Vudu became the first video-streaming service to offer 4K Ultra HD movies remastered in Dolby Vision high-dynamic range (HDR) as well as movies with Dolby Atmos object-based surround sound.
Twenty-one Warner Brothers titles are available in Dolby Vision, and nine of those also feature Dolby Atmos.
The movies are viewable in HDR only on a pair of Vizio Reference-series Ultra HD TVs, the $129,000 120-inch RS 120 and the $5,999 65-inch RS 65 Reference. Both incorporate Dolby Vision and the Vudu 4K app.
The Vizio TVs use their HDMI ports to pass through Atmos-enabled Dolby Digital Plus audio streams to Atmos-decoding AVRs and to a $1,699 Atmos-decoding Yamaha soundbar due in December. Atmos AVRs are available at prices down to a suggested $479 in the Denon line, $499 in the Onkyo line, and $599 in the Pioneer line.
The six Vudu titles with Dolby Atmos can be enjoyed in Atmos, though not in Dolby Vision, through a Roku 4 set-top box connected to a 4K TV, Dolby said.
Previously, Dolby has also said that Netflix will offer Dolby Vision titles this year, starting with season one of the “Marco Polo” series that it produces. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment also plans to distribute streaming content encoded in Dolby Vision, Dolby has said.
Dolby Vision delivers brighter highlights and a higher light-to-dark contrast ratio than standard 4K streams, and it widens the color gamut.
Dolby Atmos enables movie makers to precisely place and move multiple individual sounds in three-dimensional space at any given time. Each sound is reproduced clearly and distinctly, sounds pan more smoothly around listeners, and sounds are reproduced above listeners to add a height dimension to the sound track.
The titles with Dolby Vision and Atmos are “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “The Gallows,” “San Andreas,” “American Sniper,” “Man of Steel,” “Jupiter Ascending,” “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Into the Storm.”
The titles with Dolby Vision but without Atmos are “Vacation,” “Focus,” “Get Hard,” “Run All Night,” “The Lego Movie,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” “The Hangover” trilogy and “Magic Mike XXL.”
