What We Know About Dolby Vision 2 So Far

Dolby Laboratories has announced Dolby Vision 2, the next-generation take on the company’s industry-leading dynamic HDR solution. Hisense is the first TV maker to commit to supporting Dolby Vision 2 in its upcoming premium televisions, including RGB-MiniLED TV models. We expect other brands to follow suit, and at the time of writing, TCL is rumored to be preparing a similar announcement. The leading French media and entertainment company CANAL+ is the first content producer to announce its support for Dolby Vision 2. Since launching in 2014, Dolby Vision has been the gold standard for premium HDR, and has been supported by almost all major TV makers (with Samsung being the big exception). According to Dolby, this new version of the tech goes beyond HDR to “meet the evolving opportunities of television experiences today, serving as one piece of Dolby's broader mission to advance picture quality across all entertainment and devices, from the biggest to smallest screens.”

We've reached an inflection point where TV technology has dramatically changed while artists continue to demand even more innovative tools. Dolby Vision 2 redefines how we think of Dolby Vision to unleash the full capabilities of modern TVs while giving artists unprecedented opportunities to push their creative boundaries further than ever before.

— John Couling, Senior Vice President, Entertainment at Dolby Laboratories

At the heart of Dolby Vision 2 is a redesigned and more powerful image engine, which is joined by a group of features collectively called Content Intelligence. Content Intelligence introduces new tools to “better bridge the creative suite to the viewer’s living room,” according to Dolby. Together, these tools will reportedly allow Dolby Vision 2 to “authentically and automatically optimize your TV to deliver a more captivating picture based on what you’re watching and where you are watching.” And since everything seems to be powered by AI these days, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that Dolby Vision 2 will employ AI capabilities to “intelligently adapt” in order to provide the best possible presentation of the content, fine-tuned for your playback device and viewing environment. Some enthusiasts are skeptical of AI-based picture quality enhancements because they essentially allow a computer to make decisions about how the content should look, instead of allowing the content creators or end users to make those decisions. But as we’ll see in a moment, Dolby’s implementation of AI is — at least on paper — actually designed to give content creators more control.

Dolby Vision 2: Content Intelligence

The first component of Content Intelligence is a feature called Precision Black, which is aimed to reduce consumer frustration that the image is “too dark” — a common concern with HDR content on some of today’s TVs (including my Sony OLED from a few years ago). Precision Black promises to make the picture crystal clear in any viewing environment without compromising artistic intent. This works in tandem with another feature called Light Sense, which is said to fine-tune picture quality through advanced ambient light detection and new reference lighting data from the content source to optimize your TV for the ideal viewing experience. Finally, a feature called Sports and Gaming Optimization introduces new enhancements (such as white point adjustments and motion control) designed specifically to address the unique needs of live sports and gaming, according to Dolby.

Dolby Vision 2 is not an AI TV post-processing feature. Dolby Vision 2 is an evolution of the Dolby Vision ecosystem that leverages new improvements in content creation, encoding, TV software, and TV hardware. We are building new creative tools that will use in-house AI image analysis to assist creatives in utilizing this capability efficiently in the color grading suite, as well as performing image analysis in the Dolby Vision delivery pipeline (which is a tool available to services) to guide the Dolby Image Engine to eliminate artifacts when that signal hits your living room. The use of image analysis has allowed us to expand… Dolby Vision to maximize the capabilities of both mainstream and high-performing panels, all while preserving creative intent. It should be noted that our use of image analysis in both creative tools and the distribution pipeline is vastly different to “AI picture modes” or other single-ended TV post-processing solutions, which work in a vacuum without an understanding of creative intent.

— Dolby, via WHAT HI-FI

Dolby Vision 2 also introduces new tone-mapping that takes advantage of modern TV improvements, according to Dolby. Creators will be able to use bi-directional tone mapping to make use of brighter and more colorful displays, allowing high-performance TVs to deliver higher brightness, sharper contrast, and deeply saturated colors while preserving the artist’s creative vision, according to the company.

