Sony Confirms HDR10+ Is a No-Go, Pushes Dolby Vision Support

HDR10+ got a thumbs down at the annual Sony dealer and news-media show at its European headquarters in Weybridge, south of London, last week. Training Manager Mike Somerset told us that “HDR10+ is not a format we will be looking at.” Somerset fleshed out details of Sony’s policy on HDR, including Dolby Vision. All new Sony TVs except the most basic 32-inch set will come with HDR10 out of the box, he said. Beginning this spring, Dolby Vision capability will be standard in XF90, AF8, A1 and ZD9 series sets packing the X1 Extreme Processor -- either embedded or as a free software update -- said the company. The X1 Extreme chip set controls local dimming, adds HD-to-4K upscaling and processes 24/25/30 frame-per-second content for 100 Hz displays, said the company. It's now routine to insert full-screen black frames between the image frames to smooth upscaled motion on a 100 Hz panel, Somerset’s team told us, but that reduces overall brightness because the viewer’s eye is seeing less light overall. To compensate, Sony’s local dimming control boosts screen brightness in select areas of the image, they said. Asked whether the technology will work with HDR, when the display already is being driven to peak brightness in select areas, Sony would say only that “it does work with HDR.”