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This page explains what picture information a 4K UHD Blu-ray carries, and how different players decode it and pass it on to the TV. What matters most for the picture you finally see is summarised at the end.

HDR10

Playing a 4K UHD Blu-ray HDR remux starts with decoding 10-bit HEVC (H.265) at 3840×2160, at the source frame rate and bitrate. Dolby Vision processing comes after that basic decoding requirement.40

HDR10 is the standard HDR format on UHD Blu-ray: a high dynamic range picture in 10 bits,19 with static metadata, one set of values for the whole film describing the mastering display and the brightest content.3238 Every UHD Blu-ray with HDR has an HDR10-compatible picture; HDR10+ and Dolby Vision discs build on it. That is why a Dolby Vision disc still plays on a TV without Dolby Vision: the player sends the HDR10 picture. The same goes for HDR10+: a compatible player can send the HDR10 picture to a TV without HDR10+.2122

Consumer HDR TVs, including high-end models, generally display 10-bit colour rather than native 12-bit colour.20 In a 10-bit RGB representation, that means 1,024 possible levels for each of red, green and blue, from black to the component's full level.19

A brighter, more colourful image

HDR formats commonly bring two improvements together: a wider brightness range and a wider colour gamut. They are separate properties: dynamic range concerns light levels, while colour gamut concerns which colours can be represented.2

Dynamic range is the range from dark to bright. HDR allows brighter highlights than SDR, the picture format of conventional Blu-ray and HD television. SDR reference viewing uses about 100 nits for white. HDR10 uses the PQ brightness scale, which can describe up to 10,000 nits; that is the format's ceiling, not the brightness of every film or TV.1

Think of a white sheet of paper beside a lamp. Both can look white, but the lamp emits much more light. HDR can keep the paper at a natural brightness while giving the lamp and its reflections much brighter highlights. Shadows can remain dark. Turning up an entire SDR picture also brightens the paper; it does not recover that extra highlight separation.1

The brightness is encoded in the picture. In HDR10, PQ defines how the pixel component values relate to light output. Metadata does not turn an otherwise unspecified white patch brighter: it guides adaptation when the display cannot reproduce the source as intended.3334

Two schematic scenes with a shadow, white paper and a lamp. Paper stays at 80 nits in both; the lamp is labelled 100 nits in the SDR example and 1,000 nits in HDR. Two red swatches separately illustrate lower and higher saturation.

Illustrative values, not mastering requirements or an HDR test image. The labels describe light output; this browser drawing does not emit the indicated nits.

A wider colour range (gamut) is a separate feature, not part of dynamic range itself. It allows more saturated colours, not just brighter ones. A brighter red and a purer red are different: increasing the light from an orange-red primary does not turn it into a deeper red. Both systems use RGB, but a wider gamut defines different, more widely spaced red, green and blue primaries. It therefore describes colours that cannot be made simply by turning up the RGB light levels within the smaller gamut, including more saturated colours at a given brightness. The actual screen may reproduce only part of that range.2

Bit depth describes the fineness of the steps. Ten bits provide 1,024 code values per component; they do not themselves set the maximum brightness or define which red, green and blue are used.1933

Projector example: light output is usually specified in lumens, but brightness on the screen can be measured in nits. If 10,000 lumens reach a 150-inch, 16:9, gain-1 screen, the ideal diffuse-screen calculation gives about 513 nits. Actual results depend on the picture mode, lens, screen and setup; an advertised lumen rating is not a measured HDR peak.3

What is tone mapping, and why is it needed?

Imagine a TV that peaks at 1,000 nits showing a picture containing brighter highlights. With simple hard clipping, requested luminance above 1,000 nits reaches the same ceiling: differences in those highlights disappear. This is clipping. It does not mean every bright object becomes the same colour; colour channels can clip differently too.1

Tone mapping fits the source brightness range into the display's range. Instead of cutting off the highlights, it can compress their differences so that detail remains visible. It need not turn down the entire picture equally: a curve can preserve much of the midrange and roll off the brightest values. When the source exceeds the display, this reduces the range reproduced on screen; content already within its capabilities need not be compressed.1

A capable display need not compress a picture that fits its brightness range and colour volume. A 1,000-nit highlight should then remain at 1,000 nits, even if the display can go brighter. This assumes accurate PQ tracking, sufficiently deep blacks and sustained brightness for the actual scene, not just a peak measured in a small window. Colour volume includes saturated colours at the required brightness.3335

HDR10's static metadata describes the mastering display and content brightness for the whole film. ST 2086 describes the mastering display; MaxCLL describes the maximum content light level, while MaxFALL describes the highest frame-average light level across the programme. A 4,000-nit mastering display does not mean the film's highlights actually reach 4,000 nits.32

The published HDR10 Media Profile lists ST 2086, MaxCLL and MaxFALL, but actual files may omit values.41 In an HDR10 passthrough path, the player should preserve the source metadata so the display can use it for tone mapping. Missing values are not measurements of zero or of a default brightness; the display may instead rely on its own analysis or fallback behaviour.

