We have corrected the story that we published last week based on some corrections received from the BDA (we removed a reference to a third HDR technology):
Large Display Monitor has heard that the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has decided to support high dynamic range (HDR) technologies for the new UltraHD Blu-ray disk format through a SMPTE HDR signalling mechanism. This will allow optional layered solutions for HDR and these will include
- Dolby Vision technology (proprietary technology that we have reported on regularly [interviews are on our video site. https://vimeo.com/106597939/ and https://vimeo.com/109894755])
- Technology for HDR from Philips (Philips Explains its HDR Solutions)
The Color Remapping Information system (which provides metadata to inform systems on how to map from one colour space to another, e.g. from Rec. 2020 to Rec. 709) will also be included as part of the format as an option in content and in Blu-ray players and can be used alongside the MPEG/SMPTE standard (Dolby Vision also includes some colour control as well as HDR)
The sources also have suggested that the recommendations will be adopted by the BDA in the middle of 2015.
Additional Material
The BDA also confirmed to us that the UltraHD standard will support 60P and 10 bit HEVC MPEG video encoding. The BDA pointed out that the 10 bit support will also enhance standard dynamic range (SDR) Rec BT-709 content as well.
Analyst Comment
When we spoke to specialists in this area at CES (e.g. DivX), we heard that it’s not that difficult to support any of the different systems, the question was simply which needed to be implemented. It looks as though all of them will have to be adopted. It’s always hard to be sure how standards will develop and be adopted, but our feeling is that Dolby’s push behind its technology, from Hollywood onwards, might make this the system that gets seen as the “premium” option. No doubt, others will brand the other mechanisms and start to promote them later this year. (BR)
