If you read any review of the best TVs from the last 10 years, chances are good that you’ll see the words "Dolby Vision" in there somewhere. Dolby has created one of the most universally supported HDR formats in the world — and now, it’s ready to roll out its successor, Dolby Vision 2.
According to information sent to Tom’s Guide, Dolby Vision 2 will make its debut at IFA 2025 this week. Key improvements that Dolby plans to implement this time around include Authentic Motion, "the world’s first driven creative motion control tool," and Content Intelligence, a feature that allows for the format to have greater control over your TV’s settings.
The first TVs to support the format will be Hisense’s recently announced RGB-MiniLEDs, though the exact rollout date is still up in the air.
A new era for HDR
When the original Dolby Vision launched, it set a high bar for TV manufacturers. It was designed to support a peak brightness of 10,000 nits, a maximum resolution of 8K, and 12-bit color right out of the gate.
Over a decade later, the premium TVs from Samsung, Sony and Hisense are still nowhere near those numbers.
Dolby Vision 2 looks to correct some of the issues TV enthusiasts had with the original format
It’s a good thing, then, that instead of upping the specs and calling it a day, Dolby Vision 2 looks to correct some of the issues TV enthusiasts had with the original format, like overly dark scenes and improved bi-directional tone-mapping that will allow for more colorful SDR to HDR conversions.
All these features are part of the aforementioned Content Intelligence tool set that Dolby Vision 2 will offer, while Authentic Motion will give filmmakers the ability to add motion settings to the metadata of every scene.
Combine them, and Dolby says that you’re going to get a significantly better experience when watching shows and films in HDR.
The two types of Dolby Vision 2
Of course, any time there’s a new HDR format introduced there’s always going to be some confusion — and Dolby Vision 2 is certainly following in that direction.
Apparently, Dolby Vision 2 will be available in two flavors: base Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max. The former will offer all of the above while the latter will introduce new features exclusive to flagship TVs with higher specs.
Currently it’s unclear what those extra features are and what, exactly, the cut-off point is for TVs to support the base version versus the high-end format.
Dolby says Hisense will be the first to adopt the new format on TVs powered by MediaTek’s Pentonic 800 SoC with "MiraVision Pro" PQ Engine.
In the description sent to Tom’s Guide, Dolby says Hisense will be the first to adopt the new format on TVs powered by MediaTek’s Pentonic 800 SoC with "MiraVision Pro" PQ Engine, "the first silicon chip to integrate Dolby Vision 2."
How those Hisense TVs stack up against future LG OLEDs, Sony QD-OLEDs and TCL Mini-LED TVs isn’t exactly clear at the moment. As it stands, LG, Sony and TCL support Dolby Vision in its current iteration and it seems likely that they will want to support Dolby Vision 2 when that technology becomes available to them, but that could ultimately depend on how the format is implemented.
Can you watch anything in Dolby Vision 2?
Dolby looks set to use IFA to make its Vision 2 announcement because the first streaming service signed up for the format is CANAL+, a video-on-demand service in France.
Again, it seems likely that we’ll see all of the current streaming services that support Dolby Vision (Apple TV Plus, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max) support its successor, but those deals are probably still in the works at the moment.
Keep in mind that, not only are we going to need streaming services to be on-board with it, but we’ll need content mastered in the format before we can actually watch it ourselves. It’s these hurdles that are preventing Dolby from being more specific in its launch plans.
For now, Dolby's keeping all of that extra information under wraps, but due to the imminent arrival of the new format, those details should be coming sooner rather than later.
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