Last year, Comcast Xfinity customers got to brag about their FIFA World Cup 2022 viewing experience. It was the first time the soccer tournament was broadcast using Dolby Vision — a dynamic version of HDR TV — and Comcast had the exclusive on it. If that wasn’t enough to drive up new subscriptions for Comcast, perhaps this will: the cable company now has the Dolby Vision exclusive for the biggest game of the year in the other football universe — Super Bowl LVII.
When Fox Sports’ coverage begins on February 12, Comcast Xfinity subscribers will be able to watch all the gridiron action in 4K with Dolby Vision HDR.
Dolby Labs says it’s the first time the big game will be available in the company’s dynamic HDR format. To experience the broadcast in Dolby Vision, you’ll need a Dolby Vision-capable TV, a Comcast Xfinity subscription, and the company’s Xi6 cable box.
The game will still be broadcast by Fox in 4K where available, but instead of presenting that feed directly to its subscribers, Comcast will be applying the Dolby Vision format on a frame-by-frame basis, before sending that newly encoded video to Xfinity viewers.
The result? “When experienced in Dolby Vision,” a Dolby Labs spokesperson told Digital Trends via email, “football fans will feel as if they’ve been transported to State Farm Stadium as they watch every heart-stopping, nail-biting moment of the Kansas City Chiefs versus Philadelphia Eagles game with lifelike colors, sharp contrast, and rich details.”
If your TV isn’t Dolby Vision-capable (currently, no Samsung TVs support the format), you’ll still be able to see the game in HDR (if your TV supports HDR), but it will be presented in HDR10, which is not a dynamic version of HDR. In other words, it will still look pretty great, but the colors, contrast, and brightness may not be as accurate a reflection of the real-life event.
