The Radiance HDR format is now an officially recognized MIME type. This is good news for panorama makers that keep hitting the dynamic range limits of traditional imaging formats. Next on the wish list is support for this file format in the web browsers and in Adobe’s Flash. After Dolby Inc. acquired and integrated BrightSide Technologies Inc., HDR consumer displays are just around the corner. Expect them later this year. We’ll still need a way to tell the browser how to tonemap the image for legacy displays, though.
Filed under: HDR
Sure, the new consumer displays may be an improvement over CRT tech, and they do have an impressive brightness, but what is the point in releasing it in a consumer-living-room sized form factor? The resolution will be HD, of course, but it will be displaying TV and consumer optical media, which use their own set of standards NTSC/PAL and not a scene-referred dynamic range.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but this does not seem like a professional product targeted to those who would like to use the technology the most – content creators like photographers. I guess it could be a ‘museum display’ to showcase the quality of HDR content, but it’s surprising they would not list resolution with the other relevant specs like brightness. I have heard good things about brightside, but maybe dolby’s focus on consumer cinema doesn’t allow those qualities to ‘shine’ through. :-)
The embedded video on the dolby site is not very helpful. My expectation is that by using “regional” modulation of the LED array, it will certainly be effective for increasing the display of some scenes with high dynamic range, but because the LED array is not fine enough to modulate individual pixels, dolby will probably use a proprietary method to map when certain LEDs come on. I’m sure there are ways to compensate for the halo effect that would seem to be a resulting problem, but unless there is a collection of independently developed test scenes that will challenge technologies using this form of contrast modulation, it will be extremely difficult for professional users to determine which is best.
What about the competing OLED technologies that are not dependent on backlights?