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Dolby Vision vs HDR 10 - what's the difference?
We go through the differences between the two standards seen in today's Ultra HD HDR televisions
Richard Easton
@chocojetpack
11 May 2016
Directly competing technologies have a habit of cropping up simultaneously, especially when it comes to the realm of home entertainment. We can probably all remember the consumer technology wars raged by VHS against Betamax, LCD against plasma and HD DVD against Blu-ray.
Today, with the advent of High Dynamic Range (HDR) in the latest televisions, new battle lines are being formed between HDR standards; namely Dolby Vision from Dolby Laboratories and the open HDR 10 standard supported by most HDR-capable televisions.
If you need a primer on exactly what HDR brings, it’s worth reading ‘What is HDR and why should you care?’ before we go into the details of what separates Dolby Vision from the HDR 10 standard. Read it already? Well, let’s carry on then.
See our top pick HDR 4K TVs you can buy today
Unlike some of the consumer technology face-offs of the past, picking sides isn’t quite so straightforward when it comes to Dolby Vision vs HDR 10. This is because while Dolby Vision requires everything - from the content, to the player, to the screen - to all support Dolby Vision; such players and televisions will still be able to play HDR 10 content as well, which in theory gives you the best of both worlds.
However, it's HDR 10 support, rather than Dolby Vision, that's required as part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray official specifications, so on paper it has the upper hand in terms of content. At present, it’s more difficult to find content mastered for Dolby Vision.
In the UK more specifically, only LG’s OLED 4K HDR televisions support Dolby Vision, with no cheaper sets yet to be released. At present, there aren’t any Dolby Vision capable Blu-ray players on sale.
Colour Bit Depth
Most of the differences between the competing standards arise around colour bit depth and brightness. Dolby Vision films are mastered in up to 12-bit colour, whereas HDR 10 is mastered for 10-bit colour, hence the name. Films are colour graded specifically for Dolby Vision and studios have to provide artistic approval of Dolby’s mastering.
The difference that 12 bit makes is that Dolby Vision has 4,096 possible RGB values versus the 1,024 values for HDR 10 meaning greater granularity of colour production. A 10-bit colour depth amounts to over 1bn colours, whereas 12-bit opens it up to over 68bn colours. Needless to say, both offer a far wider colour gamut than non-HDR sets of today, which make do with just 256 RGB values for 16m colours. All Dolby Vision branded TVs will support the 12-bit colour depth required.
Brightness
Dolby Vision also aims to master films for 10,000 nits of brightness, which to put things in context, is vastly higher than how standard Blu-ray and broadcast television are mastered, which is just 100 nits. HDR 10, on the other hand, masters for around 1,000 nits depending on the content. The extra brightness of HDR televisions is in part how they are able to produce their higher dynamic range through heightened contrast.
At present, there aren’t any displays capable of 10,000 nits, so most Dolby Vision content is currently typically mastered to around 4,000 nits. Dolby Vision is future-proofed in the sense that the metadata included can take advantage of improved displays down the line, however.
Image taken from Dolby Vision whitepaper
As the maker intended?
Whereas HDR 10 is a widely supported open standard, there’s not much in the way of managing how content is produced and played compared to Dolby Vision. The advantage that Dolby Vision has is through metadata from content creators that dictate how content is played back and displayed.
Dedicated chips inside Dolby Vision players and televisions can communicate their capabilities such as colour space and brightness, which then optimises the display signal to the particular screen on a frame-by-frame basis, which Dolby says can ensure hues are better preserved, leading to improved skin tones among other benefits.
It’s this dedicated hardware that means that Dolby Vision can’t be simply added to a player or television through a firmware upgrade. What the chip ensures is that there’s a more precise, consistent output that plays to the device’s strengths. In contrast, HDR 10 leaves this all to the television to decide how it wants to output the image and uses only static metadata for the entire film. That actually means that Dolby Vision could benefit cheaper 4K TV sets, and televisions that haven't been properly calibrated, to a greater degree than top-end sets owned by obsessive home cinema types.
Both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 use the SMPTE ST 2084 Electro-Optical Transfer Function (EOTF) format, which lets content creators master once for both formats and add the optional metadata for Dolby Vision displays to get them performing optimally.
As for streaming content in Dolby Vision, Netflix and Vudu are both services that support Dolby Vision and provide the relevant metadata for their streaming content. With Netflix, only some of its original content has been mastered for Dolby Vision, however, and at present that amounts to just seasons one and two of Marco Polo.
So which is best?
So should you opt for a Dolby Vision-capable television over the standard HDR 10? HDR 10 is the open standard and the one mandated by the Ultra HD Blu-ray certification, which means it is supported by every Ultra HD television and player. Dolby Vision will happily play HDR 10 but could also provide additional colour depth and accuracy, essentially it's an upgrade to HDR 10 that may or may not prove useful depending on studio support.
Due to the licensing fee from Dolby Laboratories, Dolby Vision is only likely to be included in more expensive, top-end TV sets. So there is a small gamble as to whether or not Dolby Vision support really takes off and you have the content to take advantage of it. There are also some limitations as to what can be mastered in Dolby Vision as it requires high-quality source material, which could limit the availability of content.
Thanks to HDR 10 support, though, you can take some solace that if you do go for Dolby Vision you certainly won’t end up with obsolete technology, which will gather dust if it doesn't get off the ground - I’m looking at you HD DVD.
