State of Android Gaming 2017

It’s a great time to be an Android gamer.

This past year may go down as a banner year for Android gaming. We saw some big tech advancements in virtual reality and augmented reality, a great mix of outstanding games from indie developers and established franchises, and we’re looking forward to more of that good stuff in 2017.

Here’s what I saw as the trends and highlights from 2016, and what I’m looking forward to most in the new year.

Virtual reality and augmented reality

Virtual reality was huge in 2016, and it wasn’t just relegated to those fortunate enough to try or own an HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, or [Playstation VR]http://www.vrheads.com). On top of seeing the ongoing development and refinement of the Samsung Gear VR, we saw Google announce their own VR platform, Daydream.

From what we’ve seen at CES 2017, companies are excited to jump onto the VR bandwagon. There’s a growing number of Daydream-ready devices, from the Google Pixel and Moto Z, Huawei Mate 9 Pro, and the ZTE Axon 7 (once it gets Nougat), which is great news. Mobile VR is by far the most affordable and accessible way for the average consumer, so the more attention being spent by companies means we should be in for much more VR gaming action in 2017.

Pokémon Go — love it or hate it — was an absolute force throughout the summer of 2016 and is still — incredibly — maintaining momentum heading into 2017.

Shifting from virtual reality to augmented reality, Pokémon Go — love it or hate it — was an absolute force throughout the summer and is still, incredibly, somewhat relevant heading into 2017. For anyone who missed out on the Ingress craze, Pokémon Go was likely their first dive into playing a game that uses augmented reality.

But also like Ingress, Pokémon Go is a tough game to jump into this far after the initial release and buzz. Any new Pokémon Go players are stuck grinding for a summer’s worth of days before they’ll be able to make a dent at a gym, and therein lies one of the biggest issues with massively multiplayer augmented reality games.

But there’s still so much untapped potential for future augmented reality titles. Take Clandestine Anomaly, a single-player gaming experience that lets you play from the comfort of your home, or wander out into your neighbourhood to use your phone’s camera to shoot aliens out of the sky. It came out before Pokémon Go, but saw a spike in downloads after its sibling opened the world’s eyes to AR gaming. Here’s hoping that Pokémon Go’s success inspires other game developers.

Will there be more augmented reality gaming coming our ways in 2017? I sure hope so!

I’d rather pay for the full game than play free-to-play modes

One of the biggest knocks on mobile gaming is the way so many games rely on the freemium model, whether it’s accomplished by bombarding you with offers on in-app purchases to supercharge your character or deck in an online game, or throwing up frustrating roadblocks meant to entice you into paying for upgrades or whatnot.

For many years, this seemed like a fair compromise because the average person probably didn’t own a phone capable of lengthy gaming sessions. in 2017, That’s no longer the case. The last few years of flagships are more than capable to run full games, and there are a growing number of mid-range phones that are more than capable for gaming.

It’s frustrating to see so many games where the gameplay itself is hindered by limitations or commerce structures put in place by the developers.

It’s frustrating to see so many games where the gameplay itself is hindered by limitations or commerce structures put in place by the developers. There’s no genre affected by this worse than sports games, where the games with the best graphics and gameplay are almost always hitched to a clunky card-based Ultimate Team mechanic. I mean, I get it — opening packs or crates gives that dopamine rush of gambling and makes us want to come back for more… and more.

But you know what also keeps my attention? Really well-made games that I can just play for a few minutes or a few hours. I sunk countless hours into FIFA 13’s Manager Mode, playing through multiple full seasons with my favorite team. For that edition, EA provided a spot-on representation of what I’d come to expect from the same mode from its console counterpart, and it was amazing. When they shifted focus away from that straightforward gameplay towards the freemium card-collecting model, it just wasn’t the same for me.

Another example: take the difference between Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, a game ‘designed for mobile’ with social media integration and layers of in-game currencies to contend with, and Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, essentially a direct port of the classic PC game that’s been restored to its former glory on Android devices. Why settle for compromises when you can — and should be — getting the full gaming experience with no compromises.

If you agree, make sure you put your money where your mouth is and support the games and developers you enjoy most.

