Dolby Vision is finally here... now what works and what doesn't?

[dutchice]

I thought of making a thread on user experiences regarding the Dolby Vision (DV) update of MAR28 2018 for the 2016 and 2017 Sony Bravia models. So feel free on contributing here with your findings. I must admit that the picture quality of the A1 on certain Netflix titles (Altered Carbon S01E01@20:55) are like nothing a TV was ever thought to be able to produce. So big kudos go to the team at Sony! However continuous improvement means that we have to keep identifying issues and areas for progress.

So here are certain issues with the new 6.2858 firmware I have found on my A1. I was playing around with the new DV picture mode while viewing a DV movie on Netflix tonight and I can say that the way the engineers have implemented the DV HDR mode is quite troublesome (read unstable). DV is an HDR mode just like HDR10 and HLG. So why they have chosen to create a locked-down and auto-select picture mode instead of just adding it under the existing HDR modes? Does this mean that HDR10 or HLG standards are not worth having their own dedicated picture modes unlike DV? Or is it because of the commercial agreements between Dolby and Sony that DV reserves a preferential treatment over the rival counterparts?

I have so far experienced that in certain scenarios the TV software erratically fails to identify DV content and thus apply the DV picture mode. This results in the TV falling back to the last picture mode in-use before the DV content playback. You can try to replicate this by pausing DV content on Netflix and entering the picture settings menu repetitively. In other scenarios, changing picture menu items while the DV picture mode is active and DV content is being played back can lead to corrupt image processing (see below images). You can try replicating this by toggling Adv. Contrast Enhancer between Off and High during DV playback.

Incorrupt Picture

Corrupt Picture

So for whoever has not yet applied the 6.2858 update, perhaps it’s not a bad idea to wait for a more stable DV implementation. Because I am sure there will be refinements coming. Also note that playing DV content apparently pushes the SOC so far on the A1 that pressing the Action Menu might take up to about 5 secs before the TV can actually pull-up the menu on top of the DV playback. Pressing Picture from there, again another 5 sec before Picture settings is pulled-up.

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

Thank you for sharing!

Best wishes,

M

[dutchice]

Hi @Win_88,

Could you confirm the DV playback image curruption bug with the guys at the lab? It should be fairly easy to reproduce.

Perhaps it’s pushed already with the current sprint.

Dutchice