Amlogic and Dolby are demonstrating Amlogic’s 4K HDR S912 series chipsets with Dolby Vision integration at IBC in Amsterdam. The SoC is targeted to set-top box makers that want to offer over-the-top streaming, said the companies. The S912 series SoCs include eight ARM Cortex processors and high-speed graphics processors for user interface and content, and the AVE-10 video engine for video codec processing, said Amlogic. The SoC’s engine can decode 4K2K resolution video in both HEVC and VP9 formats at a full 60 frames per second for a flicker-free viewing experience, the company said. The AVE-10 also supports Trusted Video Path, multiple HDR formats and video watermarking technologies for secured 4K digital rights management applications, it said.
SES is using the IBC show in Amsterdam to broadcast three demos of Ultra HD with high dynamic range, it said in a Friday announcement. One demo will showcase an Ultra HD test channel with HDR content produced by LG Electronics, SES said. The content will be encoded in the BBC-NHK hybrid-log-gamma (HLG) format and beamed to a 65-inch LG OLED TV, it said. A second demo will showcase two sets of Ultra HD content in HDR -- produced by Samsung and SES and also encoded in HLG -- displayed on a 75-inch Samsung SUHD TV, it said. The third demo will showcase the Technicolor/Philips HDR format technology on a 65-inch LG OLED TV connected to a Technicolor set-top, it said: “Working with major industry players is crucial to continue refining new TV developments and bringing a higher level of viewing experience to consumer homes.” IBC's exhibition floor opened Friday for five days.
SoC supplier Sigma Designs thinks high-dynamic-range adoption is “widespread right now” among its base of TV-maker customers, said Ken Lowe, vice president-strategic marketing, on a Tuesday earnings call. “Everybody that we’re working with right now” on 4K TV design wins “is designing TVs that are HDR-enabled,” Lowe said. For TV makers, HDR’s only sticking point is deciding “which specific version of it” to use, he said. HDR10 has had the widest adoption so far because it has “the lowest costs,” but the hybrid-log-gamma technology espoused by the BBC and NHK “seems to be getting more popular,” Lowe said. Dolby Vision “is there for a lot of people that want the premium and Dolby is going to continue to promote it,” he said. What Sigma has done with its “universal HDR” SoCs is “we’ve mitigated the risk of the making that decision,” Lowe said. Of the TV makers “we deal with,” they can “load our chip and they are covered for all the standards,” he said. “That’s the strongest position we can offer them.”
Strategy Analytics sees the installed base of homes with at least one high-dynamic-range TV reaching 107 million globally in 2020, the firm said in a Wednesday report. It forecasts penetration of HDR TVs nearing 25 percent of U.S. homes by the end of the decade, it said. Despite HDR’s picture-quality improvements and its potential to “accelerate the TV upgrade cycle,” consumer confusion is widespread “over what Ultra HD means,” it said. “The TV industry has put a great deal of effort into establishing the next generation of TV technologies,” Strategy Analytics said. “The challenge now is to communicate the benefits of these enhancements to viewers and to reduce the uncertainty which could stall growth of new services.”
It’s “wrong” to pit HDR10 in a “format war” with Dolby Vision for supremacy in high dynamic range, said an Insight Media white paper Monday, explaining the similarities and differences between the two technologies. Think of HDR10 as a “subset” of Dolby Vision, the paper said. Dolby Vision “is a more comprehensive approach that has value in the market, while HDR10 is more like a special ‘light’ case of Dolby Vision,” also with marketplace value, it said. “Both formats, and others, will coexist in the market with no winners or losers.” Both also offer “a different value proposition for various players in the market,” said the paper, which depicts Dolby Vision clearly as the more comprehensive of the two technologies. Dolby Vision “is an end-to-end solution that provides consistent image reproduction across a wide range of viewing devices today and is scalable as production, distribution, and display technology improves tomorrow,” the paper said. Dolby Vision is capable of 12-bit “precision,” has a “variety of implementation scenarios” at its disposal, and features “real-time scene-based content optimization,” while HDR10 does not, it said. “It is simply up to each player to evaluate these approaches to decide which makes sense for their particular situation.”
