Dougherty again said it's an “enthusiastic” Dolby investor, in a research note Thursday, following reports the Xbox One S and X are getting Dolby Vision HDR support via a software update through the Netflix app. “Over time, we'd expect Vision support to be expanded to gameplay and Blu-ray playback,” said analyst Steven Frankel. The Dolby Vision support follows the rollout of Dolby Atmos support for Xbox, he noted. Frankel also cited Panasonic’s recent debut of Blu-ray players with Dolby Vision support, despite its lack of Vision support on the TVs it sells in Europe with HDR10+. Dolby didn’t respond to questions.

Under just-released terms of the HDR10+ licensing platform (see 1806200045), the Fox-Panasonic-Samsung consortium running the program had a strong rationale for requiring TV makers to submit their sets to third-party certification, while allowing Blu-ray player and over-the-top set-top manufacturers to self-certify, Bill Mandel, Samsung Research America vice president-industry relations, told us at last week’s Advanced Display Summit in West Hollywood, California (see 1806280006). The Blu-ray Disc Association “is just a gigantic organization that’s been around forever and they’re making really commodity products,” said Mandel, Samsung’s HDR10+ project manager. With TVs, “especially TVs that take a premium logo like ‘10+,’ we wanted to just make it kind of transparent to everybody that’s participating,” he said. “We set up these test centers,” including Allion Labs in Japan, TTA in South Korea and BlueFocus in the U.S., he said. For a “source device” like a Blu-ray player or OTT box to be capable of HDR10+, “it needs to be able to generate that VSIF data,” said Mandel of vendor-specific information field protocol. “That would have to be programmed into the firmware.” For a TV, “it needs to understand that that VSIF is coming,” he said. Products lacking that protocol will need to get a firmware update to enable them to render HDR10+, said Mandel. He doesn’t see it as a problem, he said. Each year, “more and more” products will have HDR10+ capability. Samsung has “already committed to upgrading the 2017 TVs to this protocol,” he said. “We’re already running the Amazon protocol” to enable the sets to render the display of Amazon Prime content in HDR10+, he said. Samsung’s 2018 TVs are “already compatible with Amazon,” he said. “We just started the process of adding the VSIF mechanism into those.”

Hisense announced U.S. availability of its Amazon Alexa-enabled H8E 4K Ultra HD smart TVs. Voice control is available through the Hisense app or a voice remote sold separately, said the company. Features include HDR, Bluetooth and local dimming, it said Monday, and users can make their TVs the hub of a smart home and control TV functions, stream music, order meals or call an Uber. The line includes the 43-inch ($379), 50-inch ($449), 55-inch ($469) and 65-inch ($749). The 55-inch model has Harman Kardon sound.

Comcast expressed concern about plans to clear a portion of the C-band for terrestrial wireless use. High-bandwidth video technologies like 4K are pushing the need for more C-band capacity for video distribution, not less, Comcast officials told an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, according to a docket 17-183 filing posted Friday. It said FCC decisions to reallocate the C-band shouldn't bind deployment decisions that limit technologies like HD and Ultra-HD. Any NPRM on repacking C-band video distribution services into less spectrum should address the effects on video transmission, Comcast said. Those effects range from increased channel occupancy and power spectral density, which could raise risk of adjacent satellite interference at earth stations, to more instances of multiple carriers sharing a single transponder, increasing risk of intermodulation interference, it said. Comcast said it uses "hundreds" of C-band earth stations around the country and about 80 percent of its video programming comes to it via C-band satellites. It said its “head-end in the sky” service distributes programming to small and midsize MVPD headends in rural areas via C-band. An NPRM on the Intel/Intelsat/SES plan for clearing a portion of the C-band is expected this summer (see 1804200003).

​Samsung’s own March 2017 application to register “HDR10 Plus” as a trademark temporarily derailed the efforts of the consortium of which Samsung is part to register “HDR10+” as a certification logo for compliant HDR products (see 1801130001), Patent and Trademark Office records show. HDR10+ Technologies, a limited liability company formed in Delaware and based in Beaverton, Oregon, filed dual applications Jan. 2 to register the stylized HDR10+ logo unveiled at CES for the Fox-Panasonic-Samsung royalty-free dynamic-metadata HDR platform announced just before IFA (see 1708280018). PTO told the applicant in an April 11 notice the “prior-filed pending application” from Samsung “may present a bar to registration” of the HDR10+ logo. Samsung didn’t comment, nor did representatives of HDR10+ Technologies. The HDR10+ group said in March it was “close” to announcing the start of licensing for the platform, having missed its self-imposed target of January to begin those activities (see 1803210049).

