home theater enthusiasts.

Updated on 01-06-2017 by Kris Wouk: Added information on upcoming compatible players from LG and Philips.

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Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
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