Expect more hits of nostalgia

We’ve seen some gaming classics like Soul Calibur and the aforementioned Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic successfully released on Android, offering essentially the full gaming experience we remember from different platforms. I won’t underestimate the technical challenges required to properly port a game, but with how damn easy and convenient it is to getting an emulator on nearly any device and illegally play through the whole catalogue of whichever retro console you desire, you would think companies would be champing at the bit to release those “retro classics” to an audience with an insatiable appetite for nostalgia. Just look at how wildly popular the NES Classic was this past holiday season. The market appears ripe for faithful ports of gaming classics, and it’s time for companies to give the people what they want.

(But let’s get things ported better than the disappointing Mega Man titles Capcom recently dropped into the Google Play Store).

The market appears ripe for faithful ports of gaming classics, and it’s time for companies to give the people what they want.

Speaking of beloved video game characters, Super Mario Run is going to be coming to Android in 2017, and assuming it’s as successful here as it was with the initial iOS launch, Nintendo seems poised to bring more cherished franchises and characters to iOS and Android. Depending on the lessons Nintendo learns from Super Mario Run, that could lead to some amazing gaming opportunities. Here’s hoping for a Warioware reboot on Android — it would just makes sense!

Beyond that, we got a new Final Fantasy game specifically developed for mobile, a fantastic top-down scrolling shooter in Sky Force Reloaded, and Downwell, a fantastic new game with retro graphics — three different examples of games that hit us right in the nostalgia in different ways.

If you look at the film and TV landscape of the past five years, remakes and reboot reign supreme. The same trends are occurring in mobile gaming, for better or worse, and that means we’re probably going to see more attempts to hit that same nostalgic tone. But we shouldn’t settle for cheap knockoffs or bad ports of classics here, either.

Can the new NVIDIA Shield revitalize Android TV gaming?

While gaming continues to grow and improve on our phones, here’s hoping for a revitalization of gaming on Android TV, which will likely be lead by the NVIDIA Shield.

NVIDIA made some big noise at CES 2017, announcing an updated version of their Android TV box along with the news that Google Assistant will be coming to the Shield with an system upgrade to Nougat. This, along with another CES announcement, the NVIDIA Spot — the first third-party product to use Google’s Assistant AI— should help get more people interested in the NVIDIA Shield, which in turn will draw more attention from developers for more Android gaming content you can play on your TV. Games such as GoNNer and The Uncertain were great additions to the Shield line up in 2016, and I’m personally excited to see what’s to come in 2017.

The Shield is positioning itself into a really interesting space as an outstanding streaming device… that also happens to also be a fully capable gaming machine. Despite its strengths, the Shield overlooked by a lot of people. But with those new features coming to the new NVIDIA Shield model as well as the first-generation box with the eventual upgrade to Nougat, here’s hoping the Shield gets the attention it deserves from developers.

What do you think?

Which games stole your free time in 2016? Any games you’re looking forward to? Let us know in the comments!

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Best Bands for the Samsung Gear Fit 2

Update the look of your Gear Fit 2 with these stylish band options!

The Samsung Gear Fit 2 is a pretty good fitness band that includes a feature typically found on smartwatches: the ability to swap out the 22mm bands for other colors or styles.

If you prefer to wear yours 24/7, having a couple extra bands can help you accessorize your Gear Fit 2, whether you’re attending a formal affair or just like to spice things up with a fresh splash of color. There’s a number of great, affordable options out there, so let’s dive in!

• MoKo Soft Silicone Replacement Sport Bands
• Moretek Fit 2 Wrist Straps
• V-Moro Metal Replacement bands

MoKo Soft Silicone Replacement Sports Bands

MoKo offers a wide range of color options of their silicone straps for the Gear Fit 2. Each strap is adjustable to fit small or large wrists (4.96″ – 8.38″) via the same style of metal plug used on the strap that came with the Gear Fit 2. Bands can be swapped in and out quickly with the one-button quick release for locking the watch band, making it convenient to have a fresh strap to swap out after a sweaty workout. With a price of only $10 compared to Samsung’s stock replacement for the black, you can economically afford to get a couple of these in your favorite colors, then keep them in a bit of a rotation so your wrist always feeling fresh and looking fine.

