Xbox One Gains Dolby Vision Support In Latest Insider Preview Build
Microsoft is introducing Dolby Vision to support to its Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles, the company confirmed. It's already available to users who participate in the Xbox One Insider Program and who download the latest system update (version 1810), along with a few other goodies. Once it rolls out to the public, the Xbox One S and Xbox One S will join a select group of streaming devices that support both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
"Dolby Vision enables select TVs to take HDR up a notch with scene-by-scene precision and accuracy versus standard HDR which uses one setting for the entire movie/show you are watching. If you have a TV that supports the latest version of Dolby Vision and a Premium Netflix subscription jump in and experience Dolby Vision for yourself in the coming weeks!," Microsoft said.
Dolby Vision is largely viewed as being better than the HDR10 standard, the latter of which is already supported on the Xbox One S and Xbox One X. Both are capable of brightening up scenes and making colors pop on support displays. However, Dolby Vision has a few advantages. One of them is that it supports 12-bit color depth. It also supports a higher peak brightness. Neither of those really matter on today's televisions, but one advantage that can make a difference is dynamically adjusting the picture based on the metadata of each frame. By comparison, HDR10 leaves it up to the TV to interpret the metadata.
It's not clear how broadly available Dolby Vision support will be. Microsoft only mentions Netflix, and doesn't say anything about Dolby Vision in games or supporting it when playing back compatible 4K Blu-ray discs.
Dolby Vision appears to be the headline feature in the next Xbox One update, though it's not the only one. Microsoft is also rolling out additional accessibility options, and specifically adding five additional languages to Narrator (Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, and Dutch). It's also giving users access to avatar editing tools.
"A few weeks ago, we opened the Beta Xbox Avatar Editor to Xbox Insiders. As promised in that announcement, you will now see your Avatar (if you choose to represent yourself as one), and your friend’s Avatars throughout the Xbox One dashboard. You’ll be greeted by Avatars across user profiles, friend blocks on Home, Gamerscore comparisons, Community posts, idle system notifications, and more," Microsoft added.
There's no release date set for the update.