Apple TV provides a historical example of why this matters. In 2022, Firecore reported correct output metadata for samples containing mastering luminance, MaxCLL and MaxFALL, but default values when metadata was incomplete. Users reported MaxCLL/MaxFALL defaults of 4000/1000 nits, and some disputed Firecore's explanation. These observations concern specific versions and samples; they have not been verified on current tvOS.42 The visible effect depends on whether and how the display uses those values.

A TV using one fixed mapping for those values may reserve room for the brightest scene even during darker scenes. Depending on its mapping, those scenes can then look unnecessarily dim. This is a possible limitation, not a rule that every HDR10 TV darkens every scene. Two approaches allow adaptation scene by scene:

  • Dynamic metadata, used by HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, provides scene-specific guidance prepared with the content.34 HDR10+ also supports frame-by-frame metadata.4
  • Dynamic tone mapping lets the TV or an external processor analyse the incoming picture and adapt its mapping itself, including with HDR10. Static metadata does not force the TV to use one fixed curve.13

For an illustrated comparison, see RTINGS: HDR10 vs HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision, especially its tone-mapping and MaxCLL/MaxFALL examples. Its display examples complement the format specifications; static metadata does not require every TV to use an unchanging curve.

How much this matters depends on the display and its implementation; see Dynamic metadata in practice.

HDR10+

HDR10+ keeps the HDR10 picture and adds dynamic metadata scene by scene. It is an open, royalty-free standard.15 On UHD Blu-ray, the picture itself stays the same 10-bit HDR10 picture: HDR10+ adds metadata, not a second picture layer or extra bits, and it does not use Dolby Vision's metadata. A TV without HDR10+ ignores it and shows HDR10.21 Some UHD Blu-rays carry it, such as the US Fox Alien: 40th Anniversary (2019) UHD.5 Both player and TV need HDR10+ support; HDR10 playback alone does not show that the metadata reaches the TV.

HDR10+ metadata guides adaptation to the target display. If the picture already fits, brightness compression is unnecessary; dynamic metadata is not an extra source of highlight detail beyond the encoded picture. Whether a particular TV leaves that picture unchanged depends on its processing.21

Format limits are not disc specifications. HDR10+ is not inherently limited to 10 bits or 5,000 nits: the official ecosystem whitepaper describes support up to 16-bit quantisation and 10,000 nits. That does not turn a 10-bit UHD Blu-ray into a 16-bit source or make a TV reach those light levels.38

HDR10+ Adaptive adjusts tone mapping using the display's ambient-light sensor. It responds to the viewing room as well as the content; it is a display feature, not an extra picture layer in the remux.39

For more disc examples, browse Blu-ray.com's HDR10+ UHD search. Check the territory and edition before applying a listing to your disc. This is a discovery catalogue, not verification of every release. Official HDR10+ information provides format and ecosystem background.

Dolby Vision

Dolby Vision is Dolby's proprietary format.15 It also adapts the picture scene by scene, using Dolby's own metadata, and on UHD Blu-ray it can add a second video layer to the HDR10 picture.3422 It exists in several profiles for streaming, broadcast and discs; Dolby publishes the list.22

Dolby's display-management metadata includes scene analysis and artistic trims for mapping to different targets.37 Less compression is needed when a display can reproduce more of the source, but this does not establish that all metadata is ignored or that every Dolby Vision implementation becomes an exact bypass.34

Profile 7: base layer, enhancement layer and RPU

UHD Blu-ray uses Profile 7, a dual-layer format with three parts:22

  • the base layer (BL): the 10-bit HDR10-compatible picture, which every player can show;
  • the enhancement layer (EL): a second coded layer that can refine the base layer;
  • the RPU (reference processing unit): the dynamic metadata. It holds the scene-by-scene brightness values and the colourist's trims for the TV's tone mapping, and the instructions for combining the two layers.

The composer instructions are needed to reconstruct FEL regardless of how bright the display is. They have a different job from the display-mapping metadata: assembling the source picture comes before deciding how to fit it to the screen.36

In a remux, both layers can sit in a single video track, so the number of tracks does not tell you whether the enhancement layer is there. The enhancement layer comes in two kinds, MEL and FEL, and the difference decides what a player must do. The Dolby Vision logo on a disc does not say which.

