Community Discussions

[Heyitsrick]

Roku announced their new slate of set top players and the roll out of OS 9.2. Unfortunately for many, no Dolby Vision HDR, even on the new Ultra:

https://www.roku.com/products/roku-ultra

[Toddwrtr]

Missed opportunity, if you ask me, and I find the entire "new" lineup not really all that new.

Disappointments:
1. No Dolby Vision
2. Entry-level devices still only single-band 2.4Ghz wi-fi

Save your money and buy an Apple TV 4K, then.... Even Amazon's Fire Stick 4K supports Dolby Vision.

[atc98092]

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@Toddwrtr wrote:

Missed opportunity, if you ask me, and I find the entire "new" lineup not really all that new.

Disappointments:
1. No Dolby Atmos
2. Entry-level devices still only single-band 2.4Ghz wi-fi

Save your money and buy an Apple TV 4K, then....

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Roku supports Dolby Atmos on streaming sites that offer it. I don't have my Ultra connected to an Atmos enabled AVR, but when I did I had Atmos from Vudu, and I believe that Amazon also now offers it. It's Dolby Vision they dropped the ball with. Nvidia added it to the new Shield. And from what I read on other forums, the Apple TV has its own set of issues. There just isn't a single, do it all streaming device yet. The Shield is the closest for me, since I can watch all my local content, including 4K HDR and lossless audio, without transcoding or compression. For my use, the lack of YouTube HDR is the only thing missing, but that's not a significant demerit at this time. YT just doesn't have that much HDR content that isn't a short demo video anyway.

[Toddwrtr]

I had meant to type "No Dolby Vision," and have corrected my original post.

[TJM4]

I agree. I got the "new" Roku Ultra 2019 and expected it to include the modern HDR formats (Dolby Vision, HDR10+). I am disappointed that Dolby Vision is not supported. 

I hope that the Roku Ultra 2019 is high on the priority list to get Dolby Vision. I consider this the Roku premium device and for it not to support Dolby Vision has me looking at the Nvidia Shield and other platforms (not Apple).

[bvd1022]

I’m not sure what Dolby Vision is exactly, but I do keep an eye on the new hardware that is released regularly. I have already made the decision to buy another Roku TV for my office when the time is right. Have nothing, but good things to say about the TCL TV I bought for my living room a little more than a year ago. It’s the best TV I’ve ever seen. Baffles me why Vizio, who makes solid televisions as well hasn’t made a deal with Roku yet. Has a Vizio in my office currently and it is solid, but it predates smart TVs and I’ve been of the opinion that if they added Roku to their smart TVs that they’d give TCL a run for their money, but having seen what TCL provides in terms of quality, their the top TV maker going right now, in my opinion. As far as the standalone players, I still use a first version ultra in my office and I don’t see a reason to upgrade right now especially since I don’t have a soundbar or a 4K TV in my office currently.

[atc98092]

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@bvd1022 wrote:

I’m not sure what Dolby Vision is exactly, but I do keep an eye on the new hardware that is released regularly. I have already made the decision to buy another Roku TV for my office when the time is right. 

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Dolby Vision is a proprietary version of High Dynamic Range (HDR) that offers claimed improvements in the overall color range of 4K material. It does this by applying different settings on the fly, rather than just using a static setting as standard HDR does. If you hear the term HDR+, it too includes dynamic settings that change on the fly. Because Dolby Vision requires a license, it adds to the cost of the device and so some manufacturers only use standard HDR. TCL offers some Roku TVs with Dolby Vision, but no Roku player includes DV at this time. 

[ronfelder]

Can the average person tell the difference? It's like going to far with sound quality. I know i couldn't see the diff if i had dolby vision. mainly do to i have a color diffency problem. sounds good on paper but not always practical in the real world. just asking for i've never seen it in action.

[atc98092]

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@ronfelder wrote:

Can the average person tell the difference? It's like going to far with sound quality. I know i couldn't see the diff if i had dolby vision. mainly do to i have a color diffency problem. sounds good on paper but not always practical in the real world. just asking for i've never seen it in action.

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I can't say. I've never knowingly watched something in DV. I've read a number of posts by people that claim it's quite noticeable, but almost always it comes with a caveat that it really depends on the production quality of the video. Even with "normal" HDR, it's not always noticeable. But then I also have some 4K HDR demo clips that absolutely jump out at you it's so much better. Again, they've been produced to be that good, so it's really best for someone to experience it for themselves.

The problem becomes, where can you see it accurately? There are certainly some high end stores that have properly configured displays, but I really don't want to recommend that someone goes in there just to look. They are businesses that need to serve shoppers that will actually purchase from them. But I doubt you're going to find a Best Buy that has some displays properly configured, with the exception of the few stores that have a Magnolia Hi-Fi display room. For anyone who doesn't know, Magnolia was a terrific quality store chain founded in Seattle (in the Magnolia neighborhood) that BB bought out a number of years ago. 

[TJM4]

I can definitely tell the difference between the HDR and Dolby Vision on a Bluray. It does take better equipment to see it but it makes a video that is properly encoded look very realistic. (I have an LG OLED that is calibrated and the Panasonic UB-820 which has amazing video output. )