See styles at Amazon

Moretek Fit 2 Wrist Straps

Moretek offers two different style of wrist bands for the Gear Fit 2: a more traditional strap available in 12 different color and pattern options and a rugged strap (pictured) that offers impact protection for your tracker’s watch face. Everything is made of a skin-friendly silicone material and held on your wrist with a traditional watch strap buckle. The rugged bands are definitely going to add some bulk to your wrist, but whether you’re playing a high-impact sport or simply prone to banging it against doorways, that extra protection might save you from incidental damage.

See styles at Amazon

V-Moro Metal Replacement bands

If you’re after a metal strap option for a more stylish look, V-Moro has you covered with two distinct styles — a classic metal link band and a Milanese loop band featuring a magnetic clasp. Both styles are available in silver or black, with the Milanese band (pictured) sold in small and large sizes, so choose accordingly.

The metal band includes a tool for adding and removing links for adjusting sizes. Both are great for incorporating your Gear Fit 2 as an accessory in a professional wardrobe. V-Moro also offers a medium-sized silicone strap on the same Amazon listing. In stark contrast to the stylish metal offerings, these are extremely utilitarian and offer that “classic” fitness tracker look, with five colorful options to choose for.

See styles at Amazon

How do you accessorize your Gear Fit 2?

Are you a band swapper? What’s your favorite style for your Gear Fit 2? Let us know in the comments!

Nvidia Spot preview: The Google Assistant mic and speaker

Alongside the new version of the Nvidia Shield TV, an Android Nougat-powered media streamer, the company will be launching the Nvidia Spot.

It’s a tiny sphere that you plug into an available power socket which works with the Shield TV box and basically allows you to use Google Assistant away from the main device.

That means you can simply plug one in a bedroom socket and use voice commands to find out the weather, managed your schedule and just about do anything a Google Home can do. And through the connected Nvidia Shield TV on the same home network, you can also control your IFTTT and SmartThings smart home appliances and devices using speech.

It is essentially Nvidia’s answer to an Amazon Echo Dot and is similarly priced: at $49 (around £40).

• What is Nvidia GeForce Now and what are the differences on Shield TV, PC and Mac?
• New Nvidia Shield Android TV preview: Smaller, more capable 4K HDR video streamer
• CES 2017: All the announcements that matter

You can have multiple Nvidia Spots around your home, and even placing one in the same room as the Shield TV could be a good idea. That’s because the media box’s voice control is performed through the included game controller and you might not want to leave one of those lying around in view.

The Spot on the other hand is tiny and easy to tuck away thanks to not requiring an external power supply. It has a simple green glowing light on the outside, but is otherwise inconspicuous.

We’re yet to test its range for voice, and we’re not yet sure of availability – it’s coming after the Shield TV, which is out from 16 January – but we’re definitely looking forward to giving it a whirl.

Scientists discover a cosmic-scale particle accelerator

Suddenly, even the Large Hadron Collider seems downright quaint. Researchers have found a combination of cosmic phenomena that’s creating the universe’s largest known particle accelerator. At least one supermassive black hole in a galaxy cluster has created a electromagnetic tunnel that’s accelerating gas to high speeds, only for the gas to travel even faster as it interacts with shock waves from another cluster colliding with the first. The result is particles traveling at a significant portion of the speed of light — no mean feat for anything that isn’t, well, light.

They discovered the accelerator by merging X-ray data from the Chandra observatory with imaging from other facilities, including the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, the Keck Observatory and the Subaru telescope.

Astronomers have seen these behaviors in isolation before, but this is the first time they’ve witnessed both acting in concert. This also answers a riddle that has baffled scientists for a while: why were there gigantic twisting radio emissions emanating from the colliding clusters (Abell 3411 and Abell 3412)? It won’t be shocking if there are other examples of this acceleration in the universe, but seeing just one has already explained a lot.

Via: Popular Mechanics

Source: Chandra X-ray Observatory

OLED TVs will finally take off in 2017

After years of taunting consumers with incredible picture quality, but insanely high prices, OLED TVs are finally coming down to Earth. Prices are falling, there will be even more models to choose from and, at least based on what we’ve seen from CES this year, LCD TVs aren’t getting many upgrades. And of course, LG’s stunning new W-series wowed us so much, it won both our Best TV and Best of the Best awards at CES. If you’ve been holding out on a 4K TV upgrade, but haven’t had the budget to consider OLED up until now, expect things to change this year.

