Sony has some sort of secret Blu-ray weapon up their sleeves and they call it Super Bit Mapping for Video (or simply SBMV). This new Sony-developed technology allows smoother color gradation.

Take a close look at the purple areas on the zoomed-in photo above. There is quite a big difference from the non-SBMV version to the SBMV version. The gradients are much smoother. It’s sort of like going from 8-bit colors to 16-bit on your monitor or display.

I didn’t realize that Blu-rays had these quality issues, I always thought that the image quality was well above DVDs. This makes me think whether HD DVDs have the same issues with color gradation. You can check out more SBMV screenshot comparisons here. SBMV screenshots are on the right side.

Note that you need a Sony Blu-ray player that is SBMV compatible, in order to play SBMV-encoded Blu-ray discs. The first title utilizing SBMV, EVANGELION：1.11 YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE, will reportedly cost a whopping $60 and will be released in Japan on May 27, 2009. So, I take it Sony is charging a premium on both the SBMV compatible player and media?

[via CrunchGear]