Dolby Vision VS HDR10 - Which do you prefer?

[kashif]

Please don't hate me for saying this but I really find dolby vision to be not as vibrant as HDR10 even in dolby vision bright mode. I am not talking about streaming. I have a Sony x900h and a Sony Ubp-X700 player. The dolby vision has this cinematic feeling but its not as vivid and vibrant as HDR10. Is it just me or if the difference is really there?

I also tested this on Netflix and dolby vision has this yellowish look and the colors don't have that vividness as hdr10 has.

Which settings do you prefer and why? Please share your input regarding dolby vision since I don't get the hype it generated. I see it adjusts lighting frame by frame where as HDR10 has constant settings that is applicable to whole pic. So I was very excited but after watching some titles including The Lion King remake on vision and hdr10 I am really confused as to which looks more good.

Your opinions please. Thanks.

[vector72]

DV seems slightly brighter for me, but that may be due to limitations of my TV. Other than that I have some discs with blocking & noise in HDR10, but in DV these problem areas are gone.

On your setup, the two formats should look fairly similar.

[vector72]

Thinking harder, yeah, DV has a slight tint. HDR10 whites are white, while it displays it's 1 billion colors. DV whites are often tinted as it tries to produce up to 68? billion.

I prefer DV personally,
as it seems to elevate the mid-tones and make the picture easier to look at.
Everyone's setup will vary.

[Geoff D]

Meh, I’ll just quote this from another thread. I do still use DV but more for how it helps to correct some dreadful base layer encodes rather than what it does mapping-wise, though it can still help when it comes to Light Cannon™️ material.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

But the ironical thing is that betterer TVs will make DV’s “staggering” improvements far less obvious, as the more coverage the TV has of both range and gamut the less need there is for DV to hand hold the TV. The reason why I don’t see these massive improvements on my end is because my TV already has superb processing and the ability to hit ~1800 nits of brightness combined with excellent blacks and contrast.

And 12-bit displays aren’t going to engender some amazing next-gen DV performance, people think it will for whatever reasons but it’s just going to allow for finer gradations, that’s it. It will be allied with betterer range/gamut on future TVs so people will think it’s them extra bits making the difference, but as with 8K TVs being given superior panels and processing vs 4K models it’s just a coincidence, i.e. the 8K part is totally secondary to these improvements and it’ll be the same with 12-bit displays.

12-bit also presents its own problems re: processing as TVs will need at least 14 if not 16-bit to provide the proper overhead to handle the images; Sony have been using 14-bit for years (which is why my telly is just so damn good at handling HDR as transparently as possible) but when UHD first came along it was embarrassing watching supposed “top flight” displays choke on the bit depth of 4K because their processing just wasn’t up to snuff. Even now people still get banding on this and that title which is down to their display chain.


Sure, I’m not saying that you’re not seeing those improvements, same with anyone else who regards DV as next level stuff, but 95% of it is down to how your display is handling the HDR10 layer rather than DV providing a materially different grade. Indeed, the great lie about DV is that it’s some sort of source grading process in and of itself which is utterly false when talking about home video HDR content. DV is basically a metadata pass on a finished HDR grade and even Dobly’s own DV manuals say this.

[Ryan1973]

It seems like HDR adds more pop to the colors compared to Dolby Vision.

[rroeder]

I have the 900F and it's a subtle diff, I crank up the contrast a little more with DV, 98 compared to 93 for HDR10. DV had it's own settings profile that was kinda whacky so I just replicated the HDR10 settings, except the contrast as above, might want to check that

[avs commenter]

DV is not supposed to be brighter. It's supposed to bring out more detail, which it does in my experience.

[dealer6871]

Think it depends on your player/display combination and how the display is calibrated. I was using a Panasonic UB9000 on a professionally calibrated Sony A9F OLED. Didn't like Dolby Vision through the UB9000. Thought it was too bright and colors too vivid. Preferred the Optimizer setting. I then switched to an Oppo UDP205. I now love Dolby Vision through this player. Prefer the 205 over the Panasonic. The 205 analog is also a bonus through my speaker system.

[tcripe]

If I have the choice between the 2 I'm always going to watch a film in DV instead of HDR10 or 10+.

[rech750452]

I prefer the vibrancy of HDR10 over Dolby Vision.

[BerryTheMusicMan]

HDR10 Is For Fools , Dolby Visions Is For Cools !

[Canada]

I love the metadata that will carry scene-by-scene instructions that the Dolby Vision-capable display can use so that it portrays the content as accurately as possible. TVs that are Dolby Vision-compatible, combine the scene-by-scene information received from the source, with the awareness of its own capabilities. This is in terms of brightness, contrast and colour performance.

Although the anime version of Ghost in the Shell the Dolby Vision causes the picture to flicker, so it is best to use HDR 10.

[wxman2003]

DV is better. Blacks track more accurately due to dynamic tone mapping.Even on my Sony A90J, I prefer DV over HDR10. Also colors pop more with DV.

[singhcr]

DV technically might have a little better nuance in color as it is 12-bit color downsampled to 10-bit. As some have mentioned here, sometimes DV gives a bit higher bitrate but that's an authoring issue, not something inherent to the technology so I will ignore that.