MEL: the minimal enhancement layer

On a MEL disc, the enhancement layer carries no extra picture information: combining it with the base layer gives the base layer again. In practice it is a carrier for the RPU.23 Examples reported as MEL include Dune: Part Two, The Matrix, Joker, Skyfall and The Shining.18

Nothing is lost if a player ignores the enhancement layer of a MEL disc and uses the base layer with the RPU. Such a file can also be converted to Profile 8.1, Dolby Vision's single-layer form, keeping the base layer and the RPU's metadata: the common conversion tool, dovi_tool, removes the layer-combining curves only for FEL sources.24 Base layer plus RPU is complete playback of a MEL disc. A MEL disc is still not the same as an HDR10-only disc, which has no RPU at all.

FEL: the full enhancement layer

On an FEL disc, the enhancement layer carries real picture information: corrections that, combined with the base layer, reconstruct the encoded Dolby Vision picture at up to 12-bit precision instead of the base layer's 10.196 On some titles it carries brightness above the base layer: highlights that the base layer stops short of.25 Dropping the enhancement layer and keeping the RPU is therefore not complete playback of an FEL disc.7

FEL is a coded residual used with BL reshaping, inverse quantisation and resampling; it is not simply the original master's two missing bits. Reconstruction does not guarantee lossless recovery of the studio master.36 Display capability does not determine whether FEL should be decoded: complete playback of an FEL source includes it. Display capability affects how the reconstructed result is mapped and how much of the difference is visible.

With a 10-bit display, the extra precision is not about the panel. It matters for the processing in between: the TV can process the higher-precision values before reducing them for its panel, instead of starting from an already reduced signal. Intermediate operations can still introduce rounding. The panel cannot show every 12-bit value unchanged in each pixel at one instant. A better display does not guarantee a larger visible FEL advantage; this depends on the scene and processing (where 12 bits become 10).

Examples reported as FEL include the 4K Collector's Edition of Avatar, Despicable Me 3, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan and 1917.18 The edition matters: the same film can be HDR10 only on one release and FEL on another, as with Avatar: The Way of Water.8

The HDR Dissector's FEL test pattern includes a frame from real film content that becomes much brighter when a player decodes the enhancement layer; a player that does not shows that frame at the wrong brightness.25 This demonstrates that FEL can change the picture, not how often or how much it does across films.

Why the metadata cannot simply be reused

The RPU of an FEL disc describes the combined picture of both layers. If a player drops the enhancement layer but sends the base layer with the unmodified RPU, the two no longer match. Suppose a film is mastered at 4,000 nits and the base layer only reaches 1,000: the metadata tells the TV to tone map for 4,000-nit highlights that are not there, so the TV dims a picture that was already darker. The HDR Dissector concludes that for such titles HDR10 is the better choice on a player that cannot decode the enhancement layer.25 How large the error is varies from title to title and scene to scene; according to Native Player's developer, most FEL discs use the layer only for grain and small refinements, where the brightness mismatch does not arise.26

According to its developer, Native Player 2.0.1 for Apple TV addresses this without decoding the enhancement layer: on FEL discs whose enhancement layer adds brightness, it adjusts the metadata to fit the base layer, so Dolby Vision plays at the HDR10 picture's brightness with scene-by-scene tone mapping. Highlights that only the enhancement layer carries are still not restored.26

Using the enhancement layer

Players that do use the layer either keep the full result or reduce it:

  • Kept at 12 bits: the PC · LibreELEC build (CB1) and CoreELEC players reconstruct the picture and send it in the TV-led Dolby Vision signal, as 12-bit 4:2:2 inside a signal labelled 8-bit RGB.27
  • Reduced to 10 bits with dither: apps based on AetherEngine reconstruct the picture on the Apple TV, then reduce it to 10 bits, using dither so that the lost steps show as fine noise rather than banding.28 In DMDreview's measurement, the Dune HD 8K also composes in 10 bits with dither.29

Reconstruction and output in detail · AetherEngine and CB1 compared

Displays without Dolby Vision

A Dolby Vision player cannot add Dolby Vision to a display that lacks it. Samsung TVs do not support Dolby Vision, including the 2026 models; Samsung uses HDR10+ instead.9 On such a TV, a Dolby Vision disc plays as HDR10, or as HDR10+ if the disc also carries it. A player can also reconstruct an FEL picture first and then send it as HDR10, which is a separate mode from Dolby Vision output.10

Dolby Vision output itself comes in two forms. In TV-led mode, the TV does the Dolby Vision tone mapping; in player-led mode, the player does it and sends a finished picture. Combining the layers is a separate step either way: in TV-led mode the TV does not receive the disc's enhancement layer. Not every player or TV supports both modes.11

