Sony had been planning for this. The new Sony OLED TV will not be along in supporting Dolby Vision. Last year’s Z9D / ZD9 flagship LCD will get Dolby Vision with a firmware update.
Dolby Vision on Sony Z9D
Sony surprised everyone at CES 2017. Besides launching an OLED TV it also partnered with Dolby to bring Dolby Vision to several TVs.
And Sony has yet another surprise up its sleeve. Last year’s Z9D (US) and ZD9 (Europe) will get Dolby Vision through a firmware update later this year.
To be clear, Dolby Vision requires specific hardware - a hardware composer - so it has been built in all along without anyone noticing. We asked Sony how it had kept such a significant feature a secret and the Sony executive just gave us a satisfied grin. Dolby did the same.
Sony could not confirm the exact timing for the update but is hoping to have something ready by the middle of 2017.
Android TV 7.0 & YouTube HDR
To fully support Dolby Vision for apps, the TVs need to run Android TV version 7.0 (Nougat). Sony will also bring Nougat to Z9D later this year. The two updates may coincide but Sony declined to comment further when we met them at CES.
In related news, YouTube HDR is also coming to Sony’s 2017 HDR TVs.
This is obviously great news for anyone who bought the Z9D, which will remain on the market in 2017. Just a shame about Sony’s UHD Blu-ray player not supporting Dolby Vision... This player will not get a firmware update to enable it, we were told.