We go through the differences between the two standards seen in today's Ultra HD HDR televisions
Richard Easton
@chocojetpack
11 May 2016
Directly competing technologies have a habit of cropping up simultaneously, especially when it comes to the realm of home entertainment. We can probably all remember the consumer technology wars raged by VHS against Betamax, LCD against plasma and HD DVD against Blu-ray.
Today, with the advent of High Dynamic Range (HDR) in the latest televisions, new battle lines are being formed between HDR standards; namely Dolby Vision from Dolby Laboratories and the open HDR 10 standard supported by most HDR-capable televisions.
If you need a primer on exactly what HDR brings, it’s worth reading ‘What is HDR and why should you care?’ before we go into the details of what separates Dolby Vision from the HDR 10 standard. Read it already? Well, let’s carry on then.
See our top pick HDR 4K TVs you can buy today
Unlike some of the consumer technology face-offs of the past, picking sides isn’t quite so straightforward when it comes to Dolby Vision vs HDR 10. This is because while Dolby Vision requires everything - from the content, to the player, to the screen - to all support Dolby Vision; such players and televisions will still be able to play HDR 10 content as well, which in theory gives you the best of both worlds.
However, it's HDR 10 support, rather than Dolby Vision, that's required as part of the Ultra HD Blu-ray official specifications, so on paper it has the upper hand in terms of content. At present, it’s more difficult to find content mastered for Dolby Vision.
In the UK more specifically, only LG’s OLED 4K HDR televisions support Dolby Vision, with no cheaper sets yet to be released. At present, there aren’t any Dolby Vision capable Blu-ray players on sale.
Colour Bit Depth
Most of the differences between the competing standards arise around colour bit depth and brightness. Dolby Vision films are mastered in up to 12-bit colour, whereas HDR 10 is mastered for 10-bit colour, hence the name. Films are colour graded specifically for Dolby Vision and studios have to provide artistic approval of Dolby’s mastering.
The difference that 12 bit makes is that Dolby Vision has 4,096 possible RGB values versus the 1,024 values for HDR 10 meaning greater granularity of colour production. A 10-bit colour depth amounts to over 1bn colours, whereas 12-bit opens it up to over 68bn colours. Needless to say, both offer a far wider colour gamut than non-HDR sets of today, which make do with just 256 RGB values for 16m colours. All Dolby Vision branded TVs will support the 12-bit colour depth required.
Brightness
Dolby Vision also aims to master films for 10,000 nits of brightness, which to put things in context, is vastly higher than how standard Blu-ray and broadcast television are mastered, which is just 100 nits. HDR 10, on the other hand, masters for around 1,000 nits depending on the content. The extra brightness of HDR televisions is in part how they are able to produce their higher dynamic range through heightened contrast.
At present, there aren’t any displays capable of 10,000 nits, so most Dolby Vision content is currently typically mastered to around 4,000 nits. Dolby Vision is future-proofed in the sense that the metadata included can take advantage of improved displays down the line, however.
Image taken from Dolby Vision whitepaper
As the maker intended?
Whereas HDR 10 is a widely supported open standard, there’s not much in the way of managing how content is produced and played compared to Dolby Vision. The advantage that Dolby Vision has is through metadata from content creators that dictate how content is played back and displayed.
Dedicated chips inside Dolby Vision players and televisions can communicate their capabilities such as colour space and brightness, which then optimises the display signal to the particular screen on a frame-by-frame basis, which Dolby says can ensure hues are better preserved, leading to improved skin tones among other benefits.
It’s this dedicated hardware that means that Dolby Vision can’t be simply added to a player or television through a firmware upgrade. What the chip ensures is that there’s a more precise, consistent output that plays to the device’s strengths. In contrast, HDR 10 leaves this all to the television to decide how it wants to output the image and uses only static metadata for the entire film. That actually means that Dolby Vision could benefit cheaper 4K TV sets, and televisions that haven't been properly calibrated, to a greater degree than top-end sets owned by obsessive home cinema types.
Both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 use the SMPTE ST 2084 Electro-Optical Transfer Function (EOTF) format, which lets content creators master once for both formats and add the optional metadata for Dolby Vision displays to get them performing optimally.
As for streaming content in Dolby Vision, Netflix and Vudu are both services that support Dolby Vision and provide the relevant metadata for their streaming content. With Netflix, only some of its original content has been mastered for Dolby Vision, however, and at present that amounts to just seasons one and two of Marco Polo.
So which is best?
So should you opt for a Dolby Vision-capable television over the standard HDR 10? HDR 10 is the open standard and the one mandated by the Ultra HD Blu-ray certification, which means it is supported by every Ultra HD television and player. Dolby Vision will happily play HDR 10 but could also provide additional colour depth and accuracy, essentially it's an upgrade to HDR 10 that may or may not prove useful depending on studio support.
Due to the licensing fee from Dolby Laboratories, Dolby Vision is only likely to be included in more expensive, top-end TV sets. So there is a small gamble as to whether or not Dolby Vision support really takes off and you have the content to take advantage of it. There are also some limitations as to what can be mastered in Dolby Vision as it requires high-quality source material, which could limit the availability of content.
Thanks to HDR 10 support, though, you can take some solace that if you do go for Dolby Vision you certainly won’t end up with obsolete technology, which will gather dust if it doesn't get off the ground - I’m looking at you HD DVD.
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