Dolby is getting another rival in the shape of a brand new high dynamic range format that’s backed by some of the biggest names in tech.
It’s called Eclipsa Video and it’s backed by HDR10+ Technologies LLC, which is an interesting twist as it’s the same organization responsible for the development of the HDR10+ standard that’s so beloved by Samsung Electronics.
The new format is open-source and it’s based on the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers’ SMPTE 2094-50 video specification. It was developed by SMPTE’s experts in collaboration with Google, Apple and NBCUniversal, and it’s now ready for prime time, the creators say.
Eclipsa Video is essentially the brand name for the SMPTE 2094-50 spec, which has mostly slipped under the radar until now. The first published references to SMPTE 2094-50 only appeared last year, and then in a blog post last month, where Google Group Product Manager Roshan Baliga said this :
“Google teamed up with Apple and NBCUniversal to create a brand new technical standard (officially named SMPTE ST 2094-50, being released by the Society for Motion Picture and Television Engineers). Ultimately, this standard ensures that no matter what device you're using or what lighting you're sitting in, the video you're watching looks exactly the way the creator intended.”
That was followed by a statement from HDR10+ Technologies published on the Eclipsa Media website last week, which officially announced the Eclipsa Video standard.
If the name “Eclipsa” sounds familiar, that means you’re probably aware of the Eclipsa Audio standard that emerged a couple of years ago. It’s an immersive sound technology that rivals Dolby Atmos, based on the Immersive Audio Model and Format standard that was developed by Google and Samsung. Eclipsa Video seems destined to be paired with Eclipsa Audio, in the same way that Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos are married on many televisions.
Google’s blog post about SMPTE ST 2094-50 explains that it introduces two kinds of metadata that work like an instruction manual for compatible displays. The first is a “Reference White Anchor” that acts as a consistent anchor point for the display, mapping the brightest parts of standard content to a specific baseline and reserving the additional brightness the display is capable of for HDR video. It means “standard and HDR content can finally share the same screen without throwing each other's lighting out of whack.”
The second is “Headroom-Adaptive Gain Curves,” which enables content creators to attack bespoke instructions into the video file. “If your screen has limited headroom, the video tells the display exactly how to adapt – intelligently compressing shadows and mid-tones to preserve the bright highlights without losing detail,” Google explained.
That is the big question, and at this moment in time it’s not entirely clear if Eclipsa Video’s creators intend to take on Dolby Vision directly in the same way that Eclipsa Audio has become a rival to Dolby Atmos.
The confusion is due to the fact that nobody associated with Eclipsa Video has really said anything about television at this time. In fact, it appears that the creators are initially focused on smaller devices such as laptops, PCs, smartphones and tablets. “The new Eclipsa Video program will initially address smartphones, with other devices to follow,” HDR10+ Technologies said. “The first Eclipsa Video approved devices are expected to be introduced later this year.”
In addition, Baliga confirmed that “support for the finalized SMPTE ST 2094-50 standard is coming in an upcoming release of Chrome.”
It must also be pointed out that Apple has long been a major advocate of Dolby’s picture and audio formats, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service was the first to announce it will support Dolby Vision 2, so at least two of the three main partners appear invested in that technology. However, we’ve seen plenty of companies embracing opposing HDR formats in the past, with the likes of TCL, Hisense, Panasonic and Philips all supporting both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on their TVs.
HDR10+ Technologies’ statement also seems to suggest some kind of harmony between Eclipsa Video and HDR10+. It said that “Eclipsa Video seamlessly integrates with the broadly supported HDR10+ standard,” and added that devices that support it will carry the “Eclipsa Video powered by HDR10+” branding in future.
That suggests that Dolby Vision and HDR10+ won’t be facing a new competitor in the TV world for now, though we will certainly keep tabs on Eclipsa Video’s development to see if anything changes. Nobody has yet come up with a logo for Eclipsa Video, either.
