Digging through old firmware notes reminded me that AWOL had its laser projectors formally certified by Dolby Labs a couple of years back, and then shipped the feature as a free over the air update. You updated over Wi-Fi, a Dolby Vision option appeared in the menu, and the logo turned up once you fed it matching content. Nothing exotic about how it was delivered.
What stays with me is how short the list of projectors doing this still is. The Japanese makers who dominate the enthusiast end all went the other way and built their own dynamic tone mapping instead. Analyse the scene, remap the highlights, hand you a picture that behaves. As far as I know none of their current home models carry Dolby Vision certification, and the explanation you usually hear is licensing cost plus the awkward fact that Dolby Vision metadata is written against a display whose peak output is knowable. A projector's peak output depends on screen gain, throw distance, laser hours and whether somebody opened the curtains, so the reference the metadata assumes is a moving target in every single room.
The counter argument is that dynamic tone mapping is solving the same problem with less information, and if the studio already shipped per scene metadata you may as well use it rather than guess at it. I have seen good implementations of both and I could not honestly tell you which one wins in a room with real ambient light in it.
For anyone running a projector that does support Dolby Vision, does it visibly differ from HDR10 on the same disc, or is it mostly a badge on the box?
What stays with me is how short the list of projectors doing this still is. The Japanese makers who dominate the enthusiast end all went the other way and built their own dynamic tone mapping instead. Analyse the scene, remap the highlights, hand you a picture that behaves. As far as I know none of their current home models carry Dolby Vision certification, and the explanation you usually hear is licensing cost plus the awkward fact that Dolby Vision metadata is written against a display whose peak output is knowable. A projector's peak output depends on screen gain, throw distance, laser hours and whether somebody opened the curtains, so the reference the metadata assumes is a moving target in every single room.
The counter argument is that dynamic tone mapping is solving the same problem with less information, and if the studio already shipped per scene metadata you may as well use it rather than guess at it. I have seen good implementations of both and I could not honestly tell you which one wins in a room with real ambient light in it.
For anyone running a projector that does support Dolby Vision, does it visibly differ from HDR10 on the same disc, or is it mostly a badge on the box?