Even before CES began, it was clear the OLED market was beginning to change. Throughout 2016, LG steadily lowered the prices of its lineup — its cheapest model, the B6, launched at $4,000, but eventually made its way down to $2,000 by October. Come Black Friday, LG also offered another $200 discount to sweeten the pot. Now think about that: A 55-inch 4K OLED for $1,800! It was such a compelling deal I ended up buying one myself.

Since then, the B6’s price has jumped back up to $2,500, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see its price come back down again. (Pro-tip: Keep an eye on deal aggregator sites.) So why the big discounts? LG reportedly increased the production of its large OLED panels by 70 percent last year, likely in anticipation of more demand. That could have led to a slight oversupply, which retailers wanted to clear out before this year’s sets.

To refresh, OLED TVs offer many advantages over their LCD counterparts. In addition to being much thinner, they offer far better contrast ratios, thanks to OLED’s ability to produce pure black levels, and wider viewing angles. OLED sets typically look brighter than LCDs, though newer 4K LCDs have also bumped up their brightness levels considerably (often at the cost of color accuracy). Simply put, OLED looks good. To my eye, its inherent quality advantages matter even more than the bump to 4K.

Of course, we don’t have any details about how LG will price its newest lineup, including the W-Series OLED. TV companies rarely give us any cost details at CES, and typically wait until spring to make those announcements. LG reps said that the W-series could surprise us with its price, so hopefully that means it won’t be too much more than the $10,000 G-series, which features the company’s “Picture on Glass” technology.

The fact that Sony is also getting into the 4K OLED game could also drive prices down further, especially since they’re relying on LG panels. And if LG’s sets haven’t done anything for you so far, perhaps Sony’s features could win you over. In addition to typically great image quality, Sony’s OLED also turns its screen into a speaker. It’s a nice aesthetic move, though based on what I’ve heard on the CES show floor, they don’t sound much better than typical TV speakers.

Even as they’re getting cheaper, LG’s OLED sets still cost more than most 4K LCD alternatives. When it was $2,000, the 55-inch B6 cost about as much as Samsung’s higher-end 65-inch 4K sets. And while gadget fanatics know about the inherent advantages of OLED, most consumers will likely choose screen size over quality. Basically, I don’t expect everyone to be buying OLEDs this year, but it’s never been a better time for discerning shoppers to jump aboard.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

AI might handpick your customer service rep

There are certainly ways to use tech to augment customer service, like Twitter’s auto-replies for public-facing business accounts. But if you’ve called a large company’s helpline and gotten a representative that was atypically, unusually helpful, latch on to that uncertainty: Your hotline helper might have been hand-picked for you by an AI system. The startup Afiniti International Holdings has installed just such a setup in over 150 call centers to better match callers with associates who have successfully helped similar folks.

To build a profile of the caller, Afiniti’s tech pulls up their purchase and contact history and business/credit profile. Since this is 2017, it also automatically crawls the internet to find their public Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages. Finally, it fills out the profile by examining census archives of the caller’s area. If the associate on the other end of the phone is in sales, they’ll be matched with callers similar to those they’ve more successfully sold to in the past.

The associates can’t see callers’ personal data, Afiniti maintains, and they don’t know why they’re matched to whom: it’s all done in the background by the company’s AI system. But simply having scores and metrics invisible to callers is worrying some privacy advocates.

“There’s a process of discrimination going on,” University of Pennsylvania professor Joseph Turow, who studies digital marketing, told The Wall Street Journal. “Companies are bringing data together that we have no knowledge about, and it may discriminate against in a prejudicial sense or a positive sense, depending on who we are.”

Afiniti’s careful to note where it claims to pull its data from, according to The Wall Street Journal: From up to 100 databases that are legitimately available for purchase, like credit firm Experian and data clearinghouse Acxiom Corp, and only social media data from callers’ profiles that had been made public. But if you’re worried about making a simple customer service call and getting slotted a salesperson expressly skilled at upselling people like you, it might be too late: Your data’s already out there.

Via: Consumerist

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Nokia appears to be working on its own AI assistant

It seems that just about everyone wants to get into the AI assistant game. Nokia (the networking giant, not HMD Global’s brand) has applied for a trademark on “Viki,” a chat- and voice-based helper for smartphones and the web. Details are scarce — this is a trademark, not a patent — but there’s little doubt as to what it’s for. The question is, what will Nokia do with it?

