Panasonic ‘Confident’ HDR10+ Will Be Available by Late April or Early May

Panasonic is using an “HDR -- Multi HDR Support” logo to denote HDR10, hybrid log-gamma and HDR10+ high-dynamic-range functionality in its 2018 TV line, the company said Tuesday at its annual pan-European convention, held this year in Palma, Mallorca, to mark the company’s 100th birthday. Panasonic -- one of the “3C” HDR10+ consortium companies with Fox and Samsung -- is describing HDR10+ as “dynamic metadata technology.” Panasonic product demonstrator Michael Price said his company is “confident,” based on working prototypes already available, that HDR10+ will be available either on sets out of the box or as a firmware upgrade by late April or early May. The 3C consortium fashioned an HDR10+ logo and applied to register it as a certification mark just before CES, but licensing terms for the royalty-free platform haven’t been finalized (see 1801130001). All Panasonic 4K TVs for 2018 will have HDR10+, HDR10 and HLG, and basic HDR10 even will be built into entry-level 1080p LCD TVs, the company said. No Panasonic TVs will have Dolby Vision, extending the company’s recent practice of shunning that royalty-bearing HDR platform (see 1708280018). Demos of HDR10+ used clips from Fox movies Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Kingsman, Wonder Woman and Alien Covenant. We saw one comparison demonstration of HDR10 versus HDR10+, but it used nature footage rather than movies. We witnessed no demo of HDR10+ versus Dolby Vision. Panasonic is building Dolby Vision into some Ultra HD Blu-ray players because “some people” want it, the company said. Those Ultra HD Blu-ray players also will support HDR10+, the company said.