Cable operators are “ready to deploy” on-demand and live HDR services through a “harmonized approach” to HDR10, blogged Arianne Hinds, CableLabs principal architect-video and standards strategy research and development, Thursday. Cable operators’ “roadmap” is to start with HDR10 and then “build further optimizations into their networks from there,” said Hinds. The strategy’s “benefit” is that it leaves room “for all other solutions,” including hybrid log-gamma HDR, “as conversion from HDR10 to HLG is a relatively simple process,” she said. “Other more complex solutions can also be subsequently deployed as the corresponding network components are added to support these services.” For content producers, there's the benefit of having a clearly defined “starting point for their cable network business partners,” she said.

Two current models of Philips-brand Ultra HD Blu-ray players, the BDP7502 and BDP7302, will support Dolby Vision playback through a newly downloadable software update, said P&F USA, the Funai subsidiary that’s licensed to market Philips-brand TVs and home video gear in North America. P&F USA markets two series of Philips-brand TVs in North America with Dolby Vision, and at CES announced plans to embed Technicolor HDR technology into the 2019 line of Philips TV products (see 1801060001). TP Vision, which is licensed to sell Philips-brand TVs in most world markets outside North America, has shunned Dolby Vision, and recently became the first TV maker independent of the Fox-Panasonic-Samsung "3C" consortium to announce HDR10+ support for actual product, beginning with TVs to be marketed in Europe by midyear (see 1801260030).

The HDR10+ group of Fox, Panasonic and Samsung “is close to announcing the start of licensing” for its royalty-free, dynamic-metadata-based HDR platform (see 1801130001), Fox spokesman Chris Bess emailed Wednesday. “We’re not there yet but very close.”

BT Sport showcased the world’s first live HD broadcast in HDR10 high dynamic range by sending a Union of European Football Associations Champions League soccer match telecast to a smartphone, said the British Telecom subsidiary Thursday. The “breakthrough” live trial was Wednesday at London’s Wembley Stadium, broadcasting to a beta version of the BT Sport App installed on a Samsung Galaxy S9 using the 4G mobile network of EE, the BT-owned wireless carrier, it said. In the quarterfinal UEFA Champions League match, Italian champions Juventus defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1. “Mobile viewers are an important and growing part of our audience, and we’re constantly focusing on innovating to ensure the best possible experience for our sports fans,” said Jamie Hindhaugh, BT Sport chief operating officer, in a written statement. “HDR is the future for mobile -- the technology is perfect for getting the most out of the small screen, with incredible colour and definition.” HD HDR “provides a better mobile experience and is less data intensive for both the mobile network and the user’s data consumption than 4K,” said BT Sport. U.S. broadcasters expressed many of the same sentiments, saying bandwidth constraints have many looking toward using 1080p with HDR in launching ATSC 3.0, at least as an “interim” approach (see 1705160044). BT Sport used 24 Ultra HD cameras at Wembley, including 17 that captured the match in native HDR10, the rest upconverted to HDR10, it said: “BT Sport will continue to test the new HD HDR technology along with other features in development.” BT Sport also beamed the match in 4K with HDR and Dolby Atmos sound to a private screening in London, it said.

Though Panasonic and Sony days apart introduced 1080p TVs with HDR10 and hybrid log-gamma support (see 1802150001), don’t look for high dynamic range to become a ubiquitous feature in full-HD sets anytime soon, said Paul Gagnon, IHS Markit executive director-research and analysis. “I would hesitate to call it a prevalent trend,” because 1080p sets “are still very much a commodity now and not even available anymore” in screen sizes larger than 50 inches “for the most part,” Gagnon told us. “It’s a shrinking market so adding features will not result in much incremental premium for the added cost, even if it is minimal. Nevertheless we are indeed seeing some brands putting HDR into 1080p sets, and broadcasters are interested.” Gagnon sees the “biggest application” for HDR in 1080p TVs in “global live sporting events which are almost never broadcast in 4K, but can greatly benefit from HDR,” he said. “So in some regions where mid-range sizes are important," such as in Europe and Japan, 1080p TVs with HDR “could be an option,” he said.