HDR Dolby Vision 2: technically possible on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players, but Sony is slamming the door…

Dolby Vision 2 HDR, the next generation of Dolby's renowned HDR format, is starting to appear on the first televisions on the market. A burning question on the lips of home theater enthusiasts was: would this major technological advancement be limited to streaming or could it enhance our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs? Dolby's answer to our colleague Matt Bolton of Techradar magazine is promising, but it clashes sharply with industry realities. Dolby Vision 2 HDR: a simple firmware update is all it takes (in theory). In a recent interview, Chris Turkstra and Jonas Klittmark, senior executives at Dolby Laboratories, confirmed excellent news from a technical standpoint: Dolby Vision 2 HDR can work perfectly on existing hardware. Unlike televisions, which require a dedicated chip for complex image processing, the player simply transmits HDR metadata via the HDMI cable. However, for this delicate transmission to function correctly (priority management, color data formatting), a software update for the player is absolutely essential. HDR Dolby Vision 2: A cold shower from Sony. This is where the problem lies. The physical player market is no longer what it once was (the iconic Oppo brand, for example, closed its doors years ago), making it difficult to convince manufacturers to develop new firmware for older devices. When questioned about their intentions, Panasonic and Magnetar have remained silent so far. For its part, Sony deserves credit for being clear, immediately dashing the hopes of enthusiasts with a laconic statement: "We do not plan to provide a software update to support Dolby Vision 2 on our current lineup of Blu-ray players." HDR Dolby Vision 2, TV processing to save the day? Dolby specifies that the powerful processing engine integrated into HDR Dolby Vision 2 certified TVs will noticeably improve the rendering of current 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs encoded with the first generation of the format. The screen will simply make better use of the existing metadata. However, film enthusiasts may soon face a real dilemma regarding films benefiting from native DV2 color grading (offering, for example, enhanced detail in absolute darkness thanks to the Precision Black feature): prioritize the high bitrate of the physical format without taking advantage of the latest HDR subtleties, or opt for streaming compression to enjoy the absolute accuracy intended by the director.