Not surprisingly, the company isn’t revealing much. “Nokia registers trademarks from time to time,” a spokesperson tells us, “but we don’t comment on how, whether or when they may be used for Nokia products or services.” And it’s important to remember that companies sometimes register trademarks as safeguards. They may not intend to make a product, but they don’t want someone else taking their naming scheme.

You definitely can’t assume that an assistant will show up in Nokia-branded smartphones. HMD Global may have the Nokia name under its belt, but that doesn’t mean that it’s working in concert with the original Finnish company. If Viki ever reaches the public, it could just as easily be shopped around to any smartphone maker or internet service that wants an AI solution.

Via: GSMinfo.nl (translated), IBTimes

Source: EUIPO

Phil Schiller Says iPhone Was ‘Earth-Shattering’ Ten Years Ago and Remains ‘Unmatched’ Today

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone’s past, present, and future.

The report first reflects upon the iPhone’s lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed device like the iPod, or an open platform like the Mac, a discussion that Schiller said was ultimately “shut down” by then-CEO Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs shut down the discussion, Schiller recalls. “He said ‘We don’t have to keep debating this because we can’t have [an open system] right now. Maybe we’ll change our mind afterwards, or maybe we won’t, but for now there isn’t one so let’s envision this world where we solve the problem with great built-in apps and a way for developers to make web apps.”

Levy suggested that the iPhone’s great moment was when the App Store launched a year later, creating a world where for “every imaginable activity” there was “an app for that.” Schiller, perhaps unsurprisingly as Apple’s marketing chief, said that belief undermines how truly “earth-shattering” the iPhone was at the time.

“That undervalues how earth-shattering the iPhone was when it first came to market, and we all first got them and fell in love with them,” he says. “iPhone made the idea of a smartphone real. It really was a computer in your pocket. The idea of real internet, real web browser, Multi-Touch. There were so many things that are core to what is the smartphone today, that created a product that customers fell in love with, that then also demanded more stuff on them, more apps.”

Nowadays, some critics are wondering whether Apple is playing it safe as of late, arguing that recent iPhone models have only incremental improvements rather than revolutionary new features. But, again, Schiller downplayed this notion and said the changes in more recent iPhones are “sometimes even bigger now.”

“I actually think the leaps in the later versions are as big and sometimes even bigger now,” he says. “I think our expectations are changing more, not the leaps in the products. If you look through every version—from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G to the 4 to the 4S, you see great changes all throughout. You see screen size change from three and a half inch to four inch to four point seven and five point five. You see cameras going through incredible change, from the first camera that couldn’t shoot video, to then having both a front and a backside camera, to now three cameras with the stuff we’re doing, and with live photos and 4K video.”

Schiller positioned the iPhone as a top smartphone. “The quality is unmatched. The ease of use is still unmatched. The integration of hardware software is unmatched. We’re not about the cheapest, we’re not about the most, we’re about the best.”

In a press release yesterday, Schiller said Apple is “just getting started” with the iPhone, while CEO Tim Cook promised “the best is yet to come.” Building upon those comments, Schiller told Levy that he hopes in 50 years, people will indeed look back and realize how much was yet to come.

Schiller hopes that 50 years people will look back at this point and say, “Wow, they didn’t realize how much was to come — in fact, others missed it because they were busy running around looking for other things. Everyone has their opinions at this point, but it could be that we’re only in the first minutes of the first quarter of the game,” he says. “I believe this product is so great that it has many years of innovation ahead.”

Levy, however, went on to question “whether a pocket-sized device like the iPhone will still be as relevant decades hence,” particularly as “a lot of observers have been saying we are at the start of the era of the conversational interface.”

At CES last week, for example, a number of reputable publications said Amazon’s Alexa platform “stole the show” or offered similar accolades, after companies showed off everything from new cars and robots to fridges and laundry machines integrated with the voice-controlled assistant, which launched in late 2014.

Apple itself had an early lead in this artificial intelligence space when it debuted Siri on the iPhone 4s in 2011.

Schiller opined that “the best intelligent assistant is the one that’s with you all the time,” such as the iPhone. Schiller added that “people are forgetting the value and importance of the display,” which he said is “not going to go away.”

