Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced will change how you watch movies at home — but here’s why you don’t need them in 2026

Just when you thought you had a handle on HDR and its many formats, here comes a few more. Right now, a new rivalry is brewing in the TV industry: Dolby Vision 2 vs HDR10+ Advanced.

As their names imply, these all-new, enhanced HDR formats are the next iteration of Dolby Vision and HDR10+, the two most popular standards for HDR content. Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced were only recently announced last year, and in 2026, we’re on the verge of seeing the first TVs to incorporate these formats.

If you’re gearing up to buy a new TV this year and you want to make the most of it, you might think that one (or both) of these promising new formats ought to be included in your next set. But here’s the thing: Most people can get along just fine without them for now.

To understand why, it helps to understand these formats first.

Dolby Vision vs HDR10+: A primer on the current major HDR standards

First, let's have a little crash course in HDR. All HDR-ready TVs support something called HDR10 by default. In addition, most HDR TVs support one (or both) of the following: Dolby Vision and/or HDR10+.

Dolby Vision and HDR10+ work similarly: by leveraging dynamic metadata to optimize the picture in real time, presenting it in a carefully controlled manner. In very simple terms, both of these HDR formats work to make sure the content you're watching gets as close to the creator's intent as possible by the time it reaches your eyes.

Dolby Vision is a proprietary format, and as such, it costs TV brands money to license it and include it on their sets. HDR10+, on the other hand, is a royalty-free format. Even though it works in mostly the same manner, TV-makers don't have to pay a hefty fee to implement it. This is why Samsung — one of the most popular TV brands in the world — supports HDR10+ but not Dolby Vision.

Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced: What do they do and what’s the difference?

If the original Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats were designed to make the most out of modern displays, their sequels are built to do the same for future OLEDs, QLEDs and Mini-LED TVs by offering a heaping helping of new performance-related features.

For one thing, Dolby Vision 2 is designed to support TVs that reach up to 10,000 nits of brightness — far higher than anything I've measured on an HDR TV. The royalty-free HDR10+ Advanced format can take advantage of TVs that dole out up to 5,000 nits of brightness, which some TVs are capable of achieving right now.

Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced also offer several new levers of control for content creators to pull. For instance, Dolby Vision 2 comes with a feature called Authentic Motion, which allows creators to control motion smoothing on a shot-by-shot basis.

HDR10+ Advanced leverages AI-based algorithms to dynamically control motion performance, too. It also purportedly improves cloud-based gaming performance by reducing latency and adjusting the picture based on gameplay conditions.

These are just a handful of new features rolling out with Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+, most of which are a means to ensuring that content — be it a movie, show or video game — is experienced as close as possible to what the creator has in mind.

Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced in 2026: outlook

Currently, only Hisense, TCL and Philips have confirmed to be partnering with Dolby for the rollout of Dolby Vision 2. However, we've yet to get our hands on a TV that actually carries the feature. It's possible that some of these brands' 2026 TVs could receive Dolby Vision 2 support in a firmware update sometime down the road.

On the other hand, there are a handful of TVs already shipping with HDR10+ Advanced support. Several 2026 Samsung TVs, for instance, come with HDR10+ Advanced support right out of the box.

Even if you set aside the scarcity of Dolby Vision 2- and HDR10+ Advanced-supporting TVs in 2026, there's a bigger reason why these enhanced HDR formats aren't poised to have a significant impact in 2026: content availability.

Simply put, there's almost nothing out there to watch in these formats. Content-creators are only now beginning to tinker with Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced. As is the case with many developments in the TV business, advancements are only as fast as the content stream allows.

So even though several 2026 models are packing the processing power to eventually support Dolby Vision 2-mastered content, and despite the release of Samsung TVs that support HDR10+ Advanced right out of the box, we're not getting much in the way of souped-up HDR content just yet.

In the coming years, as the pipeline produces more content, I suspect that brands like LG and Sony will get on board with at least one of these advanced HDR formats. For the time being, though, you shouldn't let the absence of their support stop you from buying one of the best TVs available today.

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