HDR video and Mobile Bravia Engine 2 on Sony smartphones



    Work on the quality of photos and videos - both shooting and demonstrating on the screen - has always been one of the priorities in the development of Sony smartphones. For the first, a whole host of technologies was responsible, first of all, the “backlighting” technology of the Exmor R matrix, which appeared two years ago, which increases the sensitivity of the matrix in low light conditions. Mobile BRAVIA Engine technology fought for picture quality. In the models of the new year, they continue their development: in the recently introduced flagship Sony, the Xperia Z model, a new sensor called Exmor RS received support for HDR video, the “Superior Auto” mode and the noise reduction function. And Mobile BRAVIA Engine technology got a number of improvements and an index of 2 at the end.

    HDR for Sony Xperia Z


    The human eye can perceive bright and dark details of the environment at the same time in a very wide range. This ability is very difficult to reproduce in conventional cameras. Usually you have to choose between good quality photographing dark areas and avoiding exposure to bright. Digital technologies widely used today give a very narrow dynamic range, often called SDR (English Standard Dynamic Range) or LDR (English Low Dynamic Range). For comparison, the common JPEG and MPEG standards allow us to present a dynamic range of the order of 1,000: 1, while real scenes often have a dynamic range of brightness of 1,000,000: 1 and higher. The use of HDR technology allows you to work with a full range of scene brightness, eliminating historical restrictions.

    This video is not about HDR, I just like music:



    We introduced the HDR-enabled camera for the first time on the Sony Xperia V, and for the Xperia Z and Xperia ZL we added the ability to record video in HDR.

    How it works

    To achieve a true HDR effect, the Sony Xperia Z camera changes the exposure for every two lines of pixels on the matrix. This creates a spatially varying exposure (SVE) for dark and light areas of the image. Simply put, for each frame, the camera takes two pictures with different exposure levels at the same time, which a special algorithm uses to create a combined image pixel by pixel. As a result, details in dark and light areas of the photo are distinguishable equally well. So now with Xperia Z you can shoot good shots even in the most difficult conditions.

    Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2


    Mobile Bravia Engine’s image quality enhancement technology has been in use with Sony mobile phones for quite some time. The time has come for the next version of Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2.



    First, contrast enhancement highlights details in a video or image. This is achieved due to greater darkening of the dark areas - which gives the picture as a whole a greater contrast. At the same time, the level of change in contrast is adapted to a specific image in order to avoid situations when the already dark becomes even darker.

    Further, color management provides deeper and brighter colors by increasing its saturation. The noise reduction filter then removes image artifacts for a cleaner picture. This is especially useful when watching low-quality streaming video online. Finally, the sharpness filter “sharpens” the picture for greater image clarity.

    Now let's take a look at what's new in Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2.

    Advanced Contrast Enhancer

    In Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, the updated algorithm optimizes contrast by analyzing the distribution of brightness in each frame, allowing you to achieve finer gradations of dark colors. This gives dynamics to the image, making it more vibrant.



    Content type classification for optimized sharpening filter

    This algorithm selects the most suitable set of filter parameters depending on the properties of the video - such as resolution and frame type. This allows you to improve the image level without adding noise in an optimal way for any type of content.



    More details, as always, on the Sony Mobile Developer Blog .

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