Panasonic will this year launch the first UHD Blu-ray player that supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, the two premium HDR formats.

Panasonic UB820 player

Panasonic’s TVs do not support Dolby Vision but the company’s new disc player will. The UB820 will in fact be the first to support both of the premium HDR formats.

Panasonic explains that it has chosen to support Dolby Vision in response to user demands. This comes as a suprise considering that the company is a founding member of an alliance that aims, with HDR10+, to create an open and royalty-free alternative to Dolby Vision. Samsung and 20th Century Fox are also founding members of the alliance and neither of these have released - or announced plans to release - home entertainment products with Dolby Vision.

Of course, this also means that HDR10+ is now a part of the UHD Blu-ray specification. To date, the specification has mandated HDR10 and included Dolby Vision as an optional format. The official announcement will hit once CES 2018 starts.

Another new feature is an 'HDR Optimizer' that does tone mapping on the player to adjust the brightness values before outputting video to the TV. This can improve HDR picture quality on some TVs that have limited HDR capabilities. The players will also support Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa for hands-free control.

The company will also release a more affordable UB420 with HDR10+ support but without Dolby Vision. Both of the new players are based on Panasonic’s HCX video processor.

The players will be available in black (*20) and silver (*24) finish. For more details see below. Launch and pricing details will be announced in February.