“I’m so glad the team years ago set out to create Siri — I think we do more with that conversational interface that anyone else. Personally, I still think the best intelligent assistant is the one that’s with you all the time. Having my iPhone with me as the thing I speak to is better than something stuck in my kitchen or on a wall somewhere.”

“People are forgetting the value and importance of the display,” he says. “Some of the greatest innovations on iPhone over the last ten years have been in display. Displays are not going to go away. We still like to take pictures and we need to look at them, and a disembodied voice is not going to show me what the picture is.”

Full-Length Article: Phil Schiller on iPhone’s Launch, How It Changed Apple, and Why It Will Keep Going for 50 Years

Tag: Phil Schiller
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WeChat Launches Cloud-Based, iMessage App Store-Like ‘Mini Program’

Popular Chinese mobile app company WeChat [Direct Link] congratulated Apple on ten years of the iPhone earlier this morning, with founder Allan Zhang posting photos online from the iPhone’s unveiling in January 2007.

Simultaneously, WeChat parent company Tencent Holdings launched a suite of cloud-based smartphone apps that analysts believe suggests WeChat intends to “play a leading role in the next decade” of the smartphone software business (via The Wall Street Journal).

The new platform is called “Mini Program” and is made up of a collection of apps, all stored in the cloud, that users can access without downloading or requiring storage space on their smartphone. Although seemingly a direct counterpart to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, a Tencent spokeswoman speaking with The Wall Street Journal said that the company “maintained regular dialogue with Apple” throughout the development of Mini Program. WeChat also deliberately avoids calling it an “app store.”

The company has taken care not to describe Mini Program as an app store, saying it doesn’t have a central location to distribute applications. Apple doesn’t allow third-party app stores in its iOS App Store. Tencent also dropped plans to include the word “app” in its name, calling the features “programs” instead.

“Apple won’t let us call it App Accounts, which might turn out to be a good thing,” Tencent Chairman Pony Ma wrote on his WeChat account in September, as Mini Program began beta testing.

Although Mini Program provides experiences and programs similar to iOS apps, none are located in a “central location,” akin to the actual App Store app on iPhone and iPad. Programs are instead discoverable through third-party means, like scanning a QR code or finding a new program in a search result. The programs are said to provide small but useful functionalities, similar to the simplified apps on the iMessage App Store.

WeChat itself began as a chat app in China and has slowly evolved into “a digital Swiss Army Knife,” including extra features that let users stay up-to-date on the news, pay bills, check their bank accounts, buy tickets to the movies, and more. Mini Program is yet another feature addition to the popular app, but analysts believe it will take a while for both developers and users to get the full use of the programs.

Industry experts say the first mini-programs are less sophisticated than most conventional apps, with fewer features and functions. “For heavy users, the experience on apps is still better so I don’t think this would threaten the status of app stores,” said Zhu Xiaohua, product supervisor of online question-and-answer platform Fenda.

“Mini Program is not a simple substitute,” said Hong Bo, a Beijing-based tech analyst. “It will take a fairly long term for developers and users to get used to it.”

For Apple, the iOS App Store continues to account for a large portion of the company’s revenue, with $240 million in sales on New Year’s Day 2017 — the “busiest day ever” for the App Store. In total for 2016, App Store developers made $20 billion, which the company said was up 40 percent from 2015. The iMessage App Store is also growing, with 21,000 apps now available for users to download, up from 1,600 last September.

Tags: China, WeChat
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What is Dolby Vision? Dolby’s very own HDR TV tech explained

The television world is never short of technical terms and abbreviations, and keeping up with them all and understanding what they all do can be a nightmare. The biggest TV trend to come out of the past few years is High Dynamic Range, or HDR. We’ve already covered exactly what that is in a separate article, but just to confuse things, sound pioneers Dolby have their own version called Dolby Vision.

But what exactly is Dolby Vision, how does it differ to HDR10, what TVs support it and what content is there to watch? Allow us to explain all…

What is Dolby Vision?

Dolby Vision, in basic terms, is an end-to-end production process, from the content creation right through to mastering and then you viewing it at home. Because it’s an end-to-end process, the metadata in each frame can be dictated by Dolby and then compatible equipment can read it and understand it exactly how it was meant to be. It means you’ll get the best possible viewing experience. HDR10 on the other hand relies on the HDR TV itself to determine how to interpret the metadata and display it.

