As part of the WWDC, Apple announced that iOS will support the dynamic HDR format in the future. Now the corresponding passages have disappeared.
Had earlier this week Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) that the next version of its mobile device operating system will also support Samsung’s preferred dynamic HDR format HDR10+ in addition to HDR10 and Dolby Vision. A corresponding note was found, for example, in the company’s English-language preview information, which Apple published on its website (see screenshot on the right).
According to the company, the Apple TV app in iPadOS and macOS should also receive an update. On the other hand, Apple initially made no statements about tvOS, the operating system of its streaming player Apple TV 4K – which is why it was expected that the company would make an explicit statement on this point again.
Instead, all references are to HDR10+ disappeared from the publicly available iOS 16 documentation. Apple did not comment on the deletion of the passages.
HDR10+ vs. Dolby Vision
The HDR formats allow the playback of videos with an increased contrast range (high dynamic range). A distinction is made between static formats, in which a studio can only specify the desired image impression once for the entire film via metadata, and dynamic variants, in which this is possible scene by scene and even frame by frame.
Apple has been supporting the static standard for a long time Format HDR10 the dynamic variant Dolby Vision. The HDR10+ promoted by Samsung was launched at the time as an alternative to Dolby Vision. In tests with Ultra HD Blu-rays, however, it fell short of expectations, since no differences to the HDR10 image could be seen with the naked eye even in a direct comparison. The picture there may not always be better compared to HDR10, but it is still clearly different.
Meaningless?
Apple’s announcement that it will support HDR10+ in the future led to a discussion in professional circles about the actual implications of this decision. In fact, the HDR format has been struggling on the market so far. After an initial boost, for example, the stream of UHD Blu-ray titles quickly ebbed, so that currently only around 50 films are available in this format on the German market.
Of the streaming services, only Amazon supports HDR10+ , all other major providers rely on Dolby Vision. The services that currently do not offer HDR10+ also include Apple’s iTunes purchase and rental service and the Apple TV+ subscription service. The latter, on the other hand, offers all in-house productions for adults with a Dolby Vision picture.
