Dolby Vision Blu-ray discs coming from Sony Pictures soon

Resident_Evil_Vendetta_4K_Dolby_Vision

A big surprise from CES 2017 was Sony’s support for Dolby Vision, a feature that was secretly built into their TVs as far back as fall of 2016 with the release of the Z9D which was then activated via a future firmware update. With the Z9D, X930/940E, and A1E supporting the format, the next obvious answer would be for Sony Pictures to support the format. Via flatpanelshd:

 The first two confirmed Dolby Vision UHD Blu-ray releases are Universal’s Despicable Me 1 & 2. We are still waiting for Warner Bros and Lionsgate, which were announced as the other two launch partners by Dolby at CES, to detail their launch plans. 

As for Sony Pictures:

 their first title will be ‘Resident Evil: Vendetta’ that will be released on July 18. It will also include a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. 

As you can tell, there isn’t a whole lot of Dolby Vision content to go around and it’s doubtful that number will dramatically increase. Even for Sony, this seems like a half-hearted attempt, seeing how RE: Vendetta will only cater to hardcore gamers and not even your typical home theater enthusiast. Studios not yet announcing any support for Dolby Vision include

  • 20th Century Fox
  • Paramount

Perhaps most notable however is Disney (Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm) which hasn’t even bothered to release a 4K Blu-ray flick, let alone 4K with Dolby Vision. With many films coming out weeks ahead on digital, I personally doubt 4K Blu-ray and any iterations of it with HDR support will gain any traction. For most consumers, after Blu-ray comes streaming and they aren’t going to go through the process of getting new players and physical media. Ironically, even Sony’s own upcoming 4K Blu-ray player, the X1000ES, lacks support for Dolby Vision.