The first IMAX Enhanced UHD Blu-ray discs, A Beautiful Planet and Journey to the South Pacific, also happen to be the first HDR10+ discs. There is still no word on 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros’ plans.
First IMAX Enhanced discs
About a month ago, IMAX and DTS announced the ’IMAX Enhanced’ initiative with the goal of elevating picture and audio experiences at home.
The first titles in IMAX Enhanced are A Beautiful Planet and Journey to the South Pacific. These nature documentaries should look and sound great on TVs that offer the IMAX picture mode such as high-end Sony LCD and OLED TVs. The discs will also offer object-based DTS:X audio.
Curiously, these UHD Blu-ray discs are also the first to offer video in HDR10+, which is Samsung’s HDR format with dynamic metadata designed to be an alternative to Dolby Vision. IMAX Enhanced and HDR10+ are not linked and Sony’s IMAX-approved TVs do not support the HDR10+ format.
It is still not entirely clear from a technical standpoint what makes an IMAX Enhanced title special. It is not a new HDR format like Dolby Vision. Instead, IMAX is using the existing HDR10 format as the mandatory level, with dynamic metadata HDR formats being optional. At first glance, it could look like a marketing push but we reserve judgement until we have had a chance to examine it in more depth.
20th Century Fox and Warner Bros have also committed to releasing movies in HDR10+ but have yet to announce details.
A Beautiful Planet and Journey to the South Pacific will be released on UHD Blu-ray on December 11, 2018, and are available for pre-order on amazon.com here and here.
