One of the biggest new features Apple brought to the iPhone lineup last year, was support for shooting video on the smartphone lineup in Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR). It made shooting video on the smartphones even better, helping the lineup standout in a competitive field. However, actually watching that content via third-party sources wasn’t readily available. Until now.
Now, you can watch the videos captured with Dolby Vision HDR on a range of other Apple products, including newer iPhone models, and newer, eligible iPad models. And on the Apple TV 4K with a compatible TV set connected to it, of course. But sharing Dolby Vision HDR content outside of Apple’s ecosystem wasn’t possible.
Vimeo is changing that, sort of.
Today, the video company is announcing that it supports uploading videos captured by the iPhone 12 with Dolby Vision HDR. There is a new, dedicated badge present on these uploaded files to easily differentiate them. iPhone 12 owners will be able to directly upload the content to Vimeo, or via a Mac after being edited. From there, anyone can stream that content.
As long as they’re doing so from compatible Apple devices, according to the company:
Dolby Vision enables creators to produce stunning high dynamic range (HDR) videos and to deliver them to their viewers with their original creative intent fully intact – which is why Dolby Vision is one of the leading HDR imaging technologies among the world’s top storytellers, studios, and content distributors. Now you can easily create, host, and share cinema-grade videos — with supported playback within the Apple device ecosystem.
That’s huge news for dedicated creators and casual viewers alike. Your Dolby Vision videos hosted on Vimeo’s world-class player can now be experienced the way they’re meant to be seen, when viewed from compatible supported Apple devices.
And just to really drive that point home:
A note about devices: in order for viewers to experience your videos in Dolby Vision quality, they must be watching on a compatible Apple device, including iPhone 8 and above, 2nd generation iPad Pro and above, Mac*, and Apple TV 4K (if connected to a Dolby Vision TV).
So, even if you have another device that supports showing Dolby Vision HDR, you won’t be able to actually watch this content as it’s meant to be seen unless a supported, eligible Apple device is making it possible to do so. But, it’s a start, and at least broadens availability beyond solely Apple’s own video players.
And hopefully this means broader availability moving forward.