Sony UHD Blu-rays to Include Dolby Atmos

6 Jan, 2016 By: Thomas K. Arnold

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Dolby Laboratories is quick to the table with the burgeoning drive toward 4K Ultra HD, the next-generation viewing format with four times the resolution of HD and the much-ballyhooed high dynamic range (HDR), which produces brilliant highlights, vibrant colors and greater contrast on compatible displays.

The company and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) Jan. 6 announced a collaboration to release SPHE titles in Dolby Atmos over the coming years, including SPHE’s first films to be released in the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc format. Dolby Atmos, according to a press release, “delivers captivating audio that places and moves specific sounds anywhere in the room, including overhead, to bring entertainment alive all around the audience.”

The studio’s first films to be released in the new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc format with Dolby Atmos include The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Salt, Hancock, Chappie, Pineapple Express and The Smurfs 2 in early 2016, with more titles rolling out throughout the year.

“By adding Dolby Atmos to our home entertainment content, SPHE has the ability to offer audiences a rich, enveloping sound experience on both physical and digital formats, including the new 4K Ultra HD discs,” said SPHE president Man Jit Singh.

SPHE is one of three studios that have specifically announced plans to release films on the new 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc format. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment was the first studio to announce a slate of upcoming Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc releases, doing so at IFA 2015 in Berlin in early September, on the heels of a press conference in which Samsung announced plans to produce the world’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc player, now slated for a March bow. Warner Bros. followed with an announcement in December.

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