LG will use the IFA show in Berlin to demonstrate the “power” of high-dynamic-range technology with broadcasters and content providers, the company said in a Friday announcement from Seoul. In addition to showcasing HDR10 and Dolby Vision, one demo will involve transmitting with hybrid log gamma (HLG) HDR technology favored by broadcasters like the BBC and NHK using SES’ Astra satellite network and the BBC’s terrestrial broadcasting system, LG said. HLG uses “a single distribution bitstream which can be decoded by both dedicated HDR receivers and legacy non-HDR receivers,” it said. “This new standard is designed to enable broadcasters to send HDR transmissions over cable and to provide streaming live content, making HLG an excellent choice for broadcast HDR services.” At IFA, LG will be the first publicly to demonstrate HDR technology combining high-frame-rate transmissions with HLG content, it said.
TV manufacturers are offering high dynamic range in 4K TVs to boost market appeal, but many are struggling to decide between proprietary Dolby Vision and open HDR10 technologies as the route, said a Wednesday ABI Research report. HDR10 allows firmware updates and has the support of more manufacturers than does Dolby Vision, said ABI, which positions HDR in a format war between the two technologies. That could change in coming months as content creators HBO, Paramount, Sony Pictures Universal rally in support of Dolby Vision, it said. “The winner in the HDR10 and Dolby Vision competition is not yet clear,” said ABI analyst Khin Sandi Lynn, saying Dolby Vision currently supports higher light output levels than HDR10 and is better able to "adjust to different manufacturers’ displays.” Dolby Vision’s caveats are built-in hardware, more costly IP licensing and a certification process for licensing, Lynn said. A potential outcome, said Lynn, is that Dolby Vision will become the format for streaming movie and video-on-demand delivery, while HDR10 primarily supports live events and broadcast channels. Consumers viewing content from a service supporting Dolby Vision on a non-supported TV set “will likely not receive HDR signals,” Lynn said, but the TV will use color up-sampling “to simulate the HDR brightness and saturation.” Markets with less widespread broadband deployments such as India will require infrastructure upgrades to be able to support the bandwidth required for 4K video delivery, she said. That will help advance 4K TV adoption in the Asia-Pacific region where 4K penetration is currently 5 percent, Lynn said.
Dolby announced with Vudu and Universal Pictures titles available for purchase and rental with Dolby Vision high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos. The titles now available include The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Lucy, Oblivion and Lone Survivor, said a Dolby announcement Wednesday. Lucy and Oblivion also will include Dolby Atmos. Dolby Vision combines high dynamic range and wide color gamut, and Dolby Atmos allows sound to move around the room in a three-dimensional way to create an immersive sound experience, said Dolby. Vudu showed a three-tier pricing structure for purchases Wednesday. Lucy was available in SD for $9.99, with HDX for $13.99 and with UHD (4K, Dolby Vision and Atmos) for $24.99
Version 7.0 of the Energy Star TV spec was the first to incorporate energy implications of 4K resolution (see 1412040035), and Version 8.0 appears likely to be the first to take high-dynamic-range energy consumption into account, EPA documents show. To be sure Energy Star-certified TVs “ultimately deliver the savings purchasers expect, their energy saving features need to persist across a wide array of viewing conditions,” EPA said in an Aug. 5 cover letter announcing the launch of the Version 8.0 “revision process.” TVs today “offer consumers a broad selection of modes and settings that need to be understood, so that the ENERGY STAR specification appropriately rewards televisions that most effectively achieve energy savings along with a high quality viewing experience,” EPA said. “Determining appropriate treatment of energy saving features will be a priority for this revision.” For example, EPA for Version 8.0 is “considering” whether to add certification testing in “additional modes, beyond the default mode, with requirements regarding persistence of energy saving modes,” the agency said. EPA got CTA opposition when it sought to require changes in Energy Star Version 7.0 certification testing (see 1608030019). EPA “is also interested in better understanding the energy consumption” of HDR-capable Ultra HD TVs when upscaling SDR content via “HDR Plus” preset picture settings, and when playing native HDR10-encoded content, it said. EPA seeks data from TV makers by Sept. 19 “to allow for the evaluation of such an approach,” the agency said. EPA also plans an Oct. 3 webinar “to review the data received and proposed Agency approaches to energy saving features,” it said.
A Vizio firmware update announced Wednesday expands high-dynamic-range support for the company’s SmartCast P-Series and M-Series Ultra HD TVs, it said in a Wednesday news release. The update enables support for HDR10 on Samsung’s UHD-K8500 and Philips’ BDP7501/F7 Ultra HD Blu-ray players, said Vizio. The P- and M-Series TVs launched with Dolby Vision content support out of the box, Vizio noted. It was always Vizio’s intent to accommodate HDR10 in addition to Dolby Vision to give consumers options, said Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matt McRae. Vizio is planning updates for other Ultra HD Blu-ray players as they hit the market, it said.