Toshiba Fire TV Model Lowers Price Barrier for Dolby Vision

Amazon and Toshiba are launching a line of Fire TV Edition sets that include support for Dolby Vision. The 4K televisions, which will be sold exclusively through Amazon and Best Buy, come in a 55-inch model ($499.99) that is available today, followed by 43-inch ($329.99) and 50-inch ($379.99) models to be released on June 30. Dolby Vision’s HDR format is regarded as superior to HDR10 because it allows scene-by-scene adjustments to picture quality. The Amazon-Toshiba sets mark the first time that Dolby Vision will be available in more affordable Fire TV Edition models.

The Verge reports that, “Amazon isn’t disclosing peak brightness levels for the Toshiba sets, but you can bet it’s a significant step down compared to today’s $1,000 TVs.” Amazon vice president of Fire TV development Sandeep Gupta noted that the company “worked closely with Best Buy and Dolby” to build the set.

Amazon’s set will compete with TCL Roku TVs that already offer Dolby Vision. Amazon, which has debuted more than 20 models of Fire TV Edition sets since last June and has 34+ million active monthly users, picked Best Buy as the exclusive retailer.

Other Fire TV products include the Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K (which supports Dolby Vision) and Fire TV Cube (which provides Dolby Atmos). Amazon has also evolved the Fire TV software, “to embrace Alexa voice controls,” so users can “automatically tune to either your OTA antenna tuner or an OTT service like PlayStation Vue, based on whatever you usually watch with.” Any Echo speaker can power and control Fire TV Edition sets.

Amazon is also in the midst of opening an installation at Dolby’s experiential space in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood, “where the companies are showcasing the content and immersive, theater-like viewing experience you’ll get with Dolby’s audio and visual technologies on recent Fire TV hardware.”

For more information on the 55-inch model (pictured above), visit the Amazon site.

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