I'm fed up with "videophiles" format wars and Dolby Vision

[TheHooligan95]

Format wars have always been a thing in the industry and on paper I get it.
I also get that HDR10+ and DolbyVision are competitors on the space. Thus the consumer has to choose between one or the other, especially if they're interested in a QD-OLED.

But what is the  point of paying for a very expensive DolbyVision screen, if it's not capable of playing all kinds of DolbyVision formats? Yes, exactly: when you buy a Dolby Vision enabled device, you don't actually know if it will support all DolbyVision standards. Here's the simplified version:

 

There are 6 known Dolby Vision versions, called profiles, but they fall under two categories (I think). Low Latency Dolby Vision (simplified), aka profiles 5 and 8.x, and normal full Dolby Vision, aka profile 7.x.

LLDV is used for streaming services, (full) DV is used in 4k Blu Rays. 

 

I don't know the technical differences between the two but 7 is supposed to be better than any other version except IT HAS A SEPARATE LICENSE from other Dolby Vision version: aka if your TV device (AndroidTV, Chromecast, AppleTV, Roku, that kind of device) isn't expensive enough, it will not support it even if it supports other kinds of (already expensive) Dolby Vision formats, even if the screen itself is perfectly capable of displaying DolbyVision 7 content. 

 

Meaning that basically DolbyVision 7 licensing is sort of an antipiracy measure that won't make the rips of your 4K blu rays work with Dolby Vision on Plex or any in home streaming solution unless you spend 400€ on a chinese Android TV device that features full DolbyVision support. You're forced use the physical blu ray in a good 4k blu ray player to get the full DolbyVision experience.

 

 

The nVidia Shield Pro apparently is capable of converting Dolbyvision 7 to 8 on the fly with loss in quality, and it's the only trustworthy device on the market capable of doing so.

I don't know why Linus is freely recommending Sony A95K and A95L to everybody when the TVs have this glaring issue.

[da na]

Video format wars show us we can't have nice things. 

That's pretty ridiculous that the formats aren't backwards-compatible, though. 

[MarkPol88]

1 hour ago, TheHooligan95 said:

I don't know why Linus is freely recommending Sony A95K and A95L to everybody when the TVs have this glaring issue.

He also recommended Samsung's qd-oled which do not have this problem - as it do not support Dolby Vision at all

So, Sony better because it supports DV7?

Yeah, I know it sucks, but for the manufacturer it is clear - consumer want "true" dolby vision, consumer will buy blu-ray player (preferably from our brand) and "be happy". And on the side not - Sony always was weird, as they do not believe in wide Dolby Vision support - to the point that PS5 blu-ray drive will read all of the discs, even it will output Dolby Atmos pass through but dolby vision? Forget it.

 

There is a light at the end of the tunnel:

CoreELEC and Dolby Vision - Announcements - CoreELEC Forums

Right now we already have few "cheap" android boxes that should in the future play nice with DV7 but as always disclaimer:

DO NOT BUY PROMISES

[TheHooligan95]

I've found out that the only FREE but imperfect solutions is to simply convert all Dolby Vision profile 7 files to Dolby Vision profile 8 through the use of community tools that I don't know if I can share here, even if they are not breaking any copyright. 

If you want to learn a little bit more about how DV works there is this amazing post here https://avdisco.com/t/demystifying-dolby-vision-profile-levels-dolby-vision-levels-mel-fel/95 : DV7 is capable of containing an extra layer of metadata that can make the image quality better, but it is not always used and if it is, it's not always used in any actually objectively noticeable way, or only "videophiles"/image snobs will truly actually care whereas nobody else would've noticed. But sometimes there are differences that make a satisfying conversion to 8 impossible.

There is a legendary guy called RESET_9999 who has made spreadsheets comparing DV7 vs DV8, but also HDR10+ to HDR10 to HDR to SDR. He's definitely the utmost expert on the topic and he's linked me this useful spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jBIGF8XTVi9VmDBZ8a5hEyongYMCDlUiLHU9n1f_S74/edit#gid=917134052