Even a working base layer does not guarantee playback: an app still has to open the file and send it to a suitable decoder and output, and some fail.12

Playback approaches, best to worst

For an FEL disc, players take one of five approaches. Ranked by preservation of the FEL picture and consistency of its metadata, assuming otherwise correct processing (an editorial ranking, not a measured player ranking):

# Approach What reaches the TV Examples
1 Both layers combined, RPU used as authored The full picture at 12 bits (12-bit 4:2:2 inside an 8-bit HDMI signal) and the original metadata. This is how Profile 7 is designed to play. PC · LibreELEC, CoreELEC players such as Ugoos AM6B+
2 Both layers combined, then reduced to 10 bits with dither The full picture with the finest steps approximated by dither, and corresponding display-management metadata Apps based on AetherEngine; Dune HD 8K as measured
3 Enhancement layer discarded, RPU adjusted to the base layer The base layer, with metadata that fits it; highlights carried only by the enhancement layer are missing Native Player
4 HDR10 base layer only The base layer with static metadata; no Dolby Vision Infuse; any player with Dolby Vision switched off
5 Enhancement layer discarded, RPU passed on unmodified The base layer with metadata written for a different picture Shield

This ranking covers only FEL handling, not the complete playback chain. Reconstruction filters, rounding, metadata processing, output mode, reliability and the display also matter. More retained precision does not automatically make a particular player more accurate or visibly better. The ordering of approaches 4 and 5 describes the risk of mismatched metadata on affected FEL content, not a universal result for every title.

Approach 5 can look acceptable, even better in some scenes, but the result varies with how much the enhancement layer changes each scene, and it is not what the disc intends. From a fidelity point of view it is the riskiest. Approach 4 offers no Dolby Vision, but at least shows the picture with metadata that belongs to it.

On a MEL disc, approaches 3 and 5 amount to complete playback, since the enhancement layer holds no picture information to miss. On an HDR10-only disc, every working player plays the whole picture. Player-by-player details are in the comparison; Playback paths and evidence describes how this guide labels what a player has been shown to do.

Where 12 bits become 10

A TV still has to fit the picture to its own panel, so precision is reduced somewhere between the disc and the light leaving the screen. The question is where. In approach 1 the player sends the full 12-bit result and the TV does the reduction as part of its own processing; in approach 2 the player reduces it first, and the TV tone maps an already reduced picture. Retaining higher precision until after display mapping can avoid an earlier quantisation step. This is a processing advantage in principle, not a guarantee that every TV implements it better: intermediate arithmetic, mapping and dither all matter. Dither can make banding less conspicuous, but does not preserve every original code value. See 10-bit dithering for processing order and repeated quantisation.

This guide has not established whether the difference is visible in a controlled viewing comparison. DMDreview's measurement compares the HDMI signal leaving each player with a reference: the PC came closest, the Ugoos merged some neighbouring values and the Dune used dither. It measures the signal sent to the TV, not the picture on the screen, and uses still test images rather than moving film.29 Proposed test T03 describes how to check visibility.

The display can still perform colour conversion, calibration and panel-specific processing after receiving the signal. Sending 12 bits preserves more input precision but does not remove all later rounding. Conversely, a well-dithered 10-bit output is not automatically visibly worse. Neither a universal “invisible” verdict nor a fixed noise limit follows from bit depth alone; the actual processing and viewing conditions need testing.

3D Blu-ray

In short: a 3D Blu-ray stores a second picture for the other eye. A remux keeps it, but only some players can send both pictures to a 3D TV or projector.

The second view is coded as MVC, an extension of the H.264 video standard, so a player without MVC support shows the film in 2D from the first view.31 "Frame-packed" output sends both full-resolution views to a display that accepts it. Half side-by-side and top-and-bottom are different, lower-resolution 3D files: playing those does not show that a player handles 3D Blu-ray remuxes. Each player's 3D cell is in the comparison.

Disc players are not automatically a reference

In short: a UHD Blu-ray player is not automatically the most faithful way to play a disc. In a Dolby Vision test by The HDR Dissector, devices labelled "Oppo, X800m2, X700" clipped highlights at the disc's mastering-display brightness, while the Ugoos, Shield, Apple TV and the TV's own app did not. A 2022 forum report describes a weaker scene-by-scene brightness response from the Sony X700 and X800M2 with an LG C2 than with an LG C8.

Firmware and full TV details are not recorded, and no fix has been documented. Treat this as a reported issue with those models, not a verdict on all disc players. Case study · External tests

Game consoles

In short: the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X play UHD Blu-ray discs in HDR10 only. Neither plays Dolby Vision or HDR10+ from a disc, so a Dolby Vision disc plays its HDR10 base layer, as in approach 4. Both can send Dolby Atmos and DTS:X to a receiver, but only after changing the audio settings.

PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X
HDR10 from disc Yes Yes
Dolby Vision from disc (Profile 7) No · HDR10 base layer No · HDR10 base layer
HDR10+ from disc No No
Dolby Atmos and DTS:X to a receiver Yes · bitstream must be selected Yes · bitstream and passthrough must be selected
3D Blu-ray No Not stated

Sony told AV Watch that the PS5 supports neither Dolby Vision nor HDR10+, whether for games, video services or Blu-ray, and that Atmos and DTS:X play through a compatible receiver when bitstream output is used; the default is multichannel PCM.16 Xbox Series X supports Dolby Vision for games and streaming apps, but not for discs.17 Dedicated UHD players such as the Panasonic DP-UB9000 support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+.16 Status as reported in 2020–2022; a later firmware update could change it.

Dynamic metadata in practice

What it buys depends on the display. The less of the full range a display can show, the more the tone mapping matters: a dim TV or a projector showing a film mastered far above its peak has the most to compress. That is why high-end home cinemas sometimes add a dedicated video processor that does the tone mapping, among other processing, for that display.14 On a display that can show most of a film's range, there is little to compress, so the metadata has less to correct. That follows from what tone mapping is; we know of no measurement that puts a number on it. Dolby Vision metadata can also carry the colourist's own adjustments (trims) for less capable displays, which is more than brightness values alone.25

Implementation is a source of error in itself. Dynamic metadata is only as good as the device that applies it. Examples documented in this guide:

  • Some disc players clipped highlights at the mastering-display level in a Dolby Vision test, while other devices did not (above).
  • Disc players and most streaming devices, including the Shield and Apple TV, ignore Dolby Vision's letterbox information and tone map the black bars as part of the picture; CoreELEC and LibreELEC players use it.25
  • Metadata applied to the wrong picture can make the result darker than plain HDR10 (above).

The same applies to HDR10+: correct metadata does not guarantee a correct result if the TV or player handles it poorly.

What matters most

The details on this page matter, but they are rarely the biggest factor in the picture you see. Roughly in order of how much they usually matter (an editorial judgement, not a measured ranking):

  • The display. How bright its panel gets, how deep its blacks are, how wide its colours reach and how well it tone maps decide most of what HDR looks like. The same disc looks very different on a modest TV, a bright high-end TV and a projector.13
  • Calibration, picture settings and viewing conditions. Check the picture mode, HDR mode and signal range first, then whether white balance, colours and brightness tracking are accurate. Calibration uses measurements to check and, where possible, correct those errors for the particular display and mode; selecting a cinema preset alone does not verify calibration. Avoid crushed shadows and unintended highlight clipping, and account for room lighting.3035 Correcting substantial setup or calibration errors takes priority over subtle differences in dither or output precision. The benefit of further calibration depends on how accurate the display already is.
  • The player. Whether it plays smoothly and passes on the right format and metadata (playback approaches).
  • The finer points of the format. For many films, whether a player can use Dolby Vision's enhancement layer makes no difference: many discs are HDR10 only or carry a minimal enhancement layer with no extra picture information, and on many of the discs that do carry one, it adds mainly grain and fine detail.26 Precision such as 10 versus 12 bits comes last (where 12 bits become 10).

TV and projector reviews

The display, room and settings are part of the final result. For reviews beyond this guide's player focus:

Use the review of the specific model and firmware where possible. These are external reading links, not blanket endorsements or evidence that a player reproduces every source feature correctly.

Troubleshooting order

Fix the big problems before chasing small differences

First: check the display and viewing conditions, correct HDR/SDR mode and signal range, obvious highlight/shadow clipping, and smooth playback. Incorrect mapping or levels can affect the whole picture.30

For a suspected dither or banding issue: compare the same scene with optional noise reduction, smooth-gradation and sharpening controls disabled, then re-enable them individually. These controls can alter texture or gradients; some may also reduce existing banding. Their effect is model-specific. Check the decoded signal precision, remembering that a Dolby Vision RGB8 tunnel is not ordinary 8-bit picture data (HDMI tunnelling).

Then: verify the source is reproduced as intended. On an FEL title, a missing enhancement layer can change brightness or detail; its visible importance varies by title and scene. On HDR10 or MEL sources, FEL reconstruction is not the issue. Identify your source.

Finally: investigate fine precision differences (dither, rounding and 10-bit versus 12-bit output) once the main path works. Their visibility needs evidence; a higher output bit depth cannot repair clipped highlights or missing source information.

This is an editorial troubleshooting order, not a measured universal ranking. A specific visible defect can change the priority. Assess the actual result.