Other than that, brightness wise if your TV doesn't require tone mapping for your particular content DV and HDR10 would look identical. Since there are plenty of discs that have 4000 nit containers, I'll watch DV every time it is an option and in my opinion some kind of dynamic metadata for HDR should have been part of the UHD standard from the get go.

[Ryan1973]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

DV is better. Blacks track more accurately due to dynamic tone mapping.Even on my Sony A90J, I prefer DV over HDR10. Also colors pop more with DV.

Colors pop more for me in HDR. They seem to be more vivid in that mode.

[slimdude]

I don't prefer one over the other because they both look good. If a 4K UHD disc doesn't have Dolby Vision, the viewer have no other option but to watch the movie(s) in HDR-10 anyway because, HDR-10 is the norm.

[PUsokrJosh305]

For the most part, I watch most of my 4K UHD Discs in HDR10 and not in Dolby Vision even though my LG C9 is capable of Dolby Vision. My reasoning behind that is that I love the way my C9 dynamically tone maps the HDR10 picture compared to Dolby Vision. This is how I understand both:

For HDR10, the layer or function of the disc uses static metadata. This tells the TV to provide only 1 tone curve for the entire movie. Hence why some HDR 10 content is dimmer or brighter than say Dolby Vision. It's only 1 tone curve and doesn't change at all.

Now Dolby Vision has dynamic metadata that tells the TV to change the tone curve on a scene by scene or frame by frame basis. This allows each scene to have the best overall tone mapping possible on each TV. I look at in as the "middle ground." As I said though, it uses dynamic metadata or in other words, Dolby Vision is a type of Dynamic Tone Mapping.

Now some TVs, like my LG C9, has a function called Dynamic Tone Mapping. Sony has it built in automatically. This function allows the TV to dynamically tone map HDR10 content to how it see fits. Although the function is not as accurate as say Dolby Vision, I still think it gives off an excellent and almost close picture to Dolby Vision or even better at times.

This is especially true if you have a Panasonic Player, like the 820, that has the HDR Optimizer. Yes, most people will say to never have the HDR Optimizer "On" at the same time of having Dynamic Tone Mapping set ot "On" on my TV, but I have the Optimizer set on the Highest Setting to take care of the high nit content that the TV can't tone map correct. This has given me an excellent picture.

Again, it's not 100% perfect at times, but I prefer it over the more dimmer picture I get on my LG C9 without Dynamic Tone Mapping "On." I've also done a lot of comparisons between a Dolby Vision version of a film vs the HDR10 version with Dynamic Tone Mapping "On" vs. "Off" and have found with Dynamic Tone Mapping "On", a movie is closer to the Dolby Vision of the film vs. with it being "Off."

I also echo some that have said that Dolby Vision can be dim/ faded at times. Which makes sense. This is why I call it the "middle ground." At least on an LG OLED, HDR10 by itself is a lot dimmer and can be duller than Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision is the middle ground and HDR10 with some type of Dynamic Tone Mapping seems to be the higher extreme, with it at times being either too bright or too dark.

None the less, it all comes down to personal preference. I prefer HDR10 with Dynamic Tone Mapping "On" while others may prefer HDR10 with no dynamic tone mapping. Or, some people prefer Dolby Vision. As long as you are enjoying your movies, that's all that matters!!

[teddyballgame]

I typically just let DV do its thing and that turns out well. I guess you could say HDR might pack a bigger punch but I've noticed that older filmic titles typically don't like being pushed too hard so you gotta be careful with that.

I think everyone comes at this from a different angle, they have their own subjective tastes and most likely different gear. A lot of people are never going to calibrate either. So if you want to chase down whatever settings you like that's cool I get it. Just makes dicussion hard sometimes if everyone is looking at radically different pictures

[Synchg]

looks more "accurate" to my eyes. hdr10 never looked that 'cinematic' on my samsung js8500, just eye catching.
now granted my current sony 950h set isn't calibrated.
DV titles are still preferable. hdr10 is just too damn 'bright' and gives it an 'artificial' look for my tastes.
i recently bought 'passengers' watched the hdr10 uhd disc, then redeemed code and played in dolby vision. Which was hands down the winner. although the average consumer would choose the hdr10 presentation because it's brighter.
wondering how many other titles from Sony would look better in DV.
Mask of Zorro also looks better to me in DV. UHD looks overblown to me as well as Labyrinth (looking forward to the DV disc coming out)

tempted to buy the 'Datacolor SpyderX Pro' and let my sony automatically calibrated itself with the installed software wondering if it will be THAT much different especially with hdr10 and dolby vision content.
so maybe stick with hdr10 if you wanna show off how bright your set gets for friends, or if watch alot of content in room with alot of sunlight. but like i said, my tv isn't calibrated and i havent watched any DV content on an OLED. The local dimming on my TV is not bad mind you

[Agent Kay]

I have a good TV so DV 10 10+ are interchangeable to me.
DV via fix a shit encode, bar that it helps TVs thst need help.