Traditionally [tone mapping] meant taking an image from a brighter reference display and rendering it to a display with lower luminance and color volume. That’s tone mapping. For the first time, Dolby Vision 2 will allow content creators to define how content is tone mapped to displays with capabilities that are either below or above the capabilities of the reference monitor. That’s bi-directional tone mapping. Think of this as an improved and more intelligent “Bright Mode” that works in conjunction with all the features of Content Intelligence to deliver the most spellbinding and authentic image experience based on the content and your device.

— Dolby

Dolby Vision 2 also promises to expand the capabilities of Dolby Vision beyond HDR with features like Authentic Motion, which Dolby describes as the world’s first creative-driven motion control tool to make scenes feel more “authentically cinematic,” without unwanted judder, on a shot-by-shot basis. For those of us with an aversion to the dreaded “Soap Opera Effect,” Authentic Motion sounds potentially scary. But Dolby claims that the technology can solve the challenges of unwanted judder, which can occur on certain shots of 24-frame content such as pans with bright backgrounds, without ruining the cinematic motion of film-based content. (TV judder is a jerky or shaky motion caused by a mismatch between the content’s frame rate and the TV’s refresh rate.) As TVs are increasingly bigger and brighter, judder has become more noticeable, but previous attempts to solve the issue have tended to yield the Soap Opera Effect, which causes content to look as if it were filmed on an old camcorder. Authentic Motion is reportedly designed to help the creator identify potential trouble areas in a scene and then allow them to adjust a specific amount of de-judder for those shots or scenes only. Dolby says that the tech is part of the company’s broader effort to expand Dolby Vision beyond the benefits of just HDR.

Authentic Motion allows a creative to adjust the amount of de-judder for the specific shots or scenes they feel best matches the look of what they are trying to convey. It's driven by artist intent and can/will only be used on the shots they feel really need it and only at the amount they believe is needed.

— Dolby, via CNET

Dolby Vision 2: Two Distinct Product Tiers

Interestingly, Dolby has also announced that not every TV with support for Dolby Vision 2 will make use of every feature. Dolby Vision 2 will be available in two product tiers from TV manufacturers. The standard version of Dolby Vision 2 will be for mainstream TVs, and will deliver the core next-generation capabilities made possible through the new Dolby Image Engine and Content Intelligence. Meanwhile, Dolby Vision 2 Max delivers the best picture on high-end TVs, adding premium features designed to utilize the full capabilities of these higher-performing displays. This likely includes bi-directional tone mapping, Authentic Motion, Light Sense, and other advanced tools tailored for enthusiasts. The first TV manufacturer to introduce Dolby Vision 2 to its lineup is Hisense, which will be powering its next-gen TVs with a MediaTek Pentonic 800 with “MiraVision Pro” PQ Engine. This is the first silicon chip to integrate Dolby Vision 2.

The fact that this specific hardware is mentioned in Dolby’s announcement suggests that Dolby Vision 2 requires new hardware, not just new software. Does this mean that no existing TVs will be capable of supporting Dolby Vision 2? That remains to be seen. Timing and availability of the new Hisense TV launches will be announced at a later date, and I would expect to see many manufacturers touting Dolby Vision 2 as a feature in the TVs they announce at CES 2026. CANAL+ is the first media and entertainment group to commit to enhancing its content with Dolby Vision 2. The company produces movies, TV shows, and live sports broadcasts. 

This represents exactly the kind of innovation Hisense customers expect from premium television experiences. Dolby Vision 2 jointly with Hisense RGB-MiniLED Technology, can not only deliver dramatically astonishing picture, but also increase the potential of TVs with ultra-wide color and ultra-high brightness, which haven't been possible until today.

— Sonny Ming, GM of Hisense TV Product Marketing

This partnership with Dolby reflects CANAL+’s pioneering spirit of innovation. Our commitment to delivering an unparalleled viewing experience to our subscribers remains unwavering. With the launch of Dolby Vision 2 - across movies, series, and live sports- that experience reaches breathtaking new heights. Dolby has been a valued partner for many years, and we are proud to be the first media and entertainment group to announce the integration of this new experience for our audience.

— Stéphane Baumier, Chief Technology Officer of CANAL+

Stay tuned to Audioholics for the latest news on this developing story.