Format and edition notes

When a Dolby Vision disc plays as HDR10, the Dolby Vision metadata and any FEL picture contribution are not used in that base-layer path. A disc can carry more than one HDR format; check the specific edition rather than the film title.

Reviewed 9 November 2026 · Source-reviewed · no hardware tests for this guide

Evidence policy · Sources

  1. ITU-R BT.2390, §3.1 (legacy SDR), §§5.1–5.2 (PQ) and §5.4 (display mapping). The illustration separates the SDR reference from the PQ encoding ceiling; it does not claim that SDR TVs cannot be set brighter or that HDR content always reaches 10,000 nits. ↩↩↩↩

  2. ITU-R BT.2100, colour primaries and reference white, defines HDR colourimetry separately from its transfer functions. ITU-R BT.2390-11, §3.1 and §5.4, discusses legacy BT.709 and the BT.2020 gamut of the ideal HDR display. These are signal/reference definitions, not a guarantee of a particular TV’s coverage. ↩↩

  3. Texas Instruments, DLP System Design: Brightness Requirements and Tradeoffs, luminance and screen-area relationship. For an ideal diffuse gain-1 screen, nits = lumens / (π × area in m²). A 150-inch 16:9 screen has area 6.203 m², giving 10,000 / (π × 6.203) ≈ 513 nits. This is a calculated example, not a projector measurement. ↩

  4. HDR10+ Technologies, HDR10+ System Whitepaper, 4 September 2019, pp. 5–6 (static versus dynamic metadata) and p. 10 (device tone mapping). Official format-body explanation; its quality claims are not independent player tests. ↩

  5. The Digital Bits, first-hand review of the US Fox Alien: 40th Anniversary (2019) UHD, described as HDR10+; S46. This identifies the reviewed release, not every edition of the film. ↩

  6. 12 bits describes the precision of the reconstructed picture. It is not an uncompressed studio master, since both layers are compressed video, and it says nothing about the panel's own precision or what the HDMI output carries. ↩

  7. S03, AetherEngine FEL design. CODE / DEVELOPER; pinned commit. A file labelled Profile 8.1 may have had its enhancement layer discarded, or may hold a picture already reconstructed from both layers and re-encoded; the label cannot tell these apart, and a re-encoded picture is no longer an unchanged remux. ↩

  8. The first Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) UHD, reviewed in June 2023, is HDR10 only, with no Dolby Vision (S28, first-hand review); the later 4K Collector's Edition is reported as FEL by the FEL register (S27). Avatar (2009) likewise had an earlier HDR10 release before the December 2023 Collector's Edition (S29, disc review). Dune: Part Two is from bobbster574's disc analysis (S26); Dune (2021) has not been verified and should not be labelled from the sequel. No disc in these examples has been analysed for this guide. To check a disc, record the edition (distributor, territory, barcode) and a stream analysis; a filename, the enhancement layer's bitrate alone or a film's absence from a list is not enough. ↩

  9. S61, FlatpanelsHD, Samsung 2026 TV lineup, 3 February 2026: "Samsung continues to avoid Dolby Vision", with HDR10+ Advanced as its alternative. REVIEW / PRESS; read 8 November 2026. Model example: Samsung's S90D specification sheet lists HDR10+ (S33). See also Dolby, HDR10 and Dolby Vision (S32): source and display must both support Dolby Vision. ↩

  10. S08, CB1 README, rendering modes. DEVELOPER. Such conversion modes need to be judged separately from Dolby Vision output. The RPU's metadata is not HDR10+ metadata, and an LLDV arrangement that makes a player send Dolby Vision by adjusting what the TV reports is not Dolby Vision support in the TV. ↩

  11. S14, OSMC Dolby Vision documentation: TV-led support and its display restrictions. DEVELOPER. More in Reconstruction and output. ↩

  12. Unsupported profiles, the way the layers are packaged, insufficient resources or HDMI negotiation can each stop playback. This guide records failures only for a specific device, app and version, and asserts none for Chromecast or Fire TV. ↩

  13. S54, Steve Withers, What is tone mapping?, What Hi-Fi?, 1 October 2024: SDR requirements (BT.1886, around 120 nits, BT.709), PQ mastering up to 10,000 nits, typical TV and projector peaks, static metadata and how, applied to the whole film, it can leave some scenes overly dark, that more capable displays need less tone mapping, and the difference between a TV's dynamic tone mapping and dynamic metadata. REVIEW / EXPLAINER. ↩↩

