An ambitious plan was shared during a closed-door meeting with manufacturers earlier this year, but it was only recently that a teaser video was leaked by Protocol. In this video, Roshan Baliga, Product Manager of the Google Group, explains that Google has realized that there are high-end multimedia experiences for which there are no equivalent royalty-free solutions. Baliga refers to Dolby Vision, a dynamic HDR metadata format that costs hardware makers $1-3 per device sold, as well as Dolby Atmos, an object-based 3D sound format, of which we don’t know. exactly the amount charged for Atmos license fees.
Google’s initiative to create royalty-free rivals is known internally as Project Caviar. The company is said to be planning to leverage YouTube to try to gain buy-in from hardware makers. YouTube does not support Dolby Vision or Dolby Atmos, only HDR10. Google intends to create new standards by using the “existing codecs” to then establish a “umbrella brand” for HDR10+ and immersive 3D audio, which will be available free to builders.
As for the video codec, it’s likely to be the AV1 video codec that Google has aggressively backed, as well as the free HDR10+ standard promoted by Samsung and Panasonic, which is an existing alternative to Dolby Vision. On the audio side, Google could be tempted to use the Multi Dimensional Audio standard, free of rights and based on DTS: X, the rival of Dolby Atmos.
The advantage of using these codecs is that they already exist, which means that TV and phone manufacturers would probably only need to make minimal changes to support them. The processors onboard these devices are likely already compatible, and a simple software update might be enough to add support for Google’s new standards.
Due to the lack of rivals, Dolby has managed to establish itself as the standard when it comes to picture and sound quality, and it’s something many buyers look for when choosing a new TV. Additionally, Dolby does not charge licensing fees to streaming services, which has enabled its adoption by major services like Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount Plus and others, as well as on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. Google will therefore have to convince streaming services to adopt a new HDR video and audio format, which is far from easy.
Attempts to compete with Dolby have been largely unsuccessful so far. The company’s biggest challenger is Samsung, which refused to embrace Dolby Vision by creating HDR10+ with Panasonic and 20th Century Fox. However, the HDR10+ standard is far from having the same success with streaming services, as evidenced by the very partial adoption of HDR10+ that only Amazon Prime, YouTube, Hulu, Rakuten TV or Paramount+ today seem to fully support. What’s more, Samsung recently added support for Dolby Atmos to its latest 2022 TVs, and many believe this could pave the way for the adoption of Dolby Vision for the South Korean manufacturer’s TVs as early as 2023.
The arrival of an HDR dynamic metadata format and an audio spatial format, both free of rights and royalties, is probably a good thing, but the road ahead remains very long and full of pitfalls.