• What is HDR, what TVs support it and what content can I watch?

The main difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10 though, is the colour depth and brightness the content and equipment is capable of achieving. Dolby Vision content is mastered in up to 12-bit colour depth, compared to 10-bit of HDR10 (which is where HDR10 gets its name from). You may be wondering, what difference could 12-bit over 10-bit possibly make? Well, 12-bit colour depth gives access to over 68 billion colours, compared to just 1 billion with 10-bit. This means the colours you see from Dolby Vision films and on compatible TVs are going to be far more accurate and as the director intended.

Brightness is another key factor in determining the success of HDR content. The Ultra HD Premium specification says HDR TVs must reach a minimum of 1,000 nits peak brightness, which many of the current crop of HDR TVs can do. We did see new TVs from all the major manufacturers at CES 2017 that can achieve 1,500 to 2,000 nits, but Dolby Vision content is mastered for 10,000 nits peak brightness. But at the moment, no TV can support this, so content is actually mastered to around 4,000 nits. However it means Dolby Vision is very well future-proofed, because the potential to go even brighter is already there for when the displays can support it.

• What is Ultra HD Premium and why does it matter? The 4K HDR badge explained 

What TVs support Dolby Vision?

Pocket-lint

In order to watch Dolby Vision content, you need to have the right equipment. The benefit of Dolby Vision TVs is that they can support HDR10 as well, but HDR10 TVs can’t do Dolby Vision, so if you want the best of both worlds, Dolby Vision is the way to go. Dolby Vision equipment has dedicated chips inside which read the metadata and reproduce the images exactly how they were made.

• LG Signature OLED W7 preview: 2.5mm thin wall-mounted “wallpaper” TV is simply stunning

LG was initially the only TV manufacturer to support Dolby Vision, with its 2016 OLED lineup: B6, C6, E6 and G6, all offering compatibility. Other manufacturers have clearly realised the potential of Dolby Vision and at CES 2017, we saw a lot more compatible equipment announced.

LG announced its 2017 lineup of OLED TVs: B7, C7, E7 and G7, along with the W7, a 2.57mm thick TV that sticks to the wall via magnets.

The company also introduced a new range of Super UHD TVs that use Nano Cell technology – another new technology for 2017 – that support Dolby Vision, alongside HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma and Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

• What is Hybrid Log Gamma and why should you care?

LG also had a world’s first for the show in the form of the world’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray to support Dolby Vision in the form of the UP970, which is handy, because the first wave of Dolby Vision 4K Blu-ray discs from major Hollywood studios including Lionsgate, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers should arrive in the first half of 2017.

Sony also jumped on the Dolby Vision train with the A1 OLED TV, a gorgeous slither of TV that has the potential to really bring Sony back into the TV game. It isn’t just the company’s new OLED TV that supports Dolby Vision, as its new XE94 and XE93 TV series can comfortably handle it too.

Interestingly, even though Sony’s new TVs support Dolby Vision, it’s newly announced 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X800, doesn’t support it and because the tech relies on a dedicated chip, it won’t be able to be updated by a firmware update.

• CES 2017: All the announcements that matter
• Best TVs of CES 2017: Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG OLED and more

What Dolby Vision content can I watch?

Pocket-lint

We’ve already mentioned how Dolby Vision Blu-ray discs are coming this year, but what if you don’t want to invest in physical media, what are your options? Thankfully, Netflix and Amazon both have a range of Dolby Vision content available to stream. However Amazon’s Dolby Vision content is only supported in the US for now.

Netflix has a decent selection of Dolby Vision content in the UK, it includes:

• Daredevil
• Marco Polo
• The Ridiculous 6
• The Do Over
• Chef’s Table France
• The OA
• Luke Cage
• Jessica Jones

You’ll be able to tell if a TV show or movie supports Dolby Vision from a tag that appears next to the star rating. 

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In the US, Amazon will let you watch the second season of Bosch in Dolby Vision, as well as a selection of films from Sony, including The Smurfs 2, Men In Black 3, Fury and Salt. Currently, Amazon states on its website that only LG’s TV’s that support it for now, presumably because of the app. Hopefully that will be updated to include Sony’s new TVs in due course.

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