  14. One example is the madVR Envy (S60), which sits between the source and the display. madVR Labs describes "dynamic frame by frame HDR Dynamic Tone Mapping" that analyses every frame in real time, and addresses home cinemas with both TVs and projectors. Unlike Dolby Vision, whose metadata is written at mastering and can include the colourist's trims, such a processor decides by algorithm; it can suit a dim projector well, but the judgement is not the colourist's. madVR Labs' pages do not say that the Envy uses Dolby Vision metadata. MANUFACTURER; madVR Envy, read 8 November 2026. Not a test of the Envy against Dolby Vision. ↩

  15. S62: HDR10+ Technologies, HDR10+: "HDR10+ is royalty-free and open"; adopters pay no per-device royalties, but an annual administration fee. FORMAT BODY; read 8 November 2026. Max Slater-Robins, HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision, TechRadar, 25 January 2025: Dolby Vision is "a proprietary HDR format created by Dolby Laboratories" and requires licensing fees. REVIEW / EXPLAINER. ↩↩

  16. S58: AV Watch, 11 November 2020, Sony Interactive Entertainment's answers; TechRadar, Steve May, 3 August 2022. ↩↩

  17. S59: TechRadar, Louise Blain, 10 June 2022, and Becca Caddy, 11 February 2021. ↩

  18. S57, Blu-ray.com forum, List of UHDs that contain Dolby Vision, first post by vincentric, last updated 2 October 2021: MEL or FEL per title, judged from the enhancement layer's bitrate (The Matrix 0.07 Mb/s, Joker 0.06, Skyfall 0.07, The Shining 0.06; Despicable Me 3 6.09, Forrest Gump 7.44, Saving Private Ryan 5.80, 1917 7.27). COMMUNITY REGISTER; bitrate is a heuristic, and the list notes editions that differ. Dune: Part Two: disc analysis S26. Avatar Collector's Edition: FEL register S27. ↩↩

  19. What 10 bits means. Each bit is either 0 or 1. For example, 0101001101 is one 10-bit number (333 in decimal). Ten binary positions allow 2¹⁰ = 1,024 combinations, from 0000000000 (0) to 1111111111 (1,023). Twelve bits allow 4,096 combinations. These are code values, not equal steps in nits: PQ is nonlinear, and video signal ranges may reserve some codes. More bits provide finer gradations and processing headroom, not automatically more brightness. ITU-R BT.2390, §5.2, discusses quantisation and visibility. ↩↩↩↩

  20. S63, Rob Shafer, HDR10 vs Dolby Vision, Display Ninja, updated 5 August 2026: "there are no 12-bit TVs", so Dolby Vision's 12-bit picture is reduced to 10 bits for display. REVIEW / EXPLAINER; read 8 November 2026. Its further remark that no 12-bit content exists does not hold for FEL discs (below). Signal support, processing precision and panel precision are different: a display may accept higher-precision input, and some panels use 8-bit plus frame-rate control to approximate 10-bit gradations (BenQ explanation). HDR10 does not impose a 10-bit limit on the display hardware. ↩

  21. HDR10+ Technologies, HDR10+ System Whitepaper, p. 9, “HDR10+ Backward Compatibility”, and p. 10, “Device Tone Mapping”: retaining HDR10 compatibility and ignoring unsupported dynamic metadata. Official format-body documentation. ↩↩↩

  22. S01, Dolby Vision bitstream profiles, table 1: Profile 7 is dual-layer 10-bit HEVC for UHD Blu-ray. PRIMARY. ↩↩↩↩

  23. S06, CB1 Master Reference contract, canonical MEL. DEVELOPER. ↩

  24. S56, dovi_tool README, conversion modes: mode 2 converts the RPU to Profile 8.1 and removes the luma/chroma mapping for Profile 7 FEL only. DEVELOPER; read 7 November 2026. ↩

  25. S55, The HDR Dissector, FEL and CMv4.0 test pattern, 2 November 2026: FEL test frame and brightness (0:09–0:51), unmodified metadata on the base layer and the 4,000/1,000-nit example (0:51–2:02), letterbox metadata (2:35–3:03), trims (3:22–4:04). FIRST-HAND REPORT; English captions read 7 November 2026. ↩↩↩↩↩

  26. Native Player developer post, 7 November 2026: matrix note 22 and S51. DEVELOPER. ↩↩↩

  27. S06, CB1 contract: 12-bit 4:2:2 in an RGB 8-bit carrier. DEVELOPER. CoreELEC players: HT2 Tweak's register (matrix note 24) and DMDreview's measurement of the Ugoos AM6B+ (matrix note 26). ↩

  28. S03/S05, AetherEngine FEL design, default 10-bit dither. CODE / DEVELOPER; pinned commit. ↩

  29. DMDreview, video of 28 October 2026, about 9:45–12:20; see external tests and matrix note 26. MEASURED-EXTERNAL; signal only. ↩↩

  30. S39, Sony picture-quality settings documents HDR type, HDMI range and black-level controls; settings vary by model. MANUFACTURER GUIDANCE. The prioritisation is editorial, not a quantified comparison. ↩↩

  31. ITU-T H.264, the video coding standard whose multiview extension (MVC) carries the second view. PRIMARY. The 2D fallback is documented for AetherEngine in matrix note 25. ↩

  32. HDR10+ Technologies, HDR10+ System Whitepaper, pp. 4–5, “High-Dynamic Range Video Standards” and “Limitations of Static Metadata”: HDR10's PQ/10-bit foundation and programme-wide static metadata. This is an official format-body explanation of HDR10, not a UHD Blu-ray disc specification. ↩↩

  33. ITU-R BT.2100, PQ reference electro-optical transfer function and digital representation; BT.2390-11, §§5.1–5.2, explains the display-referred PQ system and quantisation. The PQ explanation here concerns HDR10/Dolby Vision, not every HDR system: HLG uses a different transfer function. ↩↩↩

  34. Dolby, Dolby Vision for content creators, “Consistent across all devices”, “Premium color-mastering” and “Dolby Vision color grading workflow”: dynamic metadata, shot-by-shot analysis, artistic trims and mapping to different display capabilities. Official developer-of-format documentation; not independent verification of any player. ↩↩↩↩

  35. Dolby, HDR Display Considerations, display evaluation including power management at high average picture levels; Dolby Vision for content creators, reference-display requirements for black level, luminance, contrast, gamut and EOTF. MANUFACTURER guidance; not a product comparison. ↩↩

  36. S02, ETSI GS CCM 001 V1.1.1, §§5.3–5.4: composing parameters, BL inverse mapping, EL inverse quantisation and signal reconstruction. PRIMARY; these operations are distinct from display management. ↩↩

  37. Dolby, Dolby Vision Color Grading Best Practices Guide, v4.0, 16 December 2019, §4 and Appendix A, pp. 33–35. L1 describes shot/frame tonal range; L2 and L8 carry target-specific trims for the respective content-mapping versions. In CMv4, L3 contains offsets to L1, not static fallback metadata. L6 carries optional static HDR10 light-level metadata. This guide describes mastering/XML metadata; it is not a complete specification of the Profile 7 RPU bitstream. PRIMARY; relevant sections read 9 November 2026. ↩

  38. HDR10+ Technologies, Understanding the HDR10 Ecosystem, pp. 6–8: quantisation, PQ and static metadata; pp. 10–12: dynamic metadata, format capabilities and HDR10 compatibility. FORMAT BODY; relevant sections read 9 November 2026. Format limits do not specify the encoding used by a particular disc or the capability of a particular display. ↩↩

  39. HDR10+ Technologies, FAQ: What is HDR10+ Adaptive?, ambient-light sensing and adaptive tone mapping. FORMAT BODY; dynamic page, read 9 November 2026. See source record S65 for additional FAQ links and their verification status. ↩

  40. TODO: official Blu-ray Disc Association source for HEVC Main 10 as the UHD Blu-ray video codec. S01, Dolby Vision bitstream profiles, table 1, documents 10-bit HEVC for Profile 7 only. ↩

  41. S67, Display Daily, CEA defines HDR compatible displays, 1 September 2015, quoting the CEA HDR10 Media Profile: SMPTE ST 2084, 4:2:0, 10-bit, BT.2020, metadata SMPTE ST 2086, MaxFALL, MaxCLL. REPORT OF A STANDARD; primary CEA/CTA text TODO. ↩

  42. S68, Firecore forum, HDR metadata not correct, replaced by standard values: from April 2018, users reported fixed values instead of the file's (BT.2020, mastering luminance 1000/0.005 nits, MaxCLL/MaxFALL 4000/1000); Firecore replied that the Apple TV sets these values and Infuse cannot change them (4 April 2018). In November 2022 Firecore captured the HDMI output with an HDFury Vertex (Apple TV 4K 2022, tvOS 16.1.1, Infuse 7.4.8): files with all three values received correct metadata, files missing one or more received default values (posts 104–117, 27–28 November 2022). This was a limited sample, and the developer's interpretation was tentative. Some users disputed it; Firecore was still investigating on 28 December 2022, and the thread remains marked pending. Apple Community, ATV4K HDR Metadata Max CLL/FALL, 29 December 2022: a user reports 4000/1000 from an Apple TV 4K (3rd gen) for content without MaxCLL/MaxFALL, including Disney+, while an NVIDIA Shield showed no values for the same content. DEVELOPER MEASUREMENT + USER REPORTS. Not verified on current tvOS. ↩

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